When Moshe Rabeinu was told that his days were numbered and he was going to pass away without crossing over into Eretz Canaan, so the Torah tells us what he did: אז יבדיל משה שלש ערים בעבר הירדן מזרחה שמש – He set aside three cities on east side of the Yarden, רוצח אשר ירצח את לנוס שמה רעהו בבלי דעת – for the unintentional killer to flee there (Devarim 4:41-42). That’s the Torah law; when someone kills by accident, he flees to an ir miklat, a city of refuge, where he’s safe from any of the victim’s family members who might want to take revenge on him for his fatal carelessness.
Now, according to Torah law there are six primary cities of refuge – three in Transjordan and another three in Eretz Canaan – and they only function together, as one unit. “Until the three cities in Eretz Yisroel proper are established, the three in Transjordan don’t protect” (Makkos 9b). It means that the three in Eiver Hayarden are not effective until you set aside the parallel three in Eretz Canaan.
A Waste of Effort
Now this raises a question because in Moshe Rabbeinu’s time the people were not yet crossing the Yarden and so there was no purpose in setting aside the three cities on this side. It would anyhow have to wait until Yehoshua crossed the Yarden and set aside the other three – in the meantime they wouldn’t function as arei miklat; they would be just regular cities. And so, if it was us, we would have left it for Yehoshua to fulfill. He’s the one taking the people into Eretz Canaan – it’s his obligation, his opportunity.
So what did Moshe our Teacher do? Did he lean back and say, “Well, there’s really nothing I can do”? No; אז יבדיל משה שלש ערים בעבר הירדן – He went ahead and he separated three towns on Eiver Hayarden. He did what he could.
Working for Nothing
Now, he didn't merely say the possuk. We say it; it’s a few words, seven words, so we’re not impressed. Oh no; it took a lot of work, a lot of time. Moshe had to find the right location because a city has to have certain qualifications to be an ir miklat. He had to see to it that roads were built; you have to have convenient roads. If it's a winding road that goes through woods or hills where the goel hadam can hide in ambush and kill him on the way so that wouldn’t be fulfilling the mitzvah properly. You have to make straight roads, shortcuts, so that the rotzeach can reach the city as safely as possible.
And Moshe Rabeinu did that job; he did it perfectly. אז יבדיל; yavdil means he did a perfect job. It wasn’t effective but he did as much as he could while he was still alive.
Moshe and Money
Now about this endeavor, the Gemara (Makkos 10a) attributes to Moshe Rabbeinu a certain characteristic – you’ll be surprised when you hear it so don’t walk out until it’s explained. The Chachomim quote a possuk about Moshe as follows: כסף אוהב כסף לא ישבע – When someone loves money he’s never satisfied with what he already accumulated (Koheles 5:9). That’s a rule; once you fall in love with money it's a romance that lasts forever. The more you get accustomed to collecting money, the more your appetite grows.
Many years ago I read a book about a rich man and it described there how he would come home at night and pull down the shades; nobody is looking now. And he takes out from behind the stove a brick from the wall and he pulls out batches of hundred dollar bills wrapped in rubber bands. And he counts them. Ah! He loves counting those bills.
Sometimes he even takes the bills and he spreads them on the floor. He checks to see that his family is fast asleep and he lies down on the floor and he wallows in his money; he rolls in it. That’s his taanug Olam Hazeh.
He really loves his money. And when he’s able to add – another bill, another packet – it adds to his pleasures. He loves to add on to his stash of cash. His eyes shine a little brighter. He smacks his lips with pleasure.
Moshe Rabbeinu?!
Now who is the best example of that? So the Chachomim tell us it’s Moshe Rabbeinu. Imagine that! Moshe Rabbeinu! He’s the example of the oihev kessef who can’t be satisfied with kessef.
Now, Moshe, you have to know, had plenty of money. He was a rich man, by the way. People don’t know that; Moshe Rabbeinu was a wealthy man. But he loved money? No, he didn’t love money; you can be sure of that. The answer is ‘he loved kessef’ means he loved something, a form of ‘kessef’.
You know what the word kessef means? Kessef means desire. Like Lavan said to Yaakov, נכסף נכספתה לבית אביך – You desired to go back to the home of your father (Bereishis 31:30). That’s why money is called kessef – it’s something desirable. That’s something agreed upon by everyone. In all languages, all countries, money is desired because Hakadosh Baruch Hu made it that way.
Money is fun! You never dreamed that you were sitting in a bathtub full of money? I did. I remember years ago I dreamed I was sitting in a bathtub full of money; a dry bathtub packed with money. It was quite a pleasant dream.
Money Makes the World Go Round
That’s pretty much all of us. Money is desirable; it’s a truism. Now, I know that the good yeshivah boys think, “He’s talking about the business people, the lower characters. We’re yeshivah men! We’re pure!” A nechtigeh tug – as soon as a yeshivah man gets the taste of accumulating money he’s no different. It’s boduk u’menuseh; they go head over heels. They become those same people they snickered about; they love the clanging of coins, the cha-ching of the cash register opening and closing.
And so everyone loves money; not only ‘loves’ – they just can’t get enough of it to be satisfied. After you make your first million, right away it’s on to the second. What does this meshugas mean? There has to be something behind it.
And the answer is we’re looking for something. Nichsof nichsafti – we’re yearning for something. Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave man the urge, the instinct, to accumulate. It’s a true instinct – only that it has been short circuited.
The Rich Uncle
You know the Gemara says that ינוקא מקרבא דעתיה גבי זוזי – a child’s mind is close to money (Gittin 40a). Children love money. You want to win out with your children or your nephews and nieces when they're little, and when they're big too? Hand out money. Hand out money! It will make you popular if you hand out money.
And jingle it! מקרקש ליה זוזי – The Gemara says you should jingle the money. Not only the child should see the money but he should hear the sound of the money. A child loves that sound. Let's say it's a handful of pennies – a lot of pennies is better than a quarter; take twenty five pennies and jingle them up and down in your palm before you give it to him so that he’s enjoying the sound too.
Only that what happens? The older he gets, the more he practices this quality, so he loves money more and more. But that’s not the final destination for that urge, that instinct. It’s in his soul to make money! It’s not merely an acquired desire; it’s at the root of a man’s character to accomplish, accumulate! But to accumulate what, that’s the question. Because money is only a mashal; the desire for money has to be a spur for bigger things, for the real kessef of life.
The Mashal of Money
And so when you see people who love money – when you see yourself – so you have to think, “What good is that money? Can you take it with you?” בשעת פטירתו של אדם – When a man leaves this world what kind of kessef does he take along? אין מלוין לו לאדם לא כסף ולא זהב – He doesn’t take along his silver and gold; his Chase savings account and even the money he has under the mattress that the IRS doesn’t know about, he can’t take that with him; אלא תורה ומעשים טובים בלבד – The only thing he takes with him is his Torah and his good deeds. That’s the only kessef that lasts (Avos 6:9).
When you go into the Next World, you leave behind all of your ‘this world’ money; and your sons will take it and spend it and have good times. You denied yourself pleasures in order to accumulate the money and now your sons will splurge on foolish things; they’ll travel around and buy expensive things. All the money you worked so hard to save! So what did you get out of it?
Moshe: The Money Executive
Now, Moshe Rabbeinu had a well-developed mind, and therefore he loved the right type of kessef. He loved it so much, just like the rich man who’s never satisfied; like the old money madman, the old money executive. He’s lying on his deathbed and in his last words, he gives orders to his secretaries, “Did that deal go through yet?” Now he’s never going to enjoy the fruits of that deal, but it’s a drive within him.
Moshe Rabbeinu, however, wasn’t the misguided and blind businessman who tries to satisfy himself with a cheap little substitute. He understood that the biggest money he could make is mitzvos: לעשות רצונך אלקי חפצתי – My greatest desire is to do Your will (Tehillim 40:9). He knew that everything else is cheap ersatz, a cheap substitute, because there’s no other currency that you could take with you from this world into the Next World. And so Moshe Rabeinu made himself busy with hard money, with what would be legal tender in the Next World.
And therefore when he was stopped at the shore of the Yarden and Hashem said את לא תעבור הירדן הזה – “You’re not going cross the Yarden, into Eretz Canaan where you’d be able to fulfill the mitzvah of setting up arei miklat that are effective,” it made no difference. Moshe Rabbeinu just couldn’t let go of the opportunity to make a little more money. That’s why he is the example of a man who really loves money; the money of perfection, the money of serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the money of mitzvos. That's the real kessef that Moshe Rabeinu desired!
