The Blessing and Challenge of Wealth

We need to choose a life of Torah and the recognition and the realism that we can't simply graft Torah onto other things that are inconsistent, incompatible. So last week we spoke in terms of Hashkafos, in terms of values. Another very basic, very stark Bechirah which the Chovos HaLevavos formulates in the Hakdamah to Sha'ar Ahavas Hashem. So the Chovos HaLevavos writes:

כי מן הנמנע שתתיישב אהבת הבורא בלבנו עם התיישב אהבת העולם בנו.

One can't aspire to Ahavas Hashem if one holds on to Ahavas Olam Hazeh, again Ahavas Olam Hazeh in the mundane and Chumriyosdiker sense of Olam Hazeh. The underlying idea is no different than what the Rambam, Ramchal famously state later. We don't understand HaKadosh Baruch Hu, we can't define Him, but this much we do understand, that to come close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, it's a spiritual pursuit. And the more Gushmiyosdiker we are, the more weighed down and anchored by Chumriyos, the more impaired we are in that pursuit.

הנה שמה הקדוש ברוך הוא לאדם במקום שרבים בו המרחיקים אותו ממנו יתברך והם הם התאוות החומריות אשר אם ימשך אחריהן הנה הוא מתרחק והולך מן הטוב האמיתי.

I think the Chovos HaLevavos in some Nuschaos compares Ahavas Olam Hazeh versus Ahavas Olam Habah, their incompatibility to that of fire and water. And in the same way one can no sooner, no easily reconcile fire and water, we can't reconcile an Olam Hazehdike orientation—again, Olam Hazeh in terms of Olam Hazeh in its own right, not Olam Hazeh as a platform, as a venue for Avodas Hashem, of Hayom La'asosam, not Olam Hazeh in that sense. To the degree that we're oriented towards Olam Hazeh, to that degree we're not oriented and can't be oriented to Olam Habah. And it's a very clear and stark Bechirah that the Chovos HaLevavos elucidates for us. He's not talking about a regimen of asceticism, but what we are talking about is that one's interest and involvement in Olam Hazeh, what we aspire to is that it should be carefully, carefully calibrated. For what one needs for Avodas Hashem and one's goals, one's aspirations shouldn't be defined in Olam Hazeh-dik terms. Fulfillment doesn't come from career as understood in secular terms and success isn't measured in dollars and cents. And whether it's because of the natural innate yetzer hara that we have, whether it's because of the environment in which we live, sometimes we do try to make peace between fire and water. And obviously it's a futile effort. And again, to try to be as clear as possible, we're not talking about asceticism, we're not even talking about in the correct sense of the term deprivation. We're talking about having enough that a person is healthy and lives a dignified life and has hachsharas hadaas. But not, not mosros. It's a very, very difficult avodah for us because even, even when we commit ourselves to that avodah, the definitions of the society we live in are just so skewed and so off the mark that even when we aim for moderation, so sometimes the definition of moderation just isn't a definition that the Torah would endorse. We live in a very, very affluent society. And because of that, the way we define what's necessary, what's basic and what are mosros is often off the mark. We see it in many areas. To give one or two examples, the need, in quotation marks, that we feel and identify for all the updated technology. Every time the phone gets smarter, I think we get a little bit more foolish. I think there's an inverse relationship between those two. And we just take for granted that we need it. We need it. Another area in which it's good that we should make a cheshbon hanefesh, good that we should give ourselves some chizuk. According to the law of averages, I'd say that some of the people sitting in this room will be blessed and challenged again with that dual blessing and challenge of osher, of financial success. It's pretty... I think the rubba d'laka amman probably indicates that's the case. Fundamentally, there are one or two valid differences, but basically, fundamentally, the way a person lives shouldn't be all that different because Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestows that blessing and challenge of osher. The main difference in lifestyle should be that one gives much larger amounts tzedakah. That should be the main difference in lifestyle when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives the... At a certain point, אדירה נאה מרחיבה דעתו של אדם, but at a certain point, even if one can afford it, and afford it without hardship because of ברכת השם היא תעשיר, at a certain point, it crosses the line from harchavat hada'at to ahavat ha'olam hazeh. Obviously, the world we live in takes for granted that if you can afford it, by all means, it's totally legitimate to avail yourself of it. As long as we're still mired in ahavat olam hazeh, the prospect of scaling back seems painful. And in truth, initially, it is. But transposing what the Gaon says in a different context, that sense of sacrificing is one that one only feels initially. By instead of being mired in ahavas olam hazeh, being immersed in Torah u'mitzvos is just so incomparably different and greater, not just greater in a quantitative sense, but incomparably different in a qualitative sense, that it's not as if one goes through life feeling that he's missing out. Aderaba, the sipuk hanefesh which one has can't be had through ahavas olam hazeh.

אוהב כסף לא ישבע כסף אין אדם מת וחצי תאוותו בידו.

But the osher with an aleph, the reorienting ourselves towards olam haba, the osher with an aleph which ensues from cultivating an ahavas olam haba, משל למה הדבר דומה: when you look back as an adult on some of the things that were important and meaningful to you as a little child, and obviously from the perspective of an adult, they're no longer meaningful, they're no longer important. And the same experience happens as one, again, transitions from ahavas olam hazeh to ahavas olam haba, and one reorients, and that's a fundamental, fundamental area and a fundamental, fundamental bechirah that we need to make.