money you could have given for tzedakah or maybe even for a shidduch. Taking good money and spending it for a trip to Eretz Yisroel? Even adults. Back and forth back and forth. You have to give a cheshbon for that. Are you using whatever wealth Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave you in this world for the Next World? Or maybe you’re cashing one of your big Next World checks in this world for a lousy smoke.
Expensive Good Times
There are no free rides in this world. It might be much more expensive than you thought, that airplane ride. The big money the airline is charging you is nothing compared to the price of being paid off in this world. Maybe it’s eating up your tefillin, the reward that was going to be yours in the Next World. It’s consuming your tzitzis. It’s devouring your mezuzah. It’s destroying all your tzedakah money. It could be that your Kriyas Shema Shachris v’Arvis, all your Shemoneh Esreis are being expended when you go traveling or bowling.
The Gra says in his Even Shleimah, for every simcha that a person had that was not a simcha shel mitzvah, he’s going to pay for it in chibut hakever, travails in the grave. Now exactly what chibut hakever is, is not our business right now but it’s not a pleasant experience.
And that means that running after good times, meaningless good times, is going to be expensive. It’s going to detract from a person’s ultimate reward. And therefore it’s a big responsibility, a big yoke on our shoulders, that we should take everything we have, everything we’re given, and use it with the understanding that םָלֹעוָה י≈נ¿פƒל רֹו„¿זֹרו¿ּפ ה∆ זַה םָלֹעוָה ‡ָּבַה – that this world is only a hallway leading into the palace of the Next World. And in a hallway you take whatever you’re given and you use it to prepare for when you’ll enter into the palace.
Part III. Appreciating Wealth
The Big Problem
Now, as much as we’ll try, as much as we’ll attempt to live according to this ideal of ‡ָּיכ≈ל ‡ָמ¿לַﬠ י‡ַה¿ּב הָו¿ˆƒמ רַכ¿ׂ ̆, it’s important to recognize that today we’re in a bind. We have a big problem because we’re living like kings. That’s what we are – kings. We have things today that our great-grandparents never even dreamt of.
I remember when I was in Europe, if you wanted a bath, there was no bathtub in the house. You went to the sweat bath. You had to go to a certain place, and you paid something. But even that wasn’t a bathtub; bathtubs were only for kings.
Queen Elizabeth had a bathtub. Once a year, they gave her a bath. It was a big job, a big ceremony. They had to heat up water in buckets and pour it into the Queen’s bathtub. But other people, regular folk, had to stand and pour water from buckets of hot water over their own heads. That’s how you took a bath in those days. But today the poorest people have bathtubs in their homes. Today we have it good.
Seeing Through the Smoke
Of course, you’re going to ask, where is it so good? So much unemployment, so much this, so much that. All that is just a smokescreen, a smoke barrage to cover up the truth. The fact is to find a hungry man, you have to look today. You have to take a candle, make bedikas chametz and look b’churin u’sdakim – where is anybody who doesn’t have enough to eat?
In the olden days people didn’t have anything close to what we live with. I remember when I was in Europe over sixty years ago, a man told me – this was in a small town in Europe – he said that when he was a boy he used to ask his mother for another piece of bread. “No,” she said, “We can’t afford to give you a second piece of bread.” He told me that! Two pieces of bread she couldn’t give; that’s how poor the people were.
When they praised the richest man of that place, how did they glorify his wealth? “It’s amazing how much challah in milk he eats. On weekdays, he dips challah in milk!” That was the guzmah of wealth in those days. He had so much challah that he had extra to dip in milk!
The Wealthy Poor
They simply didn’t have. But today it’s different. I always tell you that when I came back to America from Slabodka that was the first time I saw poor people who were fat. It was an American chiddush: poor fat people. Because they have food tickets, food stamps, and they buy potato chips and soda; on our backs, with our tax money.
Of course, there are still some poor people who don’t have cars. There are still some poor people who don’t have money to go traveling in Europe. And of course, there’s a lot of resentment because of that. They are very angry at the government and they want to make revolutionary movements against the establishment because of that. But actually we’re all rich today.
And so whatever we say, as much as we study this subject of our wealth in this world being only for avodas Hashem, we have to be worried that it’s not so. We have so much, so many superfluous things, that we have to be very worried that maybe we’re eating up our reward in this world.
Seeking Solutions
What’s the solution? Like I said before, I think it’s good advice to cut down; as much as possible to cut down things that you don’t need. But even so, we’re living over the top. We have so much, so much more than we need, and we have to be worried very much: “Maybe we’re taking more than we’re producing? Maybe it’ll be deducted from our reward in the Next World?” It’s not a foolish thought; it’s something to be worried about.
And therefore if you’re going to look for one solution, one yeshuah, that applies to all of us, I think that the answer is to start thanking for it. Because there’s one general form of avodas Hashem that applies to all of the gifts that Hashem gives us in this world and that is ’הַל ֹ̇ו„ֹהו¿ל בֹטו - it’s a very good thing to thank Hashem.
The TYH Program
It means that if you want to save yourself, if you want to preserve your reward for the Next World, make your life a program of saying thank you to Hashem. ‘Thank You Hashem for my house, my apartment.’ ‘Thank You Hashem for my bank account.’ It doesn’t matter if you have ten dollars in the bank or ten thousand, it’s always ‘Thank You Hashem.’ Not once and not twice. Always. And not for one thing. For everything.
It means that when you sit down at your supper table and you have as much bread as you wish, get busy thanking. And even if your wife says to you, “Chaim, don’t eat so many pieces of bread – it’s not good for you. Did you weigh yourself recently?!” so you’ll listen to your wife. You should listen to her. But even if you’ll eat only half of a thin slice, just enough to make a birchas hamazon afterwards, you should make sure to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for all the bread in the basket.
Recognize the Details
And don’t be skimpy about it. You have to thank Him for every one of the different dishes served; and the condiments too. “Thank You Hashem for the mayonnaise.” And don’t stop there. Thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for all the food in the refrigerator.
Thank Him for the refrigerator too! If you have a refrigerator in your home, you’re already in debt – are you serving Hashem with your refrigerator? It’s something to think about once in a while. Are you serving Him with your chandeliers and your window curtains?
And so for all the trappings of affluence you must thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You have to look at your table, your refrigerator, your pantry, your cabinets, and try to pay off the debt with words: “Thank You Hashem for this and thank You for that.” It means saying thank you to Hashem for each individual thing with enthusiasm. You have to thank Hashem for each thing separately. Yes! For everything!
Not Sleepy, Not Tired
But not just to say some words here and there. It’s not enough in general, once in a while in a sleepy way. That’s nothing. If you want that your refrigerator and your carpet and your house and your shoes and your everything shouldn’t be your payment in this world then it’s not enough to be a sleepy thanker. You have to say it with gusto, with feeling; and at length. You have to never get tired of saying it. After all you’re using your refrigerator not just once a week. All the time you’re looking into the refrigerator. And so you have to thank all the time too. Get into the habit! Yes! Get into the habit of thanking.
And that habit will be a lifesaver for you – a lifesaver in the Next World - because you’re serving Hashem now with the things that He’s giving you! You’re using everything to recognize the Giver and to thank Him.
And it’s not just an excuse, a way of weaseling out of the problem of living with luxuries. It’s much more than that; because if you’re serious about it, if you make it a habit, so you’re preparing yourself now for a great career of avodas Hashem.
The Best Good
I’ll explain that. Because it’s not just that you’re thanking: ’הַל ֹ̇ו„ֹהו¿ל בֹטו means that the good in the world is to express your gratitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You hear that? Not it’s good; it’s the good. It’s not a little thing to have a heart filled with gratitude to your Creator. To be humbled in front of Hashem because of all the wealth that He gives you in this world is the foundation of a great career of becoming a genuine oveid Hashem.
That’s what the Chovos Halevavos teaches us. If you learn his sefer you’ll see that he bases his entire sefer on the necessity to be grateful because he says that the entire gamut of avodas Hashem is founded on gratitude – we serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu out of gratitude. That’s avodas Hashem, service out of gratitude.
You know what avodah is? It means one thing – humility. We’re humbled before Him because of all of His gifts and we don’t know how to repay Him except by improving and perfecting our service to Him.
When He, Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives you a gift and another gift and He gives tens of thousands of gifts, ribo revavos, tens of thousands times tens of thousands of gifts, and you're not able even to say thank you for them because they're so many. Suppose somebody is giving you a thousand dollars a minute. Every minute. Let's say you go to a grandfather, a rich grandfather or a rich uncle, and he has plenty of it. So he takes out $1000. Before you have a chance to say thank you, he gives you another $1000. So your tongue is tongue tied. You can't keep up.
Bent-Kneed Blessings
And so when you get so much and you're not able to say even thank you – of course you have to try but it’s impossible to catch up – so you feel ashamed. You feel humbled. You're getting so much and you're giving nothing back. And you’re so weighed down that you bend your knees. That's hachnaah; that's humility.
That's why a brachah, thanking Hashem, means ‘We bend our knees to You’. We're humbled before You. How does brachah have a connection with the knees? And the answer is brachah, a blessing, comes from the word berech which means a knee. Baruch means ‘You are the One to Whom our knees are bent’.
It doesn't mean that you have to walk around all day long with bent-knees. It’s hard to walk around like that and it’s also a strain on the back. But ideologically you're bending your knee all day long. We feel the need to bend – all the time we feel bent-kneed before Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
Building On Gratitude
And it’s on that foundation of gratitude that our avodah is built. People don't know that. The whole avodas Hashem is built on the gratitude - we're so grateful and therefore we're serving Him. I put on tefillin because I don’t know how else to repay You. I cover my head because I don’t know how else to repay You. I send my children to yeshiva and Beis Yaakov because I’m trying to repay You. I learn Torah and wear tzitzis and keep Shabbos and don’t speak lashon hara because I don’t know what else I could do: יָלָﬠ יƒהֹלוּמו¿‚ַּ ̇ לָּכ 'הַל יבƒׁ ָ̆‡ הָמ – How else can I repay You for everything You give me?!
And therefore, we have to hurry up and get busy and begin that career of thanking. Because everything He gives us in this world, it’s intended for His service. And we’re getting so much – it’s endless what He gives us; we’re living with luxuries shebiluxuries and who can say that he’s using it for avodas Hashem? Who can be sure?
This week's booklet is based on tapes:
S-22 - Joy For Learners | 274 - Living Off the Interest
413 - Test of Abundance | E-22 - Make My Nation Happy
Listen: 718.289.0899
Press 1 for English and 2 for Thursday Night Lectures
The Solution
And therefore, that’s the way that we can save ourselves out of this problem – thank and thank and thank and never stop thanking. That's our yeshuah! Your chandeliers are not Olam Hazehdigeh chandeliers anymore; they’re being used to thank Hashem. Your carpets and your refrigerator are not paying you off in this world because they’re being used for awareness of Hashem.
That’s the way! Always thank Him for everything He gives you in this world. That’s going to save you. Because not only are you using the wealth He’s giving you to thank Him and become more and more aware of Him but you’re building that foundation upon which all of your avodas Hashem is built, the foundation of יָלָﬠ יƒהֹלוּמו¿‚ַּ ̇ לָּכ 'הַל יבƒׁ ָ̆‡ הָמ.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Wealth, Property and Gratitude
When the Am Yisroel left Mitzrayim loaded down with wealth, they promptly put it to use for Hashem’s Service by building the Mishkan. The purpose of our wealth, the reason we were given all our property is to enable us to serve Hashem. If we forget this we are misusing Hashem’s gifts and using this world’s pleasures in lieu of the reward awaiting us in the Next World. By thanking Hashem constantly, we are utilizing whatever we have in His service. Every day this week I will bli neder write down ten things I have and enjoy and express my gratitude to Hashem for these things.
