Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Income is Fixed from Rosh HaShanna

The vasikin minyan in Chicago finishes too late this time of year for me to go home for breakfast and then leave from there for work.  Instead, I eat breakfast  at Brisk and catch a few more minutes to learn before hopping on my bike to head downtown.  This morning while I was eating and learning, two m'shulachim came into the lunch room.  They started to tell me about their tzorech and I told them I was sorry, but I didn't have my check book.  No problem, of course, they each gave me an envelope.  I always tell them right away because I know their time is valuable and they are always appreciative.  They were about to leave, then one turned to me and said, "We just drove here from Detroit this morning and are exhausted.  We need chizuk.  Would you mind learning a few words of Torah with us before we leave?"  I didn't need to be asked twice.  (I know, shocking; right?)

It was really nice and we spoke in learning about the hilchos brachos, kavod ha'brios, shem l'vatala, etc.  Don't worry, I'll very likely write up more on that discussion some day.  As they were about to leave, I wanted to give them some chizuk about collecting.  I told them over the what I wrote about letting HaShem run the world and that they should know that no matter how much or how little they get from each person they will not go away with less than HaShem has planned for them.  One of them got a big smile on his face and said, "Yes, our income is fixed from Rosh HaShana.  Let me tell you what happened to me just last night in Detroit!"
I went to a certain house and the ba'al habayis spoke to me for 20 or 30 minutes -- a lot of time that I don't really have, because we are on a tight schedule.  You know when someone speaks to you for so long to really understand the situation, you can surely expect a nice check.  He came back from his office and handed me a check... for $5!  I was really angry and thinking how many houses I could have visited and how much I could have collected.  However, I was kovesh my yeitzer and said, "Thank you very much; bracha v'hatzlacha!"  I walked out his door and saw just two houses down a g'vir I had been hoping to catch.  He was just now coming home!  I spoke to him and got a very (I mean very) nice check.  If I had gotten in and out of the first house -- as is normal for a small check like that -- I would have completely missed this other g'vir!  I wasn't at the first house to get a $5 check; I was there to wait for the other g'vir.  Just as Chazal say, my income is fixed from Rosh HaShana; I can't get a penny more nor a penny less.
They really had to get going by then and left.  I realized I was really late leaving for work, but so elated with the whole morning.  I got on my bike and, Baruch HaShem, it was pouring.  I can now answer definitively: I am smart enough to come in out of the rain; but just barely... I tried riding downtown before the rain got so heavy I couldn't really see.  So I rode the short distance home and am working from home today. I had just happened to bring my computer home because of some last minute problems last night at work.  What a coincidence!  Just when I needed extra time to learn but still get to work on time, there just happens to be a problem at work the night before and a heavy rain storm this morning.  Don't you just love coincidences?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc
Post a Comment
Read more