A business decision… that seems to cost everything.
Why would someone walk away from profit—and feel completely at peace?
In this episode, a real-life story reveals a deeper way to live: where parnasah, integrity, and bitachon aren’t separate worlds—but one.
Listen on: 
Dedicated by SEH Security (Toms River, NJ)
l’zechus Yaakov ben Pnina
Parshas Acharei Mos-Kedoshim 5786
This week, I was speaking with a friend of mine, (Mr. S), in the payment processing space, and he shared an interaction that impacted me deeply. It’s a powerful reminder, and for me, a real madreigah to aspire to. While I’m still working toward it, I wanted to share it with you.
He was working with a company, listening carefully as the owner explained her business, her structure, how everything runs. After hearing her out, he told her honestly that the best thing for her would be to move away from credit cards and focus on checks or cash.
She was confused. “I don’t understand,” she said. “You’re literally leaving money on the table. Your whole job is to push me toward credit cards. That’s how you make your parnasah.”
His answer was simple, but it carried weight.
“Hashem decides on Rosh Hashanah exactly how much I’m going to make this year. There’s no shortage by Him. If I advise you in the way that’s truly best for you, I’m not losing anything. It’s not possible for me to lose.”
That’s a different way of living.
It’s easy to say we believe. It’s harder to live like it. To choose integrity when it seems to cost you. To give honest guidance when there’s something in it for you the other way. To trust that doing what’s right is not a sacrifice, it’s the only real path to brachah.
Because the truth is, Hashem runs everything. He is the Baal HaShefa. He has access to all the “mud” and all the “gold.” What we think is gold can turn to mud in a second, and what looks like mud can become gold just as fast.
When a person tries to force outcomes, to squeeze a little more, to act out of line with what’s right, that’s not how you gain. That’s how you lose. Not because of the deal itself, but because you stepped out of alignment with the Source.
And when a person lives with bitachon, not just as an idea but in practice, choosing what’s right over what’s convenient, trusting over controlling, that itself becomes the vessel for brachah.
כמים הפנים לפנים.
As much as we place our trust in Him, that’s how He reflects back to us.
That’s not just a concept. That’s how success actually works.
FROM THE FIELD TO THE OHEL MOED
In this week’s parshah, Vayikra 17:5, the Torah addresses a turning point in avodas Hashem, where klal Yisrael are instructed to stop bringing korbanos freely “in the field” and instead bring everything to the פתח אוהל מועד – the entrance of the Ohel Moed, through the kohen.
למען אשר יביאו בני ישראל את־זבחיהם אשר הם זבחים על־פני השדה והביאם לה׳ אל־פתח אהל מועד אל־הכהן וזבחו זבחי שלמים לה׳ אותם.
So that all the offerings a person is making out in the open, scattered and self-directed, should be brought before Hashem, guided and elevated at the entrance of the Ohel Moed, until they become זבחי שלמים, whole, aligned, and at peace in His service.
A topic often discussed in the sefarim is how the avodah of korbanos remains relevant today, even in a time when we sadly no longer have this opportunity. Practically, we have the avodah of tefillah, but Rabbi Yisrael Taub, the founder of Modzitz Chassidus, in his sefer Divrei Yisrael, takes this idea a step deeper. He makes this avodah much closer, and relevant than perhaps we ever thought, in a seemingly very ironic way.
Says the heilige Divrei Yisrael, although today we no longer have a Beis HaMikdash or korbanos, this idea of korbanos is חי וקיים, it still lives on. He explains על פי סוד that beyond the literal translation of the word זבחים as offerings, it also carries the meaning of sustenance, parnasah.
Accordingly, instead of reading “זבחיהם… על פני השדה” as literal korbanos in the field, he explains that “זבחים” refers to a person’s involvement in parnasah. “השדה” is the outside world, the מקום of חול, where a person is busy earning a living.
The Torah is thus teaching “למען אשר יביאו בני ישראל את זבחיהם” that all these worldly involvements should be “והביאום לה׳” brought into kedushah. A person shouldn’t leave his עבודה out in the “field” as something separate from Hashem, but rather turn it into “חולין שנעשו על טהרת הקודש,” like the concept of a לשכה built in חול but open to קודש. The physical act remains physical, but it becomes aligned with Hashem.
TURNING PARNASAH INTO AVODAH
Then, continues the Kozhnitzer, we reach the level discussed throughout the sefarim, particularly in the Pele Yoeitz. Parnasah no longer remains something mundane, in the field, unholy or detached from avodas Hashem. Rather, the exact opposite.
When one makes his parnasah godly, it is not just elevated, it becomes “וזבחו זבחי שלמים לה׳” like a קרבן שלמים, where part goes to the mizbei’ach and part is eaten by the person. So too, a person’s parnasah: part is for Hashem, part is for himself, but all of it exists within a framework of kedushah.
You can be in the world of credit card processing, fully in the “field,” dealing with numbers, rates, and transactions. A Rosh Yeshiva in the beis medrash, a real estate broker closing a deal, a doctor in an exam room, a lawyer in negotiation, a dentist with a patient, a morah or rebbi in a classroom. A contractor on a job site, a store owner behind the counter, a therapist listening quietly, a driver navigating traffic, a manager handling pressure, a fundraiser making calls, a parent running a home.
Different settings, same reality. We deal with people, and we need to make a parnasah.
And here in Parshas Achrei Mos, within the avodah of korbanos, we are taught something powerful. Korbanos are not limited to the Beis HaMikdash that was, or even to the one we await. They speak to every Yid, wherever he stands.
Because the question is not where you are. It’s what you do with where you are.
Certainly, we connect to avodas hakorbanos through Torah and mitzvos. But it doesn’t stop there. Even parnasah becomes a gateway, a pipeline to korbanos in this very day and age. The “field” is no longer a distraction from avodas Hashem, it becomes the avodah itself. Every deal, every dollar, every decision becomes a korban. We are not just earning a living, we are bringing it to the mizbei’ach. And when a person lives that way, his entire life becomes “זבחי שלמים לה׳” whole, elevated, and fully aligned with the King, the Creator, the Bashefer, the One who has access to it all. • •
