By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
I recently met a friend who is several decades older than me. When I asked him how business is going, as thank G-d he is still sprightly and active in the business world, he told me ‘better don’t ask’. So of course, I did ask….
It turns out that he is facing a considerable tax liability. That puzzled me. Twenty years ago, this friend had told me that his tax status was set up in a very efficient manner. What had changed I asked him? To which my friend replied with a sigh, ‘the companies I established remained the same. However, the tax laws have changed several times’.
It seems that what was an perfectly acceptable tax arrangement years ago, has now turned into a liability.
I was saddened to hear that at eighty plus years old, my friend may have to make serious changes in his lifestyle. Not because he did anything wrong or hadn’t planned well. Simply because the laws had changed.
We are living in a time of radical change.
To cite but a few examples:
The USA/China trade war and the tariffs that have been imposed have changed the entire manufacturing landscape of the world. I see this firsthand as businesspeople have started flocking to Thailand and its neighboring countries looking for new manufacturing opportunities to replace China.
Hong Kong, for so many decades was a great success story. Who can now even pretend to know what will happen there?
Many people who came to Thailand to retire based their calculations on fixed pensions that they receive in their home country. Someone complained to me that fourteen years ago when he decided to retire in Thailand, he was receiving seventy-seven THB to the GBP. Now he gets only thirty-nine baht to the pound. Additionally, the cost of living has gone up. He is considering moving away from Thailand. Another elderly person told me before he passed away that he had lived beyond his life expectancy and had used up his savings. When he had saved for old age it was expected that he would not be alive by age eighty. By the time he reached the ages of eighty, the average life expectancy went up and he lived for many more years, becoming impoverished at some stage.
Things don’t remain the same.
People who said or did things that were in the vogue several decades ago, now find themselves sounding like insensitive boors when held to todays standards.
Vaping was in. Vaping is out.
Marijuana was an outlawed drug almost everywhere till very recently. Today its not so simple. Depends where.
I think you get my point.
One thing is for certain.
Hashem!
His Torah.
His people.
They are here to stay!
Even the NY Times editors recognized that
. In the mock edition of the NY Times year 2100 edition, the Shabbat candle lighting times are printed in the bottom corner. The editor said, we don't know what will be. But one thing is certain. Jewish women and girls will be lighting the Shabbat candles on Friday afternoon.
Judaism is about fulfilling G-ds commandments.
G-d is infinite and unchanging.
G-d’s mitzvahs are eternal.
We may not always find it easy to live up to the fulfillment of Almighty G-d’s commandments. We must work on ourselves to get better at fulfilling the mitzvahs. Not G-d forbid change the mitzvahs to accommodate our ever-evolving lifestyles.
Talking about taxation laws, there is an interesting connection to this weeks Parsha of Vayetze.
In this week’s parsha, Yaakov, while running away from his brother Esav, pledges to give a tithe to G-d from everything G-d will give him.
This ‘tax structure’ of sorts, the ten percent tithing that Jews are obligated to give to charity, has been around for four thousand years. And it aint goin’ anywhere. It’s here to stay!
Besides for being the right thing to do, it also brings with it the ability to do more. For our Sages taught that giving ten percent to Tzedaka of one’s earnings is the surest way to earn G-d’s blessings of wealth. More wealth means more opportunity to give.
Tzedaka, just like all the other mitzvahs, is a mitzvah that is here for eternity.
Not just on ‘Giving Tuesday’.
Tzedakah is a mitzvah EVERY DAY!
The more you exercise the ‘muscle’ of giving, the stronger it becomes. The easier it is to give. The more you want and enjoy to give.
Besides for the ‘bigger’ donations at various occasions, or to pet causes, make sure to make giving a regular activity in your life. At least once a day (besides for Shabbat and Chagim when you must give before the onset of Shabbat).
Take a moment every day to put a coin into a Tzedaka box. Or give a gift to a poor person. Or do it via your ‘best friend’ your phone… (and thus bring some more holiness into the mundane world of electronics) and give an electronic donation to tzedakah.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Kantor