This blog was inspired by Rabbi Lazer Brody’s Cd, Dollars and Sense. Even though the Cd is directed to a Jewish audience, I was instructed that non-Jews have to do some editing to apply Jewish resources to our lives. At this time there are not many resources out there for the righteous gentiles of the world. We are breaking new ground so to speak. For over 2000 years the people of the nations have not wanted to hear what the Jew has to say. Many of us have left the religions of this world and sought out the one Creator – The God of Israel and we mainly have Jewish resources to draw on.

Back to Rabbi Brody’s lecture. He shares a truth with us, that the jobs we have is not the source of our income. We do not have a job so we can make a living and pay bills.

The Creator made us and placed us where He wanted and it is up to Him to provide for us and supply our income. Our jobs even though we get a pay check, it is not the reason for us to be there. It is a place for us to work on our mission in life. To live by emuna/faith and to observe the commandments when the opportunity arises.

The rabbi goes on answers the question he is asked about when the Jews went into the land after the forty year journey. They had to farm and build business; he goes on to show that what they did was necessary to inhabit the Land but not to take care of themselves financially. The Creator would do His part in seeing to their needs. He would provide for them.

After I listened to this, I wondered if this was so for us in the nations or were we on our own. When I took another look at the scriptures in Genesis and pondered on them, I discovered that even from the start He has always provided for His creation and it has not stopped. It is us that seems to get in His way with our lack of emuna/faith. So many of us have built into us by society to be self-made. This ideology gets in the way of the Creator being our source.

The religions of the world have kidnaped many and raised them in a life of lies – constantly telling them that someone else paid the price for them or that the gods controlled things down on earth and humans had to appease them.

Those that have come to the Creator and God of Israel have to start all over and as an infant, they have to learn to trust that the Creator has our best interest in mind; He is our Father.

Now lets look at Adam and Noah.

Adam was brought to a Garden, all he had to do was obey the Creator and guard the Garden. In it was plants and fruit to eat and water to drink. So we can see that his basic needs for life was provided. The work in the Garden was there to give him opportunity to serve the Creator without wondering where his next meal was coming from.

One of the commands given to Adam was to be fruitful and multiply, he was to inhabit the earth.
Noah was given the same commandment, to multiply and fill the earth.

When we take a look at the beginning of Genesis, we will find six commandments given to Adam in which he passed down. After the Flood we find that the Creator gave those same six commands to Noah but He added a seventh one that were guidelines of eating meat.

No where did the Creator give a command to go make a living. Humans were to inhabit the earth. As time went by villages and cities sprung up. In them were many businesses, these businesses were not to become our livelihoods. It would be through them the Creator would take care of the humans involved.

We were given free will and we have abused it to the point that we see our jobs as our source and those we work for see themselves in control of our incomes.

Ponder this, when we make someone else our source of income instead of the Creator, are we making that job or person into a source therefor turning them into an idol of sorts?

When I, like many who come to the code of morality found within the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish tradition, we discover that many Jewish blessings begin with, “Baruch ata…” which is translated as, “Blessed are You…”. In studying we find that the Hebrew word baruch has a root that means ‘source’. When we say to the Creator, “Blessed are You…”, we are acknowledging that He is our source.

What the rabbi is telling us that the Creator is our source for our everything, including our income. All we have to do is learn that He does everything for our very best. He is our scout, He sees things we do not, even into our future.

Ponder this passage.

Psalm 145:9
The Eternal is good to all; and His mercies are over all His works.

It takes a transformation to start understanding that the Creator is our source. Since listening to that Cd by the rabbi I started looking at the duties of my job as serving the Creator. No matter what they have me doing, I must learn that what I am doing is His will for me at that time.

I do not expect that this will be complete reality for me over night, But it is a goal in serving Him I hope to work toward.

One of the things I just read is that before the Creator blesses us with a great gift that there is usually a test emuna/faith just before it.

Over and over I have read Rabbi Arush telling us that personal troubles are wake-up calls from the Creator for us to correct something and they are used to draw us close to Him.

This even means in the areas of our income, chasing jobs trying to make more money is not our answer nor are they our source. When faced with troubles, especially financial ones, we must turn to the Creator first. Seek Him and know that without Him you have no source.

I read a story where a man who could not read or write lost his job because the company he worked for got rid of all the illiterate employees. He was given a severance check and sent on his way. He was a man of faith and took the money and started a small business. The business grew into others and became an international hit. Today the person who cannot read or write is a billionaire and it started by losing his job at a local factory.

What a great future awaits those who makes the Creator their source.

Blessed is the man who trust in the Creator, then the Creator will be his security. He will be like a tree planted near water, which spreads out its roots along a brook and does not see when heat comes, whose foliage is ever fresh; it will nor worry in a year of drought and will not stop producing fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

Terry W. Hayes
4/2018

Photo Credit:
Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

P.S. Here are some books I want to recommend that will help in learning to make the Creator your source.

The Universal Garden of Emuna by Rabbi Shalom Arush
The Garden of Gratitude by Rabbi Shalom Arush
The Garden of Miracles – Say “Thank You” and See Miracles – 190 True Stories about the Power of Gratitude by Rabbi Shalom Arush.