It is the will of Hashem yisbarach that we do hishtadlus for parnassah. Rabbenu Bachyai emphasizes, in the fourth chapter, that a person should work using the skill and opportunities that Hashem sends his way, and that he should not refrain from doing so, so long as the work is appropriate for “his middos and his body and his emunah and his world.”
Hishtadlus that is suitable for one person is not appropriate for another. There may be a person for whom it is suitable to go up on the roofs of buildings and install solar heaters, and for his brother, even his twin brother, such work is not suitable. He does not have the physical nature necessary for such work. He also is not handy with tools as his brother is, and thus his hishtadlus would be completely different. He is a sofer, who engages in careful and precise writing of STA”M. Such work would absolutely not be suitable for a person for whom variety and social interaction are important. Such a person might need to hear and tell over news, to be aware of what’s going on in the world... For such a person it is much more suitable to be a businessman selling STA”M rather than the person who writes them.
These examples show us how proper hishtadlus means doing what is suited to our own characteristics, both spiritually and physically. This is what Rabbenu Bachyai means when he says that the hishtadlus must be suited to one’s “body.”
What is meant by the fact that hishtadlus must also be suited to his middos? Each person has a weak point in his avodas hamiddos. Let us take, for example, the trait of anger: There are people who are patient, who deal well with all sorts of people and situations, and there are those who are less so.
When a small child is angry that his plans did not turn out the way he wished, that the trip was cancelled or that the candy fell out of his mouth, he might cry and stomp his feet, and at that time, because he is upset, one cannot educate him about not getting angry. But an adult — if he has read and reviewed and looked a bit into sefarim hakedoshim, and especially if he was zocheh to learn the Zohar Hakadosh in Parshas Tetzaveh, p. 181, and knows how bad anger is and how dangerous it is to the neshamah — understands that it is truly dangerous to be angry and that a person has to go to the opposite extreme in order to distance himself from anger.
On the subject of anger, there are many sefarim and there is much advice regarding how to overcome it and make it less intense. Among so much advice that is available, there is one eitzah that will definitely be of benefit, and that is to strengthen oneself in emunah. Let us think: Why does a person get angry? He gets angry because his desire did not come about, or the opposite — that something was done against his will. If he delves into it and thinks thoughts of emunah, he’ll understand that the reality in which he finds himself, or the incident that ruined his plans, did not come about on its own. It also did not happen because of various people who mixed in and made decisions that upset him. It came about because Hashem decreed for it to happen, and Hashem’s every deed is only for the good of His creations!
When we think such thoughts of emunah, we do not need to deal with anger at all. The anger dissipates on its own. What is there to be angry about at the deeds of the Creator of all the worlds, all of which are directed for a person’s good and for his merit?!
There are situations in which it is difficult to deal with different things that disturb us, and we are liable to come to anger. Therefore, when we want to do hishtadlus, we need to weigh things carefully: If working in a certain place will consistently cause us to get angry, or will cause us to experience put-downs, bitterness, high pressure, or depression — that is a sign that this hishtadlus is not suitable for us.
The hishtadlus also has to be suitable to a person’s “emunah” — to the level of his emunah. There are people whose level of emunah is very high, and they need only a bit of hishtadlus; and there are others whose level of emunah are such that they must do more hishtadlus. It is not wise to excuse laziness by labeling it as emunah when in truth the person is not on that level.
Regarding one’s “world,” this is the Olam Haba that a person prepares for himself here in this world — the world of Torah in which he lives: Is the work in line with the halachos of the Torah? Does he have to deal with nisyonos of “Do not stray...” in this workplace? Is everything kosher and fully honest, without deceit or stealing? Sometimes we go into what seems to be an excellent workplace, and only later on do we discover all sorts of problems. From time to time, we need to pay attention and see: Is the hishtadlus still suitable to “his world”?
This is what Rabbenu Bachyai is telling us: Occupy yourself with the circumstances that are sent to you from Shamayim; know that through this you are doing the will of Hashem yisbarach and that you will receive reward for it. Hishtadlus and bitachon must go hand in hand, because only the combination of the two will enable us to properly weigh what the correct course of action is for us. And we should trust in Hashem, Who will never leave us to fend for ourselves!
May it be Hashem’s will that brachah and hatzlachah rest upon all the work of our hands; amen.
