Q:
Should I try to get a job that involves chesed, like a grocer or baker, someone who is involved in feeding the Jewish nation, rather than another job, where no chesed is involved?
A:
You should get a job that pays the most money. That’s your job – to earn money. You’ll be doing the biggest chesed by bringing home a decent paycheck for your family.
Now, if you happen to be a baker or a grocer, it’s not a bad idea that when you hand the bread over to the customer, you should be thinking, נותן לחם לכל בשר כי לעולם חסדו (Tehillim 136: 25). Nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all. You’re a shaliach, a messenger of Hashem, feeding His people. Nothing wrong with thinking that. On the contrary, why not utilize the opportunity? You can achieve greatness if you apply your mind and use your thoughts in the right way.
And so too, the mother who is serving food at the table, should think that she is נותן לחם לכל בשר. She is doing it as a shaliach of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. If you think that way, it will transform your actions. You have to train yourself to transform the actions that you already are doing, by putting the right thoughts into them.
So make sure to get a job that pays the most money, and while you’re working in that place, use whatever opportunities you can find, to think about Hashem and to become great. You don’t have to be a baker or a butcher or a grocer to serve Hashem at work. The opportunities for greatness are endless at any job you have; only that it will take some effort on your part.
TAPE # 645
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About the Author: Toras Avigdor
