By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
The best place for money is in the bank.
Right?
Maybe not.
Over the past few weeks there have been some banks in the USA that have gone bankrupt.
So what should a person do with his money?
Put it under the mattress? Invest it in real estate? Convert it into diamonds?
I am not a financial advisor, and this is not a money management column.
This is an article that transmits Torah teachings and values.
From the Torah’s perspective ‘You only own what you give away’
The following story illustrates this point.
In medieval Europe a rabbi was appointed senior adviser at the royal court. At one point, the rabbi was asked to disclose the records of his holdings. The rabbi, a wealthy man, produced a list and hand delivered it to the king.
However, upon investigation it was discovered that many of his properties were not listed. The ministers brought their discovery to the king, and accused the rabbi of deceit.
The rabbi explained: "When the king asked me to disclose my holdings I included only those properties and funds that I have donated to charity. Those are the holdings I know will always be mine. All other properties do not truly belong to me, for today they are mine and tomorrow they may be taken from me..."
I have heard people tell personal stories that attest to the same point.
Max (Menachem Mendel) who survived the Holocaust by jumping off the train to Treblinka, told me the following.
‘My father used to send me with sums of money to the post office to send ‘money orders’ to his Rebbe for distribution to tzedakah. He asked me not to tell my mother as my mother would chide my father for giving tzedakah too generously. She would say ‘better put aside the money for the expenses of our children that we need to marry off’. (She didn’t really know the intricacies of the business and the extent of my father’s business success).
Max emotionally concluded ‘by the end of the Holocaust no one remained alive and most of the family money was lost due to the war’.
The money that Max’s father had distributed to tzedakah endures and remains the spiritual possessions and legacy of the family.
A friend from my Yeshiva days told me the following inspiring story that took place a year or two ago.
At the end of a spirited ‘Seduat Mashiach’ (meal eating at the end of Pesach) his friend invited him to match his donation of a few hundred thousand dollars to a worthy charity. Under the influence of the inspiration of the ‘four cups’ traditionally drank at that end of Pesach meal, my friend took upon himself the half a million dollars matching donation.
The next day, when the inspiration was not as strong, he started having gnawing doubts about the size of his largesse.
A short while later he noticed that a start-up stock that he had invested one hundred thousand dollars in, had risen to five times its initial price and was now worth five hundred thousand dollars.
He sold the stock and paid his inspired pledge of half a million dollars.
In my friends’ words ‘by nature I am a ‘holder’ of investments and don’t usually sell. If not for this super generous donation I had committed to, I would not have sold this investment stock’.
A few weeks later the stock price came down and was worth less than what he had paid for it.
Incredible story. The four hundred thousand dollars that my friend ‘made’, would have dissipated and disappeared. It would have been one of those ‘paper money’ stories that was merely a ‘mountain and valley’ on the graph of the stock value.
Now that the money was given to Tzedaka, the money was transformed into the mitzva of building a House of Prayer and a House of Torah Study.
This kind of ‘profit’ can never be taken away.
I am in New York visiting donors to solicit funds for our Passover Seders, (we are expecting some nine thousand guests at our Thailand locations). By Divine Providence I visited one of my dear donor friends just after he finished wiping tears of emotion from his eyes.
Listen to his uplifting story.
Someone had tried to swindle me by selling me an item that turned out to be inauthentic. It took several years and much effort and expense to get my money back. I had decided that I didn’t want that money back. If I succeeded in reclaiming the money, I would give that recouped money to tzedakah. I would distribute these funds to charities that were not in my usual repertoire.
I won the case thank G-d. The swindler was forced to reimburse me for his dishonesty. I now had a respectable amount of money to distribute to tzedakah.
One of the causes that I donated to, was a fund that provides financial support to couples suffering from infertility.
Just before you walked in, I received a note of gratitude from a couple who was blessed with children after receiving my help with infertility treatments.
I am overcome with emotion at the great gift that I received through giving this tzedakah.
This is a gift of tzedakah that is everlasting. As the children born through the gift of his help, will in turn please G-d have children etc etc.
The Parsha’s of this week (Vayakhel and Pekudei) describes the exemplary generosity and giving that the Jewish people exhibited in the contributions to building the Mishkan. The women led the way with their enthusiastic participation and the men followed suit. To the extent that Moshe had to announce that the collection was over as the coffers were full.
By giving physical tzedakah one is able to create a space of holiness for G-d to reside. It’s empowering and uplifting to know that we can transform our physical possessions into conduits of G-d’s Holiness. Click here for a deep teaching on this concept.
The first thing we should do when we get reminded about the uncertainty of money by failing banks and financial markets shakeups, is to make sure to invest in the most secure and everlasting asset.
Tzedakah.
Giving to others.
During such times we ought to strengthen our commitment to tithing our money. The Torah teaches us that we should be giving ten (to twenty) percent of our incomes to Tzedaka. (If someone doesn’t have enough for their own rudimentary needs of life this obligation is adjusted accordingly).
The Torah also promises that if you give Maaser (tithe), you get blessings that bring you additional finances. Click here for more regarding this ‘promise’.
Try it.
And what to do with the other eighty or ninety percent?
As I said from the outset, I am not a financial advisor. However I do want to bring to your attention the special blessing that is connected to the holy land of Israel. Even when it comes to investing your money.
Click here to see the Rebbe advise someone that Eretz Yisrael is the surest place for Jewish people to invest.
May we all be blessed with an abundance of material blessings so that we can give tzedakah to help Jewish institutions and needy people with abundance.
Tzedakah is a most impactful way to bring the Redemption sooner.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor