The Re-Invention of
Yissachar-Zevulun:
a
“Push Button Judaism” Distortion
By Eliakim Willner
It’s
New! It’s Different! And It’s Wrong!
A recent article spoke glowingly about a “modern day version
of the Torah’s Yissachar-Zevulun partnership”; an arrangement wherein members
of a Kollel would daven for the success of a local businessman’s venture
and would share in the profits if the venture succeeded.
Innovations in avodas Hashem always have to be very
carefully scrutinized, especially when, as is the case with the aforementioned
“partnership arrangement”, there were no hurdles precluding such “partnerships”
a hundred or even a thousand years ago. Yet we have no prior record of such
practices. Mosdos in earlier generations would presumably have latched
on to such a potentially lucrative fund-raising tactic if it were legitimate.
In fact, this
arrangement does not stand up to scrutiny. It exemplifies several hashkafic
weaknesses that are symptomatic of the general 21st century mindset
and which have begun to affect the thinking of our own community as well.
Yissachar
and Zevulun Would Not Approve
We’ll begin with the 21st century tendency to
gloss over accuracy for the sake of journalistic effect. Whatever the
legitimacy of the “partnership arrangement” described in the article it is most
assuredly not a Yissachar-Zevulun partnership, “modern day” or otherwise. The halachos
of Yissachar-Zevulun relationships are complex but the fundamental structure is
not: Zevulun provides sustenance to Yissachar, who spends his time learning
Torah. Part of the reward for the Torah learning accrues to Zevulun in exchange
for his material support of Yissachar.
The only reward Zevulun can count on from a bona fide
Yissachar-Zevulun relationship is spiritual. In no way is he “buying” a
guarantee of success in his business enterprises nor does he have grounds for
complaint if he does not achieve success.
An arrangement whereby a businessman provides support for Torah study in
expectation of material and not spiritual reward is emphatically not
Yissachar-Zevulun. An arrangement whereby the support provided Yissachar is
conditional on Zevulun’s material success or anything else is emphatically not
Yissachar-Zevulun. Such arrangements are the antithesis of Yissachar-Zevulun. To
use that term to describe them is a serious distortion that turns a venerable
arrangement for support of Torah study on its head!
Yissachar-Zevulun Re-Invented: A Symptom of “Push-Button”
Ruchnius
In fact it is questionable whether such an arrangement is
legitimate or effective at all, whether it benefits the businessman providing
the funds, whether it benefits the Kollel receiving them, and whether it
benefits klal Yisroel.
It is a true that, as we learn in the haftorah of
Shabbos HaGadol, one may, as it were, “test” Hashem by attaching conditions
to tzdakah donations. However there are no guarantees regarding how the
condition will be fulfilled, when it will be fulfilled and even, if it will be
fulfilled.
We live in a push-button society. When we flick a switch we
expect the light to go on – it almost always does and we are thus frustrated
when it does not. When we press on the accelerator we expect the car to pick up
speed and we are frustrated when it does not. We are, in general, a society
that has become conditioned to expect instant gratification. “Click on the ‘Buy
Now’ button to add the item to your shopping cart and it will be delivered
tomorrow”.
However, cause and effect in ruchnius isn’t nearly so
simple, immediate or obvious. We
understand the operation of a light switch and car; they are completely
deterministic. But we understand very little about the ruchniusdike
factors that underlie the hashgacha pratis that determines what happens
to us. We do know that giving tzdakah conditionally, mitigates in favor
of our condition being met. But we don’t know all the other factors at play and
thus predictability in any sense is impossible. And immediate gratification is
usually not forthcoming.
Bitachon: Yes. Instant Gratification: No
Bitachon is a cornerstone of yahadus – the
proper attitude of a baal bitachon is to trust that Hashem is
controlling events down to the last detail, that He “hears” our requests (and tzdakah
conditions), that He wants to benefit us – and that He knows better than we do
what is to our ultimate good. We may not get what we want when we want it, no
matter how fervently we ask for it and no matter how much tzdakah we
give. We are permitted, even required, to make our requests of Hashem. Having
done so, we are required to assume an attitude of kol man d’avid
Rachmana l’tav avid.
Being matzdik es haDin is a fundamental Jewish trait.
We say, “Posaiach es yodecha u’masbiah l’chol chai ratzon”, G-d satisfies
the desire of every living thing, and we follow it immediately with, “Tzadik
Hashem b’chol drochov v’chasid b’chol maasav”, a declaration that all the
ways of Hashem are righteous – even if an immediate desire is unfulfilled. When
the Bais HaMikdosh was completed Shlomo Ha Melech asked Hashem to
respond favorably to the requests of the non-Jews who came to pray there –
knowing that, while non-Jews would lose faith if their prayers weren’t answered
in an obvious way, Jews would not.
Faith, patience, acceptance, are characteristic of Jews.
They are uncharacteristic of the general 21st century population.
Thus we have to hold fast to our values or we risk being sucked into the vortex
of the prevailing and antithetical 21st century value system.
Building Walls Against False Values
Indeed, these false values have already begun to leech into
our thought processes, and the “partnership arrangement” described in the
article is symptomatic of a creeping trend toward facile religious devices that
are expected to yield instant and foolproof gratification. It is akin to other
contemporary manifestations of the same disease: seeking “segulos” as a
“push-button” means to achieve desires, consulting “mekubalim” in the
expectation of immediate results, responding favorably to flyers from tzdakah
organizations filled with “case studies” of people who, with disaster staring
them in the face, make desperate pledges and are miraculously and instantly saved.
Like those other quick-fix religious tricks, the
“partnership arrangement” sets false expectations. A businessman with an
imminent deal is expecting a concrete positive outcome when he enters into this
partnership – whatever the “fine print” of the “contract” may say. That
expectation is reinforced when he is assured by Rabbis, whom he presumably
respects, that this arrangement “works”.
What will his reaction be if and when the deal falls through
– as it very well might, since, as noted earlier, Heaven cannot be manipulated
by flicking a switch? A yeridah in bitachon is likely. A
diminuition of respect for talmidei chachomim is inevitable. And the more common such “partnerships”
become, the more pervasive the yeridah in bitachon and
diminuition of respect will become in our general society.
Moreover, conditioned now to view donations to mosdos
as business deals more than as mitzvos, the businessman will be much
less likely to make a donation in the future – after all, he’s seen that it’s a
“bad deal”; why enter into it again?
Our Kollelim are supposed to be bastions of Torahs
emes, beacons of light to their respective communities. It is saddening to
see some of them inadvertently peddling spiritual snake oil instead.
A proponent of the “partnership arrangement” enthuses in the article, “The concept is to make Hashem your business partner. When you’re negotiating a deal you feel that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is with you. The extra confidence it brings is a wonderful feeling”.
May we all realize that Hashem is “with us” all the time,
not just when we’ve pushed the right button, that davening earnestly to
Hashem on our own behalf is far more effective than outsourcing the job to
others, that proper hashkafos and bitachon provide all the “extra
confidence” one could ever need – and may we be zoche to u’malah
haaretz daiah es Hashem and to a complete geulah b’korov!
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