We’re All Guided from Above to Our Intended Destination
We have begun to discuss what seems to be a disagreement between the Chovos HaLevavos and the talmidei Ba’al Shem Tov as it relates to the concept of traveling long distances for parnassah.
The Chovos HaLevavos exhorts us not to travel long distances for our parnassah—for this implies a lack of bitachon (as Hashem can send us the shefah right to our door). He brought us the story of the pious person who traveled a long way only to encounter a gentile who admonished him, saying that if he truly trusted in Hashem, he wouldn’t have traveled all that way.
On the other hand, we have the great tzaddikim, luminaries of the Chassidic movement, who taught us that there’s often great purpose in traveling long distances—for in those far-flung places there are rectifications that we must make by drawing out the holy sparks.
But the truth is that חיים אלקים דברי ואלו אלו, these and these are both the words of a living G-d. We must only delve deeper to see how, at the core, there’s no contradiction between these tzaddikim at all.
If You Don’t Succeed, Go Elsewhere
To better understand this sugyah, let us analyze the Gemara in Bava Metziah (75b): “Three cry out, but they are not answered [from Above].”
One of them is a person who’s struggling in one city, but he doesn’t make the move to another city. Such a person is not answered. He can’t be helped, because he won’t help himself by moving to a new locale.
A Sign from Above
The Minchas Elazar of Munkatch teaches in the name of the Shiniver Rov in relation to this Gemara that this person should have read the signs that were being sent to him. He should understand that if things aren’t good for him here, he should be moving to a new place.
The Ribbono shel Olam gives a person everything he needs, and if a person sees that he isn’t receiving his needs, and he has already taken stock of his deeds and actions and didn’t find anything glaringly wrong—of course, a person can always improve, but he doesn’t see anything that recently changed which would cut off his shefah of parnassah—then there must be a different cheshbon. It’s not necessarily because of an aveirah that he committed, but because from Above, they want him to move to a new place.
If he does not make this move, he will be a נענה ואינו צועק, one who cries out and isn’t answered. Because he should have taken the hint. He is like a young child who’s holding an ice cube in his hand, and he’s crying because it’s too cold. He doesn’t have the wisdom to take the step of simply dropping it....
Similarly, Hashem will often leave a person with no recourse but to change locations, because it is the ה' רצון for him to move a new place.
If You’re Hungry, There’ll Be Money...
The story is told that one of the young children of the Chozeh of Lublin once cried that he wanted a coin with which to buy bread. Said the Chozeh to him, “You’re not hungry!” When the boy cried a second time that he needed a coin to buy bread, his holy father repeated his words, “You’re not hungry.”
But the third time, when the boy cried for a coin with which to buy bread, the Chozeh stuck his hand into his pocket and found a gold coin. “Now,” he said, “I know that you’re truly hungry. For we know that if a person truly needs something, he will have it. If he doesn’t have it, it is a sign that he doesn’t need it.”
A Person Is Given What He Needs
This is a tremendous yesod in the sugya of bitachon: When a person sees that the Ribbono shel Olam doesn’t give him something, this means that he doesn’t need it! When the child cried for money and the Chozeh knew that he didn’t have the money for him, it was clear to him that the child didn’t really need it.
Children know how to dramatize and pretend that their need is greater than it really is...and we don’t always know if we can take their words at face value. But the Chozeh MiLublin had a very clear method: “If I don’t have the money, it means that the child isn’t really hungry!”
It can’t be any other way, for the Ribbono shel Olam gives every living soul what he needs.
If the Shefah Isn’t Here, It Is a Sign to Move On
A person must always live with this golden rule which we are taught in the above-mentioned Gemara: If you don’t have parnassah in this city, then you’re not in the right place! The Ribbono shel Olam gives everyone what they need. This we know for a fact. Therefore, it must be that He is signaling for you to make a move.
We see this often with people who tried to make money in one place, but they weren’t successful. There was a simple reason for this; The Ribbono shel Olam wanted them in another place, and it is there they will see success.
The Rav Who Was Forced to Leave Town
We have told the story in the past about the rav who was forced to resign and leave town due to opposition from the townspeople who felt that some of his children had leanings to Haskalah. They felt that it wasn’t befitting for their town to be led by such a person, and they made the rav miserable until he was forced to leave The Chofetz Chaim related that at the time, it disturbed him greatly to see such an illustrious person suffer such humiliation.
Illustrious Children Thanks to the “Tzarah”
Continued the Chofetz Chaim: Fifty years later, I looked after this rav, and this is what I found: Due to his ouster from the big rabbonus, he was forced to resettle in a small chassidishe town, and although it wasn’t nearly as prestigious a position as his previous one, it sufficed for him. Since he moved to this town, his children befriended the chassidishe children there, and they were influenced by them for the better. They married well, and established illustrious families in their own right, and some even became ehrliche rabbonim of Jewish communities!
Fifty years of hindsight revealed to the Chofetz Chaim that what seemed like a tzarah—to be forced to move from his town and lose his rabbinic position—was his greatest salvation. He simply needed to relocate elsewhere in order to see success.
A New Locale Is the Greatest Benefit
We must always know that although at the time things may seem dire and dark, fifty years later we will look back and see that from Heaven we were meant to go to a new place in order to see greater success and attain higher levels.
Sometimes, there’s a seventh-grade rebbi who’s happy where he is... he has been in this position for a long time. One day, everything turned over. The administration divided the grades, and he fell out of the system. He is now left without a parnassah. He is tempted to be upset with the yeshivah, but he strengthens himself with emunah, knowing that everything is for the best—and then suddenly he is offered a better job as a maggid shiur in a mesivta with much better conditions and circumstances. From Above, it was ordained for him to receive a promotion, and he was simply given a nudge forward....
