Thank you very much. The topic that I chose for tonight, by the way, I have a hard time choosing topics after all these years that we discussed different topics, but anyway the topic that I chose tonight was, sounds pretty strange, the power of money in Jewish tradition. And the reason I chose this topic, you always have to find some connection to the time of the year, to the פרשיות that we read, we learn in the תורה. So since now these weeks we're learning about the תרומות, the donations that השם wanted the אידן to give to build the משכן, so this was a great מצוה that the אידן had to do with their money, with their possessions, so I thought, let's discuss the power of money according to the Jewish tradition. This is not a discussion on the מצוה of צדקה, even though it touches and it's connected to the מצוה of צדקה because the מצוה of צדקה is done through money, but the subject per se is not concerning the greatness of the מצוה of צדקה as the מצוה of צדקה, but concerning the concept of money. And it'll obviously touch the מצוה of צדקה too, but the concept of what we look, how we look at money. And, as I always say, this is not a הלכה class, so we're not going to discuss the הלכות of how we're supposed to deal with money, etc., but more the השקפה of it, of what, how we're supposed to look at it. And even the השקפה itself, usually we discuss it the way it's explained in חסידישע ספרים, in קבלה, and a little bit deeper than just the superficial way we find it in the שלחן ערוך or in other ספרים, but a little bit deeper, a little bit more, you could say, philosophical. Now, concerning money, we find two opposites, two opposite extremes. On one hand, if you don't have it, two opposite extremes. On one hand, we know that the תורה agrees with the famous saying that money is the root of all evil. It is because of money that a person could reach the lowest levels. We know in this week's פרשה, actually, when the אידן made the עגל, they made the golden calf, and משה רבינו asked השם for מחילה, השם should forgive the אידן, he said, forgive them for the fact that they made אלהי זהב, a golden calf, a god of gold. So רש״י says, he brings, quotes the גמרא where it says that the reason they did it is because they had a lot of gold. He said, because מרוב זהב שהשפעת להם, you gave them so much money, you gave them so much gold, so what do you expect? Expect they shouldn't make an עגל? רש״י even gives a משל from a king who gave his son a lot of money and dressed him up very nicely, and put him down in an immoral area of the city, and then you expect him not to sin? מה יעשה הבן שלא יחטא? What should he do, not sin? So too, you gave them a lot of gold. So what do you expect? They shouldn't make an עגל? In other words, the גמרא and רש״י do agree that having a lot of gold, a lot of money is a reason for a person to sin. We know in שלחן ערוך we find, taken from the גמרא obviously, a lot of הלכות in הלכות שבת where the חכמים made special דינים because they said אדם בהול על ממונו. A person is always very careful and they're very nervous, and gets very nervous when it comes to some question of losing the money, and because of that the חכמים had to make different דינים because money is something to a person that could make you do עבירות that normally you don't do. We find it says in ספרים that the נסיון of עשירות is worse, greater than the נסיון of עניות. A נסיון means a test. השם could test a person with עניות, with poverty, and that's a test: will the person withstand the test and still behave the way he's supposed to? And sometimes השם tests a person with giving him a lot of money, עשירות, riches. And it's a big test, and it says it's harder, the test of עשירות is harder than the test of עניות. Why? Because money could bring a person to who knows what. In חומש it says, שמנת עבית כשית, when the אידן have a lot of money, then we don't know what could happen. So money, it says, is the source of bringing a person to a very, very low level. We know in יידיש there, money in יידיש is called געלט. So there's a famous ווארט: געלט is בגימטריא בלאטע. געלט is גימל, עין, למד, טית. And בלאטע in אידיש means שמוץ, dirt, garbage. And געלט is the same גימטריא, has the same numerical value as בלאטע, because they say געלט is בלאטע. געלט, when you have money, who knows what could happen. On the other hand, we find in the תורה that money is from the greatest things. We find in the תורה, it says on the פסוק, in the גמרא, רש״י brings it, את כל היקום אשר ברגליהם, all the יקום, everything that stood in their feet, stood them up, so רש״י says, גמרא says, זה ממונו של אדם שמעמידו על רגליו. It's the money of a person that sets him on his feet. The money puts a person on his feet. We find in the גמרא, the גמרא says on the פסוק ואהבת את ה׳ אלקיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך. Very famous פסוק, you shall love ה׳ with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your life, ובכל מאדך. What does ובכל מאדך mean? So the גמרא says ובכל מאדך means בכל ממונך, with all your money. And the גמרא says why does the פסוק have to tell us you have to love ה׳ with all your life, בכל נפשך, and with all your money? So the גמרא says יש some people that that נפשם חביב עליהם יותר מממונם, their life is more beloved, precious to them than their money, but there are people that ממונם חביב עליהם יותר מגופם, that their money is more beloved, more precious to them than their body, than themselves, than their life. And therefore, the פסוק tells us you have to love ה׳ with your life, that means you have to give up your life for ה׳, and the גמרא says from here we learn out that you have to be מוסר נפש, you have to give up your life if it comes to a question of עבודה זרה, of idol worship, which means going directly against ה׳, so the פסוק says you have to love ה׳ even if it means giving up your life. And then the פסוק says you have to love ה׳ with your money, because some people, they life they would give up, but their money they wouldn't. And this, at first glance, seems to be something strange, funny. But there's another גמרא where the גמרא says צדיקים ממונם חביב עליהם יותר מגופם, that by צדיקים their money is more precious to them than their bodies. And the גמרא gives a reason why, מפני שלא פשטו ידם בגזל, because the money that they earned, they earned it כשר, in a כשר way, they didn't steal it, so it's very beloved to them. But what does it mean it's more beloved than their body? But anyway, we see from here, and I'll explain what it means a little later, but we see from here that the תורה looks at money as something very, very special, something very great, that the צדיקים love their money. Money is so special. We find in the גמרא רבי מכבד עשירים. רבי would give a lot of honor to rich people, because they had a lot of money, he would give them כבוד, he would give them special honor, special respect. So we do find here that the money has two sides to it. On one hand, money could obviously be the best, the most precious thing a person could have. On the other hand, money could be the worst thing a person has, and it could lower the person to the lowest levels. So money must have in it some תכונה, some characteristic, some quality which could be to the highest, could be to the lowest. In other it's something very special that could go to the extremes. We find that in certain things, that it says that it could take you to the highest, the lowest, and we find that by special things. למשל, we find it by תורה. Studying תורה is something געוואלדיג, great. But the גמרא says, זכה נעשה לו סם חיים, לא זכה נעשה לו סם המות. If you're זוכה, if you merit, if you learn תורה properly, it becomes like a medicine that cures you, helps you. If you're not זוכה, נעשה לו סם המות, it becomes poison, deadly poison. So it's something that depends how you use it. Like a like a medicine, regular medicine. Regular medicine, if you use it in the right time, for the right reasons, the right way, then it's medicine, it cures you. The same medicine, if you take too much of it or you take it in the wrong way, the wrong times, it could harm you. תורה is the same, but we see there is something here that could have both extremes. And then there's another thing, we find many things, I'm just using some examples, where we find it's something that is not like everything else in the world that depends how you use it, whether you use it for the good it's good, if you use it for bad, but there's something that specifically it says that it could be great and could be low. And the second thing I want to mention is your wife. The פסוק says says אעשה לו עזר כנגדו, I will make, I will make for אדם הראשון a wife who will be an עזר כנגדו, a help against him. And the גמרא asks, is it a help or is it against him? And the גמרא says, if he is זוכה נעשה עזר, if not, is כנגדו. If everything is fine and it goes fine and you're זוכה, then she becomes she's your help, and she's the best help you could imagine. Not סתם a help to you, she could do to you more than you could do to yourself. And the גמרא in יבמות goes into all the things that you gain from a wife. On the other hand, the same wife, if לא זכה, is כנגדו, she's against you. פסוק says ומוצא אני את האשה מר ממות, could be worse than death. On the other hand, could be the most precious thing in the world. I'm just using as an example. So too we find here that money, you could have two extremes: you could take money, use money and money could be the most precious thing, and we're not talking from the גשמיות point of view, from the physical point of view, but from the spiritual, תורה point of view, money could be the greatest thing, and on the other hand, we find that money could be the worst thing. So we have to explain that, so what is our approach to money and why is it that this has both of these sides to it?

So I want to start up with a הלכה. There is a הלכה that before a person has any הנאה, any pleasure, any benefit from עולם הזה, from this world, you must make a ברכה first. And the reason you have to make a ברכה first, it says, is because you have to get permission from השם. Since everything belongs to השם, לה' הארץ ומלואה, everything belongs to השם, so before you eat you have to get permission from השם that you're able to eat it, you're able to have that pleasure. But we find in הלכה, an interesting הלכה, that this דין that you must make a ברכה before you have pleasure is only if your body has pleasure. Your body has pleasure. Before you eat, before you drink, before you smell something, which is also pleasure the body has, before you sleep, you have to make a ברכה המפיל, because before your body has any pleasure, you got to have permission from השם that you're allowed to have this pleasure. And it says if you don't, it's like stealing. The גמרא says like stealing from your parents or כאילו מעל from קדשי שמים, it's as if you're having benefit from קדשים, from things which are holy, don't belong to you, everything belongs to השם, so you have to have you have to get permission. On the other hand, if it's not a הנאה, a pleasure that the body has, but if it's a monetary pleasure, then you don't have to make a ברכה. Why don't you have to make a ברכה before you get a present? Someone who is going to give you some money, you should have to make a ברכה. You're gaining money. There's something done with the money. Why don't you have to make a ברכה there? What is the reason for this? Shouldn't you have to get permission from השם to have pleasure, to have הנאה, benefit from money? But the דין is that you don't. Now, the truth is, we do have certain מצות that teach us that everything we have really belongs to השם, like the מצוה of חלה. Why is there a מצוה that we take off חלה? To show that the first part of the dough, of the bread goes to השם, because really everything belongs to השם, and the only way we could have הנאה from it is if השם gives it to us. And then you have other מצות, תרומות ומעשרות, מצוה of מזוזה for the house to show that our house belongs to השם. But there's no ברכה that we have to make before we get it. There's no ברכה that we make before someone gives us our salary, even though we know everything comes from השם. We have to thank השם, that's true. You have to be מברך על הטובה. Any good that you get, you have to thank השם, but that's not a concept of asking permission. Not to ask, doesn't say anywhere you have to ask השם permission to be able to have money benefit. You have to thank Him, that's thanking. By the way, you have to thank השם, חס ושלום, something bad, too. כשם שמברך על הטובה כך מברך על הרעה. Like you bless השם for the good, you have to bless Him for the bad, but that's not asking permission. And the question is, why shouldn't we have to ask permission when we get money? Ask השם. After all, לה' הארץ ומלואה, everything belongs to השם. Concerning money, it says even more: לי הכסף ולי הזהב נאום ה'. השם says the silver and the gold is Mine, so whatever we have is השם's. So before we get it, shouldn't we have to ask השם permission? shouldn't we have to make a ברכה? Why is the דין that we don't make a ברכה when it comes to money הנאה if it's not your body הנאה? And the answer that's given is like this: The body of a person does not belong to him. That's what it says in שולחן ערוך. It says in שולחן ערוך, our body is not ours. It was only given to us as a פיקדון. It says השם gave it to us only to as a safeguard. We are שומרים. We are watchmen for the body. השם gave it, but he didn't give it to us to keep. It's not ours. That's why it says in שולחן ערוך, אסור להזיק את גופו, a person is not allowed to hurt himself, not allowed to cause damage to his body. And the reason it says is because it's not his. I can't hurt something, cause damage, it's not mine. In other words, the reason a person can't hurt his body is not only because of an איסור. השם forbid it. השם made a lot of איסורים, other things which are forbidden. It's also because of דיני ממונות. It's from a monetary look. It's not yours! So, how could I do it if it's not mine? I can't do anything, I can't hurt my body. On the other hand, by money, the money that we own, it doesn't say that it was given to us as a פיקדון. השם gave it to us. השם gave us, and it's ours. And therefore, the fact that we're not allowed to damage our property is not דיני ממונות. It's not because I'm damaging something that doesn't belong to me, it's not true. The reason there is an איסור, a prohibition of בל תשחית, בל תשחית means we can't ruin something, so if it's somebody else's thing, so there are two things there: number one, השם forbid us to ruin something that's useful; besides that, it's someone else's thing, how could I ruin his thing? But what happens if it's my own, it's not somebody else's? So there is only an איסור. We are forbidden. השם said don't do it. But there we don't say don't do it because you have no right over it because it's not yours. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that the object that you own, your money, your possessions is not yours. It clearly is ours. It is ours. And therefore, השם gave when he gave since he gave it to us, we don't have to ask permission, because he gave it to us. Now I want to explain what this means, it's not so simple. Now, how can I say that the money that we own is ours, not השם's? The body still remains השם's, the money is ours. I just quoted the פסוק, לי הכסף ולי הזהב נאום השם, that all gold and silver in the whole world is השם's. So how do we say it's ours? So I want to explain what I mean.

When it comes to ownership, there are two types of ownership. I'll use the the the Hebrew terminology: the בעלות כללית and the בעלות פרטית. There's the general ownership and the individual ownership, and I'll give an example what I mean. When we own a house here in this country, who does the house belong to? It belongs to me, it's my house. In truth, it belongs to the government. It belong Well, that's one thing. It belongs to the government. Why is it that we pay real estate tax? Why should I pay tax on my house? It's my house! I should pay to the government tax? The answer is, really, the general ownership of the whole country and everything in it belongs to the government, or in the time when they had a king, it belonged to the מלך. Now, the individual ownership, that belongs to each of us. But because generally it belongs to the government, I have to pay to the government taxes for using it, because in כלל it's theirs. That's the reason, hope there are no lawyers here that can contradict me, that is the reason why we have the concept of eminent domain. That if the government wants and they need your house, they'll take it away from you, and they have a right to do it. They'll pay you for it. They have to pay. They might pay you a good price, might be worth it, I don't know, but they could do it, and you can't stop you can't say, \"What are you doing? I don't want to, it's my house.\" Why? Because on top, really really, it belongs to the government. And individually, it's mine. So there is the בעלות כללית of the government, the בעלות פרטית. The government allowed me to have it, so I have it, and I own it. And whatever I do with it, I don't need their permission, because it's mine. But all in all, it's still theirs. The truth is, it all started, it seems like, from יוסף הצדיק. The whole concept of real estate tax started from יוסף. You find in חומש that when there was this hunger and they didn't have any food, so they bought food from יוסף. Then they came to יוסף and they said to him, \"We have no more money.\" So he said, \"Well, give us give me your animals.\" Then they came back back and they said, \"We have no more animals.\" So he said, \"Give me your land.\" So he bought all the land from all the people of the whole country. What's יוסף, the government, going to do with all the land? So what he did was, he gave it back to them, not to the same people, he switched them around, but he gave it back to the people, and he said, \"Here, you plant and you plow, and whatever grows, a fifth you give to the government.\" That's where it comes, 20% tax. That's where it tack- the real estate tax started. In other words, you keep it's yours, but it's not really yours, but I give it away to you as a present, but while it's yours, it's really belongs בכללות to the government. And that's why you pay tax. The same thing is with השם and us and our possessions. לי הכסף ולי הזהב. The gold, silver, everything belongs to השם, that's true. But השם gave us the different things that he gave us, he says now this I'm giving to you. We have to remember בכלל it's still השם's, but he gave it. Because בכללות של השם, he could take it away and give it to somebody else if he want, but while I have it, it is mine. We find it actually in רש״י specifically concerning ארץ ישראל. The first first רש״י in חומש. רש״י says that the גוים complain and say Jews are thieves, we stole ארץ ישראל. We came, we invaded כנען, and we took away the country, we stole it. So what's the answer? So רש״י says the whole world is השם's. He created it, he could give it to whoever he wants. First he gave it to כנען, then he decided he took it away from them and gave it to us. Now what does that mean? How did he take it, he gave it to them, how did he take it away? How could you take away something that you gave, imagine I give someone a present, now I take it away. And then, and that's our answer. He took it away, what do you mean took it away? He gave it away. The answer is, even when he gave it, it's still essentially his, but he gave it. He has the right to take it away and give it to somebody else, like I said, the government has the eminent domain, could take it away from you and do something else with it, with that land. But while he gave it, it is his. So getting back to the point, so it comes out like this, that השם gave us our money. It doesn't say that the money that we have from השם is money that is his, and all it is in our hands is a פיקדון, we're watching it for him. It's ours, even though he is the boss on top. But our body, that, it says clearly, is not ours. He never gave it to us. The body is a פיקדון. It's only that we're watching it for him, but it's not ours. And therefore, this is the reason for the difference in the הלכה, that when we're dealing with the body, with the pleasure of the body, we have to have permission from the owner. Since it's only a פיקדון, and we're only watching it, and it's not ours, we can't do anything with our body unless we ask permission from the owner. But when it comes to money, since השם gave it to us, we don't need this permission, because he gave it away to us. And that's why we find that by the body things we need permission. So השם says, \"If you will be nice, if you will ask me permission to have הנאה, to have pleasure, I will grant it. You have to make a ברכה, ask permission. You want to hurt your body? I don't give you permission, so you're not allowed.\" It's all permission. This is one of the reasons why the גמרא says a strange thing on the פסוק ורפא ירפא, where it says in פרשת משפטים that you could cure, so the גמרא says כאן ניתנה רשות לרופא לרפאות, that here the תורה gave a doctor permission to cure. What's that mean permission to cure? Why doesn't it say in the גמרא that here the פסוק that the תורה gave a carpenter permission to make a table? Does he need permission to make a table? It says gave him permission to cure. So one פשט it says the reason we need permission is because you might think, one might think, that if a person is sick, obviously השם made him sick. Don't interfere in השם's business. How could you come and cure him? So השם says, \"I give you permission.\" But besides that, the reason we need permission, because you're dealing with a person's body. When it comes to deal with a person's body, the body is השם's. It's not ours. It's only a פיקדון. You can't do anything without permission. So how could a doctor come and play around with the body and do something? Certainly in a case where the doctor knows order to cure the body, we'll have to do some damage. Have to poke him with a needle. What kind of right do you have? השם doesn't give permission. So השם says, \"Well, in this case, I do give permission.\" So everything is dependent on the permission of השם. We need permission from השם to deal with our body. But when it comes to money that we have, we don't need permission from השם because the money is given to us. Now, we have to remember at the same time that השם is the top boss, and therefore, we have to thank Him. And even when it comes to the body, after we ask permission for a bodily pleasure, and He grants us the permission, we still have to remember it's His. That's why after we eat, for instance, we בענטש, and we say, ברוך משאכלנו משלו, we're thanking השם. Even after He gave us permission, because now you might think after He gave us permission, so I don't have to thank Him, now it's mine. Because even after it's mine, essentially it's not mine, because He's the top He's the בעל הבית כללי. But by money, we don't need that first permission. Now, let's understand why. What we're saying now is just the facts. It's all what I'm saying now is based on a רדב\"ז. I don't want to go into the למדות of it, a רדב\"ז on the רמב\"ם. But these are facts. What would be the reason behind it? Why is it that the body, we say, was not given to us? Our body is השם's, and it is only a פיקדון, only to safeguard, to watch. While the money that we get, the possessions that we get, we say השם actually gave it to us. What is the reason?

Well, the reason depends is because of the nature of what we're dealing with. The nature of the person's body versus the nature of other things that a person might own. I'll explain what I mean. The person is alive. He's alive. Other things, the money or other possessions we have, are not alive. They exist. In חסידות and קבלה, we use the two terms: there is חיות and there is קיום. קיום means the things exist. A דומם is something that exists and it's there, but it's not alive. A person, our body, the way השם made us, is alive. Life is not something tangible. A rock, a dollar bill, a piece of gold is tangible. Life is not tangible. Life is more spiritual. And therefore, when it comes to life, to something that has life, השם never left His connection to it in a revealed way. Everything comes from השם, and everything exists through השם, there's no question about it. But all other other things, when you look at it, there is nothing spiritual, nothing there that shows or has anything in a revealed fashion that is spiritual. It's all tangible, all גשמיות. The body, which is alive, has רוחניות in it, has godliness in it. The fact that it's alive is already something that's not tangible. And therefore, it's as if we're saying that the body, השם never let hold of it, never left. He's still constantly holding on to it. While the money, so to speak, He gave it, and He pulled Himself away from it because it's something that's physical. But it's not so פשוט, and I'll explain why, it's not so simple. Because even though the body is alive, but life is also part of this physical world. You have plants are alive, animals are alive, a dog is alive too. Even though it's not tangible, but life is still part of the creation. So you cannot really say that because we're alive, so there is more godliness בגילוי revealed, therefore, it shows השם is still holding on to it. It's not that. It's more than that. It's by a ייד. And I'll explain what I mean. We know that a ייד is alive not only because he has this life force within him, but a ייד is alive because he has a נפש האלוקית. A ייד is alive because he has a godly soul. A human being is alive because he has a נפש. A נפש is the soul, but that we call the נפש הטבעית, the natural soul that naturally gives him life. And that's something that is part of this physical creation. Within the physical creation, it's not so tangible, but it's still part of the בריאה. A איד, in addition to the fact that a איד has this נפש הטבעית, this natural soul, or as קבלה, חסידות calls it, the נפש הבהמית, the animalistic soul. It's the same life as an animal has, just a little bit more sophisticated, has a little bit more brains, but it's the same kind concept of being a נפש, a life force, that is part of the creation. A איד, in addition to that, has a נפש אלוקית, a Godly soul. In other words, the fact that we אידן are alive is for two reasons. It's because we have the נפש like, להבדיל, an animal has, like, להבדיל, a גוי has, and we have, in addition to that, a Godly soul that's giving us life. That Godly soul is not part of creation. That's not part of creation, because as far as creation is concerned, there's no need for it. We could be alive without it. But השם, in addition, which is not part of the creation, this is something that's beyond creation, he put into us. Now someone who doesn't believe what it says in the תורה will ask, \"Prove it. How do you know? You see a איד, how do you know he has a נפש אלוקית?\" The אמת is, I don't know if I could prove it. You can't prove it. If someone wants to, you know, be stubborn and say, \"Well, it doesn't prove anything,\" I could I can't fight with him. In other words, I don't know if I could prove it, but for us here, we don't need proof. For us, the fact that it says in תורה is the best proof in the world. We don't need anything more. In other words, comes down the to the bottom line is that in the איד, the way the איד exists and lives, just his actual life, is a way that השם is still within him and connected in a way that his physical life comes from השם. And that is the difference between the money and possessions and the life. The life is only The person's body, which means body which that's alive, is only a פיקדון. השם never let go of it. He put a נפש אלוקית, and makes us alive from a נפש אלוקית, וממילא it comes out that there is Godliness still there. השם is still holding onto it. The fact that we have it, he says, \"Well, I'm letting you use it. Not even use it, I'm giving you it as a פיקדון, and before you use it, you've got to get my permission.\" But money, or gold, silver, other objects, possessions, those are things that don't have this נפש אלוקית. Those are pure nature, which was created by השם, obviously, but the way he created it is he pulled himself away that there is nothing there that indicates his connection. And those are things he says, \"I gave away to you.\" So he gave it away to us, and when we have it, it really, really belongs to us. So here it comes out something very interesting, that the money that we have is more us than the body that we have. The body is not really us, it's our פיקדון. The money that we have, that is really us. And that is the reason why it says that צדיקים ממונם חביב עליהם יותר מגופם. The צדיקים their money is more beloved than their body, because their money, that is them. And if you take this money and you make it holy, you use it for קדושה, so here you are really elevating the true part of yourself. If you make your body holy, you are doing a great thing, but you're taking השם's, something that's owned by השם, and you're bringing it up to a higher level. But when you're making your money holy, you're using it for the proper things, you're using it for צדקה, you're using it to buy a nice pair of תפילין, you're using it to educate your children in a יידישע חינוך, you're using your money, then you're taking something that is mine, really me because that belongs to me, and I am elevating part of myself. This This explains the פשט. Interesting, we said the גמרא says what is the reason why by צדיקים they love their money, their money is more precious than their body? So the גמרא says because שלא פשטו ידיהם בגזל, because the money that they got didn't come through stealing. It's very They earned it very honestly. How does that explain why the money is more precious than their body? You could say the same thing on their body. Their body is so special that לא פשטו ידיהם בנבילות וטריפות, that they didn't let their body eat non-kosher food, they didn't let their body have pleasure from non-kosher things. So why is the money, because the money they didn't steal, therefore that is more precious? The answer is, when they did something good, holy with their body, it's still not with themselves, it's with something of השם. Where do we see the fact that they elevated part of what is theirs, what they are? That's in the money, and that's why that is more precious to them than themselves, because that's them. And this is the reason why we have those two extremes in the money, because on one hand, the money, since it's something that has less connection in truth to השם, it's not in a revealed way, and if you take the money and you use it for something that's wrong, you are taking part of your real self and lowering it, it's the worst. But if you use the money for good, then it's the opposite, you're elevating yourself to a very high level.

This is the reason why the nature of human beings is that it is very hard to part with your money. It's a funny thing, it's hard. Why is it? See, to give someone money, for instance, is harder than to do a person a favor. A person with his own body, גמילות חסד בגופו, to do a person a favor, you'll have people who will run do favors, but to part with your money, not always does it work, it's much harder. They even make a joke, once they said about a ייד, there is a ייד בצדק. You know what a ייד בצדק? בצדק is an abbreviation: ביז צו די קעשענע, till the pocket. Because it's hard. What is the reason? Why is the nature? Now the nature, גשמיות is one thing, but we know everything that we have in this physical world, positive or negative, everything has a source in the תורה, has a source in spirituality. There must be a spiritual reason for this. The reason is because when you part with your money, you're parting with part of yourself. That is something that you own, and that's the hardest thing. To do someone a favor with your body, that's not you really, that's השם's. You're the one that's watching it, you're the guard, but your money, that's you, and that's very hard. To part with part of yourself, that's very hard. And if a person does part with part of himself for the sake of השם to do a מצוה with it, that's a very, very great level, and that's why the שכר for it is very great. That's why the מצוה of צדקה is so great. The מצוה of צדקה, says, is the greatest מצוה, because there you're giving away part of yourself. This is the reason why רבי מכבד עשירים. Why did רבי give so much כבוד to the rich people? Because the rich people have much more of themselves that they're able to sacrifice for the sake of השם. It's part of them. People who are poor and do a lot of מצוות with themselves are lacking this one aspect of taking part which is really them and doing something for השם, sacrificing for השם. Besides this, there's another point here when it comes to the money, why it's so connected to a person. Says in תניא that money, a person usually earns through work, and when you work, you put your whole self into it. So חיי נפשו, your life was put in in order to earn the money, so the money comes from your ממש your life. Then he adds, even a person who didn't work for his money, you won a lottery or a person got a ירושה, inherited money, you could buy חיי נפשו with the money, you could buy things that will sustain you, which will give your life. So money is connected to the person's life, and when you give that up, you're giving up part of yourself. But besides that, as I said before, why is money called part money Giving it away is so hard and such a big thing if you do it, because you're tearing away part of yourself when you're giving it away for השם, whether it's for צדקה or for any other מצוה, you're giving away part of yourself. This is the reason, says, interesting thing, says in פרקי אבות: הכל לפי רוב המעשה, everything depends on the more actions that you do. And the רמב״ם in פירוש המשניות explains it like this. He says it לגבי צדקה. Interesting thing. Comes to give צדקה, he says if you're able to give צדקה a certain amount and you could give it at once, want to give a hundred dollars, you could give the עני, the poor man, or the institution a hundred dollars, or you could give it in 10 separate times. Says, give it in ten separate times. Why? The amount is the same. הכל לפי רוב המעשה. The more actions of צדקה you do, he says, it is you will more לכוף את יצרו, you will bend your יצר הרע more. And I always wondered if the bending of the יצר הרע by giving צדקה is that you're giving away your money, but you're giving away the same amount, why is this called bending more of the יצר הרע? Till I once heard a joke. And when I heard that joke, oh, this explains to me פשט in the רמב\"ם. I heard a joke that once there was a guest who came to someone's house, and the guest was a very, very fine, איידל, nice man, but the host was a coarse person, but he was the host. Came Friday night to the meal, they ate, this עם הארץ, this coarse person, when he made המוציא, he cut off a big piece of חלה, and that was the חלה he was going to use for the whole meal, and he kept on eating from it. The other person, the guest, was a very איידל, quiet person, wasn't nice to cut off a big, so he cut off a little slice and he ate. As he finished the little bit and he wanted more, he cut off another bit. And he finished another bit. The host was sitting there getting very nervous, and he finally burst out, he said, \"What are you doing? Why don't you take, see what I did? גיב א שניט, give a cut, and that's all, why?\" So he says to him, \"What do you care? If you're worried that I'm going to eat up too much חלה of yours, what's the difference if I eat it slowly or I eat it all together? It's all the same.\" Says he, \"You don't understand. יעדער מאל וואס דו שניידסט איז נאך א שניט אין הארצן. Every time you give a cut in the חלה, it's another cut in my heart. Like this, at least once I saw you cut, you're eating up my חלה, he's a poor man, but every time is another נאך א שניט אין הארץ, another cut in my heart.\" So the same thing here. Every time you have to put your hand in your pocket and you have to give out the money, נאך א שניט אין הארצן, you're tearing away part of yourself, because you earned it through your נפש, you could use it to buy a נפש, but on top of that all, this is part of you. And this is the מעלה of money. So money, because it's part of you, could lower you very low, and when you use the money and it lowers you low, you took part of yourself and you threw it down in בלאטע, as געלט is the גימטריא בלאטע. On the other hand, if you take the same money and you pick it up, and you do something good with it, you are taking part of yourself and you're picking it up. What brings a person to realize that he should give away part of himself to השם? So the חשבון you have to make is like this. The money comes from השם, השם gave it to you. As much as we said before, he gave it to me, and it's mine now, but he gave it to me, and he's still the top owner, לי הכסף ולי הזהב. השם says, \"The money is mine, he gave it to me.\" And he gave it to me with certain conditions, with certain conditions, and I'm obligated to keep the conditions. Imagine someone gives you a present, and he gives it to you with conditions, you must keep those conditions. השם gave us the money, it's ours, but he gave us certain תנאים, certain conditions, that he's giving it to us only if we do what he wants with it, which means giving a certain amount of צדקה, we giving a certain amount for מצות, or whatever, everyone knows what he's supposed to do. So השם gave this with conditions. If a person doesn't realize that השם gave him the money, because unfortunately there could be some people who think, certainly the money comes from השם, but I earned it. In other words, I got it from השם, but I got it because of what I did. Then השם can't put any conditions there. If I'm taking it, I earned it, it's my money. The פסוק refers to this as saying, כחי ועצם ידי עשה לי את החיל הזה, my own power. And there are people who think so, people who think you go to business, you make a good business deal, you're smart, and you work out a good deal, and you make a lot of money, so it's me. If you think that way, you know what it says? It says if a person thinks כחי ועצם ידי, it basically is, to a certain degree, עבודה זרה. It's like idol worship. Why? What is idol worship? Let's think, what is idol worship? We always imagine idol worship is big statue and a guy bows down, \"Oh, you're my god,\" איך ווייס, clay, I don't know what, this is משוגעס, and this is this is נארישקייט. The real idol worship that the רמב\"ם says what it really means is, how did it all start? That people believed that the sun, the moon have a power to give or not to give. And the truth is, we do get things from the sun and from the stars and from the moon, and we get all these things. They are משפיע, they give us. So people thought, if they're the ones that give us, let's pray to them. Let's ask them to give. Let's thank them if they don't give. And they are right, we do get. So what's their mistake? Their mistake is that the sun and the moon and nature doesn't have its own power. It's only a vessel in the hands of השם. כגרזן ביד החוצב, like the axe in the hand of the chopper. We know that a tree is chopped off through an axe, so is someone going to walk over to the axe and say, \"Listen axe, please chop off my tree,\" or after he does it, you come and say, \"Thank you for doing it\"? Stupid. Why? Because it's only a tool in the hands of the person. So who do you ask? The person. Who do you thank? The person. So the stars and everything, all the powers that are there, don't have their own power. They're only tools in the hands of השם. So what's עבודה זרה? עבודה זרה is if you believe that there are other powers or another power other than השם. Now what difference does it make if you believe another power in the sun, or the moon, or a statue, or myself? As long as I believe there is another power other than השם, that's עבודה זרה. So if a person believes כוחי ועוצם ידי, my own hand, my own strength made, cuz the חיל הזה gave me my money that I made, that's עבודה זרה. So obviously that's out of the question. So what do we know? We know, like the פסוק continues, כי הוא הנותן לך כח לעשות חיל. השם does it. If השם gave it to me, I just have to make what we call a כלי, a vessel, in דרך הטבע, naturally, because השם wants so. Or as the world calls it, we have to do some השתדלות, only because השם said so, otherwise we wouldn't even be able to do that. We wouldn't be allowed to work. We'd go, \"What do you mean you work?\" As if saying—some people like this, shouldn't work—but as if saying, \"If I work, I'll make money. If I don't, I won't.\" That's באבע מעשיות. If השם wants to give me, He'll give me whether I work or I don't. And if He doesn't want to give me, I can work from today till tomorrow, I can make the smartest deals, גארנישט העלפן, nothing will help. There's a פסוק, it's לא לחכמים לחם, not because you're smart you make money. So why should we work? The reason we have to do it, because השם said so. Okay? וברכך השם אלוקיך בכל אשר תעשה, we have to do, but we have to remember He gives it to us. And if He gives it to us, He has the right to make any condition He wants. The condition He makes is, \"I'm giving you the money on condition that you buy תפילין with the money, that you buy for שבת, you help other people, you give צדקה.\" All the דינים that we find in the תורה, that's what He gives us. So if we have that in mind, so then even though it's ours, and when we do it, we elevate ourselves, not just a פיקדון that we have, but we will do it. It's ours, but we will do the condition because He gave it to us. And this is טאקע why צדקה is the most important מצוה, because צדקה is the מצוה לכתחילה made with money, that means taking part of myself and giving it away to השם. That's why it says when a person does תשובה, a person does תשובה, so you should give a lot of צדקה. And it says why? Because it says that even after you do תשובה and you repent and you return to השם, you still have to, as the גמרא gives as an expression, you have to do something to appease השם. Gives a משל of a king, a king that you sinned against him. You have to apologize, and you have to promise never to do it again, etc. But then at the end, after after everything is fine and the king says, \"Fine, I forgive you,\" then the right thing to do is now you send him a present. That's what was the idea of a קרבן, it says. That's what was the ענין of a קרבן that they used to bring. It says when we don't have a בית המקדש, don't have קרבנות, it says fasting. If you fast, it helps. Then it says if you can't fast, and it says nowadays we should not fast, the bodies are weaker, we are not allowed to fast just except those places where, time where השם said so, it says give צדקה. What will the צדקה do? The צדקה will be the present you give to השם. Why is צדקה a present that you give to השם? Because צדקה is giving away part of yourself. The real self, more even than the body, more than fasting. Fasting, it says you give away, you see if you fast, you lose, it says בשר ודם, you lose מיעוט חלבו ודמו, you lose blood, so you're giving away part of yourself. In truth, when you give away part of your body, it's not really you, it's part of the פיקדון which השם allows in certain cases, and then it says השם, סתם אזוי doesn't allow it. But when you give the money, you give away completely yourself. Only thing is, I once heard someone ask a question: what happens if you don't have money to give? So someone asked me, what happens if you don't, you're not healthy enough to fast and you don't have enough money to give, what do you do? So I told him you have no choice but not to sin, cuz if you have עבירות, you have no way of getting rid of it, so that's it, פארפאלן. There's nothing you could do about it. But anyway, so when you give money, you give away part of yourself, that's why this is the best thing for צדקה. And that's why it says that צדקה you should give as much as possible. And the question that's asked: what do you mean as much as possible? Doesn't it say that you should give מעשר, a tenth? אל יבזבז יותר מחומש, don't give more than 20%, you're not allowed to give more! So in תניא he says, true, that's only if it's for the sake of the מצוה of צדקה. But if you're giving it because that's gonna be the way you will become closer to השם, and it'll wipe out your עבירות, it'll clean you, it'll cure you from your spiritual sickness, did you ever hear a person say he's sick, but he's not paying more than 20% of his possessions for doctors? \"I might die, but I won't give more than...\" Makes no sense! You give, there's a פסוק: עור בעד עור וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו. Your skin you'll take off, whatever you have you'll give for your life, for your health. So the same thing here also, for your spiritual health you also give. That's why there's no חשבון, says don't, the אלטער רבי says don't worry, אל יבזבז יותר מחומש. יבזבז means, how does יבזבז, how do you say in English יבזבז? Waste. Waste. Spend, but it just says בזבוז you can't do if you're just throwing it out. Squander, that's the word. Squander you can't. But if you're giving it because you know this is gonna bring you your cure, then that doesn't mean it. But it's all because צדקה has this מעלה, and the truth is it's not only with צדקה, but any מצוה that has to do with money. And I started this saying that the שיעור tonight is on the power of money in Jewish tradition. Now we know the power of money. The power of money is the true self, and if you give it to השם, you got a, you reach the greatest level possible. So we ask השם: please, give us a lot of money, and we will do everything you want, we will keep it, not only as a פקדון, but we will keep the conditions and we'll bring ourselves closer to you.