The first of the Yud Gimmel Ikrim שהבורא יתברך שמו עשה ועושה ויעשה לכל המעשים not only encapsulates such a fundamental belief in and about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but it also dictates an attitude towards life. Emuna dictates that life is something purposeful. The world isn't here, nor are we here accidentally, not because of some random collision of atoms. The world is here because of purposeful action on the part of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and that endows life with meaning, and it means that life is purposeful. That basic religious conviction that life, that existence is purposeful, is meaningful, translates into a mandate that every maamin shares, which is to live as productively and as meaningfully as possible. It's what makes time so precious and so valuable. Yakarus hazman is again a natural corollary to the ikar that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world because life is meaningful, life is purposeful, so then every moment represents opportunity, opportunity to be maximized b'ezras Hashem. One of the decisions which looms large in this context is the choice of career. When a person chooses a career, just by virtue of the amount of time it will occupy, it's obviously a very important component of one's path in life. So the choice of career should reflect this basic value, this mandate to live as purposefully and as meaningfully as possible. The Rambam writes in a teshuva, there's a famous teshuva from the Rambam where he was asked about listening to Arabic music. So the Rambam lists off all the issurim that he thinks it entails, without the lyrics, with the lyrics. And then he says at the end, and in general he says you should know that Klal Yisrael are charged to be a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. And what does it mean to be a goy kadosh? So kedusha means when something is hekdesh, what does it mean if something is hekdesh? It means it's consecrated. It means that everything about it is devoted and dedicated to a usually we intend a single higher or highest purpose. Though semantically it just means that it's dedicated. You find in Chazal the לשון הקדש לעבודה זרה, because the lashon hekdesh just etymologically means something which is devoted, something which is dedicated, something which is consecrated. And that's where the Rambam says in addition to everything else, it's just nonsense. In addition to all the issurim he says, it's just nonsense. It's just not consonant with the life of a goy kadosh, with the way members of a goy kadosh spend their time. So we have to try to live as meaningfully, as purposefully as possible. And again, the the choice of a career is a very important component. Making hishtadlus for parnassa is in and of itself something valuable and something meaningful. We're supposed to do that. If the kochos hanefesh which the Ribono Shel Olam endowed within a person allow him to simultaneously make hishtadlus for parnassa and also do something which is beyond that intrinsically meaningful, be it chinuch, rabbanus, something of that ilk, so then clearly for that person that's going to be the most meaningful way to spend his time. Now, it's true that almost by definition hishtadlus implies a degree of practicality, because hishtadlus means that a person as it were provides a natural channel. Ribono Shel Olam likes to operate behind the scenes, so a person provides a camouflage, provides a cover for the Ribono Shel Olam that He can be operating behind the scenes. So it's not—it's not hishtadlus to—to buy a lottery ticket. That's not. There is a degree of practicality which is implied by the very notion of hishtadlus. But if hishtadlus means again to be practical, it also means not to be too practical. A person can be too practical. Let's say that a person upon introspection has an accurate self-perception and accurately senses and recognizes that he has the kochos hanefesh to really accomplish very meaningful things in chinuch. But ella mah, the numbers don't always add up. When you sit down and you talk to an accountant, the numbers don't really work out. You put the expenses on one side, you put the salary on the other side, and somehow or other, I don't know, there's a Nobel Prize in economics waiting for someone who figures out exactly how those numbers—how those numbers work out. The numbers don't exactly work out. But that's—that already is being too practical. L'maiseh, avada a person is gainfully employed or is looking towards that in chinuch or the like. I mention that as an example. Again, hishtadlus means to be practical. But when a person is too practical, when a person is providing for every last detail, a person has everything planned out to every last detail, every T is crossed and every—every—I'm a little partial to that—every T is crossed and every I is dotted, so that already is not excelling in hishtadlus, it begins to encroach upon middas habitachon. השלך על השם יהבך. Ribono Shel Olam will figure out. If a person really is cut out for it, it's hishtadlus, it's hishtadlus, it's hishtadlus. It pays a salary. One can imagine scenarios how the Ribono Shel Olam supplements. One doesn't have to figure it out to the, again, to the most minute detail. It's also true—it's also true that some people don't find their niche in chinuch. It's true. Some people go into chinuch and they don't find their niche in chinuch. Chinuch is not the only field in which it happens, it happens in other fields also, but chinuch is not immune to that. But again, if a person upon introspection, upon reflection, again with accurate self-perception recognizes that he has the kochos hanefesh To be able to do and accomplish meaningful things, a person is not supposed to בהדי כבשי דרחמנא למה לך. A person has to know what what he's supposed to try to do. If for some reason he miscalculated, for some reason the Ribbono Shel Olam wants to reboot him, the Ribbono Shel Olam will reboot him. But to be deterred initially because we know that some people don't find don't find their niche is that's already being overly practical. That's not that's not fulfilling a chovas hishtadlus, that already is crossing the line and and detracting from middas habitachon. It's by no means the case by no means the case that everyone is intended to or that everyone should go into chinuch or rabbanus. Who's gonna listen to all the drashos? If everyone's giving all the drashos, someone's gotta listen to the drashos. And it's absolutely not the case, a person is supposed to do what the Ribbono Shel Olam gave him the kochos hanefesh to do, and and everyone is equally equally first-class citizen for doing that. There's a mishna מניח אני כל אומניות שבעולם ואיני מלמד בני אלא תורה
and there's also a mishna יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ. As long as a person is is true to the kochos hanefesh the Ribbono Shel Olam gave him, he's a first-class citizen. But there is kemedumeh a certain mistake which has somehow or rather insinuated itself into our our consciousness. And that is, I think consciously or maybe unconsciously, there's a certain assumption that there are different expectations or different standards in terms of mitzvas talmud torah depending upon whether a person is vocationally involved with talmud torah or only involved with talmud torah by avocation, not not by vocation. To a degree, I guess that's true. To a degree, if if the fact that one is only involved in talmud torah by avocation means there's fewer hours, so then to a degree yes, it it will impact mitzvas talmud torah. But on another level, so this is a very, very basic error. Maybe the Ribbono Shel Olam wired a person that that he should be involved with talmud torah again in some form or fashion vocationally. Maybe the Ribbono Shel Olam wired a person that that his that the contribution he's supposed to make vocationally lies elsewhere. But either way, a person has a chiyuv of velimadetem osam. Either way, the person has a chiyuv of veshinantam levanecha. Either way, a person has to have she'ifos in talmud torah. Whether vocationally, whether whether he's a melamed vocationally, or whether any other of the umniyos kalos unekiyos. Either way, mitzvas talmud torah doesn't doesn't distinguish. Mitzvas talmud torah doesn't distinguish either way. In terms of the expectation of having she'ifos and the expectation of of trying to devise a a personalized plan to realize those she'ifos, so there the expectations are the same. It's not that once a person albeit correctly decides that lo lechach nitzarti to be involved with talmud torah vocationally. That doesn't, that doesn't in any way detract from the mishna that a person should aspire to lammuda torah harbe ki lechach notzarta. Mitzvas Talmud Torah isn't synonymous with Talmud Torah in some form being one's vocation. The she'ifas, the she'ifas have to be realistic. Everyone has their own, their own set of abilities. Some people have a quick tfisa, some people it takes longer, some people have a better memory and probably don't need to chazer as many times, as often, and some people need to chazer a few extra times. The she'ifas have to be realistic, they have to be individualized, but every one of us should have she'ifas in Talmud Torah. And to the extent, again, that it's realistic and appropriate, in kol chelkei hatorah, in kol chelkei hatorah. It's obviously not good to be an idle dreamer and, and we're not encouraged to engage in idle dreaming. But if there are no she'ifas, so then that guarantees that, that there won't be impressive accomplishments. Naturally, naturally, the Ribono Shel Olam implanted within us the koach, the netiya to be sho'ef. When Kohelis says that אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף and the Medrash comments and אוהב מצוות לא ישבע מצוות, a person is sho'ef. A person is sho'ef. Okay, he has to direct the she'ifa, he has to channel the she'ifa. But a person naturally is, is sho'ef. That's what the pasuk means, that ohev, okay, so if it's ohev kesef it will be lo yisba kesef, if it's ohev mitzvos it will be lo yisba mitzvos, because a person is always sho'ef. That's what it means. One of the Chachmei Umos HaOlam said very well, he said, why is it, he says, when you, you meet young people, so they'll, they'll tell you about their dreams for the future, and when you meet older people, they reminisce about the past. The teretz is because the present doesn't, doesn't contain anyone. So when, at your stage of life, take advantage of it, at your stage of life, so the way that, again, that, that, that basic, basic element of the human personality to be sho'ef, the way, the way it can and should express itself is through dreams and plans for what one will accomplish. As a person gets older, that becomes less and less realistic, and then the same basic element of the human personality, so a person sort of broadens the lens by reminiscing about the past as well. But it's a basic, basic—and that's, and again, Koheles taught it—it's a basic element of the human personality. And it's very, very important that for all of us, regardless of what the decision and the direction is vocationally, that we have those sheifis avodas Hashem bichlal, Talmud Torah bifrat, and then the plan of how be'ezras Hashem to realize them.