What Are You Doing With Yourself?

One of the students of the Netziv of Volzhin zy”a became a businessman. When the man came to visit his rebbi, the Netziv greeted him with the standard Yiddish greeting, “Vos machst du?” (This is the Yiddish equivalent of the English greeting: “How do you do“, but it literally means: “What do you do?“)

The man answered, “Boruch Hashem, I have no complaints. I am healthy and business is good.“

The Netziv began to discuss various things with him. After a short while, he again asked, ”Vos machst du?”

The man said, “I already told the rebbi that my business is doing well.“

A couple of minutes later, the Netziv asked him a third time, “Vos machst du?”

The man didn’t understand and said, “Why did the rebbi ask me the same question three times? I already said that business is good and I have sufficient parnassah.“

The Netziv then said, “You still haven’t answered my question. I asked you what you do. I didn’t ask what Hashem does. Hashem provides you with parnassah and takes care of your business. What I was asking was what you do. Do you set aside time for Torah study? Do you give tzedakah? How is your ruchnius?“