We are up to our seventh and final reason why it isn’t smart to ask G-d for money down first.
The Hovot HaLevavot tells us that we ask for collateral from someone (e.g. a gold watch) because we don’t trust the person who wants to borrow money.
But what happens if we already owe that person money? What happens if he’s done many, many favors for us throughout our lives? What if we’d be using his money to pay him back with? Of course, it would be ludicrous to ask for a pawn in that case.
Furthermore, he says,
שהאדם הצדיק איננו פורע חובות טובת האלקים עליו אלא בעזר האלקים לו
You can’t pay back the debt you owe G-d, unless G-d Himself helps you
You’re literally paying Him back using His own money. How can we not lay out money for G-d, when everything we have is from Him?
The Hovot HaLevavot goes on and quotes a pious man that says: ״A wise, thinking person understand that his deeds aren’t praising G-d, because it’s all coming from G-d. If my heart is focused, G-d made that happen. If my mind is clear, it’s all from G-d. I have no way to pay Him back. Therefore, to ask Him and not to trust Him doesn’t make any sense״. The Hovot HaLevavot ends by saying that the ultimate praise we have to give G-d is that we are able to praise Him. We should be saying thank you that we can say thank you. That we are able to pay Him back by saying thank you is our biggest reward.
Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky was a huge Talmud Hacham, who was sent to Siberia, where he suffered greatly, by the Communists. He eventually got out, became a Rav in England, and then moved to Eretz Yisrael. When he passed away Rav Shach eulogized him and said, “I’m not jealous of the Torah he had, for he wrote a sefer, and I wrote a sefer. I’m jealous of all those years in Siberia.”
He became so great during those challenging years, and that is what Rav Shach was jealous of.
There is a famous story about Rav Abramsky, from his time in Siberia:
He had to do back-breaking work there, chopping wood. One morning he woke up, and like most of us, said Modeh Ani out of habit. Then the Rabbi thought to himself,
“What am I saying Modeh Ani/ I Thank You for? Thank You for getting up in the brutal cold for back-breaking work, with no coat, with no gloves, with bleeding cracked fingers?”
But then he realized that the fact that he can wake up and say Modeh Ani is reason enough to be grateful.
That’s the greatest opportunity to be able to pay back your debt. That is what the Hovot HaLevavot is trying to teach us.
If a person has the attitude that the least, he can do is say thank you, is he then going to ask for money down from the Creator?
We actually say this every day in our Modim prayer. We say two Modims every day. One we say in our silent Amidah, and the other, Modim D’Rabbanan, we say in response t the Hazan when he is saying his Modim aloud.
That is a lesson in itself. Why don’t we just say amen to his Modim, as we do in the rest of the Hazarah? The famous answer, from the Avudarham, is that no one can say thank you for you. You have to thank Hashem yourself.
But what are the words?
The last few are על שאנחנו מודים לך-/״that we are thanking you״
Which means I’m thanking You that I’m able to thank You- That I have the mind, the clarity, the health, and the ability to say thank you. What a beracha!
That’s the attitude we have to have.
Another story from the 1920s in Yerushalayim has a similar message:
Every Erev Yom Kippur, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld would go visit a very elderly widow, who was close to 100 years old. She wasn’t well, could not take take of herself or do much of anything, and yet every year when he would come to bless her for the new year, she always asked for a beracha for a long life.
Finally, the Rabbi worked up the courage to ask her why she wanted to live so long, for she was clearly suffering.
She answered that although she couldn’t pray, because she was unclean, and despite the fact that her body didn’t work properly, once a week, her aid cleaned her so that she could make a beracha properly and thank Hashem.
That once a week chance was what she wanted to live for.
And we want to ask for collateral from G-d?
The greatest appreciation we can show is by saying thank you.
Have a great day.