Questions in the Court of Heaven

foreign is that it's a it's never ending there's a a lot going on there's a uh a lot of moving parts and when I was thinking about what to talk about tonight because there are so many moving Parts I know that there's one pressing topic that is constantly on people's mind is money uh money business work uh business decisions all types of things the stock market is up the stock market is down all of these different things and of course before we uh get into the the holiday of uh of uh Shavuot the rambam paskins part of the preparation for yomtov we have to give the car we have to to uh invest in Torah and help the poor uh you know money is constantly involved in our life and quite frankly one of the things that I've found and I've learned is that really there's money says a lot about a person and but one thing that uh always stood in my mind says something really extraordinary we've mentioned in the past but I've always thought about it in a certain way but today perhaps we'll look at it in a slightly different way where in the name of rava it says that when a uh a person dies and he's going to his judgment in uh you know after his death in the uh in the court of Heaven the uh Heavenly tribunal says to him did you conduct your business transactions with emuna did you set aside fixed times for Torah did you engage in procreation did you wait in Hope of the Messianic salvation did you delve into wisdom when you learned Torah did you learn it deeply and infer one thing from another but if so all this is only of limited consequence if fear of God was this person's storehouse if yes then they'll have a favorable judgment and if not then the judgment is not favorable in so many words the gemara tells us that as soon as a person goes up to Chennai he's he or she is asked the series of questions about the the mashiach the the uh the the their time of learning Torah the whether they try to have children all of these different things and of course the foundation of everything is did you have you at your mind did you have fear of the almighty because if you did then surely that fear of the almighty uh made sure that whatever actions you did you did uh were the right thing and if you didn't have fear of the almighty then we have to investigate every single little act because surely there is going to be uh problems going to be damage is going to be mold spiritual mold in your actions if there's no you got your mind even you're learning of Torah could be for the sake of Honor could be for the sake of money could be for the sake of uh debating uh uh people to show yourself as if you're a uh Smarter Than People the point being is is that if there's no fear of heaven then all of our all of our actions even the good ones are questionable now this so far we've already reviewed in the past but the one thing that we see here is that when we think of of what's going to happen when we go up to Chennai uh and needless to say what's going to happen when mashiach comes if we have the Merit to uh to see mashiach uh it's in essence there's multiple judgments there's the Judgment in a time of mashiach the Judgment of uh when a person dies and is also a judgment of the uh you know yamadina gadol which is a uh you know when after the whole Messianic uh time is uh in essence gets to its culmination and as the resurrection of the dead now the point being is is that we're going to be asked these questions but regardless of who and what you are you have to deal with the fact that the first question says that a person is asked is how did you manage your money how did you conduct your business how did you operate how did you function when it came to the issues of money and of course you could say what we've said in the past that if a person it says that you conduct your business with emunah with faith meaning did you uh uh uh steal money did you uh have a Muna and Hashem that everything's gonna be okay all of these things are correct but also further when we think about it is that why is it the first question why isn't did you learn tala or did you think about mashiach now or did all of the other questions why is money the first question and in fact it's because money tells us a lot about a person the more you know about how a person operates when it comes to money the more you know how the person is if money is the top priority of their life you already know where their spiritual status is you know what where uh you know which direction they're going to vote where they're going to live which friends they're going to associate with uh what things uh are their priority in life if a person makes money their uh their God then surely you know that they're in a very lowly state if a person is careless about money it uh also tells you a lot about a person and it's not necessarily a good thing uh you can't necessarily be careless about money uh you know we're actually very very uh uh uh careful with their money very very careful with their money some of the stories that we hear about the sages and the camera about how they acted with money you would think that they uh uh they they lost their mind but no it's because they knew that to get panasa is a uh is not such a simple thing a person uh has to Value whatever blessing Hashem gives them and if he disregards it and uh and is uh very uh uh careless about the money when by taking uh uh not taking care of the money by splurging it on nonsense uh by uh you know going to casinos and gambling and things of that nature going to prostitutes then medic already uh promises that this person will eventually lose all of his money needless to say if the person is in involved in dishonest businesses and so on [Music]