Chanukah & Money (in YU)

בבית שני כשמלכות יוון גזרו גזירות על ישראל וביטלו דתם ולא הניחו אותם לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות ופשטו ידם בממונם ובבנותיהם ונכנסו להיכל ופרצו בו פרצות וטימאו הטהורות

when the Rambam sketches the oppression and the suffering that Klal Yisrael endured at the hands of the Yevanim so he includes within the description the description includes as that ולא הניחו אותם לעסוק בתורה ובמצוות that Pashtu yadam bivnoteihem really terrible terrible forms of oppression and suffering. The Rambam includes within it that Pashtu yadam bemamonam. Apparently this is worthy of mention. The emes is it can also make can also make life miserable if the financial oppression is so real and so great it can also impact life very significantly. But yitachen I don't know if this is al derech pshat al derech agadah in terms of in terms of the Rambam's kavana that maybe the Rambam mentions it for another reason as well. Chazal tell us in Masechet Sotah

כל מידותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא היא מידה כנגד מידה

that everything Hakadosh Baruch Hu does is always mida kineged mida and yitachen that Pashtu yadam bemamonam might not only be significant in terms of depicting and capturing the suffering and oppression that was endured but yitachen that it's also significant in terms of reconstructing what chata'im triggered the suffering and oppression. And yitachen that the significance of Pashtu yadam bemamonam is that that was an indication that there was something badly askew and amiss about our attitude towards our approach to mamon. And in that vein erev Chanukah perhaps is a time to just think of and review a little bit dvarim pshutim about a Torah perspective on money. There certainly is a chiyuv hishtadlut that a person should not Rachmana litzlan put himself he shouldn't be responsible of putting himself in a position of shema yitzaterech labriyot there certainly is a chiyuv hishtadlut to avoid the terrible nisyonot of poverty. So m'idach gisa living in the culture that we do a culture that's obsessed with mamon and pleasure it's important to be mechazek ourselves especially in this area. A chov hishtadlut there certainly is but we're never supposed to lose sight of the fact that it's hishtadlut.

כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו מראש השנה ועד יום הכיפורים.

A person's parnassa is not because he's so smart, he's so resourceful, he's so ambitious. A person is mechuyav to make bona fide hishtadlus. Absolutely. But then the Ribbono Shel Olam gives parnassah. And כל מזונותיו של אדם קצובים לו. And if there's a danger and a nisayon to poverty rachmana litzlan, which there certainly is, there are also nisyonos at the other end of the spectrum. When baruch Hashem one has money in the bank, so there are nisyonos which go along with that also. The Gemara says in Taanis that אין הברכה מצויה אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין. Right? Samui lashon suma. That bracha is only to be found in something which is hidden from the eye. The Gemara says this is not in an Aggadic context, the Gemara says this in a context of Halacha. That when a person comes nichnas legorno, there's a tefillah that he says. But if he's already measured exactly how much the yield of this year's crop has been, it's no longer a דבר הסמוי מן העין. So then he can no longer say this tefillah. This bakasha, this tefillah that a person who's nichnas legorno at the end of the harvest season to consolidate the year's crops, if it's no longer a דבר הסמוי מן העין, if it's already madud umonuy, if it's already measured and weighed, so then he can't say this tefillah. אין הברכה מצויה אלא בדבר הסמוי מן העין. What does it mean? So the Meor Einayim explains very beautifully. He says כל זמן שדבר סמוי מן העין, a person doesn't know exactly, maybe doesn't even know approximately how much his field yielded this year, doesn't he, he feels vulnerable, doesn't feel self-sufficient. He's not relying on the bumper crop that he enjoyed this year. The very minute it's no longer samui min ha'ayin, the very minute it becomes madud umonuy, so then a person's trust gets transferred from the Ribbono Shel Olam to the bank account. When I take out my bank books, I guess that's old fashioned, I guess when you go online and you check the balance in all the accounts, in the checking and the savings and the IRAs and the CDs and the there must be a few more aleph beises in there, and the person sees and person sees, so a person feels secure. A person looks at what's madud umonuy, so there's a tremendous, tremendous yetzer hara that one's sense of safety and security now stems not from the Ribbono Shel Olam, all the baruch Hashem's notwithstanding, but the sense of safety and security comes from the davar hamadud umonuy. And that's what the Meor Einayim says, that's what Chazal understood very well and said kol zman that it's samui min ha'ayin, a person doesn't know what's there, so then the bitachon is in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Then a person can be mispallel. No one should ask rachmana litzlan for the nisayon of poverty. Ayei, ya'eh ani'usa leyisrael, Hakadosh Baruch Hu decides when to apply that. No one asks for such a nisayon, but we certainly do have to be ready to deal, the Ribbono Shel Olam should, when we ask for חיים שיש בהם פרנסה, we should be ready to deal with the nisayon which goes along with that, the nisayon of having dvarim hamedudim and dvarim hamenuyim. There's another perspective on money. For many people it's natural, it's a part of human nature that they have trouble giving away money that they earned kedas ukedin, legally, legitimately. Hard to give away whatever we're talking about, however much s'chom or kefi matnas yodam that the person really is capable of giving, it's not always so easy to do. Beis Halevi has a beautiful, beautiful vort. I think as part of it he he comments as as others do as well, how the word venosnu is a palindrome. It goes forwards and backwards, it reads the same way, the word venosnu. And he gives a moshal like this. He says that our connection to money, he says, in terms of Olam Hazeh, he says, let's say a person amasses, a person earns so much money that people say Warren who, Bill who? That's how much money the person earns, okay? Really amasses an unimaginable, unimaginable fortune. So he says, so it's his money, right? So the Beis Halevi gives a moshal, gives a moshal like this. He says imagine you have a chest or a trunk. Inside the trunk there's a big cube of sugar. There's a little fly, a little fly. And then the trunk is closed, the chest is closed, so no one can, no one's going to take the... he says but what can the fly do? The fly can't take the, he can't move the cube of sugar. The fly can't take the cube of sugar with him anyway, it's just there. So he can sort of hover around it, and he can fly around it, and zehu zeh. Says the Beis Halevi, a person can amass wealth, but as long as a person just keeps it in his bank account, he's like the fly with the cube of sugar. The only way a person actually, actually acquires something enduring is when he gives it away. The only way, the only time, the only way that money is a real enduring acquisition is when a person gives it away. When a person spends the money the Ribono Shel Olam gives him, when a person channels the money the Ribono Shel Olam gives him, he spends it on on in paying Yeshiva tuition, he gives tzedaka, hachzakas Torah. Then a person acquires money, and that's the significance of venosnu being a palindrome. That by giving a person takes. But that's the only way a person takes. Otherwise he says he's like the fly with the cube of sugar. He may feel like a big shot that he has this cube of sugar in his in the chest with him, but what can he do with it? He can't do anything with it. And he says that's pshat in the Gemara that by Munbaz Hamelech that he opened up the otzros, he opened up the royal treasury that the aniyim should take and people said, what are you doing? You're giving away all this money that your ancestors saved up and you're being mevazbez all this money and he says, no, he says, aderaba. He says, my ancestors had nothing. He says, I'm taking the money. I'm making a kinyan on the money, I'm acquiring the money. A person is al pi din a person if if he earns enough to save a person is supposed to save. It's quite clear from the din of המבזבז אל יבזבז יותר מחומש שמא יצטרך לבריות that it's talking about someone who right now yitachen can afford to give more than a chomesh. Otherwise it's not shema yitzrach labriyos. It's he right now will be nitzrach labriyos. So it's clear that al pi din if if a person earns enough to save that that he's supposed to save a certain amount. But a person doesn't have to go to exaggerated lengths in doing that and because of that reduce the amount of tzedaka that that he really should be giving. A person doesn't have to provide for every possible contingency. A person can't provide. A person has to take reasonable hishtadlus. A person saves for normal foreseeable expenses. But but the the the exaggerated sense of of saving for every possible unforeseen expense, a person should save normally the way the way we do everything else with within a Torah perspective and with the rest should be mekayem venasnu. Should mekayem the Beis Halevi's venasnu. It's very difficult for us in this context or any related context in terms of knowing so how much how much do I need to to support my family properly and how much should I be saving. So I I'm I don't know I'm not very good at math I can't tell you dollars and cents. But one thing that we do need to be aware of is again that the society in which we live has crazy disproportionate exaggerated notions about this which even if we're not as crazy and as exaggerated and as disproportionate but often color our our perceptions. Chazal say and therefore it's true, adira na'ah gives a person harchavas hadaas. And harchavas hadaas certainly is is pivotal for functioning at maximum capacity. But one has to figure out what the definition of a dira na'ah is on Chazal's terms rather than America 2012. They're certainly not they're certainly not synonymous. There's a there's a very big disparity. Sometimes we make a mistake in thinking you know if if we have the money so what's so terrible. So there's a double mistake in that. There's a double mistake in that. A, excessive gashmius has a very negative corrosive effect on a person's ruchnius. The more the more indulgent a lifestyle we live. By definition, the the the weaker our our our ruchnius becomes. So it doesn't make a difference whether whether whether one effortlessly earns enough to sustain such a lifestyle, but the lifestyle itself is not is not a healthy lifestyle. Right? The issue in smoking cigarettes is not whether one can afford to spend the money on cigarettes; it's not a healthy thing to do. Excessive gashmius spiritually is not a healthy thing to do, even if the Ribono shel Olam has blessed us that it's well within within our means. That's mistake number one. Mistake number two is the assumption that, obviously in one sense it's true but in another sense it's not true, is that our money is our own and that therefore, so again, so what's wrong lema'aseh? Lema'aseh, we're Baruch Hashem earning very nicely, so what can be wrong if if the car is is is fancier than than than it has to be and if the house is bigger, significantly bigger than than than. But our money is our own in terms of in terms of issur gezel for for other people. In that sense, our money is certainly our own. It's certainly our own in terms of being given the responsibility and therefore the the discretion in in making decisions, but it's not our own in the sense that, as with every brocha, so with brocha comes responsibility. So it's not the pshat that because the Ribono shel Olam blesses me with with a very comfortable a very comfortable parnassah that I don't have to weigh that I don't have to weigh my expenses. No, I should be weighing my expenses the same way someone who who the Ribono shel Olam is giving a a much more limited parnassah to make sure that he can pay all his bills. So he's careful; he he spends thoughtfully. He doesn't spend thoughtlessly. No, he realizes the Ribono shel Olam gave him enough, so he spends he spends thoughtfully. Yaakov Avinu says yesh li kol, not yesh li rav. A person never has too much; a person has enough. He has enough for everything the Ribono shel Olam wants him to do with the money. So a person has to spend thoughtfully, whether it's because he's on the lower end of the of the earning scale and he has to spend thoughtfully to to to cover basic expenses, or even if he's at the opposite end. It doesn't mean that that less thought goes into what he does with the money. No, the money is a pikadon. The money is לי הכסף ולי הזהב. And the money should be spent thoughtfully to to maximize the avodas Hashem the same way a person has abilities. Okay, so a person has to thoughtfully figure out how he can maximize, how he can best marshal those abilities in in his avodas Hashem. So too, the Ribono shel Olam gives a brocha for which we we need to be tremendously grateful, but a brocha is is an opportunity and a responsibility to use and and draw upon as as thoughtfully as as we can.