Table of contents to my new Sefer on Parnossa

Amulets 17

Beis Din Judges Poskim Rabbinical Authorities 18

Bitachon 20

Acquiring and Strengthening Bitachon 20

Advice from Gedolim? 24

Benefit and Harm are only with G-d’s Permission 25

Choice of Life with Bitachon or Effort 27

Combining Torah and Work 28

Competence – Significant for Success? 31

Definition 32

Different concepts – Ramban vs Chovas HaLevavos 35

Everything that happens is good? 36

Life Insurance 38

Luxuries also 40

Protects from Harm 41

Questioning G-d – Don’t 44

Rely on it 45

Righteous not relying on Bitachon 72

Righteous Suffer even with Bitachon 74

Sinners also helped? 75

Talking 78

Types and Levels of Bitachon 79

Yakov was afraid 83

Yosef was the epitome of Bitachon yet was punished 84

Blessing 86

Berachas Cohanim- Priestly Blessing 88

Consequences - Significance 95

Mitzvah 101

Pleasure 102

Source of Beracha – Good/Evil 104

Torah 104

Tzadik 105

Curses 106

Blasphemy- Cursing G-d 106

Consequences 111

Examples 113

Father or Mother 114

Forgive 115

Harmful 115

Harmless 116

How 117

Jew 119

Oneself 119

Prohibition 119

Punishment 122

Reason 123

Removing 123

Ordinary person curses 123

Talmid Chachom 123

Talmid Chachom or Tzadik curses 124

Why 124

Working 125

Charity 125

Amount to give 125

Benefits - Consequences 129

Mitzva 133

Damages 141

Divination and Darchei Emori – permitted for health 146

False Belief 146

Permitted 146

Prohibition 150

Used For Medicine permitted 153

Economic Competition or Interference - Hasagas Gevul 156

Examples 156

Rabbinic or Torah Law? 163

Teaching Torah 163

Effort – Hishstadlus 164

Amount - Type 164

Bitachon – shows lacking? 169

Bitachon results from Effort 169

Blessing 169

Choice of Life with Bitachon or Effort 170

Curse 171

Definition 172

Dependency 174

Difficult 175

Father obligated to Teach Son 175

Indicates importance 177

Insurance 178

Love Work 178

Male vs Female 179

Man was created to toil 179

Medicine 179

Minimize 180

Minimum or no effort with bitachon 180

Miracles are minimized 189

Motivation 190

Move to Another Place 190

My Strength 191

Prayer 197

Punishment 201

Secular Studies 202

Stops Sin 205

Success always requires? 207

Success and knowledge 220

Success not dependent on amount or type of effort 221

Success Always Attributed to G-d 230

Trade is Important 239

Trade desirability is individual 245

Working vs Fearing Heaven 246

Evil Eye- Good Eye 246

Avoid because of Evil Eye 246

Good Eye 248

Harmful 249

Protect Against 252

Why harmful? 255

Honesty 255

Lending Money 266

Leniency if there is financial loss –chosoron kis or hefsed merubah 269

Permit Torah Prohibition 269

Large loss only 269

Lost objects – returning 270

Mazel luck 271

Accuracy 271

Astrology is prohibited? 272

Astrology connected to Witchcraft 274

Bad Luck 275

Children Livelihood Lifespan 275

Divination 277

Everything guided by mazzal 278

Fortune shines Shaah mesachat 283

Good luck - Mazel Tov 284

Jews influenced by mazel 286

Obligation 292

Outdated and Worthless belief 293

Palm reading 294

Success dependent on mazel 294

Medicine 298

Best Doctors Destined for Gehinom 298

Book of Cures – Why it was concealed 298

Chazal – Disagree 300

Errors 300

G-d cures 300

Good vs Bad Doctor 301

Natural effort – need to go to doctor 301

Need for doctors – Sin causes Illness 309

Medical Views of Chazal differ from Doctors 314

Permission to heal 315

Permitted cures 318

Pikuach Nefesh – Life Threatening 319

Prayer 320

Suffering is desirable 320

Testing 321

Miracles 322

Appreciation 322

Beracha 323

Deserving a Miracle 325

Effort of Man required before Miracle can Happen 326

End of Miracles 327

Everything is miraculous 327

Hidden vs Open 327

Laws of nature 328

Minimize 330

Miracles are built into creation 331

Miracles that happened 341

Mitzvos protect if danger is not common 352

More Common in Previous Generations 353

Natural laws violated 353

Need for Miracles 354

Proof – not to be viewed as Proof 356

Praying for miracle is prohibited 356

Relying on a miracle is prohibited Even for Tzadikim 357

Salvation through Miracles 363

Sign a miracle will happen 364

Sun Standing Still 364

Types 365

What is a miracle 365

Tzadikim can make 368

Oni Mehapech BCharara Interfering with another’s Purchase 369

Definition 369

Parnossa 370

Advice for success 370

Determined on Rosh HaShanna 387

Effort Desirable 389

Everyman’s trade is fine in his eyes 393

G-d Provides all Parnossa 393

How Provided 401

Not Easily Obtained 405

Predestined or Free Will 407

Same as Father’s 410

Spirituality 410

Test 410

Wife : profession compared to loving wife 411

Working vs Fear of Heaven 412

Poverty 412

Always exist 412

Causes 413

Decreed before Birth 417

Definition - Nature 417

G-d Loves the Poor 419

Helping 420

Mocking 424

Poor are considered dead or sick 424

Problems and Benefits 425

Robbing 436

Torah Scholars 437

Tzadik 437

Wheel which impacts everyone 438

Ribis – Usury - Prohibition 439

Segula - Parnassa and Abundance 469

Simonim – signs or omens 479

Permitted 479

Parnossa 488

Prohibited 489

Rosh HaShanna 489

Temimos being Whole Hearted with G-d 491

Bitachon 491

Chanufah is opposite of temimos 491

Definition 492

Mitzva 497

Prohibition 498

Theft 498

Common – most people 498

Consequences 499

Definition - Examples 508

Debts non payment 518

Fraud 518

Mitzva 530

Predestined? 533

Repentance - Restitution 533

Steal from Parents 539

Steal from poor 540

Steal from Rich? 540

Steal from Dead 540

Steal from Non-Jews 540

Steal from Thief 541

Talmid Chochma not a robber 542

Tempting 542

Thief vs Robber 542

Trade 543

Withholding Wages 544

 Segula 587

Torah Study and Working 544

Benefits 544

Chazal also worked to earn living 544

R’ Gamliel gave poor students jobs 545

Hillel was a laborer 545

R’ Yehoshua was a charcoal maker 545

Torah study should be combined with working 545

Choose life of bitachon or effort 548

Charity 550

Combining Necessary? 550

Cruel to family as a raven 562

Diaspora only 564

Exclusive Torah Study & Bitachon 565

Financial security required to study 575

Honor Torah 581

If son learns Torah doesn’t have to learn profession 581

Intellect from Torah Study 581

Poor in Torah 581

Poor Scholars 582

Rambam received financial support from brother 582

Rambam would allow if no other way 583

Rich 583

Scholars in early times didn’t have to work 583

Scholars in early times only 586

 Secular Studies 466

Taking money for Torah is prohibited? 588

Torah and derech eretz 590

Torah is Primary Work is Secondary 600

Torah Study - without work - is obligatory for the minority 602

Torah Study is Difficult 605

Torah Study is Important 606

Torah Study supported by community 612

Torah Study with charity profanes G d’s name 613

Torah thoughts while working 613

Work interferes with learning 616

Work is a Curse 618

Yisachar Zevulen partnership 619

Tzadikim - Righteous 622

Alive – Truly 622

Angels Greater than 622

Ascetic? 623

Attachment to Tzadikim 623

Atonement Needed? 624

Avraham 624

Baal tshuva is Superior? 625

Become Wicked? 626

Bitachon  only for high level 626

Blessing 627

Bounty Source 628

Called by Name of G-d 629

Cancel Merits of Wicked 632

Cannot become poor - law of nature 632

Chanoch Enosh 633

Chariot of G-d 633

Chasidic rebbe 634

NOAM ELIMELECH: 635

Compared to G-d 637

Confronting Wicked 638

Counterpoint to Wicked 639

Create 639

Curse 639

Death of tzadik brings Atonement 639

Decree Against Houses 640

Death Decreed 641

Death – Minimized Pain 641

Death difficult for World 641

Definition - Nature 641

Described as G-d 654

Dies Another Replaces 655

Die Before Time 656

Disobey G-d 656

Doctors not needed 656

Doesn’t suffer from poverty 657

Don’t lack food even without effort 658

Doubts 658

Faith in Tzadik 658

Faith - Lives By 659

Few in Number 660

Finding What was Lost 660

Flourish 660

Forced to be righteous? 660

Foundation of World 661

G-d is Crown 662

G-d is Sanctified through Them 663

G d nullifies decrees because of Tzadik 663

G-d Sees Actions 665

G-d’s Chariot 666

Give Money 667

Good Natured? 667

Greater after Death 667

Greater person has greater lust for evil 667

Handiwork greater than Creation 668

Heresy 668

Imitating? 669

Ish Elokim – Man of G-d 669

Life is only Good for the Tzadikim 670

Many reasons for the suffering of the righteous 671

Miracles - Nature Change- 672

Miraculous protection is only for compete tzadik 672

Misfortune 674

Money is precious to him 675

No fear of judgment either in this world or the next 676

Noach 676

Opposition 677

Partners With G-d 677

Powers similar to G-d 678

Prayers 679

Predestined 679

Protected from all sin and error? 680

Protected if as spiritual as R’ Pinchas’ donkey 683

Protection from Harm 684

Punished 685

Reason World Exists 686

Rebuke Giving 687

Rely on miracles 687

Revealed before Creation 688

Reward 688

Rich 690

Rosh Hashanah 691

Sarah 691

Say little and Do Much 691

Seeing 691

Serving the Tzadik 692

Son of Tzadik 692

Son will not lack sustenance 693

Suffer 693

Suffer first 694

Suffering of Love 694

Suffering is beneficial 694

Suffer for Sins of Generation 696

Tempting 696

Tests 696

Thirty Six or Thirty 696

Too Righteous 697

Tzadik Decree G-d agrees 697

War conducted in natural way - except for tzadikim 698

Wicked Son Prospers 699

Wicked Interfere 699

Women 699

Work not needed so Much 699

Working vs Fear of Heaven 699

Yakov 700

Yashar vs Tzadik 700

Yosef 701

Wealth- Money 701

Acquiring - causes 701

Amount 712

Avoid being Dependent on Others 714

Consequences 714

Decreed before birth 715

Definition - Nature 716

Desire for Wealth 720

Determined on Rosh HaShanna 722

Honor 723

Israel only 724

Money 724

Other people’s Money 727

Predetermined 727

Preserve 728

Problems and Benefits 729

Prophets 737

Rescue by destroying another’s  property 737

Solomon- Shlomo 737

Spirituality 738

Steal from Rich? 738

Test 738

Tzadik’s money is more precious to him 739

Undesirable 740

Dedication of my sefer on Parnossa and Luck

 Dedication

This volume is dedicated to Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald. He was active in many areas, despite being a successful businessman he devoted his life to the well-being of other Jews. While he ran Camp Sternberg and other business activities, he served as the go to person for anything requiring wise negotiating skills, love of fellow man and patience. He was involved at the highest levels of secular politics as well as with Torah leaders, despite this he was a gentle highly approachable person who was available to all those in need. He was intimately involved in freeing not only Nathan Sharansky from Russia and but others such as Lori Berenson who he visited while she was jailed for life in Peru for alleged terrorist activities. 

He traveled the world to provide people in impossible difficulties with real help. He was often called on to negotiate in difficult divorce cases.  He was a pioneer in dealing with youth who were on the fringes of society. He even founded a school which dealt directly with young ladies with difficult backgrounds. In short he was a true Torah Jew who was a servant of G-d. He remained a humble and pleasant and easily accessible person despite his many accomplishments. 

I met him many times when he came to family simchas in Israel from his home in Monsey. I also corresponded with him by email regarding the issue of divorce.  He told me he had had a discussion with Rav Dovid Cohen about the lack of awareness in the Orthodox community about child abuse as indicated by its absence in the Rabbinic responsa literature. Rav Cohen assured him that there must be significant discussions of this important topic but after much effort was able to find only two from 100 years ago. 

I also mentioned Rav Dessler’s view that there needed to be universal single minded devotion to only Torah study even if it causes harm to the majority, He agreed that  was the dominant view as expressed by the Chazon Ish and Rav Aharon Kotler, but noted this seems to have come about as a reaction to  the devastation to not only the nature of Orthodoxy but also the lack of competent leaders by WWII. He added that now after several generation of Torah only that perhaps the emergency situation no longer existed and it might be possible to return to the norm of Torah Study and working.

His wisdom and devotion is sorely missed

Preface to my new sefer on Parnossa and Luck

 Preface

About a year ago I was approached by a young kollel man. (In my neighborhood most of the men belong to a Kollel). He had a simple request. What does the Torah say about Parnossa (earning a living  or having a job – as opposed to learning full time) and had I written anything about it in my sefer Daas Torah?. This was similar to Hillel being asked by a prospective convert to teach him the entire Torah while he was standing on one leg (Shabbos 31a). As with my previous research. I found most issues are not resolved to a single cogent view, As I have noted before I asked Rav Eliashiv about publishing diverse views since this can cause confusion and upset that there is more than one answer. He answered there is no problem as long as I use widely accepted sources He said any confusion should be discussed with one’s rebbe I also asked Rav Moshe Shapiro and he added just quote the original language without adding interpretation

As I investigated the matter directly it soon became obvious that until relatively recently,. the original sources indicated that having a job was obligatory, And the Chasam Sofer adds that this is especially true in Israel.  In fact Rav Kook has stated that the existence of the Jews in the Desert for 40 years after leaving Egypt was one big Kollel devoted to Torah learning while they were sustained and fed by miracles. They didn’t want to leave this existence to be workers. farmers and shepherds in Israel. So their leaders spoke lashon harah about Israel as an excuse to not to settle the land   In fact the gemora in Berachos (35b)says it is a fundamental dispute between Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai as to whether a person should combine work with Torah study. It concludes that only a minority can survive with exclusive Torah Study. This is also stated clearly in the Mishna Berurah, The Netziv adds from Chazal that only those with guaranteed parnossa can properly study Torah. Other views state that Parnossa will be provided to all that Trust in G-d (bitachon). That those engaged in  exclusive Torah Study will be provided with parnossa while other sources say one should be prepared to live in poverty to study Torah, In fact one should be cruel to the needs and cries of your family to learn Torah exclusively. Rav Dessler says that even if most are harmed by an exclusive focus on Torah, we must pay that price

Today it has become accepted that most need to be devoted to exclusive Torah study – even if this means your wife supports the family and the children are raised by babysitters  and even if most people are not suited for full time lifelong learning  At one time it was assumed that people would work– usually before the age of 13.  There was no childhood as we know it today.  This changed around 1877 when the Kovno Kollel was started and Rav Chaim Volshner founded a yeshiva system that was independent of the local community, There was great concern for the haskala and government pressures to assimilate. The members of the Kollel were expected to dessert their families for a number of years. In America Rav Aharon Kotler founded the Lakewood yeshiva devoted to exclusive pure Torah learning in 1943. Since then the Torah school system has raised generations of boys and girls to the reality of exclusive Torah. Something which was not the norm even in prewar Eastern Europe

Hogan calls Trump’s comments on Harris’s mental abilities ‘outrageous and unacceptable’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4906401-larry-hogan-donald-trump-kamala-harris/

“Kamala is mentally impaired. If a Republican did what she did, that Republican would be impeached and removed from office, and rightfully so, for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin this weekend, according to multiple reports.

“Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” Trump added, according to the reports.

Jared Kushner Hails Israel Strikes on Hezbollah amid Donald Trump's Silence

 https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-israel-hezbollah-hassan-nasrallah-trump-1960912

Kushner described September 27—the date Israel killed Nasrallah—as "the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough."

Statement by Vice President Harris on the Death of Hassan Nasrallah

 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/09/28/statement-by-vice-president-harris-on-the-death-of-hassan-nasrallah/

Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands. Across decades, his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world. Today, Hezbollah’s victims have a measure of justice....

Trump Remark About 1890s Rebuked Online: 'Such Ignorant Thinking'

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-mckinley-tariffs-1890s-ignorant-thinking-michael-steele-1960800

T.J. Stiles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, disputed Trump's claims on X, writing on Friday, "Trump is no better as a historian of the 1890s than he is of the Civil War. No, it wasn't America's wealthiest time. No, McKinley wasn't a businessman."

Stiles pointed out that McKinley's first major tariff bill, which he authored while in Congress, "in part cost Republicans the House & White House." The historian referenced the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890, which raised duties on imported goods by about 50 percent and contributed to significant political losses for the Republican Party in subsequent elections.

Biden: Nasrallah's death was 'measure of justice' for his many victims

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-822248

US President Joe Biden on Saturday called Israel's killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "a measure of justice" for his many victims and said the United States fully supported Israel's right to defend itself against Iran-supported groups.

Biden said he had directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to enhance further the defense posture of US military forces in the Middle East to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader war.

IDF confirms: Ali Karki, commander of Hezbollah's Southern Front, is eliminated

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/396858

Ali Karki has been the Commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front since 2007, directing the terrorist organization’s activities in southern Lebanon. He oversaw the build-up of weapons stockpiles and stationed thousands of operatives along the border with Israel. Since the war began, Karki has led rocket launches, anti-tank missile attacks, and UAV strikes that have killed dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers, inflicting heavy damage to communities in northern Israel.

Hezbollah Confirms Leader Hassan Nasrallah Killed in Israeli Strike

 https://www.newsweek.com/israel-lebanon-hassan-nasrallah-idf-killed-1960688

Israeli said it killed Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut air strike on Friday, dealing a stunning blow to Iran, the Middle Eastern nation's most implacable foe.

..The chief of the Iranian-backed militant group had reportedly been the target of Israel's attacks on the Lebanese capital on Friday, and there had been rumors that he had been hit.

Considered by many regional analysts and supporters as the most charismatic leader in a network of proxies that projected Iran power across the Middle East, Nasrallah rarely appeared in public but cultivated a cult like following with his televised speeches.

Good Old days?!

 I was taking with a young man who was expressing dissatisfaction with his son's yeshiva because they were not making the proper atmosphere for Elul like they did when he was a yeshiva bachur.

That reminded me of a conversation I had with the first Reb Freifeld  when I drove her to visit someone in the hospital. She was talking about the good old days. So I asked her bluntly, "When were the Old Days truly better? She thought a while and responded "In the time of Shlomo haMelech." 

This nostalgia for the old days is often destructive. When my sons learned Chumash in yeshiva they were taught in Yiddish, Which they didn't understand nor did the rest of their class. When I asked the teachers and the principal, they said that is the way they did it in Europe. Rabbi Freifeld told me that the reason hard gemoras are taught was parents thought that was the way it was taught in Europe. He said in fact Berachos was often the beginning gemora in Europe. Rabbi Dovid Cohen said these people would have to give an accounting for destroying the Torah learning by teaching in Yiddish. Likewise many young men learned to hate Torah learning which was based on an imagined era rather than contemporary needs. This was done because parents wanted the good old days they imagined and would change from any yeshiva that did not accept their dreams. Similarly we have a fantasy of the piety and scholarship of the previous times. Rav Hutner said there is greater hasmada in America than there was in Europe. In addition after WWI when the community structure was destroyed. perhaps the majority of Jews were heretics

Rabbi Freiefeld once lamented the fact that today's heretic are not heretics but simply ignorant He said to be a real heretic you first need to be a real talmid chuchum

Rav  Yosef founded a political movement based on the golden years when Sefardim dominated Ahkenasim.

The MAGA movement is based on the idea of the old days being better. Which days the Depression? WWII the 1950's when we were told we would die in nuclear War and everyone was suspected of being a Communist or the 60's and 70's when the country was torn over the Vietnam War or the social and economic disaster of the end of the 20th Century> I remember the Ph.D's who were driving cabs because there were no jobs available

Interesting there is a gemora lamenting the good old days when miracles were more common because they were so frum. The gemora asks for an example and describes a fanatic who ripped a red cloak from a woman because it was immodest only to discover the woman wasn't Jewish and he was severely fined fined for  embarrassing her

Berachos (20a) Rav Pappa said to Abaye: What is different about the earlier generations, for whom miracles occurred and what is different about us, for whom miracles do not occur? If it is because of Torah study; in the years of Rav Yehuda all of their learning was confined to the order of Nezikin, while we learn all six orders! Moreover, when Rav Yehuda would reach in tractate Okatzin, which discusses the extent to which the stems of various fruits and vegetables are considered an integral part of the produce in terms of becoming ritually impure, the halakha that a woman who pickles a vegetable in a pot, and some say when he would reach the halakha that olives pickled with their leaves are pure, because after pickling, it is no longer possible to lift the fruit by its leaves, they are no longer considered part of the fruit; he would find it difficult to understand. He would say: Those are the disputes between Rav and Shmuel that we see here. And we, in contrast, learn thirteen versions of Okatzin. While, with regard to miracles, after declaring a fast to pray for a drought to end, when Rav Yehuda would remove one of his shoes the rain would immediately fall, whereas we torment ourselves and cry out and no one notices us. Abaye said to Rav Pappa: The previous generations were wholly dedicated to the sanctification of God’s name, while we are not as dedicated to the sanctification of God’s name. Typical of the earlier generations’ commitment, the Gemara relates: Like this incident involving Rav Adda bar Ahava who saw a non-Jewish woman who was wearing a garment made of a forbidden mixture of wool and linen [karbalta] in the marketplace. Since he thought that she was Jewish, he stood and ripped it from her. It was then divulged that she was a non-Jew and he was taken to court due to the shame that he caused her, and they assessed the payment for the shame that he caused her at four hundred zuz. Ultimately, Rav Adda said to her: What is your name? She replied: Matun. In a play on words, he said to her: Matun, her name, plus matun, the Aramaic word for two hundred, is worth four hundred zuz.

Bottom line is we only have our times and we need to make the best of them

BBC told director of Nova massacre film to not describe Hamas as terrorists

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-821666

Yariv Mozer, the director of We Will Dance Again, a documentary film about the Nova festival, said that he had to agree with the BBC to not describe Hamas as a terrorist organization if he wanted it to air, according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.

A Deere in Trump’s Political Headlights

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-john-deere-mexico-79daf213

The former President’s biggest selling point is the first-term economy his supply-side policies helped promote. But these days he’s making tariffs his highest priority, and that won’t help the economy if he wins.

Donald Trump's John Deere Threat Has a Problem: the USMCA Act He Signed

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-john-deere-tariffs-usmca-act-problem-1958336

Republican nominee Trump made his feelings known about the plan during a policy roundtable in Smithton, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Protecting America Initiative.

"They've announced a few days ago that they're going to move a lot of their manufacturing business to Mexico," Trump said. "I'm just notifying John Deere right now: If you do that, we're putting a 200 percent tariff on everything that you want to sell into the United States." Newsweek has contacted John Deere for comment via email outside of standard working hours.

However, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) signed by Trump in January 2020, a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), prohibits the leverage of tariffs on a range of goods, allowing companies to manufacture in Mexico and Canada and export back to the U.S. without high costs.