Guaranteed Investments
Parshas
Naso
Gifts are not worth
much if the recipient cannot keep them. In fact, that is the very meaning of
the word “gift,” something that is given, something that may used in any way
the recipient sees fit. If so, how do we explain the Torah’s choice of words
when describing the mitzvah of giving tithes and gifts to the Kohein, the one
who performs the priestly duties for the community? Listen closely to the words
of the Torah. “And all that a man gives to the Kohein shall be his.” (5:10)
Well, if he gives it to the Kohein, then it is obviously his, isn’t it?
Some commentators
perceive a novel insight in this verse. The Torah, they explain, is addressing
the instinctive defiant reaction of a person who is required to give some of
his hard-earned money to the Kohein or to the poor. “Why should I give him my
money? He didn’t work for it. I did. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to keep it?” The
Torah reassures this person that he is mistaken, that the money given to the
Kohein is indeed money well spent, that it is actually the best by far of all
his diversified investments.
A person never really
has his possessions firmly in his grasp. If he uses them up, he many have
derived some enjoyment from them, but they are now forever gone. If he hoards
them, he can never be assured that they will stay with him. They may be stolen.
He may suffer financial reverses. Nothing is guaranteed.
The only way a person
can safeguard his money and make sure he always retains it is by using it in a
way that will bring him eternal reward. When he gives some of his to a beggar
who cannot feed his family. He has earned himself eternal reward. When he gives
to the Kohein who ministers to the spiritual needs of the community, he has
earned himself eternal reward. When he supports institutions of Torah, he has
earned himself eternal reward. This is what the Torah is saying. “And all that
a man gives to the Kohein shall be his.” Only when he uses his money for a
higher purpose does it become truly “his.” Only then is his investment
guaranteed.
A great sage once visited a very wealthy
man.
“They say you are very
rich,” said the sage. “Is it true?”
“I’m afraid it is,”
said the man. “I am one of the wealthiest men in the country.”
“Indeed?” said the
sage. “Can you prove it to me?”
The man smiled. “I
could take you on a tour of my properties, but we would have to travel for days
on end. I could show you my storehouses of treasures, but you would become
weary climbing from one floor to the next. But I can show you my account books.
Would you like to see them?”
“Please,” said the
sage.
The man took the sage
into his back room and opened some of his account books for him.
“I am not convinced,”
said the sage. “Show me more.”
The man opened more and
more account books for the sage, but he was still unconvinced.
“I have no more account
books,” the man finally said in frustration. “What is that little book up on
that shelf?” said the sage.
“That is the ledger of
my charitable donations,” said the man.
“Show it to me!” said
the sage.
He leafed through the
little ledger and closed it with a smile on his face. “I see that you are
indeed a wealthy man,” said the sage. “Very few people have given as much to
charity as you have. You see, all those other account books mean nothing.
Tomorrow, you can be penniless, and then what would you be worth? But the charity
you gave can never be taken from you. Your good deeds are yours forever.”
In our own lives, we
often feel pressured by the communal charities and all those worthy
institutions who are always so desperately in need of funds. And there is no
end to it. If we give to them this year, we know they will be back next year
for more. But let us look at them from a different perspective. Let us see them
as an opportunity to make an investment that will bear dividends for ourselves
and our families for all eternity, in this world and the next. Let us be
thankful that we are fortunate to be on the giving end and that by doing so we
enrich our own lives beyond measure.
Text Copyright © 2011
by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
Rabbi Reich is on the
faculty of the Ohr Somayach Tanenbaum Education
Center.
A Life Saving Lesson
Parshas
Naso
Posted on May 24, 2018 (5778) By Rabbi
Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah
| Level: Beginner
Why is the Subject of
the Nazir juxtaposed to the subject of the Sota? To teach you that anyone who
sees a Sotah in her destruction should refrain from wine. -(Rashi)
There’s a glaring
question in this statement of Rashi. With a little information, it will become
apparent. A Nazir is someone who goes on a specific 30 day spiritual diet to
“detoxify” himself. The situation involving a Sotah is one which arises when a
husband suspects and formally investigates whether his wife has placed herself
in a position of impropriety. When a doubt still lingers over whether there was
actually an act of infidelity, she is offered a sort of truth serum to resolve
the doubt. If she drinks the Sotah water and is found innocent, then she is
promised a blessing of children. If, however she drinks it and she is in
violation, then she swells up and dies.
Let’s say you saw a
friend drive up to a certain non-kosher drive-thru window and buy himself a
DOUBLE CHEESE WHOPPER AND A MILK SHAKE! He then surreptitiously pulls his car
to the side and (without a blessing) opens his mouth wide to take the first
bite. You watch in amazement as a dark rain cloud gathers spontaneously as if
it had a mind and mission of its own. As your friend begins to sink in his
teeth…WHAM! A bolt of lightning is launched from the cloud leaving him and his
whopper a charred piece of toast.
Are you now more
or less committed to the discipline of keeping kosher? The fright of
that experience is enough to put a pause before eating anything of doubtful
kosher status. The lesson could not have been taught more clearly. Why then if
someone witnesses the Sotah in her hour of doom, do they then need a spiritual
realignment? After all, he’s seen “the hand of G-d” in action. Why should he of
all people become a Nazir? He is the last one that needs to take on this
regimen.
Reb Levi Yitzchok from Berditchov
tzl. had been working on himself, in a private setting, trying to overcome some
challenge, on whatever high level he was struggling, when he resigned to accept
that it was just not possible for him to change.
Immediately afterward he stepped
out into the street where he witnessed an argument between a wagon driver and a
store owner. The store owner wanted the wagon driver to unload the goods into
his store. The driver insisted, “I can’t!” The store owner barked back. “It’s
not that you can’t! It’s that you don’t want to!” The fight went on like this
with ever increasing intensity, “I can’t!” “It’s not that you can’t! It’s that
you don’t want to!” Then a surprise!
The store owner quietly reached
into his pocket and waved a few bills and said, “What if I offered you 50
Zlotas? Would you be able to?” The wagon driver answered soberly, “I’ll give it
try.” Reb Levi Yitzchok marveled that the wagon driver was indeed then quite
capable of doing the job. It was not that he was not able. It really was
because he did not really want to. He also understood that this incident played
out before his eyes to instruct him about his own circumstance. If he could
only meditate on and deeply realize the true value of the accomplishment at
hand then he could gain enough power to leverage himself to do the impossible.
Reb Levi Yitzchok
realized immediately that if he saw this event it was meant for his eyes. He
was being shown this scene for a pointed reason. That’s how great people think!
The Torah wants us to think like Tzadikim too. If this person who was in the
Beis HaMikdash one day happened to have seen what he saw, then it was designed
and prepared and acted out before his eyes for a special reason.
Imagine, now, you are
hustling on the highway at a very fast pace when traffic slows to a crawl.
Eventually the cause of heavy traffic is known as you have your turn to
rubberneck while passing the scene of an overturned car. The police and EMT
people are standing around looking quietly morose. It seems the worst has
happened. For the next 10 minutes your foot wishes to press even harder on the
gas pedal but you recall that deadly scene and arrest yourself. After a time it
is already an ancient memory. You might wonder, why HASHEM showed you
that picture, or why you had to hear some other piece of distressing news and
then you figure out how you can take that tragedy and switch it for a life saving lesson.
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