Beshalach is one of the most powerful parshiot in the Torah. It highlights themes of faith, divine intervention, and the challenges of transitioning from slavery to freedom. It underscores Hashem’s protection and guidance of Bnei Yisrael during their journey from Egypt.
The most dramatic event in this parsha, and one of the most powerful scenes in the entire Torah, is the splitting of the Red Sea. After leaving Egypt, Bnei Yisrael find themselves trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, with nowhere to go. Hashem parts the waters, allowing the Jewish people to cross onto dry land. Once they are safely across, the waters close back up, drowning the pursuing Egyptian forces. This miracle is one of the most well-known by people of all walks of life. It’s not uncommon to hear it cited colloquially, people referencing “parting of the Red Sea” when facing challenging circumstances.
While we should all daven for divine intervention to protect us and help us make good decisions and achieve our goals, I find that, in the realm of personal finance, far too many people seem to rely solely on miracles to secure their financial future. Solely davening for the best outcome is not sufficient. It’s also important to do our part by putting in the work to financially prepare for our future.
This is consistent with the Exodus story. While the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea receives a lot of attention, comparably less time is spent considering the several significant preparations that the Jews undertook before leaving Egypt.
- Korban: Each family was instructed to select a lamb or goat without blemish, keep it until the 14th day of the month, and then shecht it at twilight. The blood of the korban was to be applied to the doorposts of their houses as a sign for G-d to “pass over” their homes during the final plague.
- Plundering the Egyptians: Hashem instructed the Jews to ask their Egyptian neighbors for articles of silver, gold, and clothing to provide them with resources for their journey (and also collect some of their unpaid wages).
- Tzedah LaDerech: The Jews prepared food for their journey. Famously there was matzah, bread dough without enough time to rise.
- Readiness: The Jewish people were instructed to eat their meal with their belts fastened, sandals on their feet, and staff in hand, signifying their readiness to leave quickly.
- Organized Departure: Moshe organized the people to leave Egypt in an orderly fashion. The Torah describes about 600,000 men, along with women and children, leaving in haste.
Stated succinctly, Bnei Yisrael put in their hishtadlut, or effort, before leaving Egypt. They gave a Korban, ate, mentally prepared, obtained resources for their journey, and organized themselves for departure. Hishtadlut is an important concept in Jewish thought. It emphasizes the balance between human initiative and trust in Hashem. Only after the work was put in, and they were stuck between a large sea and the most dominant army in the world, did Hashem swoop in with the miracle of splitting the sea to finally free them from oppression.
As I often tell my clients, “Hope is not a strategy.” It’s imperative that all families take the proper steps to secure their own financial future before relying on divine intervention. These practical steps include:
Spend within your means: The foundation of any financial strategy, irrespective of level of wealth, is to spend within your means. This means spending less than you make, leaving funds over for a rainy day, and avoiding debt. The inability to abide by this rule will set you up for financial ruin and no miracle will be able to bail you out.
Emergency Fund: Once you are spending within your means, your first goal is to set aside funds in case of emergency. This extra pool of cash, which is typically 3-6 months’ worth of expenses, will help insulate your investments from an unexpected, large financial expense. That cash on hand can be used to pay for those financial inconveniences that tend to arise, instead of needing to liquidate other funds or, chas v’shalom, take out debt. This may include needing a new boiler, compressor, car repair, new roof, and various other possible items that tend to arise over the course of life. Not having an emergency fund can derail your finances very quickly.
Save for retirement: Retirement is around the corner. This is true whether you are just starting your career or at the tail end of it. If you procrastinate on setting aside funds for retirement, or consistently prioritize other aspects of life, not only will you miss out on years of compounding, but you may need to rely on others (i.e. your family) to support you when you are no longer able to work. That is quite the burden to put on others and a very precarious situation in which to find yourself. Do yourself and your family a favor and save 20% of your income throughout your career. Your future self and children will be grateful for this decision.
Automate your savings: Maintaining a frum lifestyle is expensive and finding extra money to invest can be hard. Here’s a trick that I use with most of my clients: Automate your savings. This means that every month you should have some money going into your retirement and investment accounts without any effort on your part. You set up this automation to take a reasonable sum off the top of your income and simply have less money available to spend on other items. It is psychologically easier to learn to get by on less than it is to ensure you have a surplus at the end of the month. It likely won’t impede your lifestyle, and you will seamlessly be building your nest egg.
Diversify your investments: These days, I find myself thinking about the concept of diversification often. Many investors are riding the high of many years of explosive market growth (with a few interruptions). The reality is that nothing goes up forever. I explained in my previous article how all areas of the market move in cycles. What goes up must come down, and vice versa. It behooves all investors to embrace a philosophy of portfolio diversification, where they don’t just concentrate their money in one investment or one area of the market.
The importance of diversification was recently highlighted with the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, that managed to undercut the price of all the major AI companies. This caused many big tech companies, that have been the darling of investors for years, to plummet in value. It’s too early to see how this will play out, but this episode illustrates that things can change on a dime and diversifying your investments is a way to protect yourself.
Manage risk: There are unexpected events that can be financially devastating to any family. This includes death, disability, and long-term care needs. Thankfully, there are insurance products available for these scenarios that can help protect your loved ones. Too often folks need to rely on the community for support because they did not properly prepare. While this type of financial safety net is one of the beautiful things about a frum community, it should only be viewed as a last resort. Your lack of preparation shouldn’t place a financial strain on others in your community and the level of assistance available may not fully cover your family’s needs anyway.
Nobody wants to think about depressing topics like a premature death or unexpected illness. However, failure to have a plan in place for the possibility of such devastation will only lead to even more hardship for a person’s loved ones if that sad eventuality occurs.
It’s important to point out that the concept of hope is a wonderful thing. In fact, it may be the singular most important factor in sustaining the Jewish people for millennia. Despite regularly facing persecution, oppression, and annihilation we managed to not only survive, but thrive throughout the ages. However, hope by itself is not sufficient. In all aspects of life, it’s imperative to put in the work, preparation, and sacrifice to be successful. Remember, failure to plan is planning to fail and relying on a miracle to secure your financial future is far from prudent.
May this week’s parsha motivate readers to reassess their own finances and determine where they need to put in more hishtadlut to achieve their financial goals.
