Tefillah - 059 Financial Strain On Bnei Torah In Israel

Asking Hashem That We Be Drawn Closer To Him

In the blessing of השיבנו, after asking Hashem to return us to the Torah, we ask Hashem,וקרבנו מלכינו לעבודתך – “And draw us closer, Our King, to Your service.” What is this closeness that we ask for?

When Hashem first created Adam, Adam was commanded to work the field of Gan Eden and protect it. After the first sin, the avodah\work of man is to work with the fields of the earth, as opposed to the fields of Gan Eden. Originally, man “worked” in Gan Eden, and after the sin, we work with the earth.

The world stands on three pillars – Torah, Avodah  and Chessed. Our Avodah  used to be with korbonos when we had a Beis HaMikdash; after the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, we have no korbonos, but instead we have Avodah  through Tefillah, prayer. Sin is what caused us to have to do any work. Thus, we ask Hashem to draw us closer to Avodah  – to the Avodah  of the korbonos, which we are missing.

What is the depth behind this prayer of וקרבנו מלכינו לעבודתך?

Bitachon – A State of Gan Eden In The Soul

When Adam sinned, he was greatly distanced from the original Avodah in Gan Eden. We ask Hashem that we be returned to our original Avodah  that we had in Gan Eden.

The Alter of Novhardok zt”l would say that the concept of bitachon (faith in Hashem) is essentially to live in the state that existed before Adam’s sin (each person can reach this to a certain extent). All effort that we have to make is a curse placed upon mankind due to Adam’s sin. Bitachon means to connect your soul to a world of Bitachon, to a state of Gan Eden; it is not just about placing your trust in Hashem and realizing that it is not your efforts which provide you with support. When a person has bitachon, not only will he be provided with livelihood, but he lives in a state of Gan Eden. If a person has “parnossa” (a livelihood) because he has bitachon, then he lives in a state of Gan Eden in his soul.

Knowing Where Our Support Comes From

But if a person thinks that his livelihood comes from this world, he is actually limiting his source of livelihood, because he thinks that the source of his livelihood comes from this world. He attributes his source of livelihood to this materialistic world.

This is not a side issue. It is relevant to the entire way a person lives his life.

When a person gets his livelihood from people, he must realize that it is really coming from Hashem. If he doesn’t, he views his source of livelihood as mainly coming from this world, and then he is connected to this materialistic world. The food he buys with such money is coming from materialism, and when such food goes into his body, he becomes more and more connected to the materialism of the world.

Drawing Support From An Evil Source

Even worse than the above issue [of lacking bitachon] if the following: What happens if a person is getting his livelihood from an impure place?

There is no way the spiritual success will come to him through this. Not only won’t he succeed in his Torah learning like this, but it will dull his entire spirituality.

Chazal say that “the way a person wants to “go in” is the way he will be lead to”. Do we want our livelihood to come from a pure place, or from this world of materialism?

In the last couple of years, Torah learning is being supported by the heads of the Erev Rav!

How can people take money from people who want to uproot all mitzvos, all Torah, all spirituality?? It is not possible to see spiritual success if one takes money from such a source. Chazal say that if a child is fed by a father who cheats in business, the child will not see success in his Torah learning. The food entering him is spiritually contaminated, because it comes from an impure source, from sin. When people are connecting to taking money from the Erev Rav, it ruins the quality of one’s Torah learning – completely.

The decrees being made on Torah are being made by Erev Rav. These are souls who started the sin with the Golden Calf and caused everyone to sin. The decrees are being made by souls of the Erev Rav, together with a couple of ignorant fools who join with them because they don’t know any better.

We should not daven that the government should support us. Therefore, now that they have cut off support, we should instead sing to Hashem over this! It is really a great kindness of Hashem that this has happened!

Where should we get supported from, though? That is a good question. But we definitely can’t get it from the Erev Rav.

We need to know what Hashem wants from us in this situation. Some people do not have financial problems, so they don’t have to worry. But most people who are sitting and learning Torah, who need support, are right now in a tight financial situation. What is Hashem telling us through this? What is He screaming out to us?

We must know that it is not possible for our Torah learning to survive if we get supported by the Erev Rav! We cannot take money from them and then hope we will get siyata d’shamaya (Heavenly assistance) and that everything will be fine!

If we can’t come to terms with this, if a person doesn’t see what the problem in this, it’s because we have already been bribed by them by getting used to taking money from them. “A bribe blinds the eyes of the clever.” The Erev Rav is like Lavan, who sought to destroy the entire Jewish people in the hopes of killing Yaakov Avinu. The Erev Rav is trying to do just the same – they want to uproot all spirituality from the Jewish people; they want to entirely get rid of Torah, mitzvos, everything.

Hashem is telling us quite clearly:קרבנו מלכנו לעבודתך. He wants to draw us close to him, thus, we must ask ourselves: Do we aspire to be in a state of Gan Eden, in which we being supported by a pure source – or do we want to be supported by an impure source?

This is not a question of how much hishtadlus\effort we need to make in order to make a living versus how much bitachon we need to have. This is a question of what Hashem is asking of us – that we should hopefully choose a life of holiness, and not to get swayed after the world.

Imagine if this government would give us even more money than before - what would b’nei Torah do? Would we take the money…?

They have already burned so many neshamos in the Jewish people. Now finally Hashem has had mercy on us and has taken away their support of us, so that we will be separated from them. Their hatred for us is really what saves us, similar to what the sefarim hakedoshim write about Anti-Semitism of the nations. When Jews are mixed with non-Jews and enjoy a relationship with them, we are in spiritual danger, while Anti-Semitism makes us realize that we are separate from them, which saves us from getting influenced by them. Thus, the hatred of non-Jews for us is really a blessing, since it reminds us that we are separate from them, and then we don’t mix it with them.

Work Is Not Either An Option

For a ben Torah to go work in secular places in order to get supported – can there be any greater lie than this?! Can our Torah learning be supported by working at these kinds of jobs?

If a person searches for truth, he wonders what Hashem wants from us. We need to seek truth. Surely we need to make effort on making a living and we can’t have bitachon all day. We certainly need to have both effort and to have bitachon; for half a day, try to work on your bitachon. But if we make effort to make a living from places that are impure, this is not called ‘effort’.  Effort to make a living was a ‘penalty’ placed on mankind; if a person makes effort to go make a living in any secular places, the concept of working to making a living simply does not apply. The ‘penalty’ placed on mankind to go to work does not require one to go work in any of these terrible places.

There are people whose neshamos have already been burned by the Erev Rav’s influence, so when they hear these words, they wonder what the problem is. This is the situation of the final generation, in which Erev Rav has influenced so many Jewish souls and burned them up. Hashem will of course have mercy on us and take us out of this predicament and bring Moshiach when the time comes, but as for now, there is so much confusion!!

Work On Your Bitachon, and Ask a Halachic Authority If You Have To Go To Work

We must awaken our inner yearning for holiness and purity, for pure and true Torah. Then we will be able to sense all the falsity that is poisoning all people’s Torah learning and mitzvos. We must yearn for the eternal life in the Next World, and not for a better materialistic life on this world.

Any Jew who searches for the truth, who is having a rough time making a livelihood, needs to work on his bitachon. As for how much effort one needs to make in order to make a living – which includes being supported by the government – an authority needs to be consulted about this. Most of the sources of the livelihood today require a person to choose of what kind of life he wants to live….a life of truth, or a life of falsity.

Make A Soul-Accounting

We must know clearly that our source of livelihood is where we are connected to. In these days especially, we need to make the following cheshbon hanefesh (soul-accounting): How much are we seeking to live a truthful kind of life? To where are we connected to? What are the things we are doing that connect us to the Next World, and what are the things we are doing that are connecting us with this world of materialism…?

In Conclusion

May we merit to connect to the holiness of Torah and mitzvos. Even if we do not merit Moshiach, may we at least merit that our support for Torah learning should not be coming from the heads of Erev Rav that rule the government. If we have no support, let us subsist on bread and water, rather than have to rely on government support.  May we merit help from Hashem to seek the truth, and that even if any of us has to make a living, that we should at least be surrounded with fear of Heaven – from the depths of our soul.