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Shemoneh Esrei:
Rabbi Zev Leff of Moshav Mattisiyahu on Jewish Prayer: An essential book on the Jewish Prayer of Shemoneh Esrei that elucidates Shemoneh Esrei's 18 berachot, exploring the core Jewish beliefs of this Jewish prayer.
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BIRKAS HASHANIM
The Ninth Berachah
I. The Blessing of Livelihood
After we have prayed for physical health, we now pray for livelihood.
In the ninth berachah of Shemoneh Esrei we ask Hashem to bless our year and its produce and to satiate us with His goodness. That is why this berachah is called Birkas HaShanim, the Blessing of the Years, or Birkas HaParnasah, the Blessing of Livelihood.
The Telzer Rosh Yeshivah, in Shiurei Da’as (Nissim V’Teva 1), explains that just as we see that the physical world functions in an orderly fashion, in which Hashem provided various physical causes that result in specific physical effects, so, too, there is a spiritual side of nature that is no less orderly. And just as altering that physical cause-effect relationship requires nothing less than a miracle, spiritual causes are no less effective in producing their results, and altering their consequences is no less miraculous.
Even more, every physical reaction has a spiritual counterpart, and every physical effect has its parallel spiritual effect. Thus, the Ari, z”l, explains that every physical morsel of food that nourishes the body contains a divine spark that nourishes the soul: “Lo al halechem levado yichyeh ha’adam — Man does not live by bread alone” (Devarim 8:3). The material attainment of one’s parnasah must always be coupled with its spiritual counterpart in order to be effective.
Had it not been for the sin of Adam and Chavah, the physical aspect of our livelihood would have been provided without great effort, just as Adam and Chavah were given the fruits of Gan Eden. The fruits provided their physical and spiritual nourishment, requiring only minimal involvement by Adam and Chavah in working and guarding the garden.
The curse embodied in “B’zei’as apecha tochlu lechem - By the sweat of your nostrils you will eat bread” (Bereishis 3:19) signified a corrective measure needed to compensate for man’s lack of appreciation of his livelihood and of life itself.
Chazal say (Kiddushin 82a) that if animals, who were created to serve man, are provided with food and shelter without the need to work and toil in securing them, then surely man, who was created to serve Hashem, should be so provided. Yet we have been denied an easy livelihood. This is because our physical and natural needs are provided for us to use for spiritual goals.
When we fail to recognize and appreciate those spiritual goals, we must toil to attain our physical and material needs, so that we will better appreciate the life that they are sustaining. That which comes easily is often taken for granted, while that which is earned with toil is more appreciated and valued.
In this light, we do not “make a living.” Rather, we put in the effort and toil to earn, or merit, the living that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has already prepared for us. A person’s parnasah, literally his food supply, is already determined and fixed on Rosh HaShanah. Yet the manner in which he will receive it, or fail to receive it, depends on his efforts in toiling to earn it.
In addition, whether the material components of our life will be a positive factor or, G-d forbid, a negative factor in our life depends on the spiritual berachah that G-d introduces into those physical and material components. Hence, we invoke G-d’s blessing before we eat and after we eat.
According to most opinions, the berachah we recite before eating is rabbinic, while the berachah after eating is mandated by the Torah.
At first glance, it would appear that it should be just the opposite. We need to invoke G-d’s blessing more when we are hungry than after we have been sated. However, in truth, securing material sustenance is not the main effort that is required of us. Rather, it is recognizing the purpose and goals of that sustenance.
When one is hungry, he more or less recognizes his dependency on Hashem and realizes where his parnasah must come from. At that point the need for a berachah to make one aware of this is not so crucial, and so the berachah before eating is merely of rabbinic origin. The berachah just focuses one’s attention on the fact that G-d provides sustenance and expresses one’s acknowledgment and gratitude for this.
However, once one has secured his sustenance and has been sated, he tends to forget his dependence on Hashem. He tends to think that he can exist on his own, as the verse intimates: “The Jewish people became fat and then kicked and rebelled against Hashem, thinking that they were self-sufficient” (Devarim 32:15).
It is precisely after a satisfying meal on a full stomach that one must bentch, remembering both from where his sustenance came and for what purpose it was given. Thus, the berachah after eating is a Torah mandate.
The first of the three Torah blessings of bentching remind us who it is who sustains us and everything else in creation. The next two blessings remind us for what spiritual purposes G-d provides this physical sustenance: to fulfill our bris with Him through Torah and Eretz Yisrael, to establish the kingdom of the House of David, and to build the Beis HaMikdash in Yerushalayim, which is expressed in the living mikdash of G-d’s presence in the heart of every Jew. It is precisely this berachah of physical recognition and awareness that must accompany our material sustenance. Thus we say a blessing to Hashem for providing our livelihood, and thus we invoke His spiritual berachah to transform that livelihood into a meaningful living and not a mere physical existence.
II. As Difficult as Splitting the Sea
Earning a livelihood is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea, (Pesachim 118), as we see from the close proximity of the verse “To He who divides the Red Sea into divisions, for His kindness endures forever” (Tehillim 130:13) with “He who gives bread to all flesh, for His kindness endures forever” (ibid., 25).
The commentators question the Gemara’s statement that the verses “V’gozer Yam Suf ligezarim” and “Nosein lechem l’chol basar” - “He who divides the Red Sea into divisions” and “He who gives bread to all flesh” - are in such close proximity as to justify such a connection, when they are separated by twelve verses.
The answer is that the twenty-six verses of this chapter in Tehillim represent the Ineffable Name of Hashem, whose numerical value is twenty-six. The first ten verses correspond to the yud of that Name, the next five to the first hei, the next six to the vav, and the final five to the final hei. The verse “V’gozer Yam Suf ligezarim” is the third verse in the verses corresponding to the first hei, and the verse “Nosein lechem l’chol basar” is the fourth verse in those corresponding to the final hei. Hence, we see a close connection between the two.
There are various explanations given for comparing the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea with earning a living. The sefer Asarah L’Me’ah bases its explanation on the midrash that states that B'nei Yisrael were in no real danger prior to the splitting of the sea (Shemos Rabbah 21:5). Rather, HaKadosh Baruch Hu put them into a state of perceived danger in order that they should turn to Him in sincere and earnest prayer.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu desires the prayer of tzaddikim, since it enhances their spiritual development. Similarly, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has prepared everyone’s livelihood in advance. However, at times it appears that one’s means of support elude him and his situation is desperate. The urgency is merely perceived and not real. It is there to encourage a person to seek Hashem’s aid through tefillah.
Rashi teaches us a similar lesson concerning the purpose of the rain cycle. HaKadosh Baruch Hu created the need for rain in trees and vegetation so that people would recognize its benefits and pray for it (see Rashi, Bereishis 2:5). Therefore, the key to one’s livelihood, as well as the key to rain, are reserved for HaKadosh Baruch Hu and not given over to any agent or secondary causes. This ensures that it is clear that one’s livelihood, like the rain, emanates directly from G-d and is not the result of natural causes, as the Mishnah says:
There is no profession that does not have in it those who are poor and those who are rich, for poverty does not come from the occupation, nor does wealth come from the occupation. Everything comes according to one’s merit.(Kiddushin 82a)
The Chafetz Chaim gives the following analogy: A person carrying a heavy load on his shoulder is offered a ride on a wagon. As the wagon pulls out, the driver notices that his passenger is still holding his load on his shoulder. When the driver questions this unusual conduct, the passenger replies: “You were so kind to carry me in the wagon. I would not think of making you carry my package also.”
The Gemara says, “He who gives life gives sustenance” (Ta’anis 8b). If G-d provides a person with the very basics of life and keeps all the systems of his body functioning every second, can He not also provide livelihood without our help? Thus, we do not “make” a living - we receive our livelihood from HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Developing the analogy further, the splitting of the Red Sea was ordained from Creation. However, the Jews had to travel to get to the sea. So, too, although one’s livelihood is preordained, one must make an effort in order to receive it. This is necessary for two reasons.
First, because of the curse of Adam HaRishon, that he would eat bread by the sweat of his brow. This was a corrective measure for showing a lack of awareness that his physical existence was meant to promote eternal life. As a consequence, securing his physical sustenance was made more difficult in order to enhance the appreciation of its importance.
Second, effort is necessary in order to give the appearance that one’s livelihood comes in a natural way. G-d avoids performing miracles so as not to give the impression that the natural order which He recreates every moment is imperfect and needs to be rectified and adjusted in supernatural ways.
This is only to avoid a mistaken perception. In reality, all miracles are part of a natural order preordained from Creation, and all nature is the hand of G-d exercised in an orderly fashion. Nature is miracles that occur consistently, and miracles are nature that occurs infrequently.
The purpose of this natural order is to hide G-d’s hand and give us the opportunity to discover G-d’s presence on our own by exercising our free will. The realization that one does not make or earn his livelihood, but rather receives it from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, changes the manner in which one goes about securing his livelihood.
The Midrash comments (Bemidbar Rabbah 22:6) that there are three gifts that HaKadosh Baruch Hu created and bestowed upon the world: wisdom, power, and wealth. One who merits any one of them possesses all that is precious in this world. When is this true? asks the Midrash. When these are divine presents that come from HaKadosh Baruch Hu. When these presents do not come from G-d, when they are obtained in the wrong manner, they will eventually be lost. These gifts, explains the Midrash, are valuable when they are divinely given and not grabbed.
The intent of this midrash is not to imply that wisdom, power, or riches can be either divinely ordained or humanly attained. Everything of this nature is divinely ordained (Niddah 16b). Rather, the midrash means that the value of these gifts is dependent upon our perception of them. If one recognizes that his wisdom, power, or wealth is a divine gift, then he merits that it will be preserved, and he will reap immense benefit from this heavenly gift. But if one thinks that his attainment of wisdom, power, or wealth are through his own prowess, if he thinks that he has grabbed these attainments himself, then he is left with nothing of importance.
If these presents are divine presents, then one must use them in service of the divine. And if one abuses these presents, then obviously his perception is other than that of a divine gift. When one fails to recognize the source of one’s wisdom, power, and wealth, and therefore abuses these gifts and utilizes them, not as expressions of divine assistance to one’s divine service, but rather as intrinsic values and powers in themselves, as expressions of one’s might and the power of his hands, then these gifts are rescinded.
In this respect, too, parallels can be drawn to the splitting of the sea. The Egyptians saw the sea split for Bnei Yisrael and assumed that it would remain so for them also. They didn’t realize that what was salvation for the Jews was the source of their destruction. So, too, one should not mimic methods of parnasah that were successful for others, thinking that they will be similarly successful for oneself. It is not the occupation that provides security, and what effects one man’s success can be the cause of another’s ruin.
When the angel of Egypt complained that both the Jew and the Egyptian were idol worshipers, this argument could not save the Egyptians. The angel presented it as a means of preventing the salvation of the Jews. Similarly, it is often not one’s personal lack of parnasah that irks him, but rather the fact that someone else has more. This is a sad fact of life - that many people would rather see another do without, even if their own situation would not be bettered. The sea was split into twelve separate paths to teach us that each individual salvation is independent of another’s and one should not be jealous or begrudge another his success.
Rav Yeshayah Pinto, in his commentary to Ein Yaakov, adds a further dimension to this analogy. Just as we were saved at the sea even though we, too, had been idol worshipers, so HaKadosh Baruch Hu sometimes provides parnasah even when it is undeserved. He provides it as an advance for future merit that one will accrue by utilizing the life and material possessions he was given in the service of Hashem.
Furthermore, the Sha’ar Bas Rabim points out that Hashem split the Red Sea knowing that Bnei Yisrael would utilize the riches generated by its spoils to make the golden calf. Hashem does not deny one his livelihood, even if He knows that the individual will eventually use it in a negative fashion. G-d provides us with the ability to exercise free will, even though it is difficult for Him, so to speak, to see us choose to use this bounty in a detrimental manner.
When Hashem furnishes a person with his material needs, He takes the risk that one will think that it was his own power and wisdom that brought about the success. Furthermore, he may get so involved in making a living that he will neglect his real purpose in life and compromise his observance of mitzvos, Torah study, and his tefillah in order to devote all his energy to earning a livelihood.
The Maharal explains the miracles of splitting of the sea as the dividing of a physical entity into two by introduction of a spiritual force. Earning a livelihood also involves a delicate balance between hishtadlus, physical and material effort in securing one’s livelihood, and the trust in the fact that one’s support comes directly from Hashem.
Furthermore, the splitting of the sea for Bnei Yisrael and the subsequent drowning of the Egyptians signified that G-d provides the terra firma upon which one establishes his existence in this world. When one merits it, that base is expanded even to previously uninhabited areas. But when one acts improperly in this world, then the very basis of his existence can be removed from beneath him.