Amazing story about How HaShem decides your Parnasa (9 minutes)

0:26One of the things that those two tractates of the Gemara, Beitza and Rosh Hashanah, discuss is that Hashem is deciding the parnasah (livelihood) you will receive from this Rosh Hashanah until the next Rosh Hashanah. So on Rosh Hashanah, which is the Judgment Day, some people unfortunately treat it lightly, not even going to beit knesset (synagogue). There are also people, even in Israel, who might choose to spend the day in Tveriyah having a barbecue instead of acknowledging its significance. It's important to remember that Rosh Hashanah is indeed the time when Hashem decides whether a person will live or die, among other judgments. Yom Kippur is if the judgment on Rosh Hashanah was not good, you have one more chance to turn things around. You have ten days of teshuva after Rosh Hashanah to really pray, and pray, and cry, and do everything you can, and then the last possible day is Yom Kippur. That's the appeal. That's the last shot you have to get a favorable year, to get a favorable judgment. But the judgment day really is Rosh Hashanah. It's not all happy, happy, happy. Yes, it's Rosh Hashanah, it's happy, but it's not a happy new year like the Goyim.

1:54Judgment Day, it's a serious day. Rosh Hashanah, Hashem decides how much parnasah you're going to get. Based on how you acted, what you did, what kind of good deed you did, what kind of things you did. The Gemara says that Hashem decides how much parnasah you're going to get for the next year, except for tzedakah and ma'asim tovim (mitzvot). Meaning, that if he decides, let's say, from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah, you're going to get $100,000. But that $100,000 does not include any money you spend on tzedakah and does not include any money you spend on mitzvot. So, money you spend to have kiddush on Shabbat, Money you spend on Yom Tov, like Pesach, is often significant. You're investing $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 to host amazing meals, perhaps two in America or one in Israel, with guests. You could have 25 people attending, and there's always this and that to enhance the celebration. It's a considerable expense because you want to elevate the joy, the oneg, of the Chag.

3:01You're thinking, I made $100,000; $5,000, it's 5%. No, it's not 5%. It's not included. The $100,000, that's your income. That's what Hashem promised you. Whatever you spend on mitzvot, it's not included. Whatever you spend on tzedakah, it's not included. So someone that has 100% emunah, like we talked about, doesn't think twice before he gives tzedakah because he knows it's not coming out of his income, really. Hashem's paying for it anyway. My $100,000 that Hashem decided? He already decided. If I give $500 tzedakah or I give $1,000 tzedakah, it doesn't matter. Hashem's paying for it. What do you care? That's somebody with 100% emunah (faith). Baruch Haba. So now, the question goes here. So, the Baal Shem Tov asked, The Baal Shem Tov asked a question one time. He said, the Gemara says, Hashem judges you on Rosh Hashanah, what's your parnassah going to be? Judges. But the Mishnah, which comes before the Gemara, says that you're judged every day, not once a year.

4:16There's a little bit of contradiction here. Why would you judge me every day if I already got judged on Rosh Hashanah? So one day he sees a laborer carrying water. That's his job. For 20 years, he's been carrying water for people from place to place. You know, they didn't have trucks back then. He puts it on the horse-drawn carriage, goes from place to place, and gives them the water. It's manual labor. It's not an easy job. It's like moving. Moving is not easy. So, one day he sees this guy, and Baal Shem Tov says, how are you? The guy, with a big smile, carrying this big load of water, says, Baruch Hashem, everything is good, everything is great. Baruch Hashem. Wow, isn't it nice to see someone happy with their job? The very next day, he sees him again, still doing the same thing he's been doing for 20 years. He's carrying the water, and Baal Shem Tov says, how are you? You know, I don't know why Hashem gave me such a difficult job in this world. It's so difficult. The money doesn't come easy. The work is really hard. It's really hot outside. It was hot yesterday also, by the way. It's hot today. All of a sudden, the same job he's had for 20 years—one day it's good, the next day it's bad. How could it be?

5:47Thank you very much. You helped me answer a question I had for many years. So the guy asks, what question did I have? What did I do that helped you today? What question did I answer? The Baal Shem Tov says, the Gemara says that Hashem judges and decides what parnasa we're going to get on Rosh Hashanah from Rosh Hashanah to Rosh Hashanah. But the Mishnah, which came before, says He judges us every day. So I always ask, why does He judge us every day? If it is already decided on Rosh Hashanah what we are going to get, if I'm destined to receive $100,000 on Rosh Hashanah, then I'm supposed to get $100,000. What difference does it make every day? Why would you keep having the same trial every day? It does make a difference every day. Because if you do good every day, when it comes to Rosh Hashanah, then you could... So that's what the Baal Shem Tov is saying here. The Baal Shem Tov is saying, is that every day when we go to sleep, our neshama goes up to shamayim and reports what it did for the day. And it gets judged on what it did. When it comes back to your body when you wake up, it gets the news. Every day we're being judged on not how much parnassah we're going to get. Every day we're being judged.

7:11How we're going to get it if we do good deeds? Work comes easy, the burden is not heavy, the heat is not that intense anymore. Hashem gives us the money in an easy way—customers are coming to us. We don't have to chase them for money, for anything on the side, it comes easily. But if we don't do good deeds, even though it's already decided how much we're going to get, we're going to have to work a lot harder for it. And chas v'shalom, it could even be a bigger message where Hashem says, "Okay, I decided you're going to get $100,000, but your business is going to go bankrupt." You might think, "Okay, but I'm going to make $100,000 even if my business goes bankrupt." Oh, chas v'shalom, you're also going to have an accident, and the lawsuit is going to give you $100,000. So yes, the parnasah has been decided, but how you're going to get it is based on your actions. That's why sometimes you wake up in the morning very happy without anything happening. Everything is good. We're happy. Sometimes we wake up on Tisha B'Av. Sometimes we wake up miserable. Why do we wake up miserable? Because we got bad news from Shamayim. We got bad news because yesterday we didn't do good. So our neshama already knows. That's why when we see the kids in the morning, we're already upset. We see our wife, she hasn't even done anything yet. She just woke up. We're already upset. Why are you upset? Something she did two weeks ago. She didn't make you a sandwich. You're already upset about that. You're making that up. The real reason is because your neshama already knows today is going to be a tough day because I got bad news from Shamayim.

8:37So somebody smart, what do they do? They do teshuva. They say, okay, if I'm in a bad mood, that means I got bad news. I can either continue my bad deeds and get more bad news every day, and be Tisha B'Av every day, or I can do teshuva, and tomorrow, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll receive good news. And I'll be in a good mood.