DEUT397 See [[NUM302]] Numbers 24:22 takes GATES 353-5

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DEUT396 See [[LEV264]] Leviticus 18:28 spew GREENBERG 60

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DEUT391 "Let not a rich man say,' My power and the might of my right hand has gotten me this wealth' (this verse)," Yehiel ben Yekutiel, Sefer Ma'alot ha-Middot. Improvement of the Moral Virtues. Trans. Seymour Cohen, Jerusalem, Eshkol, 1968. "Let the rich person understand that it is God who gives the power to acquire wealth." Ibid, p. 252. The rich person may declare, "I am a self-made man." But, as Mark Twain said, "A self-made man is about as likely as a self-laid egg."

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DEUT395 Let not a rich man say, "My power and the might of my right hand has gotten me this wealth" (this verse). This type of talk is typical of the wicked, who flaunt their wealth which they will ultimately lose to others. Let the rich person understand that it is God who gives the power to get wealth [A paraphrase of Deuteronomy 18:8]. Therefore, let him take to heart what God has graciously given in wealth, and let him consider it as a deposit from the Creator, for this money has wings. One day a man is wealthy, possessing everything good and tomorrow he has nothing, as it is said, "Will you set your eyes upon it?" It is said, "For riches certainly make themselves wings, like an eagle that flies toward heaven" (Proverbs 23:5). Yehiel ben Yekutiel, Sefer Ma'alot ha-Middot. Improvement of the Moral Virtues Trans. Seymour Cohen, Jerusalem, Eshkol, 1968.

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DEUT394 In early 1990s, one of the great medical research exercises of modern times took place. It became known as the Nun Study.… Researchers were able to test whether their emotional state in 1930 had an effect on their health some sixty years later.… The results… were startling. The more positive emotions – – contentment, gratitude, happiness, love, and hope--the nuns [had] expressed in their [1930] autobiographical notes, the more likely they were to be alive and well sixty years later… So remarkable was this finding that it has lead, since then, to a new field of gratitude research, as well as a deepening understanding of the impact of emotions on physical health. What medicine now knows about individuals, Moses knew about nations. Gratitude – – hakarat hatov – – is at the heart of what he has to say about the Israelites and their future in the Promised Land.… This is what he warned: [verse 11-this verse]. The worst thing that could happen to them, warned Moses, would be that they would forget how they came to the land, how God had promised it to their ancestors and taken them from slavery to freedom, sustaining them during the forty years in the wilderness. This was a revolutionary idea. The nation's history, it asserted, should be engraved on people's souls and re-enacted in the annual cycle of festivals; the nation, as a nation, should never attribute its achievements to itself--"my power and the might of my own hand"--but should always ascribe its victories, indeed its very existence, to something higher than itself: God. This is a dominant theme of Deuteronomy, and it echoes throughout the book time and again.

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DEUT393 Ben Bag-Bag said: Turn and turn about in it [the Torah] for everything is in it; and within it shall you look, and grow old and gray over it; and o not stir from it; for there is no better portion for you than this. Pirkei Avot, Perek V, mishnah 25. At the very least, this is a promise of longevity: If Torah is your main concern, you will be blessed with a long life. This was already implied by Solomon, when he said of Torah, "Long life is in her right hand" (Proverbs 3:16). But note that uv'leh (turn gray), actually means to fall apart, disintegrate. Torah study does weaken a person in a certain sense, or cause him to "fall apart." People who acknowledge no Creator develop an attitude of self-sufficiency and arrogance, and claim (as Scripture puts it), "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" [this verse]. But serious, penetrating Torah study evokes an inner struggle against the slightest trace of such arrogance or notion of self-sufficiency, and it becomes a lifelong battle. So the Talmud itself attests that "Torah weakens the strength of a man" (T.B. Sanhedrin 26b). The more he learns and absorbs, the more does the Torah demand surrender of arrogance and obedience to the Divinity that permeates human existence. In this sense, Torah breaks a man's strength until uv'leh, he falls apart. ... All grow old in time. But the person whose life centers about the golf course or the night club is truly lost when, at eighty, he can no longer indulge in his pastimes. If the student immersed a lifetime in Torah is aged and enfeebled by his study, not only is his strength replaced with a spiritual supplement, but (as R. Abraham Azulai notes) his Torah makes a venerated stage of him. Growing old in his study, he can say with David the Psalmist, "If Thy Torah had not been my delight, I would have been lost in my affliction" (Psalms 119:92)--in the affliction of old age.

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DEUT392 [There are five categories of mockers]. (2) One who mocks others because he despises them for not having succeeded as he did in the acquisition of wealth and honor. And he despises the poor, not in that he imputes any imperfection to them, but in that they are despicable in his eyes. And this stems from pride, or sometimes from tranquility and an abundance of pleasure, as it is written (Tehillim 123:4): Our souls are full sated with a mockery of those who are at ease with the contempt of the proud oppressors," indicating that the tranquil ones are mockers of Israel. And sometimes in the abundance of their tranquility they mock the righteous and the prophets, as it is written (Yirmeyahu 20:7): "They all mock me." And it is written (Mishlei 17:5): "He who mocks the poor man blasphemes his Maker." That is, he who mocks the poor man because he is poor, considering him poor because of his lack of wisdom, and himself rich as a result of his wisdom, as it is written [this verse]: "My power and the might of my hand has gave me this wealth" – – such a mocker blasphemes the Blessed One, for all is the work of the Blessed One, as it is written (Mishlei 22:2): "The rich and the poor have met – – Hashem has made them all." He is, therefore, mocking the handiwork of Hashem.

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DEUT398 … with a growing knowledge of Torah, a person's confidence in his own strength and ability is weakened. An overweening sense of self-sufficiency is the worst of sins. It is the wicked person who says, "My strength and the power of my hand have gotten me all this wealth" [this verse]. The man of Torah, however, realizes how much the human being is in the hands of the Creator of all things, dependent on His grace. As his knowledge of Torah grows, a person cannot overrate human power and wisdom.

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DEUT400 One should not think that his livelihood depends on a particular source and that, if that source were to fail, there would be no other way for him to earn a living. Rather he should rely on God for his sustenance and realize that to the Creator all the means are equal--He will support him by whatever means and at any time and from whatever elements He wishes, as Scripture says: “For nothing can prevent God from saving, whether by many or by few” (Shemuel I, 14:6); “It is Hashem your God who gives you the power to become prosperous” (Devarim 8:18); “‘Not by might and not by power, but by My spirit,’ said God of Hosts” (Zecharyah 4:6).

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DEUT399 And one must trust in the Blessed God to give him prosperity in his work and his affairs and not trust in his labors and exertions themselves, but regard them rather as a means of deriving his sustenance from the Blessed God. This is comparable to a man's splitting wood with an axe. Though it is the axe which splits the wood, the power does not come from the blade but from the man who wields it to split the wood, the blade being merely the instrument of cutting. If a man has a certain occupation or a certain business by which he provides for his family, let him not think: If not for that occupation I would be lost; but let him trust in the Blessed Creator and think that if he did not have this manner of gaining a livelihood, the Blessed Creator would provide for him in some other way. For all that he does and the satisfaction of his needs are in the hands of God, and Hashem has many messengers, as it is written (I Shemuel 14:6): "For there is no restraint upon Hashem to save by many or by few," and [this verse]: " For it is He who gives you the power to succeed," and (Zechariah 4:6): "Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says Hashem of Hosts."

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