So, I was looking online for Rabbenu’s Parable of where we ‘work for free’ and ‘eat for free’.

That search brought me to Wikisource page, where there is a ton of new Breslov stuff that I haven’t read myself before, in both the original Hebrew / Yiddish with a passable English translation.

You can see that site HERE:

It’s called: Kuntres haHosafoth, in English ‘the Pamphlet of Additions’.

I will cover some of the really interesting stuff about R’ Simcha and R Yehiel Michel of Zlotchov in a future post. For now, here is the full story of ‘we work for free’ and we ‘eat for free’, with my comments at the end.

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Regarding the nonsense of needless toil for livelihood, Rabbeinu z”l said in these words:

This is a big secret in the world: You eat for free, you also work for free (Es iz a groyse sod in der velt: men est umzist un me arbet umzist).

And he told the following story about this: There was a mighty charitable man, one who hosted wayfarers (he was particular in the mitzvah of hospitality), and whoever entered his home, their every request was filled: food, drink, sleep, everything like a king, cheerfully.

And because of this all people knew of him, and everyone went to him and would leave with their desires satisfied.

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Not far from him lived also a very rich man, but a very stingy, who gave not even a slice of bread to a poor man.

One time a poor man — who had not eaten several days — heard about this rich man and his big generous heart, so he pounded the pavement to get to him to revive his hungry lifeforce, but “batar `anya azla `anyutha” (a mountain of poverty follows the poor man), for it so happened he came specifically to the house of this stingy rich man.

But he thought he’s the aforementioned rich man, and he started bowing knee to him with pleading and begging and all kinds of respectful expressions etc.:

“Aren’t you the great charitable man whose generosity of heart is inestimable” etc. etc., so that he would give him food.

And this stingy man was surprised by this, and understood the poor man thought he’s the charitable one, and told him:

“It’s true, I want to give you food, but first do a little work, then they’ll let you eat.

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He started doing several kinds of work for him, cutting down wood or drawing water.

He worked for him several hours till he got quite worn out, then he showed him the aforementioned charitable man’s house and told him to go there and there they’ll feed him.

And he thought it’s the house of the charitable man whom he’d been serving, that after he worked for him, at the other house is where they’ll feed him.

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As soon as he entered, servants greeted him, took him and washed him, and immediately brought a table with all kinds of food and tasties, all with great respect, like a servant to his master.

In the middle of the meal he said, “It’s true I worked and toiled hard, but this is worth it!” (Emes take zikh angeharevet, ober es iz keday.) The charitable rich man said to him,

“My dear beloved, where did you toil? Behold, you didn’t work by me!? (Mayn guter froynd, vi hat ir zikh angeharevet? Bay mir hat ir dokh nit geharevet?)

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He told his about the rich man who worked him.

He told him,” You worked for nothing, and also you eat for nothing. Where you worked you didn’t eat, and where you eat you did not work. 

(Yedidi ir hat ge’arvet umzist, un ir est umzist, dart vu ir hat ge’arvet hat ir nit gegesen, un dart vu ir est hat ir nit ge’arbet).

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Rabbeinu z”l concluded: Poeple work for nothing, and and they eat for nothing.

Where they work they don’t eat, and where they eat they don’t work. (Men arbet umzist, un men est umzist. Dart vu men arbet est men nit, un dart vu men est arbet men nit.)

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The parable is this:

Man, for his livelihood or other needs, he toils and works in that which he thinks his livelihood or other needs depends on.

But really it’s as mentioned above; all is from Hashem Yithbarakh, and when the time comes (or when he accomplishes by his prayer or trust), then anyway it comes easily to his mouth, literally.

And when he’s a fool and works with all his strength and toil, it’s all for nothing, for the work doesn’t help him at all, because where he works, in that place he doesn’t eat (varum dart vu er arbet, est er nit), for nothing comes from it (varum es lazt zikh gar nit oys darfun acharey kol ha`avodah), and if he didn’t work, he’d also be given (for the giver, by him no work is needed), and like written in the Zohar (Num. 11″8): “Shattu ha`am welaketu/ The people went about and gathered it” — in shetut, folly, meaning with the mann (Manna) there were great men of faith and trust who didn’t toil at all for the mann, it just fell in their mouths; and people lacking emunah, toiled and collected all day, and in the end there was only an “`Omer per head (Ex. 16:16), like the one who didn’t toil.

And it’s brought in the books, that even now it’s the same regarding livelihood, that according to what’s allotted for a man to prosper that’s what he’ll prosper, whether he does oppressive work all day or doesn’t work, rather for a trivial reason Hashem Yithbarakh summons him his livelihood.

And whoever has strong and courageous trust in H’ and does not want to decease from serving Hashem Yithbarakh at all, and holds firm in faith and trust that Hashem Yithbarakh will sustain him, and is resolved to stand in all kinds of trials in this — definitely Hashem Yithbarakh will finish for him according to his will.

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Like we see, that one can sit all day in a store and sell nothing, and when the time comes, in a quarter hour he profits for the whole time.

This is also how it usually goes, that when one needs something, and toils for this by someone by whom he thinks he’ll attain it, and in the end nothing comes out of it (lazt zikh oys gar it) and he worked for nothing, and Hashem Yithbarakh helps him from a different place, from somewhere he didn’t expect and didn’t occur to him at all that from that place his salvation would come to him (un Hashem Yitbarakh helft im fun ayn ander art, vas er har gor nit ayngefalen az fun dart ken kumen zayn yeshua).

So may Hashem Yithbarakh save us soon! Amen so be His will.

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Ad kan, from Rabbenu, Rebbe Nachman.

How does this tally, with what I wrote yesterday, that we can’t just ‘use emuna’ as an excuse to do nothing?

(I’d like to invite you to consider this for yourself, maybe do some hitbodedut yourself, to understand the specific message made specifically for you…)

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For me, this is the message I take away from the above parable:

God created a world, where we have to act, we have to ‘do’, we have to pray, we can’t just sit there surfing, or staying paralysed and miserable in bed all day.

We have to eat.

We have to breathe.

We have to drink.

We have to do mitzvoth, and most mitzvoth require some material aspect, some cash.

And those mitzvoth definitely include caring for spouses and children, putting food on the table and roof over the head.

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If someone wants to pretend that ‘the strength and might of their right hand’ is what made them their money, or got them their stuff, and they think it didn’t get given to them from Hashem – that is totally not the case. It’s all from Hashem.

However, on the other side of the equation, there are people who think they are on the spiritual level of just sitting somewhere doing six hours of hitbodedut a day for food to appear on their table, instead of doing some basic hishtadlut about ‘getting real’, and really checking themselves very, very carefully, if they aren’t just using ’emuna’ as an avoidance crutch to avoid dealing with their own responsibilities.

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For the people who genuinely are at this level of trust and bitachon – God will send whatever they need, straight to them.

But, that doesn’t mean ‘riches’.

It means, ‘enough to eat’, and hopefully, also ‘a place to live’.

And often, not much more.

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BTW, there is a whole discussion in the Gemara about the level of trust required to be receiving sustenance like this, and it boils down to someone who is at the level of the RASHBI.

If that’s not you, then you have to create more of a gashmi vessel to catch Hashem’s bounty.

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Rav Berland recently explained, that the reason people can’t ‘catch’ all the bounty God is sending down to all of us, all the time, 24/7, is because their bad middot are making holes in the vessel.

Anger…lewdness…jealousy…hakpada – self-righteous anger about other people’s ‘imperfections’…holding grudges…worry and anxiety…sadness and depression…playing ‘fake’ and not being your true self…

All these things are making holes in the vessel.

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That’s also something Rabbenu hints too, above, when he says this:

A mountain of poverty follows the poor man

What’s really making that guy poor?

His bad middot.

His belief, that he can’t spend the million bucks he’s got tucked away in the bank, ever, so he has to stay ‘poor’. in his actual, real life.

It’s his mindset, his ‘bad attitude’, his false emuna, that he’s already on the level of the RASHBI…

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Really?

God wants to shower abundance down on every single one of us, once we have our priorities right, spiritually, and we fix the holes in our vessel.

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Last thing: so why do so many yucky people seem to have so much money etc, in this world?

There are two answers to this, that I can think of – feel free to share more, if you have them.

1. Evildoers get paid out in this world for any good deeds that they do.
2. Money is actually a curse.

If you see how people with money act – entitled, fussy, full of bad middot, pride and unrealistic expectations of what they world ‘owes them’ – you understand very quickly, it’s not a blessing.

Always more to say, but we’ll stop there for now.

Shabbat shalom.

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PS:  I read the article now, that one of the commentators put in the comments section yesterday:

https://www.shuvubanimint.com/en/blog/parshas-shoftim-the-secret-to-overcoming-fears-through-the-power-of-emunah-faith

It resolves a lot of the things being discussed here, as the Rav somehow manages to do so many times.

Highly recommend reading it.