The Best Investment | Rabbi Shlomo Landau

Shimon Solomon was a Holocaust survivor that made it by the skin of his teeth and eventually found himself in Baltimore, where he struggled to make a Parnassa, to make a livelihood. He had a magnificent and beautiful voice, and he tried to find a shul that would pay him appropriately for the Yomim Nora’im. The money that he received for being a Chazan over the Yomim Nora’im, would tide him over for many months because there were many large shuls that were looking for quality Ba’alei Tefilla, like him. One year, he was invited to travel to Los Angeles to be the Chazan in a very large shul. And he did a magnificent job and the people were blown away by his absolutely stunning voice. The morning after Rosh Hashanah, a very wealthy-looking fellow approaches him, and presses $500 into his hand. $500 in those days was thousands and thousands of dollars by today's standards. And the fellow says to him, I have a recording studio in Hollywood and I need someone with a voice like yours, for many of my different projects. This is a down payment. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to send my chauffeur. He'll pick you up, we’ll bring you down to the studio. We'll do a few runs, and if things work out, this could be an incredibly lucrative arrangement for the two of us. Shimon couldn't believe it. This was the answer to his Tefillos. He needed Parnassa so desperately, and he could just work maybe a few weeks or a few months recording, and he could support his family respectfully. He was very excited. The next morning, the chauffeur comes over in a limo and they start driving towards Beverly Hills. And as they get closer and closer to Beverly Hills, he starts seeing things that he never dreamed he would have to see as a person that was meticulous with Shemiras Ha’einayim. And on the spot, he tells the chauffeur, Make a U-turn and take me back. Tell your boss, here's the $500. I am not interested. And he travels back to Baltimore, to continue to struggle to make a livelihood, and to make a Parnassa. And he walks away from the job of his dreams. And he shared this with his grandson one time at the Pesach Seder. And he said to him, Look around. Look around at my children, look around at my Eyniklech, at my grandchildren. Every single one of them is a ירא and a שלם. They’re all Bnei Torah. They’re all amazing people. And you want to know why? It's because of that decision that I made in Beverly Hills so many years ago. Perhaps I didn't get the financial infusion that I thought that I would get. But that Mesirus Nefesh the Ribono shel Olam saw, and I got something that's worth so much more than money. I got this, and he points to all the people at the Seder. We don't know, sometimes we find ourselves in moments of great challenge and moments of great temptation. And it's really, really hard. And it's perhaps something that can be lucrative for us. Perhaps it's a business deal, perhaps it's some type of show that we could go to, but it's not good for our Shemiras Ha’einayim. And we justify the money, the Parnassa, the Tzedaka. You want a guarantee that you'll have children that are בנים ובני בנים עוסקים בתורה ובמצוות? That's the best investment. Be Shomer Einayim and Hakadosh Baruch Hu will take care of the rest.