How to Know Which Parnassah Has Your Mission
One Feels a Draw to His Intended Work
The question is only: How can a person know which parnassah is bashert for him? Do we have the ruach hakodesh to know where we need to go in order to fulfill our mission?!
The simple answer is that when a person feels a pull to a given field of work, and it finds favor in his eyes, this is a strong indication that this is connected to his neshamah, and that his mission can be found in that line of work.
There’s a well-known Gemara (Sotah 2a) which teaches us that forty days before a child is created, a bas kol goes out and announces: “This person’s daughter will marry this person... this field belonging to this person will be sold to this other person.” That is, just as with shidduchim there’s an attraction between the two sides, and one complements the other, so too in business, there will be an attraction in a transaction that is meant to be for your sheleimus hanefesh. For through this “field,” he will arrive at his completeness of the soul.
Pining for Suffering
The Aryeh D’Bei Ila’i had been the rav of Vishnitza, a town where they mercilessly persecuted their rabbanim, and he suffered greatly from their antics. In later years, the Rebbe settled in Brigel, where the people were respectful and admiring, and supplied all his needs with great reverence. Nevertheless, the Rebbe would regularly say that he missed those times in Vishnitza, and he would readily go back there!
When his confidants wondered about this, the Rebbe explained:
Attraction Is an Indication of the Ratzon Hashem
There’s a concept in Chazal (Sotah 47a) that there are three things that find favor in people’s eyes. One of them is the attraction of a locale upon the people who live there—a clear indication this place is the right place for the הנפש שלימות of this person. Despite the remoteness, and despite the lack of convenience, people tend to be happy where they live—and this is a deep connection that has to do with the soul.
Conversely, there are people who live in the most beautiful places, and they’re still unhappy—and this is for the same reason: this isn’t the right place for their nefesh. It has to do with the neshamah, which can only fulfill its mission in the place it belongs.
Concluded the Aryeh D’Bei Ila’i: What can I do if despite everything that I have endured there, I still feel a connection to the town and to the people whom I taught there? This is an indication to me that the place is right for my nefesh, and this is why I would like to return there.”
Attracted to the Essence
From this story, we learn another lesson. When a person wants to know which parnassah is his tafkid, his mission, he must feel an attraction to this work which emanates from the essence of that work, not merely its side factors. A person who feels a pull towards a certain shidduch for his daughter... there’s no money or yichus, but he nevertheless feels
1. Rav Aryeh Leib Liphshitz (1747-1846) was one of the greatest luminaries of the Chassidic movement in Galicia.
