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Day 117 – A Good Job
SEFER AHAVAS CHESED ? Part II Chapter XXI
To strengthen a businessman who is faltering takes savvy, and it takes money. Not everyone is positioned to be of real help in such situations. That does not mean, however, that the commandment to strengthen one?s faltering brother is out of reach for the average person. There are many situations in which even a middle-class person with no money to invest has the opportunity to perform ? and reap the rewards ? of this life-giving mitzvah.
The Chofetz Chaim points out that those on the middle and lower rungs of the economic scale often live in constant danger of falling into dire straits. A car-service driver, a handyman, a woman who helps with housekeeping or baby-sitting, the owner of a small store ? any of these individuals may be one job or one bad business week away from disaster. Patronizing their businesses, employing them and using their services fulfills the commandment to strengthen one?s brother just as completely as does the act of investing in someone?s thousand-man factory. Even a person who has the wherewithal to be of help to a large business enterprise is obligated to help the simple, struggling worker to stay afloat as well. He is not relieved of the burden of looking around him at the everyday people who cross his path, simply because he is putting a large sum into saving his neighbor?s business empire.
Even if using the services of a struggling fellow Jew will cost a person additional money, the Chofetz Chaim says, one should do it nonetheless. The additional cost is simply money spent on the mitzvah, money which Hashem promises to recompense at some point, in some way. Whatever a person seeks to accomplish, Divine assistance is the essential component for success. One who chooses his employees or contractors with attention to their need for the income channels Hashem?s help into the endeavor. Conversely, saving money at the expense of a Jew in need will not, in most cases, save any money at the bottom line.
Helping people who are locked permanently into a financial struggle can be a discouraging experience. People who have few assets with which to cushion their setbacks may find themselves in need again and again, creating a sense of futility for those who help them. The Chofetz Chaim sees this factor as no reason to cut off one?s help or support. As many times as a person stumbles, one is obligated to step in and prevent his downfall. Even if one saves the same person?s life a hundred times, each and every time he acts, he is saving a life.