The Segulah of Rabbi Haim Palagi — Studying Mishnah for Parnassah

The Segulah of Rabbi Haim Palagi — Studying Mishnah for Parnassah

“I heard from a great Torah scholar that in our generation, Parnassah has greatly diminished because this generation has learned about the Mishnah. The word משנה has the same gematria—395—as the word פרנסה. When a person learns more Mishnah, he increases his Parnassah.” (“Ginzei” Haim Palagi, 49, p. 155) In this connection, the story of Rabbi Emmanuel Hai Ricchi of Ferrara—the renowned Italian rabbi of his time—is of interest. When he moved to Eretz Yisrael, to Safed, he completed his book on the Mishnah, entitled “Hon Ashir” (A Great Fortune). The book begins with the laws of vows and discussions of the power of speech. The rabbi began writing the book in Italy at the age of 25, and initially titled it “The Laws of Poverty”, humbly considering himself poor in knowledge. Rabbi Ephraim Cohen wrote the following about this book: “The book ‘The Laws of Poverty’ was carefully conceived and written with profound knowledge of Torah by a G-d-fearing man who observed the Torah despite poverty.” Many Torah scholars asked Rabbi Emmanuel to change the title of the book, but he stood his ground. After some time, terrible poverty forced the rabbi to leave Israel and go abroad. However, his troubles did not end there: he was taken captive, and everything was taken from him except the manuscript of “The Laws of Poverty”, whose title symbolized his situation. He then decided to rename the manuscript, calling it “A Great Fortune”—and his situation changed dramatically: he was privileged to publish a beautifully produced book. (Rabbi Yisrael Spector, “Gates of the East”)