Hishstadlus What is it?

Having spent many hours on the texts regarding parnossa. I have been amazed at the lack of clarity regarding  hishstadlus. It is rarely mentioned in primary sources such as Tanach or Talmud. It is mentioned with regard to another unclear concept bitachon. Yosef is punished for too much hishstadlus. The most direct discussion I have found is in Mesilas Yeshorim 21. I also could not find it in Rambam

Mesilas Yeshorim (21:07) However, that which can protect a person and save him from these detriments is trust in G-d. Namely, that a person casts his burden entirely upon G-d, knowing that it is certainly impossible for a man to lack what was designated for him, as our sages taught: "all of a person's sustenance [for the year] is fixed for him from Rosh Hashana [to Yom Kippur]" (Beitzah 16a). Likewise, they said: "no man can touch what was prepared for his fellow even to the extent of a hair's breadth" (Yomah 38b).

Mesilas Yeshorim (21:08) A person could have sat idle and the decree would have been fulfilled (his designated portion would have come to him), had it not been preceded by the fine imposed on every human being: "by the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread" (Gen.3:19), whereby a person is required to make some effort for obtaining his livelihood, for thus the exalted King decreed. 

Mesilas Yeshorim (21:09) This is like a tax imposed on the human race which one cannot escape from paying. Therefore, our sages, of blessed memory, said (Sifri 15:18): "I might think one can sit idle, but scripture says (Devarim 28:20): 'in all that you set your hand to do' ".

Mesilas Yeshorim (21:10) Only that it is not the efforts (hishtadlut) that help. Rather, the efforts are necessary, but once one has put in some effort, he has already discharged his obligation and there is place for the blessing of Heaven to rest upon him, and he need not consume his days in exertion and labor. This is what king David said: "For not from the east or from the west, nor from... but it is G-d who executes judgment, [putting down one and lifting up another]" (Tehilim 75:7-8), and king Shlomo said: "Do not weary yourself to grow rich; cease applying your understanding" (Mishlei 23:4).

Mesilas Yeshorim (21:11) Rather, the true path is that of the "early Pious ones", who made their Torah primary and their work secondary, and succeeded in both (Berachot 35b). For once a man does a little work, from then on, he need only trust in his Master, and not be distressed by any worldly matters. Then his mind will be free and his heart ready for true Chasidut and perfect divine service.

Duties of the Heart (Bitchon 3:36)  Secondly, if a man were not forced to exert himself in seeking a livelihood, he would kick (become defiant) and chase after sin, and he would ignore his debt of gratitude to G-d for His goodness to him. As written: "And the harp, and the lyre, the timbrel, and flute, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the L-ord, neither consider the work of His hands" (Yeshaya 5:12), and "But Yeshurun grew fat, and kicked: you are grown fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook G-d who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation" (Devarim 32:15). And the sages said "it is good the study of torah with working for a livelihood because the toil in both removes thoughts of sin, and all torah study without work will in the end be abandoned and bring to sin" (Avot 2:2). And all the more so for one who has no share in either torah or work, nor directs his attention to any of these pursuits.

Netanyahu, Gantz assail Barkat for saying IDF tactics endangering soldiers

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-gantz-assail-barkat-for-saying-idf-tactics-endangering-soldiers/

Barkat, seen as a potential future rival to Netanyahu as leader of the Likud party, told ministers, “The number of air force bombardments has fallen dramatically. Soldiers are being sent to booby-trapped buildings like [sitting] ducks.”

Netanyahu responded, “The fact that you keep saying this doesn’t make it true. There are operational considerations.”

Netanyahu, justifying his policies, said, “There are countries [whose positions] we have to take into account. If we don’t do that, eventually there’ll be a UN decision to impose a blockade on us. The whole world will be against us.”

Asked about Barkat’s criticism, the IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said later Sunday that “any IDF force on the ground that requires air support, for any mission, gets the necessary protection.”

Netanyahu rejects 'untrue' WSJ claim Biden halted IDF attack on Hezbollah

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-779397

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “erroneous” a Wall Street Journal report that the IDF halted plans to preemptively attack Hezbollah in Lebanon in the first days after the start of the Gaza war in October.

“I have seen erroneous reports to the effect that the US prevented, and is preventing, us from operational actions in the region; this is incorrect. Israel is a sovereign state,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

‘You no longer represent us’: New Jersey Muslims mobilize against longtime congressman over Israel stance

 https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/22/bill-pascrell-new-jersey-muslim-vote-00132858

“I can’t control the politics of Israel,” he said, according to a video of his remarks obtained by POLITICO. “But they have every right to protect themselves and defend themselves. Case closed.”

While Arab Americans are an important constituency for Pascrell, they make up a relatively small bloc in a district that includes two dozen towns in heavily Jewish Bergen County. That’s made it impossible for the representative to please the entire Democratic base.

Praying for Israel

 השבוע ערך הגאון הגדול רבי אהרן פלדמן ראש ישיבת 'נר ישראל' בבולטימור' ומזקני חברי מועצג"ת של אגודת ישראל בארה"ב, ביקור במעונו של מרן פוסק הדור הגר"מ שטרנבוך שליט"א רחוב קצנלבוגן 4 בירושלים.

במהלך הביקור שאל ראש הישיבה את מרן פוסק הדור באיזה נוסח להתפלל בימים אלו, "האם להתפלל להצלחת המדינה".

מרן פוסק הדור השיב בדברים נחרצים: "יש להתפלל ששמו של הקב"ה יתקדש בעולם, וששום יהודי לא יסבול".

מרן פוסק הדור הוסיף: איי.. איך זה יכול להסתדר יחד, התשובה היא שאנחנו לא אפוטרופסים על זה, ואין אנחנו צריכים לדון או לענות איך לסדר את זה.

 

Our 7 best tips to build an exercise habit

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/12/12/easy-exercise-habits

1. 11-minutes of brisk walking makes a big difference

The biggest gains in exercise come when we just start moving a little. Walking for at least 11 minutes every day could lower your risk of premature death by almost 25 percent, according to a major study of 30 million people. Those 11 daily minutes of exercise also dropped people’s risks for heart disease by 17 percent and for cancer of any kind by 7 percent. For certain cancers, including myeloid leukemia, myeloma and some stomach cancers, the risk fell by as much as 26 percent.

A catatonic woman awakened after 20 years. Her story may change psychiatry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/01/schizophrenia-autoimmune-lupus-psychiatry/

 New research suggests that a subset of patients with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia may actually have autoimmune disease that attacks the brain

Markx and his colleagues discovered that although April’s illness was clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia, she also had lupus, an underlying and treatable autoimmune condition that was attacking her brain.

How Iran used social media to stoke tensions between Israelis

 https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1zvgnywa

Last January, a video showing demonstrators with pride flags burning the image of Rabbi Chaim Drukman, one of the leaders of the Religious Zionist community who had passed away a week earlier, quickly spread on Facebook, X, WhatsApp, and Telegram, circulated by real users and fake accounts alike. Right-wing users and media could not contain their anger. "Do not absolve yourselves of the heavy responsibility for this demonstration of anti-Zionism and antisemitism," wrote Menny Asayag. Yair Netanyahu, the son of the Prime Minister, was quick to respond: "Remember what they did to Jews who defaced an image of Arabs at a wedding? Arrest and indictment... not that it interests the police, of course." Channel 7 also reported on the incident with the headline "Rabbi Chaim Drukman's image burned in left-wing protest."

They, along with many other users and journalists, were unaware that they had fallen victim to a trap set by a foreign entity, likely Iran, and not only in this case. An investigation by the organization Fake Reporter reveals that since 2021, a foreign influence network connected to Iran has been operating in Israel, spreading lies, incitement, and hate to deepen the rift among Israelis, and to use them to extend its influence beyond the virtual world.

Jack Smith Gets Hold of 'Incendiary' Evidence Against Donald Trump

 https://www.newsweek.com/jack-smith-trump-scott-perry-messages-2020-election-1854097

In a ruling on Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said that more than 1,600 communications sent from Perry, including texts and emails, can be handed over the Special Counsel Jack Smith's office after rejecting the argument they fall under the U.S. Constitution's "speech or debate" clause. The clause states that members of Congress can't be questioned in criminal investigations on matters relating to their legislative duties.

Perry, the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, had his phone seized by the FBI in August 2022 as part of the investigation into the attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Perry is alleged to have been in frequent discussions with Trump as part of the plot to install Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as attorney general to support the false claim the 2020 election was rigged in the final few weeks of Trump's presidency.

Haredi rabbi: This is why yeshiva students don't visit injured

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/382101

"And at any rate, those who come and claim, 'Why do you not go to visit the sick and help with the war effort,' can be considered insane, since the yeshiva students and Torah sages cause that there be no need for a spear or a shield, and they cause that we should not need more tanks or fighter jets to protect ourselves, because they themselves are protecting us from the brutal enemies. And essentially, that they sit and invest in their studies, they fulfill the greatest [commandment] to visit the sick that there is, in their own way, since they are adding merits so that there will not be any more ill in the nation of Israel."

How does he explain the following?

 Gittin (62a) the Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 5:4): One sustains poor gentiles along with poor Jews, and one visits sick gentiles along with sick Jews, and one buries dead gentiles along with dead Jews. All this is done on account of the ways of peace, to foster peaceful relations between Jews and gentiles.

Who said this and what year? - Trump or Desantis?

He   summed up the major issue of the time ‘as a struggle between “the great mass of Americans of the old pioneer stock” and the “intellectually mongrelised Liberals.”’‘We are, ‘of the plain people, very weak in the matter of culture, intellectual support, and trained leadership. We are demanding, and we expect to win, a return of power into the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualised, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanised, average citizen of the old stock…. This is undoubtedly a weakness. It lays us open to the charge of being “hicks” and “rubes” and “drivers of second-hand Fords.” We admit it.’

Trump Disqualified From 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/colorado-supreme-court-rules-trump-disqualified-from-presidential-primary-ballot-66b2de64?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Donald Trump can’t appear on the 2024 presidential primary ballot in Colorado because of his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday.

The first-of-its kind decision sided with a group of Colorado voters who argued in a lawsuit that the Republican front-runner was disqualified under a clause in the 14th Amendment. Enacted after the Civil War, the provision disqualifies from public office those who swore to defend the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S.

“President Trump incited and encouraged the use of violence and lawless action to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” the Colorado Supreme Court said in a 4-to-3 ruling.

Double standard for bitachon

As I go through the classic texts regarding parnossa I have noted a double standard

We are constantly told that G-d runs the world and therefore bad things are an indication either of punishment for sins or a test to provide a chance for spiritual growth and reward if we pass the test. This includes such things as illness or lack Parnosa. or being held captive by Hamas We just need to have bitchon. As the Chofetz Chaim explained why people should not leave Europe where they were starving and go to America - Because G-d provides the parnossa a person deserves, He can do it in Europe as well as in America

On the other hand, when it comes to the sick or poor or kollel- we are not to tell them that they should repent or have bitachon and G-d will provide. Instead, we are instructed to provide what they are lacking - even to provide luxuries to a rich man who lost his wealth. There is even an arrangement call Yissachar Zevulen - Rav Moshe says this is to provide peace of mind to learn Torah and it must be a long term relation since security for a short time doesn't eliminate worries and we are not to say to the talmid chachom to have bitachon that G-d will provide what he needs. Rav Moshe also notes that a person in Kollel should not refuse kollel payments claiming that one should not benefit from Torah study - He goes so far as to say this is the advice of Satan

So why do we need to have bitachon for our problems, but we can't tell others that they need greater bitachon or repentance?

NYC police tell Elisha Wiesel to put away Israeli flag at anti-Israel protest

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-778641

Police in New York City “insisted” that Elisha Wiesel put away an Israeli flag on Tuesday, as Weisel, son of the late writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, attempted to counterprotest a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian demonstration in the city’s Penn Station, Wiesel said on X.

The protest was organized by Within Our Lifetime, an activist group that has led near-daily protests since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel’s south, initiating the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group that has controlled Gaza since 2006. 

Within Our Lifetime expressed support for the attack, defending “whatever means necessary… with no exceptions and no fine print.”