The Iyun Yaakov explains, "It seems to me that the chassid chose to sleep in the cemetery because he was afraid that if he remained home, he might quarrel with his wife on Rosh Hashanah. He also didn’t go to someone else's house to protect his wife's honor. He slept in the cemetery so no one would know about their fight."
The Gemara (Brachos 18) relates a story of a poor chassid who gave tzedakah to another needy person on erev Rosh Hashanah during a famine. His wife was upset at him for giving away money they needed to tzedakah, so he spent that night in the cemetery.
In the graveyard, he overheard a conversation between two neshamos. One said, 'My friend, let's float around the world and listen in from behind the curtain [of heaven] to know which punishments are decreed for the coming year.'"
The second soul answered that she couldn’t leave her grave because she was buried in a mat of reeds. The first soul went alone. When she returned, she told her friend, "Heaven decreed that all crops planted by the first rains of the season will be ruined by hail."
The chassid, having overheard their conversation, planted his field by the second rain. Everyone's crop was destroyed in the hail that year except for his.
The following year, on Rosh Hashanah night, he returned to the cemetery and heard the two souls conversing again. Once again, one of them asked her friend to float around the world to overhear the heaven decrees, and the other replied that she couldn’t because she was buried in a mat of reeds. So, one soul traveled alone, and when she returned, she said that she heard that this year, the crops planted at the second rain will be destroyed by a disease called shidafon."
That year, everyone planted by the second rain (because they remembered from the previous year that only the chassid’s crops, planted at the second rain, survived). But a disease destroyed all the crops planted that year at the second rain. The chassid planted during the first rain, and his crops flourished.
When we think about this Gemara, we understand that the chassid had terrible simanim on Rosh Hashanah. We can't imagine worse simanim! His wife was angry at him, and he slept in a cemetery! But despite the ominous signs, he became wealthy two years in a row! This is because a person's disposition and mood are even more important than the foods he eats. This chassid remained happy despite trying circumstances, and his happiness brought him success.
