Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein - A Talmudic look at "Why we love money more than life."

uh the name of the class is called um the golden cow that jumped over the moon and the idea behind the class is really we're going to as I sort of become my new nature in the way that I like to teach uh I try to bring numerous sources from the Gamora and I try to do sort of at a hop skip and a jump where giving people a view from the vision of the Tano and the amarim that I feel unfortunately sometimes even if you come from a Yeshiva kind of background many times you're not involved in these particular goras or these particular sections or maybe they aren't presented in a kind of cohesive overall view so what this is going to be is drawing from that and I broken down the class really into 10 parts don't get nervous they're not long Parts but the 10 parts basically start off with an intro then we're going to go into a little bit about the idea of the golden calf very little then we're going to go into a section called dreaming about money because after all I figur you know we all do how to become rich that I put in the middle of the class that way people will stay awake for that part uh good examples of being uh Rich the value of money and then the negative impact that money can have on a person and the negative impact that money can have have even on righteous and holy people and then from there we go that uh kosher money is Holy and therefore it's dear and then we conclude the class with it's all about God but the the process that we're going to go by looking at each one of these sections is really built upon I mean obviously it's built upon the cow that jumped over the moon but it goes much deeper than that and that is because the moon as we know if we really look at creation creation is one big set up we've all been framed we had been set up for a loss from the beginning of the word go and all started from the moment that the moon was shrunk because the moon had no free will so therefore it's not comparable to the later level of the trees which did not bear their fruit and taste the way they were supposed to which was correlated to man's sin because man and tree are one and of the same but rather it was to indicate to us that it was the will of God that we would be in a world created darkness and through this Darkness we would have a phenomenal unique but limited opportunity to create light and through that we could create partnership with God as Sol ofri says When God says let us create man solic learns that he was talking to man he was saying to man let us make man I'll give you everything you need I'll give you oxygen respiratory food you name it I'll give it to you but the one thing you have to give back to me is Free Will is your irat Shay is that awareness of me we're going to play hide and go seek I'm going to hide in a world of opaque nature and you're going to seek the light and find me wherever I am and I'm everywhere so it shouldn't be very hard so that becomes the game that we live in that becomes the challenge that we are the problem is which is of course the problem and the blessing because this is the beauty of free will that we have that kind of double sword or double sided uh choice is that within that power of seeking God we could also be blinded by that light we could be Blinded By the Light because that could be the light glittering from gold or from silver and gold and silver ultimately could become idols and what really are Idols right so the difference between an idol and worshiping God is that the focus in worshiping God is that we understand God as the center of everything thus one of the names of God called ham which means the place because God is everywhere so therefore God being the center of everything we live our lives in a humble approach to a appreciation that I have no right to anything and yet I get everything and therefore I have hak I have thankfulness to God and in the same thing therefore how can I express that which God created me uniquely in this world right I always say there's no such thing as two snowflakes are the same so certainly no two human beings are the same and therefore to waste our lives looking at other people and through them determining our behavior and how we act and how we dress is a horrible shame because we have a uniqueness in us that nobody else will ever or has ever had and unless we discover that uniqueness we forfeit our Beauty from what we are created in this world so therefore one who really believes in God sees creativity as a criteria to life it's not really oh I am creative and therefore I have my ego and this blows me up into who I am and now I have an identity it's quite the opposite it's it's God who's embedded me with talent and these little packages in my software are there for me to unfold and to express so not bringing out my creativity is negating creation because I'm supposed to be a part in creation the opposite with idolatry is I determine who is God I determine what God can do or what God can't do or what this God can do and he or she could fight with that God and all the rest of it because at some point some level I have to realize that it's not really all about me so I have to understand the greater world that I can't really claim credit to so I can create a ficti of paganism or gods of which therefore I ascribe to them these Powers but really it's all about me I am God and that becomes the challenge really in our Free Will as to how we go about that so therefore in this world of darkness when we understand the light of God we understand that there's an amazing Beauty in the downfall because the downfall occurs in the shrinking of the Moon and therefore the Moon is the very thing which we know at the end of the days will return to being as bright as the Sun so therefore what we understand that even in that part of creation which is predetermined towards let's call it deterioration still innately in there is the success that will happen the very last thing that happens is actually embedded in the very first thought so therefore God thinks how do I create an opaque world of darkness and evil through which man can ascribe to becoming independent but yet in the service of God and the answer is that embedded in that downfall is its own restitution and its completion in its future state of a revealed Moon so therefore the cow that jumps over the moon or the golden calf that jumps over the Moon is really the variety these excuse me these two aspects either understanding that what you see is not what you get so when you look at the Moon today that is not what you really are getting because this moon is ultimately the moon which is the revelation of all creation or there is the golden glitter if you want of the jumping cow going over the moon that distracts us from that so that's that's kind of like the the beginning point if you will I mean obviously money is probably one of those powerful forces in the universe that we know people corrupt themselves over money people learn to lie over money and and it becomes okay it actually becomes a mitzvah for lie people commit suicide over money money is incredibly powerful force I remember uh during the bubble break there was a a cartoon I think it was in the New Yorker but it was a bunch of people standing online in a roof in a building on Wall Street waiting their turn to commit suicide to jump off the edge and all of a sudden one guy says hey wait a minute my grandfather jumped off in 19 you know so there is this power of money that can destroy one's life or live one's whole life for it remember there was also a t-shirt t-shirt used to say the person with the most amount of things when they die wins and then somebody else came out with a t-shir says the person with the most amount of things when he dies still dies so except for korak nobody takes it with them right so therefore although there was also a cute cartoon I remember in the New Yorker there was like a nvo dead guy and uh there was an angel and he was like obviously showing this person around and the two of them were in the foreground and there's a delpo foursided with angels and computers and this and that and then there were dead people with wings and FL Flatt jacket suits and and briefcases flying in and out and this little host Angel is telling the newvo dead guys say yeah yeah those are the ones that did take it with them still cutting the deals and still rolling and so on but anyhow this is really what we want to look at is this sacrifice that people are willing to make for money and that same sacrifice really believe it or not as we'll see a bit later is the sacrifice that we can actually acquire life instead it's the sacrifice of Y which is connected to the half shekele which we'll get to a little bit later but it's all about power and the power can be used for good or the power can be used for bad okay so the starting point is something that I think all of us are familiar with it's gor in Sedin it's also gor in bras by the way I speak ashaz Hebrew so if you want you can put on the subtitles here will translate into modern EK just so that you're not surprised but the H quotes the famous gor which we all know from oh sorry from our kma which is it says and you will serve God with all of your and all of your and then we come to and theor asks what is so on the one hand gor talks about with all of your power on the other hand it also talks about with all of your character traits but it also talks about that which is all of your money and your finances because as the gamorra recognizes there are people who actually love money more than life and this is rooted in a very deep idea from the bmov on the word which is also connected to the word m m is very when you look at the seven days of creation nowhere do you see God say I mean unless he was a rapper God says you know yeah that's bad right everything is good or it's nothing or it's double good where is bad so the mid comes along it says that God created bad or evil or what have you on the sixth day and where do you find that Creation in the words very good where all the other days were good on the sixth day was very good and the me says what's very good yes thear the angel of death right the the Satan right this is like a really M&S Planet we're living on here God says woo this is really really good this is like you know look you got the angel of death and that's what God is calling very good that's kind of wacko so the bmov explains that that's not what the medish means the medish means that it's the word very which is the creation of evil good is good but when it becomes distorted it becomes bad when it becomes too much or to little then it's no longer the good it was innately created to be and therefore this tood is the creation of man which is why the letters for the word m is Adam so when man is no longer in Harmony and in sync as he or she is created to be when we go God forbid into confusion which leads to illusion and we think Ah that's who I am and we're off the mark that becomes very that's the Distortion that loses that Clarity so this is the when all of a sudden rather than being Adam and seeing everything including the power of gold and silver in the service of God when we lose that focus it becomes it because my power my strength my ability that becomes the unfortunate level that leads towards people could loving life uh sorry money even more than life I I mean I I'm assuming there are few of you here that probably remember Jack Benny the famous Jack Benny line guy comes over with a gun and he said says your money or your life and Jack Benny doesn't say anything and the guy says I said your money or your life and Jack said I know I know I'm thinking I'm thinking right so there are people who unfortunately that is a real serious decision the gamor says in in chabas it says there that people who spoil themselves with riches quote the gomorah covering themselves with gold and silver are considered as worthless when it comes to being productive in society not a purpose for being alive blame I guess you might call that and how does the gamor actually deal with this this a very amazing Insight from reab nak of breev based on the gor theor gor and dor there says that all the NV were wealthy and Rashi points out that when the navi would have when the prophet would have his prophecy he would appear as if he was muga as if he was like mentally insane out of his mind and reab nman says that this is a remes this is teaching us that that when a person receives a tremendous amount of money like the prophets but they have not made themselves into a holy vessel then they actually are receiving what's called Fallen prophecy and the money can destroy their lives and bury them as we'll see later and therefore this idea of the power through money is also reflected in a very cute gamor baba msah D will be to in a few more months it says there the gor says that a person who is A lender will not believe a borrower if they're in court over a claim but the borrower will tend to believe the lender why why why would you know Ruben believe Shimon more than Shimon would believe Ruben just because one guy made the loan the other guy took the loan the gor offers a very interesting insight into human psyche because the lender believes that the borrower I.E the poor guy who needed the money is only poor because obviously he has sinned and has of bad behavior and therefore has not received the appropriate blessing and the borrower will believe the lender because he will live under the insane assumption well if he's Rich he must be rich because he's obviously a good man who doesn't sin so that is human psyche we fall into this Insanity of believing that a person's financial status is an indicator of the quality of the Soul by which after 12 years when they stand before God not impressed it's not impressive you know you can't really like come into heaven with Alexis it doesn't really work so taking this to the next level part two the idea of the golden Camp the gor bras actually points out a very interesting thing it says that one of the most difficult tasks that mosha had leaving Egypt was getting the Jews to agree to go get the money out of the Egyptian homes I mean obviously they said isn't it enough that we're getting out with our lives that we have to then go and also ask for money we don't want the money so in a certain sense the gamor says that God forced the Jews to take the money and in the end the gorah says that one who fills his stomach meaning one who is satiated with their money is somebody who can perform all kind of evil in fact that's what the gamor says that when a person receives money as well and they don't use it in its proper way which we'll see in a minute right money and left money if that happens then this is actually called Fallen kindness God extends money as kindness and if we misuse that it's dropping or the kindness becomes fallen in fact ironically the G BR also goes on to say that mosha blamed God for the building of the golden calf because he had warned God metaphorically speaking that by giving them too much money they would come to this kind of a tragedy the S hedin adds on one more note on that well and it says that the the problem with the Jews having too much money during that particular episode or maybe any episode is because it says that a person who becomes very wealthy can live under the illusion that he is above God's law you know mitv or whatever whatever because I really need this connection to God somebody posted on Facebook the other day from the kutari he no sorry from hner Z he said there that it's not that we pray to get out of trouble but it's rather God puts us in trouble so we will pray so there really is an idea that this concept is when a person feels financially secure in every way they suddenly feel they don't need God I'm sure you all know the the story of the joke about the guy who's drowning and swimming and praying to God if you just get me just get then finally finally gets to the sh and says never mind God I I I got here okay I'm I'm really fine so that really is the challenge we need to understand and this is called the challenge of wealth I when I was in Yeshiva there was a mosha Goldman a friend of mine from Los Angeles and a real character grew up in Anaheim I think he was Anaheim before Disney and uh one day one of the rabbis is giving a class and he talks about to om to stand in the test of money is probably one of the most difficult challenges a person could face and of course mosha jumps up in the middle of the room and he yells out oh Lord test me lay it on let me prove to you my loyalty and how I will be able to react I I have to just tell you there are there are people I have been fortunate enough I'll just tell you a quick personal story uh I was once involved in business with a man unfortunately no longer alive he was a GID from London he was in the 19 late 70s early 80s uh valued as a multibillionaire which was a very not as common as it is today uh he was one of the largest Coco traders in the world at the time and we were staying at his house uh for Shabbat and myself and a friend we were coming back to Israel and just to could place the year he was going to New York for the day on the Concord so the rolls was in the shop so we had to go in the Volo station wagon right 1979 1980 he had like one of the first phones in a car and he's sitting in the front with a you know chauffeur who with the white gloves and label and I are in the back and as we're driving we are listening obviously to the business you know he's bringing in General Electric uh refrigerators that got the hborg 2 days earlier and they won't open up the port and he's yelling at this guy in Germany he's got to open him up and this and that and in the middle of this my buddy sneezes and the guy like this without a blink of an eye puts his hand over the phone and speak yish but he turns around and says be ached may you be blessed like the I mean in the middle of it all his ear had not lost that kind of sensitivity and then which I found even more incredible because okay fine we were like you know house members in a way he's talking to the man now back at his main office and the guy says oh and our host says o I don't have any American money so the guy says you know what I'll send down Timothy not a Jewish name right I'm going to send down Timothy and he'll have $1,000 give me your passport he'll stamp your passport you'll be fine so this cidic Jew looks out the window and he says you know it's raining I don't want Timothy to catch a cold I'll tell you when to send them down and here's a man who was a member of the Queen's bow hat Club I mean this was a very serious mover and Shaker but it meant nothing to him to him all this money all this power was just an incredible opportunity that he felt blessed by God to be able to do good and bring good into the world he never saw it that this is who I am he rather saw that this is a gift that God has given to me to be able to go forward and that's why the gor says that the rectification of the sin of the golden calf was the giving of the half shekele to go a little bit into a cabalistic idea the gamorra tells us there are certain words that are used throughout the talwood of currencies and a shekele is worth 20 gr gr rather and a half shekele therefore is worth 10 gor now 10 as we know always represent the 10 points the 10 chakras if you will or I call them the shockings the 10 shockings in the person that are the three levels towards connecting to heaven the seven points in the body and through there becomes a complete illumination so the story is like this on the one hand the idea of the half shekele teaches us that all human beings in the eyes of God are of equal creation that's really what it's all about no one person has a greater value than another person the second lesson is that we need each other cuz I'm only a half and without you I'm nothing together we are a whole but it also teaches me a deeper lesson although I need to join with you and become friends with you because by myself I'm only half a shekele on the other hand I have innately inside of me these 10 points which means that I have embedded the capability to fulfill every purpose and reason I am living when God creates each one of us in our unique Journeys through our lives every person we encounter everything we experience be it from poverty to wealth from Health to God forbid all of these are the exact specifically designed elements we need to reach personal fulfillment it's all in us and this is why this idea of gr which is the reference to the coin is also the name of the city G where was Associated because Yak was the idea of self-sacrifice self- sacrifice is not a depressing negative thing because the name y means laughter or humor so therefore y had the amazing ability to be able to laugh at life to be able to see life in a way where he could understand the irony the Divine humor in every everything and yet at the same time take every element of life as extremely important and serious to the point where he therefore could even sacrific his life and according to sual was the first person who actually went through the resurrection of the Dead that there is an opinion that he actually was slaughtered by his father Abraham and then he was the one that came back to life I don't want to go into that but if you want one little uh token on that that's why of the three oh it's like this it's not seven the three the forefathers right they each one of those three correlate to each one of the first three blessings of the Shimon es of the standing prayer and what was what is the second prayer the resurrection of the Dead which is y okay so let's talk let's go back off onto something else for a minute just kind of like a little fun sidebar for a minute and this is called dreaming about money these are just random as Obama would say R2 T2 no it's actually like what was that e r uh these are like random selections from uh the gamor about people have dreams and the power of dreams and the way that they affect money so gamor and bro says uh there are five things that it says about seeing an ox in a dream but the good news is if the ox is eating you it means you will become rich I guess there won't be any oxident if also the BR says if you see a planted Hadas I think that's called a it means wealth is on the way if you see a snake in the dream it means your income your parnasa is been prepared but if the snake fights you then you're going to get double your income but if you're stupid enough to kill a snake then you lose all the money H this is a good question but that's not from the T this is why do we study T question which is a wonderful question and I invite you to do your homework on that but I can't go there right now the gamor also continues and it says if a person sees a small pomegranate in a dream his business will grow if it's a big pomegranate it'll be very successful and if it's olives his business will also be successful if you see reelz benar which I don't know how we would recognize him but if you did then the gamor says you are definitely on your way to Mega buck and in case you don't know who this was I also brought the gar bet that says that as an example benar was so well that his flock you know there's a law and Jewish law that you have to tithe your first born from the herd each year his herds produce 130,000 tith animals yearly okay and then the gor says that if you see any fruit except for an unright date that is a good sign and the best are turnup but with their stem why because the gor says that ra one of the great amaram said he only became Rich once he had a dream of a turnup with a stem okay so that's dream need about money let's go now into how to become rich it also be kind of appropriate because this is obviously not just something unique to our generation gor Nita one of my favorite goras is this particular gamor talks about the wise men of Alexandria who came to Yeshua and they said to him how does a person become rich actually there's a series of questions but we're only focusing on this particular one and the gamorra uses the same template for each one of them but the the template here is he says well a person should spend more time at work and make sure that all the business that he or she does is honest business Naki kapayim Clean Hands in business and the gamor said oh sorry they said ah but many people did that and they failed so says you have to pray for your money because it says God owns all the money and so therefore the gor's conclusion is you have to do both but this is why I love this Gamora the Von steps up the bat and you know if you ever want to like there's a certain vernacular maybe some of you know this I call it Yesa vernacular it's like kind of like In Like Flint you know if you're not to talk iish you can move among certain circles and they'll kind of let move so if you ever want to like be cool you got to learn these two words geus hak which means the way the Von modifies a text in the tomwood you already talk about geus okay you can come and eat chill up with us but that that's like like a key term to really be yeshivish is gear a so the gear a here takes out of what we call in the ttic language the havina he takes out of the even initial thought the words work more like don't even think for a minute that working more will have any equation to becoming rich don't think of that working honestly he leaves that prayer for sure but don't think that working more has anything to do with making more money you know I have a friend of mine used to be the head psychiatrist at SLO tat Hospital in New York uh Australia and he would tell me about all the different clients he had I mean one guy was the head of the rley bar barly circus one guy was like a major Banker from Chase this that one guy from Tokyo all over the world very wealthy powerful people he said there's one thing I never heard and that was anybody said H I wish I'd spent more time at the office so working more can actually be the opposite of actually making money because it diminishes although we have to live in the real world we have to function according to the way life is all about on the other hand we have to also realize that at the end of the day it's all about God which will be the conclusion of this class the gamor says and this we all know it's a famous gor Baba baser that says there because our financial income is anyhow predetermined on rash how much a person will make during the year is determined there although we're going to see later in the gor in the class rather but that's not really the case that's the default what we're supposed to get if we don't do anything anything about it is on rash but at the end of the day there are other factors that can actually change that theor toos in theor reveals that success and blessing in business comes from having fixed time in studying Torah because we have an idea mostly associated with food which is called I and Tel that which is primary and that which is secondary which doesn't necessarily mean in terms of size it means more in terms of quality and therefore even if a person has to work many hours and has to work hard if they have a fixed moment in their day even 15 minutes a day where they turn off this world and they turn on a world of wisdom and that's the part of the day that they long for then it actually establishes that the nature of their life is a life about becoming wise and becoming real rather than merely focusing on becoming rich which is we will see later as well can be dangerous actually I have it right here now it's the B Basra this is U oh no this is not the one I'm thinking of but this is kind of cool also this is T fun the gor says in Baba Basra it says if you put your bed and thank you if you put your bed in your table in the north of your house you will become rich but if you put them in the south of your house you will become wise and then the gor quickly throws in and if you become wise then you'll become rich so probably better to go for the South so here we're going to move now into what are good examples of how to be rich how does one find the blessing this one might have mixed reaction but it's also goria it says that honoring one's wife brings wealth and actually theor also over there says if you ever by the way if any of you married orever planning to be married this is the Amud and Shas that you must learn and I'll tell you how you could remember it because you could might think that it's just a bunch of Bubba misas but it's really Bubba mitas they're real msas that you're finding here and where are they on am net 59a and how do you remember that because nunet is what not to do in a marriage so it's a great alud to take a look at and there's a tremendous amount of wealth over there uh that gamor there says you know if your wife is short bend over and listen to her there's a lot a lot of wisdom to be found in married life but it says that there's no blessing in one's home except through the Merit of the wife theor s hedin says that understanding and wisdom can also lead to Rich but says the easy way hang out with rich people and it says in Shu the old expression it says if you touch an anointed man you become anointed that the idea that money richness sort of rubs off I always felt that like cuz you if you're walking with a a really rich person who sneeze what they would call chunk change falls out of their pocket that could be enough to buy an apartment or something so you're right there you know you're like close to be able to pick that up the G Bia says that another way to increase your profitability is not is to do business with partners because the idea that the whole is greater than the sum total of the parts so therefore maybe your Merit my Merit is not enough to really break through but Collective Merit can be beneficial to financial success and then the gorra inuring says that anyone who keeps a safer Torah in their home their home ultimately will become filled with riches the gamor Aran suggests how do you Pro protect windfall profits so the gamor says that anybody who earns a lot of money with no effort can very easily lose that money through the evil eye and therefore they should invest some of that money into mitzvot such as even purchasing a sa Torah theor horio says if you really want to know if you'll be successful in business I'm not sure people still do this today but you can try it buy a rooster and if as you're starting your business you see that the rooster is getting nice and fat that's a good sign that you will be successful goris says that in terms of Investments the best investment is always to buy land and then houses and then food fields and then Orchards and last but not least which I find surprising grap VES don't know why if says that if you buy your for your ti from an expert you will find success in business maybe that's CU what we talking about before connection between andas and Jewish business people it's always about Tas so it's the bottom line you know where's the deal coming shaba says that washing one's hands generously with a lot of water leads to wealth and of course the famous gor in shabas and also in Tinus that the way to become wealthy is by tithing or Meer your money giving honor to the Torah and honor to shabbat because the famous Gus says that the only time we are invited to actually test God is through taking off a t of our income you have to be careful here because the glor elsewhere says that one should not give away too much of their money in which you suddenly wind up becoming dependent on charity however when it talks about taking off a tent you really need to talk to somebody who's knowledgeable it's not gross income it's not gross revenue I should say there are tax deductions even before you take your tenth so just understand if you're going to do that because it's a heavy move but it really could put you to the acid test do you really believe in God right the guy falls off the cliff and he's holding on to the little branch and says God if you're out there I'm Mish I'm Yours just save me and God says if you really believe in let go and oh okay anyone else out there right so if you really want to put yourself to the test this is the test of giving one1 and the gamorra concludes there it says if you do it God will make you so rich you will scream out enough okay the value of money value of money I I bring here the morning shabas and this is what I meant by positive and negative money it's not just about money life is organic everything we have and live in it's all living in the kabala there is no such thing as something not alive that's why the mosha in his safer writes that even people can be reincarnated as a rock right even though Paul Simon Says and a rock feels no c l were there but the idea is that everything has life in it there is nothing which is inanimate because the Reason Not the why but the how sorry not the how but the why everything exists is because it is at some point connected to the will of God if that digit at this moment is no longer in the will of God it doesn't matter what it is it's gone it doesn't exist and if it exists it means that there is a live connection at that moment with that point so therefore Rock V vegetable Animal Human Angelic it all exists from the central focus of the will of God that's everything that is the why the how is particular trees have xylem and flum we have respiratory systems whatever that's already that the specific but the but the why is that connection to God therefore everything that comes into this world because it all comes from the letter bet AET which is the duality of this world because prior to the duality of the world it was only the olive of the Oneness of God so therefore God created other right that other is the darkness of which we have our choice between Oneness and Elohim other than the one God the illusion of that and so therefore everything has a double side to it so even money so the gamorra says in chabas it says that money can be received or God's flow can be received from the left or from the right if it comes to the right it brings with it wealth honor and life if it comes to the left it brings wealth and honor either way in other words you could have money and you could have honor either way the only difference is when it comes to the left side it does not bring life the money does not bring life you know somebody I posted this class and people started commenting on Facebook book and I and the subtitle of the class is why do people love money more than their life and so somebody wrote well with money you can have a good life and the answer is yes but that's only if the money came down on the right side if the money came down on the left side it could be disastrous in fact the gor also says on that it says in B that oh you know what I'm going to actually have to jump to that thought cuz I don't want to lose it nowor says that that a person who receives money from the wrong side oh here we are sorry one second okay here we go uh I'm just going to roll it back two steps more get first says that the danger with having a lot of money similar to what we said before is that a person may learn less Torah and their heart swells with pride and then the Goran Tinus says that sometimes God will give evil people whatever it is they ask for God will give it to them willingly theor says why so that God should not have to listen to their prayers theor explains this means this is called being shut up by God with the curse of success that that person is buried in their golden tomb if you will so coming back to the the earlier Point here the goria says in terms of of the value of money it says that a person should to carry money with them at all times and the gor also asks what blessing is made before counting one's money the appreciation of bringing that money down through the channel of the right side means appreciating that it comes from God and there that's why theor gives an answer says if in business you successfully close a deal H the blessing is uh that one should make the blessing who is good and does good total me this is actually the blessing made on closing a good business deal Talman says that again similar to what we said before this time in Matos to be blessed without limit is to receive so much wealth that one's lips except for dental problems one's lips wear out from saying enough and this is my favorite or among my favorite koras of all time like today like in the olden days the olden westerns you come into the bar and you put your gun on the table and depending on like what kind of gun you had that was kind of like your status symbol you know and then you know if you're in La cuz nobody walks in La your status symbol is a car but in Manhattan certainly nobody knows what you drive so it's your suit or your monang for all the little huhuh symbols of status so what was called a talmudic symbol of status what was somebody showing off in Tomic times so in Buba says that there was a guy who when he plowed his field had a plow made of all silver right you could just see like the little roll symbol on the side of the plow or something but like that even then that oh check out that plow right so I I kind of thought that was sort of some never changeed the Everyone by the way speaking of Rich okay we mentioned ribel Lesar before but the gor gives a kind of a basic bottom line is to what's called Rich in toric terminology it says that you have to own at least minimal 1,000 ships none of which are in the port CU they're all out at Sea doing Commerce and 1,000 cities and if you do that then you're allowed to play golf on the Tomic Golf Course um the G says that if somebody says God forbid if somebody says your friend died you should believe them but if somebody says your friend became rich don't believe them because the the chances of somebody dying are much more likely than the chances of somebody you know winning the lottery and going through that in fact I'll just show you here for in a second on that King David see have it here on page 5,000 King David says uh he he okaya King David there says when he spoke of quote the land of the living what did the gomorah mean by the land of the living it referred to Costco Walmart it referred to marketplaces shopping malls that was what DAV amik said the land of the living and you know I I don't know if you've ever seen there's a book called in English I think it's called Heavenly Jerusalem it's called y Shala by Rabbi GS and it's all about Jerusalem in the 1800s with the yellow fever and with Titi fly and with no food and and you just walk to TPO today hm am I going to that Supermarket am I going to this Supermarket I'm going to how many supermarkets are just in tpot and they're all filled it's unbelievable and we don't even like it's like we're like walking inside unbelievable Miracles and we just have to somehow tune into that it's incredible we're we are living as we're walking down here I said you know when the prophets were prophesizing about the in gathering of the Exiles they were like looking at us you know I was mentioning in my house my ex my upstairs neighbor is from Russia above her is from Paris my wife is from Finland across the hall is Brooklyn okay that doesn't really count you know and the have but it's like it's unbelievable it's all oh and I think we even have one Israeli I mean it's just unbelievable what happened and what we're in the middle of here but when King David said at the end of that verse turning death into life what was an example of turning death into life Rashi says it means a person going from being poor to rich that's why I thought it was interesting it sort of connected back to this idea as well okay a few more on this and then we're going to go into the last couple of sections the gamor says that um when King Sol in the days of King Solomon people became so rich that silver had zero value and says that King Solomon when he wrote some people give the impression of being rich and have nothing and then there are those who are poor but have great wealth I thought was an interesting side but here's the famous one that everybody knows and of course they acquainted with the Mish in but I think it's actually gor T when Alexander the Great was talking to the rabbis the what called the the wise men of the South he said who is a rich man and of course we all know the answer one who is happy with his portion and I was once with a guy in Switzerland very religious Jew in Lugano and uh I mean we were driving and he said you know if I wasn't religious I would really have a house 15 times the size of this but I I have to kind of you know keep myself you know humble humble like flying through these curving mountain roads I to get to the train station whatever and we're driving in like the state ofth Art Port and I said to them this Porsha this is humble he says what are you talking about it's explicit toor says who is a rich man one who is happy with his Porsche okay theora says there are three ways to be rich classic lot of money and lot of things more important having a wife or husband of good character and as we get older most important having a bathroom close to the dining room that's the problem it really kind of deals with things as it is um also the gor says when King Solomon built the first temple he planted inside the temple golden trees right we always say h you know gold doesn't grow on trees wrong King David King Solomon built trees that had were made of gold and they had golden fruit and the gor says when the wind would blow the fruit off of these trees made of gold this this is how the Kahuna the kohanim the priests would gather up these fruits and that's how they supplemented their income however I just want to put at the end of this section when it talks about values and this and that the bottom line is a dead man has no monetary value so again this is not the things that we live for these are the things that we can live with and to be able to use and to do tremendous goodness in fact I I didn't put this in the class but just popped into my mind there's an amazing medish that says by Moses he wrote according to the medis he wrote The Prayer called is which is at the end of our in our prayers and has 15 Praises of God these represent the 15 shalot the 15 Steps From into the holy of holies into the Temple and so on in the name yud K and the 15 Steps of Passover night etc etc and this was the greatest moment of his life now think about Mosa's life I mean it could have been great that his mom put him in a little basket in the river and he lived that's already great it could have been great that the Egyptians tried to kill him and his neck turned into marble and he escaped and went and found amazing woman seora you know and living with Jethro it could have been great just doing the pl could been great splitting the ocean could have been awesome going 40 days 40 nights no water no food up on Mount Sinai I mean where where in Moses's life did he hit the Pinnacle of Joy guess what it's when he sat down with the guys from ernston Young from the with the accountants and they went over the books and the balance sheets and you know I mean if you know anything about accounting there's every business every situation it just if you get the lines this close that's good enough even for the government government nobody gets it this close but Moses sat down and he did it in counting of every piece of money that went into building the Tabernacle in the mishkan and the lines came out perfect and from that un incredible ability to be able to account for every single thing properly used he wrote isak and the greatest of all praises to God it's kind of a very deep thing to think about you it reminds me I guess a little bit of a tangent but it's one of my favorite stories so I'll share it with you anyhow there a group of standing around arguing whose rebi is more powerful and mystical than the other rebi and this one says oh my re is so great he can and this one yeah my re so great he came to a river he couldn't he took off his belt and he threw it on the water and he walked across the river and the other one the third one says Ah My Reby is the most amazing Reby why because whatever he says God does and at that moment a LF from Thea has been listening to this and he comes along he says gentlemen my Rabbi is greater than all your rbies said wow how could this be he says yes my Rabbi is so incredible whatever God says he does so think about Okay so we were talking a little bit before some of the ideas here of the negative side impact on on a person with their money by the way speaking of marriage theor says a person who marries for money is in great danger of losing all of that money and God forbid having children that do not turn out correctly here's what I find interesting is the idea of the negative impact of money upon righteous people the gamor Basra says which is a general that when you're in a store and you get money and you get your change you're supposed to count your change the gamor says that you should count your change even if the man who's behind the counter is an honest man because we all have a weakness when it comes to money but it does remind me of a joke this guy comes into this restaurant and he asks the owner of the restaurant he says uh is this restaurant kosher and the guy says what do you mean he a kosher and he points on the wall and there's a big poster of of rebies Moses and so the guy says you know what tell you the truth I would rather see Moses standing here your picture on the wall than see you here that I going to actually trust you anyhow so the gor also says that I'm sure many of you familiar if you see the says if you see a righteous man or woman sin at night you can know that by the day they have already repented that they regret it except right I'm sure some of you heard this idea before except if the sin had to do with money if it had to do with money then everybody is suspect and nobody is above the law and that even this holy man or person is not given that benefit of the doubt s hedin goes even further that nobody's Above the Law it says that even a Coen GLE the high priest when it comes to monetary issues can be brought before a simple bet in a court of only three Layman the g s hedin also says that that wealth is so powerful it can bring down the righteous person and this is why it explains there's an idea in the Bible called an IR and IR means a city which collectively has sinned in idolatry and all of the people and all of the belongings in the city are earmarked to be destroyed however what about somebody who doesn't live in that City but his possessions are in the city theor says why should that person's possessions be destroyed and specifically the gamor uses an analogy of a very righteous holy man why should his money be destroyed and the gamor answers because his money was there he may appear righteous and holy and he might really be so but when it comes to money he has a weakness and loves money and his love of money is what got him involved in the first place place with people that led to this by the way speaking of money I mentioned korak before gamor says that korak just to give you an idea how rich he was and this is so tongue and cheek talik as well it says that he had 300 mules and the only thing that these mules carry 300 were the keys to which he could open up his chests of money and what's the Tomic tongue and cheek the Tom would need you to know that the keys were not made out of metal but they were made out of leather so that they could get more keys into those bags right it's not enough there was 300 mules packed with keys but you got to know they were leather Keys cuz that's how many keys were just the keys for opening up all the money that he had okay I'm going to just skip here to uh actually you know what this kind of cool maybe I won't cuz it's sort of important this section is called Torah sensitivity to people's money gor basa says that a community is allowed to pray even on Shabbat to avoid Financial loss person may leave Israel to avoid inflation or financial ruin the gorah in Milla this is a very famous gor many of you might be familiar with it's the story of Rob seing Runa on Russia sh and Rob saw that Runa was very poor he was wearing like um flax clothes clothing and he gave him an amazing blessing he should become rich and the next year when he came back he was like gold silk thread like he was like a dude all like you know totally like studded out and and he says look Rob your blessing it came true and Rob said shame he said what do you mean by shame he said well when I said to you you should be blessed you should have said back to me and to you as well in other words if the blessing is already going to work spread the wealth which is why many people have a tradition if somebody blesses you you say K Lamar to you as well or Kel or k that the blessing should be spread among the entire world theor in kitten says that there three things which could wipe out a person's money one is dealing with money on Shabbat and another one I didn't go into the other one it's too abstract but the other one is having Shabbat lunch too late in the day the gorah in cus says that becoming depressed can ruin a person's Fortune I'm sure you all know the famous rebie nakan story about the guy with a huge diamond and no one his village it was too big no one could cash it in they said you have to go somewhere and he goes on the river and he or across the ocean he says to the captain look I have no money but look at my diamond when I get to the other side I'll cash and I'll pay you double so he gave him the nicest room on the boat and every day he would take out the diamond he would look at he would sing one day he fell asleep cleaning lady came and she shut the curtain or whatever the carpet out the window there goes the diamond and he realized instead of freaking out he would just have faith in God and he would maintain that same look so that nothing would happen the captain comes and says look I'm carrying a huge amount of grain on this boat if I bring it in I'm going to be taxed heavily can I ascribe it to you and then when we get into Port you will sign it back to me and you will cash your diamond and you will pay me and they make the deal they pull Deport Captain dies and now he has all the grain andin uses that story as to show the the karma of how things go but the key is never to become depressed okay Su also brings out there that um oh I mentioned this before if a person gives more than a fifth of his money away it's actually prohibited and says that God has Mercy on Jews money even for doing MIT vot Believe It or Not There are Financial limits as to how much a person is allowed to spend on performing uh Commandments also a person a rich man rich person has to have sensitivity to poor people the gamor in MO cutton talks about reing G who put on very inexpensive or Linens ttin we call them for being buried people would wear all kinds of things for their burial and when he saw that the poor people were embarrassed to have public burials because they didn't have the clothing he is one of the richest men in the generation came out in the poor person's clothing to set the standard by the way an interesting law many people don't know is um uh anagrams I think that's what they're called right your initials Monograms monog right Monograms thank you that actually in Jewish law a person should not get Monograms on their clothing why because the idea is that they will then at some point we don't throw away clothing we put it out in a public place where poor people can come and take it and the poor person will be very embarrassed wearing somebody else's initials so therefore even to that degree of sensitivity when buying clothing for myself I already have to have in mind the endgame of where this clothing could go and have that kind of of sensitivity gor s hedin says as well that a judge who is dishonest and judging Money Matters God will personally collect that Soul the gor says that a person will not see real blessing from their wealth if it's not used for the benefit of Torah Scholars and the gamorra warns that a person who does not support a poor person who knocks on his door will himself One Day become a poor person and go and knock on the door to which I also brought thator with theor chabas which to me I think is brilliant we should make bumper stickers out of this one gor chabas on 104a says that it is incumbent upon the rich man to go out and find the poor person and not for the poor person to come begging at the rich person's door and even honor which comes to honor in people through money it was only people who were honored with their money that did things for the poor as gor Aran says that both rebi and re AA showed great honor to rich people who helped the poor because gamor says that the world is only at peace before God when kindness and the needs of the poor are taken care of okay and therefore the last section here is kosher money so the gor hedin says yes money is a good power money can put a person on his feet Baba Rashi says that money talks for people and that a person who has money has no need for a broker because the money cuts the deal actually reminds me of this story that this wealthy man from Britain told me he said once in Europe there was a very very rich man and the rabit would always come to him for his advice on various Community issues and when he was done he would put a couple of little bags of golden coins that the rabbis would then take and leave anyhow he had a financial reversal he was no more money and he noticed was that kind of funny no money no Rabbi right no Ticky no laundry no money no Rabbi they weren't showing up H and then I guess like Donald Trump who suddenly made a huge fortune that came back again and amazing voila rebies it's like my friend who once said I don't understand every time my wife leaves us and travels overseas the Magic Refrigerator doesn't work so it's like the same idea suddenly he gets the money here come the rabbis so the rabbi show up he says wait a minute before you tell me what you're here for and he puts the bags on the money of money on the table he says talk to them that's what you came for right so that was his that sort of the equation but the truth be told that this is a powerful thing and so powerful if it's kosha money here's an example of the Dead coming back to help the living says that Rim baruk after he had died appeared to his nephew in a dream advising him how to avoid losing a fortune and here's an example of the living going to the dead because the gor in Bros says that zi contacted his dead land lady to find out where his money had been hidden because we see by yakob if the money is kosher it's holy it's valuable we never look down at money we never treat it lightly but on the other hand we got become arrogant through the money beorin says that this is I think very important that financial responsibility in taking care and guarding one's property and finances is a Mitzvah it's an obligation and the more there also makes an equation between cleanliness with health and dirty with poverty the gamor says that one of Yo's job's greatest attributes this is kind of like you know a lot of people go to actually I have I in my pocket I still have my dollar from the laich right so they always the idea that re giving out the coin and the coin will his Blessing where's the source of that job famous man job so the gor says that job one of his greatest attributes was that he would give money generously to the poor and anybody who received the the coin from job would find it brought with it good luck and here's the conclusion of the class which is it's all about God the gor Horus points out um that it's not about being clever it's really not financial success is not about smart people I'm sure all of us have met very rich people who you can't begin to understand how that happen I mean it's off the chart not because they were smart or clever in the least uh not that all of them are like that but certainly there's enough to be noticeable so the gor says they bring an example of a hak who was so brilliant this is gamora's language about how brilliant he was sometimes I feel like you know if you remember Rodney Dangerfield how brilliant was he so he was so brilliant that it says he could calculate how many drops of water are in the the ocean but yet he could never make a dollar he was perpetually financially busted on the other hand if the money is not yours you can't keep it this is also a wonderful Gamora that you should read to your children and grandchildren in chabas it's Gamora of called Yi or yah who loves Shabbat and he was this guy who was just happy gol lucky nothing could go wrong everything was like Bojangles it was always fine and one day there was a very wealthy man who was told that was going to lose all of his fortune to yasa the schlepper yasa the schnor whatever degrading word people use God forbid for poor people and he said no way and he converted all of his power and wealth into this one enormous coin which as he was walking over the bridge fell out of his hand a fish bought it and the fisherman caught the fish but it was late Friday and they had no idea who would buy such a big fish but they knew that whatever money yah had he would always spend the covered Shabbat and so yasa forked out the dollar came home cut it open and there was the Ruby if it's not yours you cannot hold on to it and if it is yours it will definitely find its way to you now some wild stories I brought down sort of wrap up here uh that exemplify this I don't understand thisor I'm just going to say right off the bat but I'll just tell it all as it's written B says that rebar the son ofai his wife became very frustrated with him trying to heal him from his illness and left him in the house she said that's it I'm out of here and just left him there in bed and she went back to her father's home the Gora says that the day after she left there was a knock at the door and at the door were 60 Sailors each one with 60 servants and each servant with 60 pouches of money okay whatever another wild story gamor in the doring there's a couple actually in the doring they're all one by one but I picked out the one of R gamla Ramba excuse me Ramba had a few coins left in his pocket and he saw some Sailors were about to go overseas he said look here take my last few coins buy me some you know give me some something I can make a few bucks with so they went and finally they came back and they said look the amount of money you gave us we didn't there was nothing we could buy you except the monkey he said that's what you bought me was a monkey and as they were about to give him the monkey exit stage right the monkey cut out and the sail oh my gosh not only did we only get him a monkey but now the monkey's gone so they run after the monkey right they're jumping and finally the monkey jumps down into a hole and they go down follow in the hole and when they finally find the monkey the monkey jumping up and down on a chest filled with gold and precious coins so if God wants you to get it it will definitely get you not to worry says to qualify that that there are three things which only God determines one of them is famine God forbid the other is abundance and the third is a good leader and here is the point I made before even though on rash sh on the New Year it's inscribed as to what our financial status will be among other things that is only a suggestion that is a template and theor mo cut says clearly that prayer can override fate there is no such thing as fate fate is just the way it's been set up the way it it matures in reality it's directly dependent on us this is Free Will overrides Destiny and the vehicle to Free Will is through prayer and the says that Raa one of the great Amaro he prayed for three things and he was awarded two of them the three things he prayed for was to be wise which certainly you can't go more than four pages in Shas or maybe not bubbly and not see the name rabba he prayed to become rich where he became extremely rich and the only thing that was denied him he prayed to become humble and he did not become as humble as he wanted to be which by the way is another think it's sa I don't have it written down here but theor is talking about different rabbis when they died uh certain things left the world and one particular Rabbi they say when he died now there's no more humility in the world and I always love thator because somebody say wait a minute I'm still here I'm humble right so which is really the beauty of true humility because he saw himself like I'm looking at you he didn't realize he was pointing at himself he's like looking around for somebody oh here oh hey look check this guy out he's humble cuz that was the beauty of how humble he really was because he didn't see him as me he saw himself as just another person happens to be real humble and he wanted to point that out and so therefore in conclusion is the wildest gor which is the that says the best way to make a fortune fact says you will double your income and the language of nor is your income will fly to you like a bird is if you make God your CEO and I'll just tell a personal story I don't know if any of you are from the New York area or you know the expression but there's a term used to be a term in New York called the 57 Street lawyer probably had like your offices in the squid building or something but that was like a a lawyer who really was fth Avenue in 57 made a lot of money so I once met one of these guys because he had be I I don't want mention his name you know him because he became very very rich and sorry he was very rich he became very religious he became a BBA and I went to meet him and we're talking and I said to him you know how did you become religious what happened and he said well one day I was sitting down thinking about how I made all my money and when I analyzed each incident each one was like a bizarre story like I was in Puerto Rico in the Hilton and I had to actually meet somebody and while I was waiting for the person I had to meet I met the person sitting next to me and we wound up doing a multi-million dollar deal I know I knew who that person was I didn't go there to meet that person so he said what happened was every time I sat down I looked over all of my fortune I realized 70% of my income were through the hand of God that makes God the controlling partner in my life it was like it was that clear like a limited partner God was the General partner God was my CEO so therefore God okay now God's bossing me around he says put on fill and I I I put on filling that's kind of how he left it and the last line here is the Goran says that a person must realize that all income comes from Heaven this is the very famous gorah where gor says did you ever see I'm not sure if I'm getting this exactly correct did you ever see a wolf as a store owner did you ever see all these different animals you know struggling for their pessa and they were only created to serve man why should man have to struggle for his work and the gamor answer is because we've corrupted ourselves and the blessing which comes down is now no longer fluid this is hinted at in the letter lamid which is why I don't get to into kabala which is why the word for night Lila has in it yud yud in God's name always represents the higher world like Theon in his introduction to shirim we have yud and below yud is B this is why you have positive and negative Commandments the yud can only be brought down into this world through action positive action that becomes the V the pipe that brings that down the hay the negative Commandments by not touching it remains a hay by the time it comes in the low world that's why ven he is the expression of Holiness in this world while uden is Holiness in the high that's by the way why the word Mitzvah if you look at Mitzvah I don't want to get too off the point the word Mitzvah the last two letters of the four letters are God's name of v and he and me Sadi the first two letters which are the two letters common init and matah man inash are actually Y and hey which means that the name the word Mitzvah is actually God's name and this is the secret behind nishma by doing you begin to hear because since imbued in the Commandments is the Holiness of God when one actually becomes involved in that it reveals Shem it reveals that sense of God in the world so the word Laya which is the hidden part of God it doesn't hide the higher part of God that's why it has the ud and the he in the word but it has on both levels the letter lamid lit is two words that's why there's two lits one word is to learn and the same word different vowels is to teach to give and to take to receive to share right that's why BL says we have two lakes in Israel one of them is a dead sea and one of them is a living sea and they both draw from the same Source why is one dead because it doesn't give it only takes so it's dead whereas the caner takes and gives so therefore that taking and that giving that expression of the lit how does a scribe write a lit this is really interesting the scribes Lama begins at the top in in a straight line down halfway that's the flow of God into this world it's pure it's direct it's unadulterated it is as it was that is the beginning of the learning experience but then the Scribe moves the pen to the Baseline and instead of it being a reciprocal line that goes straight up which would be like a v it actually goes in a curve and then Cuts back to meet the upper line that's what the LL is comes down flat line and then curves down to that point the points are lined up but the process is The Human Experience is going through the ordeal going through the process sometimes the lights all shining on me other times I can barely see that's the process but from Heaven it comes down clearly so even in the night even in the Lila there's still the direct line of God in the UK but there's the learning and the teaching the giving and the taking experience through which we can unfold that night into Day by that the night will become the day and that is the and when the moon is rectified that will be the time that even when the cow will jump over the moon it will be part the service of God rather than God forbid the distraction from our purpose in life okay thank you yeah if there any questions Rabbi Aaron has volunteer to oh there really is a question yes you're talking about um cominging from to the right side or the left side so what determines that your acceptance of it or something else H that's a very good question what really determines it is the way in which you prepare yourself to receive it in other words again software all software ultimately boils down to 01 like asking right so it's binary it's free will so if when the software hits the one it continues if it hits the zero it reincarnates if you will so everything that we really have in our lives our Free Will is only at every single second I'm either in touch with God or I'm disconnected this is hinted at in thein because a person could be a Jew because their mother was a Jew or like they call themselves Jews by choice so but on the physical level if your body is Jewish so then the fill in on the arm this is Rachel and the knot is Jacob and they have to touch because the body is the body but on the filling on the head this is actually Leia and this is Israel and they don't touch but what happens is is the way to connect the knot from behind the head to the Fillin is through your K through your your Maka through your thoughts so if you are thinking about God you are connecting all of the night to the day so to speak if God forbid a person not thinking about God they're thinking about something other than God that circuit breaks and disconnects that so therefore if the person's connected they're bringing it down on the right side and if disconnected God forbid God will still give us this is also hinted out I don't go too much and never but like on the shaking of the lulab and the directions and how we move the winds and things like that yes tell you my friend why you asking a question oh good reminds us of that little home in the FD of the of the Moon I don't remember the rest of it but I don't get the significance of that reference oh I wasn't really referring per se to the text the idea was the contrast between service of God which is having the faith in the darkness of this world symbolized by the shrunken Moon versus the temporary distraction of money symbolized by the golden camp which was the idol that we built in lie of service of God so I was simply kind of doing the idea of the cow jumping is that sort of passage of Moment In Time distracted by money as opposed to the Moon which was sort of like fixture but not as a fixture of itself but a fixture of what will be in the future by the way it's a little interesting side the vill neon says that you know the famous I for I so in Hebrew it's in Hebrew from means under so if you take the word in Hebrew for I and you move each letter one down in the alphabet it spells the word KF which is money and this is where we learn or and a hint to where we learn the idea that when a person is obligated for financial damages you don't go and poke out another person's eye right what if a blind person poked out somebody's eye no IE here right or what if the guy was a cyclops well it's not fair this guy has one eye left but now he's like got no eye so it doesn't mean eye for an eye physically it means the value of that person's eye because even one person's eye might be more valuable to him than another person's eye what if this one particular guy is like a diamond cutter and it's really you know with the other person I don't know makes matah I'm just making this up Qui but the idea is that the value that's about so that's how he learned and the other way he learns it is also because when you look through glass you see the other side but when you put silver on the other side of the glass it becomes a mirror and all we see is ourselves so that's kind of like when we can remove the idolatry the idols of silver and gold we can see through to where we're really heading all right thank you all so much