Anyway - the sad yet happy ending was that he lost just about everything with Madoff שר"י in his infamous ponzy scheme. He then realized the error of his ways and regretted not learning his lesson earlier. He has since regrouped and established himself financially but now generously supports Torah.
I often think of Madoff. I think of all of the Jews who had tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars tied up with Bernie, earning more and more interest by the month as many of their fellow Jews, even their own relatives, weren't able to make ends meet.
היתכן??? Can it be? A Jew knows that he has the means to help somebody else but doesn't because he wants more and more. As I write this there are many many people like this. They have far more than they need but are still resistant to the notion of helping people, often in their own families, who are needy and don't have money for the basics. As I have mentioned in the past - every Yom Tov, frum Jews spend tens and tens of millions of dollars [probably hundreds of millions] on vacation-eatathons, while their brothers and sisters, often living within minutes of where they are vacationing [from the King David Hotel until Meah Shearim it is about a 10 minute walk....] don't have enough for the bare minimum.
I can't swallow it.
Just this morning a close friend who is afflicted with numerous difficulties [including a sick child] asked me to help him. He seemed so broken. What am I supposed to do? Being Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva G'dola D'skype allows me to learn sweet Torah but there is no salary. All of my employees [i.e. me] work on a voluntary unpaid basis. I WISH I could help him and would have trouble sleeping if I could but didn't.
I was thinking - Isn't the WHOLE WORLD just one big Ponzy scheme??
Think about it. People invest money. They receive high dividends. Things look GREAT. Then, in ONE SECOND, they lose it all. Every last penny. How very horrific. They thought that they were accruing wealth while the reality was that they were just building a higher and higher platform from which they would eventually fall.
EVERYBODY - from Warren Buffet and down, has that day when everything goes. This is called the day of death. And unlike the victims of Bernie - these people will never recover even a penny of what they lost. It is alll gone. And yet - they still engage in the relentless pursuit of money.
Pil-ei Pla-os!:-):-)
The Rambam in Hilchos Teshuva [7/3] says that one must not only do teshuva for sins involving actions. No-nyet-nien-lo. One must also do teshuva for bad attitudes. One example he gives is רדיפת הממון - the attitude and approach to life that more is better resulting in a crazy obssession with money. MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY. The attitude that על שלשה דברים העולם עומד - על הכסף על הכסף ועל הכסף.
I quote from one of my favorite non-Torah books:
“We've got a sort of brainwashing going on in our country", Morrie sighed. "Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it--and have it repeated to us--over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all of this, he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.
Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. Gobble up the latest toy. And then they wanted to tell you about it. 'Guess what I got? Guess what I got?'
You know how I interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship.
Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have.”
Morrie Schwartz as he was dying of ALS.
Tuesdays With Morrie
Sweetest friends!! It is ALL a scam. All you are left with in the end is .... what you gave away. Everything else will go. Guaranteed.
Make an investment today in your future. Find someone in need and give. Try it again tomorrow and then make it a habit.
Bi-ahava rabba:-).
לזכות גילה שושנה בת נעכא גיטל לברכה והצלחה בכל מעשי ידיה
