Back in late November/early December, when we were still in chapter 1, on page 91 in sefer Ben Melech, long before we took up the challenge to our understanding of the place of davening within hishtadlus that we faced on page 109, Ariel raised the point that tefila is also hishtadlus.
This is evident from the Mishna and Gemara at the end of Kiddushin (82a) cited in Ben Melech on page 100. In the Mishna we are taught,
This is evident from the Mishna and Gemara at the end of Kiddushin (82a) cited in Ben Melech on page 100. In the Mishna we are taught,
רבי מאיר אומר לעולם ילמד אדם את בנו אומנות נקיה וקלה ויתפלל למי שהעושר והנכסים שלו שאין אומנות שאין בה עניות ועשירות שלא עניות מן האומנות ולא עשירות מן האומנות אלא הכל לפי זכותו
R. Meir said: One should always teach his son a clean and easy craft and pray to Him to whom all wealth and property belong. Every craft/trade can bring poverty or wealth, for neither poverty or wealth is due to the craft/trade, rather it all depends on a person's zechus (merit).
While in the Gemara on this Mishna we are taught a Baraisa that,
While in the Gemara on this Mishna we are taught a Baraisa that,
ר"מ אומר לעולם ילמד אדם לבנו אומנות נקיה וקלה ויבקש רחמים למי שהעושר והנכסים שלו שאין עניות מן האומנות ואין עשירות מן האומנות אלא למי שהעושר שלו שנאמר (חגי ב, ח) לי הכסף ולי הזהב ...
R. Meir said: One should always teach his son a clean and easy craft, and appeal for compassion from Him to Whom [all] wealth and property belong, for neither poverty nor wealth comes from one's calling, but from Him to whom wealth and property belong, as it is said: The silver is mine, and the gold is mine... (Chaggai 2:8).
Clearly, from both the Mishna's way of phrasing it as, ...AND pray to Him..., as well as the Gemara's way of phrasing it as, ...AND appeal for compassion..., it is clear that davening is an integral part of how we should do our hishtadlus.
It is equally clear from the Gemara in Nidda (70b) cited in Ben Melech at the top of page 97 that davening is an integral part of hishtadlus.The Gemara there relates a series of questions asked by the Men of Alexandria to R. Yehoshua. One of the questions was, what should one do in order to grow wealthy? R. Yehoshua answered that he should put much effort into commerce and deal honestly (Ed. Chazal understood that to 'deal honestly' is a way of attaining success in business b'darko shel olam). The Men of Alexandria challenged R. Yehoshua that many did so and they came up empty handed. R. Yehoshua replied that, rather, let him pray for compassion from Him, to whom belongs all riches, as it says, "Mine is the silver, and Mine the gold" (Chaggai 2:8). To which the Gemara asks, that if it all dependent upon beseeching HKBH for wealth, why did R. Yehoshua mention that the person should put much effort into commerce? The Gemara answers, to teach us, that one without the other is not sufficient to ensure the success of your hishtadlus efforts..
Additionally, it is also clear from the Gemara in Nidda that there are two separate channels in which hishtadlus must be done.
1) in the realm of teva - "put much effort into commerce and deal honestly"
2) in the realm of ruchniyus - where by deepening your relationship with HKBH, you will have the zechuyos to merit that the hanhagas Hashem/hashgacha pratis will bring your hishtadlus b'darko shel olam, aka. teva to fruition - "let him pray for compassion from Him..."
We have learned that if you don't do hishtadlus of the first (teva) type, you are contravening the ratzon Hashem and by right, you should not succeed. By not doing the proper hishtadlus, you have either, not created the receptacle to accept what HKBH what HKBH has decided to grant; or not created the pipeline through which HKBH will send what He wants to bestow upon you. As we have described it, you don't have a spoon with which to eat the soup. Based on what we've learned, you will probably only see success if HKBH has decided that "no ifs, ands or buts", you will receive what you anticipate getting (even without your proper hishtadlus. When the desired outcome is extremely basic to a person's needs, the possibility grows that HKBH will decree that the person should have the desired outcome, because that is the benevolence that HKBH bestows on all of His creations. We have also pointed out, that the more that the desired outcome moves beyond a person's basic core needs, the likelihood is greater that your success has more to do with what you will do with this success for someone else, than the success has to do with you, because you are flouting the ratzon HaShem and should by right, not have the zechus to merit this successful outcome on your own.
But what if we don't do the second ruchniyus/tefila type of hishtadlus?
It would seem that if you did the proper hishtadlus of the first (teva) kind, hishtadlus that should by nature bring success, there is a good chance that you will succeed, even without the second ruchniyus/tefila type of hishtadlus. The reason for this would be, that regardless of whether you intended to or not, you have done the ratzon HaShem, by doing hishtadlus b'darko shel olam. In addition, by doing so, you have created the receptacle that is poised to receive what HKBH is bestowing upon you (or created the pipeline through which HKBH will send what He wants to bestow upon you). The obvious exception would be where your zechuyos (merits) have suddenly taken a tumble and you have lost the zechus (merit) needed to have HKBH decree that your efforts will meet with success. Another exception being where the success is such, that by its very nature, from the very beginning, needed more zechusim than the person had in his account and by neglecting the ruchniyus element in the hishtadlus equation (e.g. davening), the person failed to reach the level of zechusim needed to have HKBH decree success upon his hishtadlus endeavor.
Clearly, from both the Mishna's way of phrasing it as, ...AND pray to Him..., as well as the Gemara's way of phrasing it as, ...AND appeal for compassion..., it is clear that davening is an integral part of how we should do our hishtadlus.
It is equally clear from the Gemara in Nidda (70b) cited in Ben Melech at the top of page 97 that davening is an integral part of hishtadlus.The Gemara there relates a series of questions asked by the Men of Alexandria to R. Yehoshua. One of the questions was, what should one do in order to grow wealthy? R. Yehoshua answered that he should put much effort into commerce and deal honestly (Ed. Chazal understood that to 'deal honestly' is a way of attaining success in business b'darko shel olam). The Men of Alexandria challenged R. Yehoshua that many did so and they came up empty handed. R. Yehoshua replied that, rather, let him pray for compassion from Him, to whom belongs all riches, as it says, "Mine is the silver, and Mine the gold" (Chaggai 2:8). To which the Gemara asks, that if it all dependent upon beseeching HKBH for wealth, why did R. Yehoshua mention that the person should put much effort into commerce? The Gemara answers, to teach us, that one without the other is not sufficient to ensure the success of your hishtadlus efforts..
Additionally, it is also clear from the Gemara in Nidda that there are two separate channels in which hishtadlus must be done.
1) in the realm of teva - "put much effort into commerce and deal honestly"
2) in the realm of ruchniyus - where by deepening your relationship with HKBH, you will have the zechuyos to merit that the hanhagas Hashem/hashgacha pratis will bring your hishtadlus b'darko shel olam, aka. teva to fruition - "let him pray for compassion from Him..."
We have learned that if you don't do hishtadlus of the first (teva) type, you are contravening the ratzon Hashem and by right, you should not succeed. By not doing the proper hishtadlus, you have either, not created the receptacle to accept what HKBH what HKBH has decided to grant; or not created the pipeline through which HKBH will send what He wants to bestow upon you. As we have described it, you don't have a spoon with which to eat the soup. Based on what we've learned, you will probably only see success if HKBH has decided that "no ifs, ands or buts", you will receive what you anticipate getting (even without your proper hishtadlus. When the desired outcome is extremely basic to a person's needs, the possibility grows that HKBH will decree that the person should have the desired outcome, because that is the benevolence that HKBH bestows on all of His creations. We have also pointed out, that the more that the desired outcome moves beyond a person's basic core needs, the likelihood is greater that your success has more to do with what you will do with this success for someone else, than the success has to do with you, because you are flouting the ratzon HaShem and should by right, not have the zechus to merit this successful outcome on your own.
But what if we don't do the second ruchniyus/tefila type of hishtadlus?
It would seem that if you did the proper hishtadlus of the first (teva) kind, hishtadlus that should by nature bring success, there is a good chance that you will succeed, even without the second ruchniyus/tefila type of hishtadlus. The reason for this would be, that regardless of whether you intended to or not, you have done the ratzon HaShem, by doing hishtadlus b'darko shel olam. In addition, by doing so, you have created the receptacle that is poised to receive what HKBH is bestowing upon you (or created the pipeline through which HKBH will send what He wants to bestow upon you). The obvious exception would be where your zechuyos (merits) have suddenly taken a tumble and you have lost the zechus (merit) needed to have HKBH decree that your efforts will meet with success. Another exception being where the success is such, that by its very nature, from the very beginning, needed more zechusim than the person had in his account and by neglecting the ruchniyus element in the hishtadlus equation (e.g. davening), the person failed to reach the level of zechusim needed to have HKBH decree success upon his hishtadlus endeavor.
Perhaps the hishtadlus / bitachon behashgachah line runs down the middle of tefillah. It's hishtadlus to daven that one's efforts be met with success, because then it's part-and-parsel of one's normal causal efforts to get the job done. But to daven for the outcome to happen in other ways would be an expression of bitachon.
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