Save Me!

"Money is a great servant but a terrible master."

Money can buy just about everything. Food, a plane, a plane ticket, shoes, glasses, braces, a computer, season tickets to the Rangers, a night in a hotel, the hotel itself, clothing, diamonds etc. etc. and yet more etc.

That is why people go BULLUNIKIES over money. ממש crazy. The word כסף is the root of the word כיסופין which means desire. Ohhhhhh do people desire money. Money can be converted into most anything of what man [and woman] desires.

We are Jews - What does the Torah say about money??

On one hand עניות מעבירה את האדם על דעת קונו Poverty can cause a person to transgress the laws of the Torah. We don't want people to be poor. We daven every Shabbos Mevarchim for a life of עושר - wealth. It is great to have money. Poverty is a very difficult test.

On the other hand money is NOT everything. What can money NOT buy? Health [maybe a good doctor but that doesn't guarantee health], happiness [comfort - yes, happiness - no. I know a lot of unhappy rich people], spirituality, good children, a happy marriage, friendship, Torah knowledge, meaningful tfillos, a good personality, brains, serenity [מרבה נכסים מרבה דאגה - the more money the more worries] etc. etc. and yet more etc.

If I had to choose between the list of things money can buy and the things money can't buy, I would definitely go for things that money can't buy. Those are the things that really matter.

Another point - money and what it can buy can only last for us, as long as we last. Without trying to bring your mood down - THAT IS A RELATIVELY SHORT TIME! So all of the money in the world can only last you at most for a small number of decades [until 120 but frankly most people don't make it there]. What money can't buy lasts FOREVER. A daf gemara, a loving relationship, an act of kindness and it's yours FOREVER. A sleek Cadillac? Really not so long. And it gets boring after a short while anyway.

Conclusion - Use your money for things that will last forever. You buy a sefer and the sefer helps you understand the Torah better - an eternal aquisition [besides that fact that buying the sefer itself is a fulfillment of the mitzva of writing a sefer Torah]. You give tzedaka - you invested money in a stock with eternal dividends. You find some children in the neighborhood who don't have a father and you buy them Chanuka presents - besides the WONDERFUL feeling right here on earth, the Good Lord will remember and reward you forever. You buy your wife a new dress - not for her birthday but just because you love her, you will have a happier wife, more peace in the home, well adjusted children and a better life for all. "Shalom" is the goal of creation and using your money to promote it advances the goals of Hashem.

Avraham Avinu was a VERY rich man. What did he use his money for? To honor his wife with the ideal burial plot. THAT is a good way to spend money [if necessary - L'chaim to all!].

If one doesn't have - don't sweat it. Reb Yisroel Salanter died without a penny to his name and yet he changed the world. The list of great tzaddikim who were poor is endless. MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING.

In this generation people bow down to money and its possessors. This is a major error. I have met many very rich people and frankly it is quite disappointing to realize that they aren't necessarily the deepest, or the warmest, or the kindest or the anything-est. Just lotsa money in the bank. That's sorta boring. OF COURSE klal yisrael is blessed with a lot of wonderful rich people who do wonderful things with their money and who are wonderful people and some are even תלמידי חכמים. But money and good character don't necessarily go together.

Dovid Hamelech cried הצילני מדמים אלקים which literally means that he is asking Hashem to save him from bloodshed. But דמים doesn't only mean blood, it also means money. So in that light Rav Meir Mi'parmishlan explained that it means "Save me from making money my G-d."

OYYYYYYYY - הצילני מדמים אלקים!!!!!!!