QUESTION
Should people cut down on the size of simchos?
ANSWER
I’ll say it like this. Should people cut down on the cost of simchos? Yes. But the size of simchos, not.
So you should rejoice as much as possible. But you don’t have to hire any waiters in your house. You don’t have to hire halls. You can have many happy occasions without spending too much money. And that’s a very important matter. Because people are wasting money.
I’ll give an example. There’s a couple that wants to make a bar mitzvah in Eretz Yisroel. Now it costs a lot of money to travel to Eretz Yisroel. They say it will cost more if you make it here. So make it small here and think how much a trip would cost you and send the money there to the yeshivos. It will be a very big merit for you.
There was a girl who lost her father. So she wanted to go to Eretz Yisroel to visit her father’s grave. I didn’t agree. Stay here and send all the money to charity, to poor talmidei chachamim in Eretz Yisroel for your father’s merit. And your father will appreciate it much more than when you come and stand near his stone.
There are many ways that people can accomplish great things by taking the money they would have wasted and giving it for a righteous purpose; some bigger achievement than squandering it on waiters and on halls and traveling and on things that are not a zechus.
February 1991
