The Most Important Interview You'll Ever Have

With regard to the same verse, Rava said: After departing from this world, when a person is brought to judgment for the life he lived in this world, they say to him in the order of that verse: Did you conduct business faithfully? Did you designate times for Torah study? Did you engage in procreation? Did you await salvation? Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom or understand one matter from another? And, nevertheless, beyond all these, if the fear of the Lord is his treasure, yes, he is worthy, and if not, no, none of these accomplishments have any value. There is a parable that illustrates this. A person who said to his emissary: Bring a kor of wheat up to the attic for me to store there. The messenger went and brought it up for him. He said to the emissary: Did you mix a kav of ḥomton, a preservative to keep away worms, into it for me? He said to him: No. He said to him: If so, it would have been preferable had you not brought it up. Of what use is worm-infested wheat? Likewise, Torah and mitzvot without the fear of God are of no value.

(1) 2. In addition, business activity must include faith. That is, one must engage in the masa u’matan (give-and-take) faithfully, speaking words of truth, as [the Sages] said: Have you conducted your business affairs faithfully? (Shabbat 31a). This is because the maSA u’maTaN is the aspect of our menaSӔin (taking) and raising up the issue, and our noTeNin (giving) and restoring it to its place.

(2) There are fallen elements of holiness—i.e., the aspect of sparks that have fallen—and by means of business activity we take and raise them up, and give them over to their place. This is the aspect of the masa u’matan of business, as explained above.

When the Talmud in Shabbat 31 describes that the first ‎question the soul is asked when appearing before the heavenly ‎tribunal is: ‎נשאת ונתת באמונה‎, commonly translated as “have you ‎been fair and honest in your dealings with your fellow man,?” the ‎real meaning is: ”when you engaged in business dealings with ‎gentiles and you benefited financially by these dealings, did you ‎use the opportunity of displaying fairness as an opportunity to ‎bring the gentile closer to G’d the Creator?” If you did so you ‎succeeded in rescuing these “sparks” that had strayed from their ‎original path since they had been encased in a body. The word ‎נשאת‎ from the root ‎נשא‎ to raise, elevate,” in the line we quoted ‎from the Talmud, refers to whether the Jew whose soul now ‎appears for judgment in the celestial spheres being asked whether ‎it had been instrumental in helping stray human beings to return ‎to their sacred origins.

Did you set times - because one needs to deal with Derech Eretz [normal life, such as work], if there is no Derech Eretz there is no Torah. Therefore, one needs to set specific times for Torah study lest he be pulled into Derech Eretz for the whole day.

(8) Every man in Israel is obliged to study the Torah, whether he be poor or rich, whether he be physically healthy or ailing, whether he be in full vigor of youth or of great age and weakened vitality; even if he be dependent upon alms for his livelihood, or going around from door to door begging his daily bread, yea, even he who has a wife and children to support is obliged to have an appointed time for the study of the Torah, both during the day and at night, for it is said: "But thou shalt meditate therein day and night" (Joshua, 1.8.).⁹Yoma, 35a; Menahot, 99b. G. G.

(8) Every man in Israel is obliged to study the Torah, whether he be poor or rich, whether he be physically healthy or ailing, whether he be in full vigor of youth or of great age and weakened vitality; even if he be dependent upon alms for his livelihood, or going around from door to door begging his daily bread, yea, even he who has a wife and children to support is obliged to have an appointed time for the study of the Torah, both during the day and at night, for it is said: "But thou shalt meditate therein day and night" (Joshua, 1.8.).⁹Yoma, 35a; Menahot, 99b. G. G.

The baraita teaches that according to Rabbi Yosei, even if the old shewbread remained on the Table for a short while in the morning, and the new shewbread was placed on the Table toward evening, and even though it did not reside constantly on the Table, this fulfills the requirement that the shewbread should always be on the Table. Rabbi Ami says: From Rabbi Yosei’s statement we may learn that even if a person learned only one chapter of the Mishna in the morning and one chapter of the Mishna in the evening, he has thereby fulfilled the mitzva of: “This Torah scroll shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall contemplate in it day and night, that you may take heed to do according to all that is written in it, for then you shall make your ways prosperous, and then you shall have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

(1) I heard in [Rebbe Nachman’s] name that he reproved someone who had told him that he had no time to learn because he was involved in business. [The Rebbe] said that nonetheless it behooved him to grab some time every day to be involved in Torah. He said that this is what our Sages, of blessed memory, said: A person is asked: “KaVAata (Did you set) times for Torah?” (Shabbat 31a). The term KeVA (set) connotes “stealing,” as it is written, “and KaVA (rob) the life of those who rob them” (Proverbs 22:23). That is, they ask the person if he stole from the times he was busy with his affairs. Did you steal times for Torah from them? For a person must grab and steal times for Torah from [his daily] concerns and affairs.