Rashi explains this pasuk to mean that your possessions should be blessed.
The following story occurred in Syria, during the time of the tzadik Rav Mordechai Abadi zt”l: There was a man who would come to shul every morning to daven. After davening, he would learn Chok L’Yisroel and say a few chapters of Tehillim. One day, he took his tefillin off right after davening and went to work. A few days later, he started leaving before davening ended – right after Ashrei. And so it went – he kept leaving earlier and earlier until he stopped coming to shul at all.
Rav Abadi saw what was happening and went to the man’s store to ask him what caused the change. When the man saw him entering his store, he got very excited. He brought the Rov a chair and asked him if he wanted a drink. The Rov accepted the drink and began to converse with him. He then asked him why he stopped coming to davening.
The main replied, “Why should I come? When I used to go to daven and learn, and only go to my store afterwards, I had no customers until noon. When I started leaving early, I started to get more customers. When I stopped coming at all, I had a line of customers waiting outside the door for me to open.”
The Rov tried to explain to him that one’s livelihood is determined in Shomayim on Rosh Hashanah and he should not think he has more customers because he gets to his store earlier but the man cut him off and said, “With all due respect, those are nice words but I have seen with my own eyes that they are not true.”
The Rov was unable to sway the man at all until he finally said, “According to your calculations, how much do you think you are earning this way?”
The man answered, “50 gold lira.”
The Rov said, “I accept responsibility to ensure that you won’t earn less than that amount if you come back to daven and learn. Keep an accounting of how much you lost by doing so, and I will pay the shortfall.”
The man agreed to the deal and began coming to davening again. He also went back to learning Chok L’Yisroel and even started learning a few pages of Zohar and sifrei mussar every day.
When the Rov would ask him how things were going, he said, “So far, I have only earned two gold lira, but I can wait until erev Rosh Hashanah to make an accounting with you.”
On erev Rosh Hashanah after Shacharis, the custom was that every member of the community would come to the Rov to receive his blessing for a good new year. This took a few hours, and the Rov would then go home and then to the mikvah. The Rov had prepared the money to give to the man and after going to the mikvah, he went to his store and told him to take out his books and calculate how much he owed him.
The man said, “You don’t owe me anything!”
When the Rov insisted on keeping his word, the storekeeper told him, “An hour ago, a gentile from out-of-town came here and bought so much merchandise that I made a profit of 50 gold lira!”
The Rov told him, “You previously told me that you had made two gold lira. With this 50, you earned 52 in total. That means that you owe me two lira!”
He then said, “Now you see how right Chazal were when they said that the amount of money a person will earn is determined on Rosh Hashanah.”
Chazal say (Devarim Rabbah 4:5) that Hashem promised that no one will lose by obeying Him. No one ever loses out by fulfilling the word of Hashem!
יָאֵ ר ה' פָּ נָיו אֵ לֶיךָ וִ יחֻנֶּךָּ (ו, כה)
May Hashem shine His face on you and favor you. (6:25)
