350. Sustenance (1)

It is well-known that the key to sustenance is in the hands of Hashem, and it is He who feeds and sustains everything, from the horns of the wild bulls to the eggs of lice. He gives bread to all flesh for His kindness is forever. However, there is a distinction in sustenance according to the deeds of a person and according to his luck (guided by the heavenly constellations) and according to the ways of the heavenly supervision. It follows that there are people whose sustenance arrives easily and painlessly, with plenty and not insufficiency and he will be successful in everything to which he turns his hand, and he will merit much wealth. There are other people who go out to work every day, they arise early and go to bed late, their work is much and hard, and even with all of that they do not manage to sustain themselves respectfully. Instead, they eat only by the sweat of their brow, a small amount of bread and water. Other people do not even find enough for food after all of their hard work and end up having to support themselves from charity. A righteous man will live with his trust, as he will believe with complete belief that the sustenance of a person is set for him at Rosh Hashanah, and it is not the wise people who have bread and Hashem gives the strength to perform important things, and no person touches that which his friend deserves even by a hairsbreadth. It follows that a person should not be upset or cause a dispute even if it appears to him that someone else has taken his livelihood away, for justice belongs to Hashem, and even if he would labor to become rich all day and all night he will not receive more than was set aside for him. The chapter of the Man should rest permanently before his eyes as a guarding and a sign for Klal Yisrael.