The entire sustenance of man [for the year שיהא ניזון משם - he should eat from there - Rashi] is fixed for him from New Year's [Festival] to the Day of Atonement,
except the expenditure for Sabbaths and the expenditure for Festivals and the expenditure for the instruction of his children in the Law; if he [spent] less [for any of these] he is given less and if he [spent] more he is given more. Said R. Abbahu:
What verse of Scripture [supports this]? ‘Blow the horn at the new moon at the full moon for our feast-day’. Which is the Festival on which the moon is concealed? Say, it is New Year;
and it is written [with respect to this Festival]: ‘For it is a statute [hok] for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob’. How is it implied that [the word] hok connotes sustenance? For it is written: ‘And did eat their portion [hukkam] which Pharaoh gave them’. Mar Zutra says, [It is inferred] from here: ‘Feed me with mine allotted [hukki] bread’.
Why do we need a special sugya to teach us that a person's sustenance is fixed from Rosh Hashana when we already have a gemara in Rosh Hashana [8a] that teaches us that EVERYTHING is determined on Rosh Hashana? Rashi emphasizes that it is a special din for one's sustenance as he writes שקוצבין מזונות בראש השנה
Why is this special din necessary?
We move to a parallel sugya in Bava Basra 10a.
R. Judah son of R. Shalom preached as follows: In the same way as a man's earnings [שכר שיתפרנס ממנו - the salary he will receive as sustenance - Rashi]
We move to a parallel sugya in Bava Basra 10a.
R. Judah son of R. Shalom preached as follows: In the same way as a man's earnings [שכר שיתפרנס ממנו - the salary he will receive as sustenance - Rashi]
are determined for him from New Year, so his losses are determined for him from New Year. If he finds merit זכה [to have good mazal - Rashi], then, ‘deal out thy bread to the poor’; but if not, then, he will ‘bring the poor that are outcast to his house’ [tax collecters]. A case in point is that of the nephews of Rabban Yochanan b. Zakkai. He saw in a dream [on motzei Yom Kippur - Rashi] that they were to lose seven hundred dinars in that year. He accordingly forced them to give him money for charity until only seventeen dinars were left [on erev Rosh Hashana - Rashi]. On the eve of the Day of Atonement the Government sent and seized them. R. Yochanan b. Zakkai said to them, ‘Do not fear [that you will lose any more]; you had seventeen dinars and these they have taken.’ They said to him, ‘How did you know that this was going to happen?’ He replied, ‘I saw it in a dream.’ ‘Then why did you not tell us?’ they asked. ‘Because,’ he said, ‘I wanted you to perform the religious precept [of giving charity] li-shmah.’
A number of questions:
1] Rashi in Rosh Hashana writes that the determination is שיהא ניזון משם - he should eat from there, and למזונות while in Bava Basra he writes שיתפרנס ממנו - What is the reason for the difference?
2] The gemara in Bava Basra says that one's parnassa is determined on Rosh Hashana, so why does Rashi say that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's dream was on Motzei Yom Kippur [the Bach changed the text in Rashi because of this question]?
3] The gemara says that 17 dinars remained and they were taken away on erev Yom Kippur. So why does Rashi explain that they remained with 17 dinars on erev Rosh Hashana?
4] It says in the gemara that if he finds merit זכה - he will give it to the poor [and if not he will give it to the tax collectors]. Rashi says זכה means for a good mazal. Usually זכה means something spiritual such as mitzvos or zchus avos. What compelled Rashi to change the meaning here to mean "good mazal".
5] The whole sugya is difficult because if there was a decree on Rosh Hashana to lose this money, how come nothing happened until the following year on Yom Kippur?
6] Why didn't he at least tell his nephews at the end of the year to give the money to tzedaka. Better that than the tax collectors taking it??
We have to say that he must have assumed that they would give it to tzedaka on erev Yom Kippur as is the Jewish custom. His reasoning was that since he had the dream on motzei Yom Kippur he assumed that they could give until motzei Yom Kippur of the next year.
1] Rashi in Rosh Hashana writes that the determination is שיהא ניזון משם - he should eat from there, and למזונות while in Bava Basra he writes שיתפרנס ממנו - What is the reason for the difference?
2] The gemara in Bava Basra says that one's parnassa is determined on Rosh Hashana, so why does Rashi say that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's dream was on Motzei Yom Kippur [the Bach changed the text in Rashi because of this question]?
3] The gemara says that 17 dinars remained and they were taken away on erev Yom Kippur. So why does Rashi explain that they remained with 17 dinars on erev Rosh Hashana?
4] It says in the gemara that if he finds merit זכה - he will give it to the poor [and if not he will give it to the tax collectors]. Rashi says זכה means for a good mazal. Usually זכה means something spiritual such as mitzvos or zchus avos. What compelled Rashi to change the meaning here to mean "good mazal".
5] The whole sugya is difficult because if there was a decree on Rosh Hashana to lose this money, how come nothing happened until the following year on Yom Kippur?
6] Why didn't he at least tell his nephews at the end of the year to give the money to tzedaka. Better that than the tax collectors taking it??
We have to say that he must have assumed that they would give it to tzedaka on erev Yom Kippur as is the Jewish custom. His reasoning was that since he had the dream on motzei Yom Kippur he assumed that they could give until motzei Yom Kippur of the next year.
That is exactly what happened because in practice בפועל they didn't lose their dinars until erev Yom Kippur. The reason they didn't give it on time is because that זכה to give it on time is only until Rosh Hashana and not Yom Kippur.
That is why Rashi explained that the money remained with them erev Rosh Hashana. Because even though the decree in practice בפועל was until Yom Kippur nevertheless the זכות of giving to tzedaka and not to the king is only until Rosh Hashana.
The explanation is that they were judged on Yom Kippur and not Rosh Hashana because they were בינוניים whose judgement hangs in limbo from Rosh Hashana until Yom Kippur [Rosh Hashnana 16b] and therefore their judgement lasts a full year until the following Yom Kippur.
This is in contrast to זכה which is dependent on the mazal, and the mazal follows the natural course of the year of Rosh Hashana until Rosh Hashana, which is what compelled Rashi to explain זכה as mazal.
The logic why זכה depends on good mazal and not the merit of a mitzva or zchus avos may be that since the main judgement of Rosh Hashna concering sustenance is dependent on zchus or chova [as we see that בינוניים hang in limbo until Yom Kippur] we can't change this decree throughout the year with zchus or chovah but with good mazal.
Since it is all dependent on mazal another person could have an influence as Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai did. Just he thought that he can have an impact the entire year of the decree and didn't know that he can only have an impact throughout the year of the mazal, from Rosh Hashana until Rosh Hashana.
Now we can say that this is why Rashi in Bava Basra wrote that a person's sustenance is determined etc. שיתפרנס ממנו - meaning general parnassa and not food - מזונות as would be the simple meaning of the gemara's words [as he wrote in Beitza] because the gemara says that his losses are also determined on Rosh Hashana. This is in the realm of zchus and chova, gains and losses, which apply to general earnings and not to mezonos specifically [people don't generally "lose מזונות"].
However in Beitza the gemara is talking about מזונות ממש - real food, [as Rashi writes ניזון ממנו] and that is a different din that we learn from the pasuk כי חק לישראל. [Rashi didn't quote the pasuk in Bava Basra because the gemara is not talking about מזונות as we are in Beitza].
MAYBE the din of מזונות ממש is not dependent on zchus and chovah but Hashem the Creator is responsible to feed his creations, as we see in various maamarei chazal, and is similar to the responsibility of a king to feed his citizens, which is why the gemara quotes the pasuk about Paroh 'and they did eat their portion [hukkam] which Pharaoh gave them’ .
We learn a big yesod in how Hashem runs the world from a careful reading of the two sugyos.
עפ"י ספר מרבה שלום סי' לד ממו"ר הרה"ג ר' יעקב דוד המניק שליט"א מצפון חוף מיאמי
עיין היטב בספר זאב יטרף ר"ה סי' יח-יט
וע"ע ספר דברי שלום ח"ג סי' ל"ד
