My parnossa book was accepted by Amazon
Available now on Amazon
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
New sefer Parnossa Bitachon Luck
I just submitted my latest Sefer to Amazon. It should be available for sale next week
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
Curse 171Amount - Type 164
Bitachon – shows lacking? 169
Bitachon results from Effort 169
Blessing 169
Choice of Life with Bitachon or Effort 170
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
Medicine 298Bad 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
Miracles 322Best 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
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
Poverty 412Advice 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
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
Monday, September 30, 2024
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
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....
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Trump Remark About 1890s Rebuked Online: 'Such Ignorant Thinking'
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.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
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.
Friday, September 27, 2024
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
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)