“the more emuna you have the less hishtadlus you have to do, so If you truly believe HaShem will support he will.” – boredatwork
this excellently sums up the common contemporary chareidi perspective on life. it also excellently sums up much of what is wrong with today’s chareidi society.
the clear implication of this ideal (where it comes from, i have no idea, please enlighten me bored@work – and “my seminary teacher said so” is not good enough) which creates an inverse relationship between “emunah” and hishtadlus (so more emuna = less hishtadlus, and more hishtadlus = less emunah) creates an air of superiority among those who perform less hishtadlus (a.k.a. work), and encourages them to look down upon those who are performing hishtadlus (i.e. working) in order to live.
i challenge anyone to HONESTLY deny that “work” has not become a dirty word in today’s yeshivishe’ velt, and that those who work for a living are not viewed as spiritually inferior (or having less “emunah” in bored@work’s equation) than those who do not.
when i was young i thought that “emunah” had to do with what was in your heart. i didn’t realize it was all based on how many hours a day you do (or don’t) work.
the result of bored@work’s inverse proportion is that one must necessarily conclude that all of our chachamim throughout the doros (tanaim, amoraim, rishonim, and achronim, too many to list)who did work must have been deficient in their “emunah”, since many of them worked. accordingly, the average kollel guy in lakewood or mir, etc., must have much more “emunah” than the rambam, chofetz chaim, etc., ever did.
rabbosai – have we gone mad??