Beitzah 16

An apropos gem today: A person’s entire livelihood is allocated to him during the period from Rosh HaShana to Yom Kippur. During that time, as each individual is judged, it is decreed exactly how much money he will earn for all his expenditures of the coming year, except for expenditures for Shabbatot, and expenditures for Festivals, and expenditures for the school fees of his sons’ Torah study. In these areas, no exact amount is determined at the beginning of the year; rather, if he reduced the amount he spends for these purposes, his income is reduced and he earns that much less money in that year, and if he increased his expenditures in these areas, his income is increased to ensure that he can cover the expense. Therefore, one may borrow for these purposes, since he is guaranteed to have enough income to cover whatever he spends for them.

So, in that Book of Life, the amount of money we will make is written. However, this does not include the amount we will spend on ritual observances or educating our children. Here, the amount of money we will have for these mitzvot depends on how much we spend. Now, you would think that, the more we spend, the less money we will have, but the Gemara teaches the opposite. In areas of holiness, education, (and elsewhere we learn tzedakah) the more we give the more we have.

May we be blessed with more than enough to sustain us in this year to come. And may we not hold back from spending our money in holy ways.