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Daily Chizuk #1658
Parnasa / Money
The Poor and the Provider: How Giving Comes Back with Blessing
The Time You Give Comes Back With Blessing
The Midrash Rabbah on Megillat Ruth, quoting Rabbi Yehoshua, teaches: יֹתֵר מִמָּה שֶׁבַּעַל הַבַּיִת עוֹשֶׂה עִם הֶעָנִי, הֶעָנִי עוֹשֶׂה עִם בַּעַל הַבָּיִת — More than the homeowner does for the poor person, the poor person does for the homeowner.
One application of this Midrash is in how we view the time we invest in helping others. People often think — especially when life is busy and responsibilities pile up — I'd love to do more chesed… I'd love to learn more Torah… I'd love to do more mitzvot… but I just don't have the time. It sounds logical: every minute we spend doing Hashem's work is a minute we could have spent on ourselves.
But Hashem's accounting works very differently. When we give our time for His mitzvot, we don't lose time — we gain it. And it's not simply returned; it comes back with blessing. The more we give, the more we are given. Often, this isn't obvious, but sometimes we see it clearly in our own lives.
Hashem repays us with smoother days, calmer outcomes, and, yes, even babies who cooperate. But when we guard all our time for ourselves, we often find that it slips away anyway — tasks take longer, frustrations mount, and things don't flow.
So the next time the yetzer hara whispers, You don't have time for this mitzvah, for Torah learning, or for chesed, whisper back: I don't have time not to.
The Midrash Rabbah on Megillat Ruth, quoting Rabbi Yehoshua, teaches: יֹתֵר מִמָּה שֶׁבַּעַל הַבַּיִת עוֹשֶׂה עִם הֶעָנִי, הֶעָנִי עוֹשֶׂה עִם בַּעַל הַבָּיִת — More than the homeowner does for the poor person, the poor person does for the homeowner.
One application of this Midrash is in how we view the time we invest in helping others. People often think — especially when life is busy and responsibilities pile up — I'd love to do more chesed… I'd love to learn more Torah… I'd love to do more mitzvot… but I just don't have the time. It sounds logical: every minute we spend doing Hashem's work is a minute we could have spent on ourselves.
But Hashem's accounting works very differently. When we give our time for His mitzvot, we don't lose time — we gain it. And it's not simply returned; it comes back with blessing. The more we give, the more we are given. Often, this isn't obvious, but sometimes we see it clearly in our own lives.
Hashem repays us with smoother days, calmer outcomes, and, yes, even babies who cooperate. But when we guard all our time for ourselves, we often find that it slips away anyway — tasks take longer, frustrations mount, and things don't flow.
So the next time the yetzer hara whispers, You don't have time for this mitzvah, for Torah learning, or for chesed, whisper back: I don't have time not to.
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