כמס שפורעEffort as a Tax

ke-mas she-pore'aIn Gamatria ↗

Effort is a tax; the income comes from above.

Piety is acquired by long contemplation. Dwelling on God's greatness and our lowness fills a person with awe. Dwelling on His kindness and His love for Israel kindles love, and a wish to repay Him as a son repays a father. The Psalms help, and so do the stories of the pious in the aggadah. What spoils piety is worry and distraction, and pleasures most of all. The remedy is trust. A person's food is allotted from Rosh Hashanah (Beitzah 16a), and no one touches what is prepared for another by a hair's breadth (Yoma 38b). One must still work, because of Adam's sentence, 'by the sweat of your brow.' But that effort is a tax the whole human race pays, not the source of income. The early pious made Torah primary and work secondary, and both prospered.

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