I heard a radio show where these two frum real estate agents were trying to convince me and anyone else listening to buy an apartment in a new complex in Miami Beach.
What was the pitch? All of your religious needs will be met and in gashmiyus it will be over-the-top-not-normal-beyond-amazing!!! Separate swimming pools so that men and women can go swimming whenever they like. Shopping galore. An array of kosher restaurants in the area so we will never go hungry. You will have endless pleasure. BUY!!!!! And buy NOW before prices go up even more than the astronomical sums apartments in this area cost today.
Sounds good??
Sounds GREAT!!!! Who do I make the check out to??
But just a moment. Uno momento. If I could afford it, would I buy there? I am conflicted. On one hand HECK YEAH!!! I am THERE!!! Shuls, mikvas, whatever a Yid wants - and AT THE SAME TIME - a physical Gan Eden. Tennis, swimming, SHUFFLEBOARD [!!!]. Miami Dolphins-Heat-Marlins. Low taxes. Republican Governer who seems to like Jews and believes in FREEDOM. And the sun is likewise FREE!!!! 🌞🌝 In the words of one late Jew from my youth "Another beautiful day in Miami Beach. No snow." [Since approximately 1977].
On the other hand - there is the Gemara in Shabbos [147]:
אָמַר רַבִּי חֶלְבּוֹ: חַמְרָא דִּפְרוֹגִיתָא וּמַיָּא דִדְיוֹמְסֵת קִיפְּחוּ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַשְּׁבָטִים מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל.
Rabbi Ḥelbo said: The wine of Phrygia [Perugaita] and the water of the Deyomset deprived Israel of the ten lost tribes. Because the members of these tribes were attracted to the pleasures of wine and bathing and did not occupy themselves with Torah, they were lost to the Jewish people.
The Gemara relates that once Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh happened to come there, to Phrygia and Deyomset, and he was drawn after them, and his Torah learning was forgotten. When he returned, he stood to read from a Torah scroll and was supposed to read the verse: “This month shall be for you [haḥodesh hazeh lakhem]” (Exodus 12:2), but he had forgotten so much that he could barely remember how to read the Hebrew letters, and instead he read: Have their hearts become deaf [haḥeresh haya libbam], interchanging the similar letters reish for dalet, yod for zayin, and beit for khaf. The Sages prayed and asked for God to have mercy on him, and his learning was restored.
In other words - when a person gets TOO immersed in the pleasures of this world, his Torah goes OUT the proverbial window!!! From the magical world of החדש הזה לכם, of התחדשות, Jewish renewal, hope for the future when Hashem will heal the moon and redeem His people who are compared to the moon, to the world of spiritual deafness. החרש היה לבם. There is VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE between the letters of these two phrases, teaching us that there is a hairsbreadth between being in the world of התחדשות and the world of spiritual deafness.
What can cause the descent into deafness? For a guy like me who enjoys gashmiyus - buying and living in an apartment in an area that is advertised as super-duper-over-the-top-no-holds-barred-fulfill-all-your-desires-gashmiyus!!! It's over, man. Lights out. The fat lady has SUNG!!
So let's just say for a second that this world is a VESTIBULE, a corridor, a waiting room, for the world to come. In other words - what we all believe [I HOPE!!!]. So what is the HAVA AMINA ["first thought" in Farsi] that any Jew with a drop of Emunah would buy in such a place. He will DROWN in the gashmiyus. Drown not [only] to death but to "deaf". How is it possible to live in such a paradise [or so they advertise] and still be completely focused on the goal - קירבת השם???!!!
[Virtually] IMPOSSIBLE.
So PLEASE sweet friends - don't misunderstand. We are weak. We need our creature comforts. So what you need - take. Sleep in a comfortable bed. Live in a stylish apartment. דירה נאה מרחיבה דעתו של אדם. Chazal advise [Brachos 47] - pretty wife, nice looking apartment, and eye catching furniture. Go for it. Be normal. Be human. Enjoy the blessings of Hashem's green earth. BARUCH HASHEM we no longer live in tiny hovels like our ancestors not so long ago.
But don't go overboard!!!
As an after thought - The aforementioned apartment complex is in Surfside. Like where quite recently a building collapsed, killed and buried all the residents under the rubble. For this Jew - THAT is Olam Hazeh. You think - this is IT!! Heaven on earth. And then BOOM. Lights out. MAYBE Hashem's way of reminding us never to forget what we are on this earth. ודי למבין. [This is NOT to in any way cast aspersions on the character or spiritual level of any of the victims. Farshteytzich!!!]
והחי יתן אל לבו!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
אַל־תִּ֭ירָא כִּֽי־יַעֲשִׁ֣ר אִ֑ישׁ כִּי־יִ֝רְבֶּ֗ה כְּב֣וֹד בֵּיתֽוֹ׃
Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,
when his household goods increase;
for when he dies he can take none of it along;
his goods cannot follow him down.
כִּֽי־נַ֭פְשׁוֹ בְּחַיָּ֣יו יְבָרֵ֑ךְ וְ֝יוֹדֻ֗ךָ כִּי־תֵיטִ֥יב לָֽךְ׃
Hard to translate - see commentary below.
