We are back to our daily regimen of Hovot Halevavot. He is now contrasting the Baal Bitachon’s attitude as opposed to the one without bitachon. We are up to the fourth difference, which is that the Baal Bitachon is able to spend money freely for charity and other responsibilities, whereas the one without bitachon is always saving his money, because he’s afraid he might not have it when he needs it, and he feels he never has enough.
In the Hovot HaLevavot’s words,
העולם וכל אשר בו די פרנסתו וספוק צרכו
The world and everything in it, is not enough
parnasa for what he needs.
So, he can never give, because he always needs more.
The Hovot HaLevavot compares the two people, based on a pasuk from Mishleh which says,
יֵ֣שׁ מְ֭פַזֵּר וְנוֹסָ֥ף ע֑וֹד וְחוֹשֵׂ֥ךְ מִ֝יֹּ֗שֶׁר אַךְ־לְמַחְסֽוֹר׃
One man scatters his money and ends up with more; Another holds back on doing the right thing and incurs a loss.
The Midrash on this Mishleh says:
אם ראית אדם מפזר מעותיו לצדקה, הוי יודע שנוסף לו, שהוא מוסיף, שנאמר "יש מפזר ונוסף עוד". "וחושך מיושר אך למחסור" -
A man who throws around his money, know that he will be gaining, and the opposite is true- One who holds himself back from charity, he will lose.
This is a principle that only a Baal Bitachon can appreciate. Logically it doesn’t make sense. If you give out, where do you get more from? As we will see, G-d has his ways.
There was a great Mekubal from Italy named Rav Rigiktilia. He who wrote a sefer of Mashalim/parables. In his 98th mashal, he compared charity to a nursing baby. The more the baby nurses, the more milk comes out. When the baby stops nursing, the milk supply ceases. When a baby doesn’t feel well and isn’t nursing much, the mother has to keep letting out milk or the flow will stop. Charity is like nursing, he says. The more you give, the more you keep the pipeline of G-d’s Shefa/bounty open.
He quotes our pasuk:
יֵ֣שׁ מְ֭פַזֵּר וְנוֹסָ֥ף ע֑וֹד
A person who throws out the money (gives it freely) he will get back more.
This is also a pasuk in Devarim. G-d promises,
נָת֤וֹן תִּתֵּן֙ ל֔וֹ וְלֹא־יֵרַ֥ע לְבָבְךָ֖ בְּתִתְּךָ֣ ל֑וֹ כִּ֞י בִּגְלַ֣ל ׀ הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה יְבָרֶכְךָ֙ ה׳ אֱלֹקיךָ
Give him and have no regrets when you do so, for in return, G-d will bless you...
Only the Baal Bitachon relies on G-d this way, and believes that if he gives out his money, he’ll get more.
The Hovot HaLevavot brings down a Gemarah in Taanit that mentions a man who had a field that produced 1,000 bushels a year. Every year, he gave a way 100 bushels for maaser. As he got older, he taught his son the secret of his business- to give maaser. But the son decided to give less. He didn’t want to donate 100 bushels a year. Instead, he donated 90 bushels, and that next year, he only produced 900 bushels. So again he cut his donation, now to to 80 bushels, and sure enough, his field produced even less the next year. Slowly but surely this pattern continued. Eventually he was only producing 100 bushels a year. What had once been his maaser was now his profit.
How does this work? How does G-d make people make money when they’re really giving out money?
The Gaon of Vilna, citing this pasuk, quotes a story that is actually a rashi in Masechet Succah:
חסיד אחד שנתן דינר לעני, והקניטתו אשתו וברח
There was a man who gave charity to a poor man. His wife upset him, and he ran away,
ולא היה לו במה להתפרנס,
but he had no way of making a parnasa.
Eventually, he took a bag of etrogim (it was on Hoshana Rabah) and travelled to a far away country. Just then, the king of that country needed etrogim to heal his sick daughter. The man was able to sell his etrogim to the king, and he became wealthy!
That’s just one story with a happy ending, but the lesson is, our Sedaka-giving will be a trigger for more wealth.
The Sefer Hinuch says this, regarding the mitzvah that one should lend money to a poor person before Shemitah. Shemitah comes every seventh year, and it absolves all loans. And yet G-d wants us to lend that money, even though it’s risky.
Why? Because the Torah wants us to put, steadfast in our hearts, this middah of not being stingy, miserly or cheap. We should be generous. He says a person who is able to do that is the ultimate expression of generosity, taking such a risk.
The rule is, when you give out, you get more, because a person is treated the way he acts. If he is generous with others, G-d is generous with him. That’s the rule.
Let us keep this bitachon rule in mind: that spending money only brings back more.
Have a wonderful day.