Transcription
This week's parashah is a very interesting, uh, parashah. The name is called Re'eh. But it's talking about one of the most important mitzvot that we have in the Torah, which of course is the mitzvah of tzedakah, of charity. And not only that, it's teaching us the secrets of how to be well wealthy. And everybody wants money. There's nothing wrong with having money. There's nothing wrong with wanting money if it's, uh, done in a healthy way. But there's nothing wrong with being rich, and everybody wants to be rich. And we're going to learn, bezrat Hashem, why the mitzvah of tzedakah is so associated with making money.
But regardless, whether we accept it or not, or if we like it or not, our entire life is revolving around money. And if I don't have money, my life is hard. And I'm not saying that if I have money, my life is easy, but at least for certain particular things that money can get, then my life is much, much easier when I have money. And unfortunately, we're, we're very much depending on money. And it's sometimes it's hard to get. Sometimes it causes a lot of problems. And that's our reality. How they say in America, money makes the world go around.
Now, comes a challenge that the Torah comes and tells me that I have to share my money. Now, the Torah comes and tells me that I have to give tzedakah. And it tells me how much to give, and when, and how, and to who. And that's a challenge. Why should I give you my money? Why? This is a big question that people ask. Okay, I understand you want me to be nice, to be kind, but why are you telling me to give my money? I don't want to give my money. And it becomes a very big challenge, especially when it goes to other people. Some in the need to give. If I want to give money to my, my kids, that's totally different. I want to give it to them. But here I'm requested to give money to another person. And a lot of people ask, "Why? Why should I give you money?"
Some people, they're already in their nature, they're very charitable, and they like giving other people money. Some people, somebody comes and approaches them, tells them, "I, I need money." I don't know you. Why would I give you money? So comes the big question, why should I give other people money? Which is a very big thing in our life, especially if you live in a religious community, and even not in a religious community. But constantly people approach you and they ask for money. Whether it's on the street, whether it's through an email, whether it's through the phone, but constantly there's all these promotions and and fundraisers, and there's so many things around money.
You know, we just talked about before with lectures. So sometimes people invite me to a lecture and they ask me, "Are you going to ask money? Are you going to ask for money at the end of the lecture because people are not going to come if this is going to be a fundraiser at the end?" And that's one of the first questions that I get when people invite me to a lecture, "Are you going to ask for money? If you charge for the lecture, that's, I, I understand, but are you going to stand at the end of the lecture and start telling people that you're collecting money? If you are, I don't want you to invite you." So, for the, just for the record, that's not what I do. I don't go to lectures and ask for money, but people are will not come to a lecture if they're going to be hit with a fundraiser at the end. And sometimes people, they, they actually contact us before they come to a lecture and ask, "Is there going to be a fundraiser at the end? If not, I don't want to come." People are willing to miss the, the, the, the actual information just not to be asked later on to give money.
So, we ask, "Why? Why do I have to give money? What's the reason behind, behind the concept of charity?" This is the, this week's parashah. It's called the, the parashah of charity, parashat tzedakah. It's all it's talking about is giving charity and how and to who and when. So, of course, comes the big question. What is the point of charity? And not only what's the point of charity, well, why should I do that? Why Hashem created the whole system of charity? Why didn't Hashem just create everybody have money? And then you don't have to give charity. And what is in it for me?
So, first, we have to understand how the Torah is looking at the concept of charity. And charity is not only with money. There are many different ways of doing charity. Here, we're talking about charity with money. That I actually give money to another person. Of course, you can give charity with your time. You can give charity with lending somebody your, your time, your expertise, your home, your car. Charitable acts can be done in many different ways, but here we're concentrating now about actually giving money.
So, first of all, the Torah is talking about two ways how it's looking at charity. The first one, it's called in Hebrew, nedavah. Amen va'amen. Nesiya vetucha. First, the Torah is looking at charity as what's called nedavah. It's just giving something, giving to somebody, and I don't really have to. I, I'm just charitable. I'm just nice. And the Torah says nedavah to them that you don't have to. I don't have to give that person money. I don't have to help that person. I'm just kind. I'm good-hearted. I'm, you know, in Hebrew, in the comes in the word, a very, very generous. And the Torah says this is a present. Nobody is obligating you. You don't have to. You are just a generous person and you give it out.
The second angle, the second way how the Torah is looking at charity. And we learned it that it comes from, from a concept of a present. What's called, and that's when I give somebody a present. And this is coming from the, but from the, from the verse that you give a present to somebody else. Where, when do you give somebody a present? When you love that person, when you care for that person, when you know that person needs something. But this is looked upon from the Torah as a present. Now, here the Torah is already obligating me. It's telling me you have to give that present. Usually, I will give a present to whoever I want to. Here the Torah comes and tells me you have to give this present.
You know, not too long ago, my son came and he asked for money. I told him, "Why do you need money?" He's like, "I'm going to a birthday party. I have to buy a present." So I said, "Why aren't you using your money? Why are you asking for my money?" "He's like, 'You know, I have to buy a present to my friend.'" I said, "It's your friend. It's not my friend. You have allowance. Use your money. Why are you asking for my money? It's not my friend. I don't know him. I'm not invited to the party. I'm not going to get from the cake. Use your money. Why are you asking for me? I give you allowance. You work. You pay the presents for your friend with your money. Don't you want me to buy you shoes? I'll give you money. You want me to pay for your camp or whatever, I'll give you money. Why are you asking me money to give your your friend your your gift? It's your gift. You give the present. I have no obligation. It's not my friend. It's not I'm not invited to the party.'"
So, here we see that the Torah is looking at the concept of charity. And just for this class, when I'm going to talk about charity, I'm talking about money, not anything and not any other charitable acts, actual money. In one way, the Torah is looking at it as being generous, and I just give out. On the other hand, the Torah is saying it's a matana, it's a present, but you have to give it. Different from many other religions, in our religion, charity is a must. You have to give. In other religions, charity is if you want, you give. You don't want, you don't give. In Judaism, charity is an obligation. You have to give. It's a mitzvah. It's a positive mitzvah from the Torah, a mitzvat ase from the Torah, and I have to give charity, whether I like it or not, whether I'm poor or rich, I still have to give it. This is a halakha. This is a mitzvah from the Torah, and there's a clear law, halakha, in Shulchan Aruch that I have to give charity. How much, to who? That's already we're going to talk a little bit about it, but I have to understand that it's not a choice here. It's not if I'm generous or not. A lot of people tell me, "But I don't have money." It doesn't matter. You still have to. Even a poor person that lives off charity has to give charity, too.
Now, charity is a very unique mitzvah because this is the only mitzvah in the Torah that Hashem tells you, tells us, "You can test me." All the rest of them mitzvot, Hashem says, "Don't, don't, don't question me. Don't question me and don't test me." In the mitzvah of charity, Hashem says, "You can test me. You can put the, the, the mitzvah, uh, to the test." And what's the test? Because our sages teach us that when I give charity, then I get. And here, Hashem says, you can test me. Give out charity and you'll see. You'll see the, the, the actual, the actual reaction. And we see that in many different places. We see it from our prophets, and we see it in our oral Torah in the Talmud and in many different places that the act of charity, giving money, brings people wealth. It causes a person to have good parnassah and, uh, even, even to become wealthy. And the Torah comes and tells it very clearly. You give money, you, you make money, you'll become rich. So, we see that the key to money is to give money. And of course, everybody wants to know how to become rich, how to make money, how to be successful in their business. So, the key for the, for that is is giving money.
Now, why is that like that? Because when I give charity, I force Hashem to become my partner. That's how it works. If I now go and, I'm not talking about giving a shekel or a dollar. I'm talking about if I'm giving now charity, and usually charity is very hard to give, especially when you don't have. It's very hard to give when you don't have, and it's very hard to give when you have a lot. When you're in between, it's not that bad. But when you don't have it at all, it's very difficult 'cause you don't have and where am I going to bring it from? Or when you have a lot of money. I recently met a man that I told him that he has to pay 10% of his profits. And he's like, "Are you serious? You, you know what's my 10% going to be?" So, he's like, "I give 10,000 a month, 50,000 a month." I said, "That's amazing. But you have to give 50%." He's like, "50% is going to be in seven digits." Says, "It's good. So, there's going to be some very happy charity organizations to get your ma'aser."
So, when you have a lot, it's not so easy to write a $5 million check to give 10% of what you made. So, not too long ago, I met another individual that made a very big business transaction. A $480 million transaction. Told him, "Yeah, you have to pay $48 million ma'aser." He started seeing stars. He's like, "First IRS came, now you?" I said, "You don't have to give me anything. I'm just telling you what the boss tells you to do. You give it to whoever you want to. But when you have a lot, it's not so easy to give." Either way you're looking at it, giving out from my money is very, very, very hard. And based both when I don't have and both when I have a lot. So, the reality is that when I give money, I force Hashem to partner with me. And we're going to learn why and how.
But we see now, B'ezrat Hashem, in a week and a half, we're going into the month of Elul. The month where we start saying Slichot, we start doing our teshuvah, and we start, you know, getting our act together before Rosh Hashanah. It's time to do it. Then many different places, including the Rambam, Rambam explains that when Elul comes, one should increase a lot of charity. Charity again, with money. Why? Because, you know, you want to be looked upon beyond the letter of the law. You're going to be now judged. How was I the whole year? Was I okay? Did I lie a lot? Did I cheat? Did I say lashon hara? Did I do what Hashem told me to do? I want my judgment to be looked upon beyond the letter of the law and to be more let go. So, one of the ways of doing it, listen, it's very hard for me to give my money, but I'll go beyond the letter of the law. I'll give more than I have. So, we know based on many places of teachings, one of the last ones who was teaching that was Ram, Rambam and Maimonides says when Elul comes, you have to start giving a lot of charity.
Now, where does it all come from? Everything comes in our life from the Torah. So, now we have a very special parashah in the book of Devarim that we mentioned that the last three parashot are flooded with mitzvot. Moshe Rabbenu is already knowing that's it. The, the story is almost over. I'm about to leave the world. I have to give over to the sons of Israel some tools. And the last three mitz- parashot are packed with mitzvot. Over 100 mitzvot are just concentrated in these three parashot. And one of them is the, uh, uh, mitzvah of tzedakah. And we can find it in our, in our parashah at the end of the parashah. There it tells us that we have to give tzedakah. And what's interesting is that Moshe Rabbenu is giving over now all the mitzvot that are from the Torah. 'Cause he knows once I go into Eretz Yisrael, and Yehoshua is going to take over, all the mitzvot are going to become from the sages. All the mitzvot that are concentrated in the Torah in the five books of Moses, these are mitzvot from the Torah. It's called deoraita. It has a total different, uh, weight, so to say. Once Moshe Rabbenu says, once they're going to go into Israel, all the mitzvot are going to be from the sages, from the rabbinan. Which means the severity or the strictness of it is, it loses its value. So, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Okay, now I have to give it all over to make sure that all the mitzvot that I'm giving now are from the Torah." And one of them is the mitzvah of tzedakah.
Now comes a question, how much do I need to give? How much tzedakah do I need to give? Do I need to give all my money? Do I need to give a dollar? What's the limit here? So, the halakha explains that I have to give from tzedakah at least, uh, 10%, what's called ma'aser, and not more than 20%. And this is the, the, the amounts that I need to. I'm not talking about giving ma'aser. Giving ma'aser is a completely different thing. We're talking about right now about tzedakah. And it's two separate things, giving tzedakah and giving ma'aser. 'Cause ma'aser, ma'aser is 10% of what I make. There's certain rules with ma'aser. Who I can give it, how I give it, it's, it's not that I just cut out a check. With tzedakah, it's a completely different thing. Even if you don't make money, you still have to give it tzedakah. When the question is how much do I have to give? Add eser achuz till 10%, which is called ma'aser, and not more than 20. If I want to give more than 20, that's very nice of me. But this is the, the, the amounts that I have to give.
Where do we learn that we have to give 10%? Then we learn it from our father Avraham Avinu. And Avraham Avinu when he came back from the war with the five kings, if you remember the story, that after Sdom and after the whole story, then Lot got captured and there was a whole war going on, and Avraham Avinu, uh, uh, pursued and they went to to bring Lot. After this war, Avraham Avinu had this unbelievable victory, and he came with a very large, uh, amount of, uh, goodies. How do you call it in English? Shalal? When you come back from the, from the, the booty? Spoils. So, he came back, uh, with a lot. And on the way back, he met Malki Tzedek who was a kohen. And he says, "Vayiten lo ma'aser mikol." And he gave him 10% of everything that he made. So, Avraham Avinu already when he made money, gave 10% of what he made. That's the first place in the Torah where we find out that we have to give 10%.
Later on, two generations later, Avraham Avinu's grandson, Yaakov, if you remember when he went to Charan, if you know the story, then the son of Esau, Eliphaz, ran after him. Because Esau wanted to kill him. Yaakov had a lot of money. Eliphaz, which was his nephew, stops him and he tells him, "I'm sorry. I have to kill you. My father sent me to kill you. But, I don't know what to do. I feel bad just killing you." So, he says, "You know what? Take all my money. And a person that is poor is considered dead." So, he gave him all his money. That's why when he came to Lavan, they were very disappointed because Eliezer, when he came to take Rivka, came with 10 camels full of money. Yaakov comes in, like a homeless beggar, and no money. On the way to Charan, Yaakov was of course was afraid and he told Hashem, "If you're going to protect me, if you're going to feed me, if you're going to clothe me, I'm going to give you aser asrenu lach. I'm going to give you 20% of what I make." He says it twice. Aser asrenu lach. I will give you 10% and then another 10%. So, that's where we learn from. Where do we give? Where does the number 10% come? And where does the number 20% come? So, we know that the, the, the act of tzedakah has to be between 10% and 20% of the money that I made.
Now, when it comes from the Torah, tzedakah comes from, it's a mitzvah from the Torah. When the Torah is telling me that I have to give tzedakah, is when a poor person comes to me. I don't have to go to the street now and start looking for poor people. That's not the mitzvah. When I'm looking at the actual mitzvah from the Torah, if a poor person comes to me and tells me, "I need money." Okay, then I dish out the money. I have no obligation walking up and down the streets looking for poor people. When it comes already to host people in my home, in a festival, in a Yom Tov, then I actually have to look for somebody poor and invite him to my table. But to give somebody money, if he comes to me, I'll give you. If he doesn't come to me, I don't have to give. If I walk down the street and nobody puts out their hand, I don't have to walk around and start asking people, "Are you poor?" The Torah tells me if somebody hands out their hand, then you give. If they don't, then that day you're exempt. You have to, you don't have to give tzedakah. Where do we learn that from the Torah? When it says, "Patoh tiftah et yadcha." When the poor person comes to you, then you all have to open your hand and you have to give the poor person money.
Now, on top of tzedakah, our sages added another mitzvah that is called ma'aser. And this was after the destruction of the second temple, that we have from the Torah a different type of ma'aser that I have to give 10% from my crops. And then there's different types of ma'aserot, ma'aser rishon, ma'aser sheni, ma'aser ani. There are all many different types of ma'aser that has to do from crops. After the destruction of the second temple, our sages added another mitzvah and they called it ma'aser that I have to give money. That I actually have to give money, 10% of what I made, and I have to give it from, from my profit. Not from the gross. I made $1,000, I had expenses of $300, I'm left with $700. From the $700 net, uh, uh, profit, I have to give 10%. Now, this is a mitzvah from the sages. Some people don't accept that mitzvah. They say, "No, it's an invention. It's the rabbis. I don't want to give ma'aser." There's a lot of laws with ma'aser, but when it comes to money that I made, this is a mitzvah. Yes, it's from the sages and not from the Torah. Hold on, if you don't mind. And, and I have to give 10% of my net.
Now, some people, they come and say, "Listen, I barely make ends meet. And, and you want me now to give 10% of what I, what I, uh, net, what I, what I made? I'm barely paying my food. How am I going to give 10% from that?" So, even a poor person that barely makes ends meet has to give ma'aser. And the, the, in, in, in the Torah, there's a leniency that if I can't make ends meet, then I will add all my personal expenses in the expenses that I calculate my ma'aser. So, let's say I make, uh, $1,000 a month, and my rent and my food and all the expenses I put it in are $900 and I'm left now with $100, then I'll give ma'aser on $100, which is only $10, and that's doable. So, the right way of doing it is that I give, uh, from 100% I reduce my expenses that that help me to make the money, and all the rest I have to give 10% from that. But, if I'm very, very, uh, and, and a very tough place and I'm struggling, then I can add all my personal expenses and from that whatever is left is give 10%.
A lot of people when I tell them you have to give ma'aser and they tell me I'm poor. I, I live off tzedakah. So, you give the 10% from the tzedakah that somebody gave you. Somebody gave you 100 shekels tzedakah, $100 tzedakah, then give $10 to, to ma'aser. Now, I know here it's a very big test. It's very hard, but that's what's going to cause the, the ability for you to make more money. So, when it comes to making money, our sages added the mitzvah of ma'aser that I have to give 10% of what I made. Who do I give to? So, the Torah says when it comes to ma'aser it has to be to poor people. You can't give from your ma'aser to the research or research of cancer or to something else. Now, here there's a little different rules because some say, for example, a lot of people say, "You know, I have to pay the membership of the shul. And on Rosh Hashanah, I want to buy an aliyah and that costs a lot of money in the shul. Sometimes they're going up to the Torah can cost 5,000 shekels, 10,000 and there in some shuls it's that tens of thousands of dollars to buy an aliyah on Yom Kippur. Can I give that with my ma'aser?" Some people say, "No, you can't give that because you benefit something from it." Some people say, "No, you know what? You are giving charity to the shul. And, and if you would not use the ma'aser, you would not give it, so you can use it." But, we don't want to go into the, to the all the laws now, who you give the ma'aser, how you give it, but we know from the Torah that I have to give 10% to 20% from my tzedakah and our sages added also 10% from what I make.
Now, we know that regardless that we have so many different sources that the mitzvah of tzedakah and especially the mitzvah of ma'aser, 10% of what I make is the biggest remedy for making money. There are numerous stories, numerous sources that we know that giving this 10% and being very particular with it is the key for success. And I told you many times that that for many years I used to have businesses. Before I became religious, I was only called only into business. And even after I became religious till very few years ago, I always had a business. When I became religious, I was in a Yeshiva for a couple years. And then I knew that right away I'm going to go and I'm going to, I knew that my, my, my path is to go and teach and to lecture and to do what I do. And I was like, you know, I don't want to depend on anybody. I don't want to ask for charity. I don't want to charge for anything. I'm going to make it myself a business and I don't have to be dependent on anybody. And for years I would everything that I did, what I do right now, everything was free. The CDs that we distribute, everything I used to fund everything. I used to fund 90% of what I made went, went into my own organization. I didn't have to ask money. I didn't have to fundraise. I didn't have to charge for anything. And I said I don't want to be dependent on anyone. So I used to run a business and I always had very successful businesses. Till a couple years ago, maybe four years, five years ago, my rabbi told me, "Listen, you're too involved in your business. You have to be involved in your, in your organization and your teaching and your outreach. Cut the business out. Find yourself people that will support you." But while I was running my own business, my solid foundation was maserati. And the, the, it's not like, "Okay, I made around 10,000. I'll give around 1,000." When you are precise with calculating till the cent and every expense and you do it 100%, not that how you do your taxes to the IRS that you, you know, here you forget something, here you add something. With maserati you, I to be on the percent. And when I saw that I'm 100% very precise with my maserot, I had unbelievable success. And then when I bumped it up to 20% to what's called kumash, I even have greater success. So I attribute my success in the businesses that I had to the fact that I used to learn Torah half a day. I used to learn as a business owner from 7:00 to 2:00 every day, 7:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon, used to learn Torah. No phone, no nothing. I would come and learn Torah. 2:00 in the afternoon, I would come home and work for a few hours. Then in the evening, I would go to lecture. So I would attribute that my success to learning Torah and mainly for giving maserot. And it was in a lot of money. But regardless to that, then we know that maserot and tzedakah is the key to success, financial success.
There's a very famous story in the Talmud that Rabbi Yohanan was walking in the street. And then he met his nephew, the, the son of Resh Lakish. And he told him, "Nu, habibi, what did you learn today in school?" So he told him that he learned aser ta'aser, that you have to give twice ma'aser. So he told Rabbi Yohanan told his nephew, "Okay, you learned Jew, you don't have a question on what you learned? You just did, you just accept that the Torah says that you have to give twice ma'aser, aser ta'aser? You don't have a question?" So he says, "Yes, I do have a question. Why do I have to give twice? Why is it saying it twice? It says aser ta'aser. Why do you have to say? Isn't it enough to say once? So yeah, I do have a question. Why is it said twice?" So Rabbi Yohanan said, "Aser, you give a ma'aser, why? Bishvili It says he doesn't say le ta'asher. It says asser te'asser. Twice the same word. So Rabbi Yohanan explains, you give maaser in order to become rich, le ta'asher. That was the, that was the answer." So like this, there are many stories in the Talmud that we know that our sages taught that the mitzvah of maaser is a very big remedy for actually for for richness.
Now, really, the, the act of charity is not only the key for richness. It's actually going to define if you are deserving to get money. So yes, it does have a good remedy and it does have a good power to gain money or to make money. But really, the fact of me giving charity is going to determine if I deserve to get anything back. And the more that I give for myself, and here it's already also when I give for myself, not only for my money, also for my time, for my space, for my expertise, whatever it is, the more that I give, that's what's going to define how much I'm going to get if, and if I'm worthy to get anything. So the charity is not only a key for success, it's also how much I'm going to get.
Now, there's another story in the Talmud that I, I spoke about it in a different context, in a different class, but after the destruction of the second temple, there's a story that Rabbi Yohanan is, this is a different Rabbi Yohanan. This is 400 years later. This is Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, that he walked in the streets of Yerushalayim, and this is after the destruction of the temple, and they saw a lady, a Jewish lady, working in a stables of an Arab cleaning the, the dirt from the horses. And they got very upset seeing this Jewish girl and cleaning the dirt of the horses of this Arab. And they, they felt very sad and sorry and then they looked and they, and they recognized her. And Rabbi Yohanan ran to her and he told his students, "You know who this woman is? This is the daughter of one of the most richest men that was in Yerushalayim. His name was Nakdimon ben Nakdimon ben Gurion. There were three very rich people at the time of the siege of Yerushalayim. He was one of them. And one of them is was the father of Rachel, the father-in-law of Rabbi Akiva ben Kalba Savua. There were three individuals that were very, very wealthy. This individual, Nakdimon ben Gurion, they said he was so rich that he was he had enough money to sustain the entire city of Yerushalayim for 10 years. And then they see the daughter cleaning the stables of, of this Arab. And Rabbi Yohanan comes to her and he tells her, "What are you doing? What happened? Why are you working here and cleaning the, the outings of the, of the horses?" He's like, "I, I married you and your father wrote in the ketubah that if you ever need the money, if your husband divorced you or dies, he will give you a million gold coins. Now you're cleaning the, the droppings of a, of the horses? Why?" So she told him, "My father lost his fortune." "What? Your father, Bill Gates, he lost his fortune?" So she said, "Yes." So they questioned, "Why did, why did he lose his fortune?" So, she said he didn't give charity. He didn't give charity. What are you talking about? The story said that when he walked on a carpet, he would not walk on the same carpet twice. He would right away take the carpet and donate it to somebody else. What do you mean he didn't give charity? He was giving charity left and right. So, she says, "You're right. He did give a lot of charity, but in comparison to what he had, it's nothing what he gave." Now, if you have a million dollars and you're giving $10, $100 charity, it's not a lot of money. Now, if you don't have money and you give a lot of money, that's one thing. But, if you are worth $2 billion and you're only giving $10, a million dollar in charity, it sounds a lot, a million dollars. Yeah, but you're worth 10 billion dollars. Your charity should be a, a billion dollars. It has to be in the right ratio. So, she said, "Yeah, he did give a lot of charity, but not enough. Not in, not in compared to what he actually had. And therefore, he lost his fortune."
So, we learn from that that the giving of the charity allows you to make a lot of money. Not giving charity actually causes you to lose money. And you don't have to be an demon Ben Gurion. You don't have to be a billionaire. It has to do with what, what you are, what you can give. If you make X amount of money, you can give a certain amount. Even if you're saying it's very hard for me. It's going to come down on the account of my own expenses. I have to buy my kids things. I have to to feed my family. It's very hard for me to give now 500 shekels or $500 for for the Americans. It's a lot of money. I'll give you $10. But, you have to see how, how much you're giving. Because the money that you give can actually bring you more money and the money that you don't give can actually cause you to, to lose money.
So, what is that when I talk about like, God forbid, like somebody doesn't have money, right? And they have a pushka in their house and they put money in the pushka. Then they give it to themselves? So, they can give it to themselves if they don't have money. That's what I understand. The halacha says that even a poor person that lives off charity has to give charity to somebody else. Now, all the loopholes how a person should live when they don't have money, that's not for this class. There are ways because unfortunately there are many people that don't make ends meet and they need to somehow make ends meet. But my advice is when I, when I got married, if you know a little bit of my story before I got married, then I literally had millions. But not theory, physical. I had a huge business and I had millions of dollars. And in one night Hashem made everything disappear. And from being what's called in the Zohar from Igra Rama Le'Vira Mikta, from a very high mountain to the very deep hole, then in one night my life turned around. So, I'm sure you some of you know the story, if not, you can find it online. But I, I was 27 years old and I had millions of dollars and I had real estate and a huge company and I lived the life of a millionaire and overnight everything changed and I found myself in a deep hole. The funny thing was that when I lost all my money, the only two things that Hashem left me, I had a very, very fancy car and I had fancy clothes. All my clothes were designer clothes. All my watches were like fancy watches. I looked like a millionaire. So, I'm driving a very fancy car and I'm dressed like Giovanni Ricci and I'm, and I, I, I don't only that I have money, I own the entire world's money. So, I started learning in Yeshiva and I went into this religious neighborhood and I'm driving into the neighborhood with this fancy car, walking with Hugo Boss shoes, and beautiful Breitling watches, and everybody's asking me for charity. I'm like, "Charity? I didn't even pay my car insurance for half a year. What are you talking about?" So, Hashem is smart and kind. So, the car, when I got married, I had to pay for my wedding. I sold the car and I had money to pay for the wedding and it, it fit exactly to what I needed. So, Hashem also always takes care of everything.
But, the first 2 years of my marriage, we were so poor that my wife used to come to the Yeshiva where I learned and I would sneak out food from the pantry of the Yeshiva and eat my dinner outside and we would share the food that I would bring out. We would sit on the bench. I would come out of Yeshiva and we would share a plate and we would eat. And then she was like, "Do you mind running in? I want some more of the potatoes." I had to go down, put potatoes, look around, and walk out. We were very, very poor. And we, for the first year of our marriage, every Shabbat we ate out, not because we wanted to be spoiled, because we didn't have an option. And every time my landlord was my neighbor and every time I would go in, out, I would like, you know, like go tiptoeing that he's not going to open the door and, and I would just hear the, of the door. I would already, "Okay, what am I saying now?" We were very poor. And, and I was like, "Okay, my wife was constantly, 'Okay, we'll be like Rabbi Akiva and Rachel. You learn Torah, we'll live in a tent, sleep on straw. Fine.'" So, so, so, so I told her that's nice in theory, but soon we're going to have kids. And then we had our first kid, and we were so poor that it was sad. But why am I telling you that? Because you said when you're poor, you put money in your own push can you help yourself? With the little and barely any money that we had, I made sure that at least I give tzedakah and not for myself. And when somebody gave me money, then I gave 10% ma'aser from that. And, and the little money that I made, I made sure that I'm giving tzedakah. And if the nisayon for me to be poor was supposed to be 20 years, then Hashem narrowed it down to two years. And I always attributed, and even in the beginning when I used to make money, I, I paid ma'aser and not from after all my expenses. From what I made, and it was very difficult to give money that I owe money for the rent and to give the $98 that was the ma'aser to give it to somebody else, which I could go to the rabbi who would allow me to make a U-turn and bring it back to myself. But I was like, "No. I, I have a mitzvah to do. And even a poor person has to give charity." So we made sure that we gave the charity. And Hashem showed us very, very obviously that we're going to talk about it and we're going to, you know, recap the class in a second, but when you give what you make, you create space to get. Besides the fact that what I'm supposed to give is not mine. If I'm supposed to give charity, if I'm supposed to make $100, then Hashem is going to make me make $110. So $10 I will give to charity. It's not mine to start with. So, if I look for all the loopholes to somehow bring it back to me, I'm cheating the system, so to say.
You know, I'm going to tell you a story. There was once a very, very special rabbi, a rebbe from a village in Poland about 200 years ago. And he was known as the Ohev Yisrael from Apta. A very special rebbe, you know him? A very special rebbe about 200 years ago. And he was known to be very, very charitable, very, very special individual. He had unbelievable Ahavat Yisrael. One time a poor person came to him and told him, "You know, I'm so poor. I'm so poor that my daughter can't get married because I don't have money to pay for the wedding. And I don't have money to give as an edunya. And nobody wants to marry my daughter because I don't even have money." So, and he says, "Listen, it's not fair for my daughter. And finally she met a guy and she wants to marry him. And I don't have money." He takes out a piece of paper, like a parchment. He takes out ink and he starts writing a note. And he tells him, "Go to that village. I have a Hasid there, one of my followers. He has money. Give him this note." Okay. Rebbe says, he goes. He goes to the village. He goes into the rich person, to the gvir. He hands out his note. The gvir opens the note and he sees a note from his rebbe saying, "Please give 300 rubles to this man. He's very poor." 300 rubles? That's like me sending out a note to one of my students and telling him, "Give this man a quarter of a million dollars." I mean, a quarter of a million dollars. Even if I have it, why should I give him a quarter of a million dollars? So, he, he, "Listen, you know, excuse me, but rubbish maybe. I'm not giving you 300 rubles. Here, I'll give you 10 rubles." He says, "No, but the rebbe said 300." They're starting to negotiate backwards and forwards. He says, "Okay, here's 100 rubles. Leave. I'm not giving you 300 rubles." "Okay." Very disappointed. He goes back to his rebbe and he says, "Listen, your student wasn't so, uh, obedient. He only gave me 100." The rebbe was very upset. He takes out another note. Writes again and he tells him, "Go to that village. I have another student over there and you talk to him and you give him the note." He goes to that village. The person looks at the note. Oh my gosh, where am I going to get now 300 rubles for this guy? But you know, the rebbe said I have to do it. So he didn't have the money. He started gathering around all the rich, rich people in the village. You know, they put them all together and says, "Listen, the, the rebbe said we have to gather the money for this man. He has to pay for wedding for his daughter." All right, this guy gave 20, this guy gave 15, this guy gave 40. They made a collection and 300 rubles and they give him 300 rubles. Okay. He goes back. He's happy. He marries off his daughter and happy ending. A while later, the guy that collected all the money from everybody and gave the 300 rubles suddenly became 10 times more richer than what he was. Became very, very big, very successful. The other guy, unfortunately, that didn't give, that only gave the 100 ruble, lost all his fortune. Okay. After he's losing his fortune, he comes to the rabbi and he tells him, "I'm taking you to court to din torah because you told your person to come to me to for me to give him 300 rubles and I didn't give him, and I know you were makpid on me. You had some judgment against me because I didn't listen to you, and I know because of that I lost all my money. I'm taking you to din Torah. That's not nice that you sent somebody and you ordered me to give 300 rubles. I mean, that's a little bit of tell him send him to me and tell him help him. Or give him 20 rubles. Why you put me now in a corner? Now I didn't give him. Now I know I have makpida on me and I lost all my money. I'm taking you to din Torah. Rebbe says, "No problem. You have something against me? Let's go to the Beis Din." The next day, they go to the Beis Din. The person who lost all the money tells his case. Then it's time for the Rebbe to defend himself. The judges tell him, "No, what do you have to say for your defense?" So he gets up and he says, "You know that before I was born, you know how it says that 40 days before the person is born, then there's a certain angel that takes the drop in front of Hashem and it says to Hashem, 'What is going to be the destiny of this drop? If he's going to be rich, going to be poor, going to be handsome, going to be successful, what's going to be the destiny of this drop?' Not even a human being yet. It's a drop. And then they decide then what's going to be the template of this person, whether it's going to be strong, poor, rich, handsome. The only thing is that is not decided is if he's going to be a tzaddik or not. Everything is already predestined besides how much God-fearing you're going to have. And this Rebbe says it was decided from Shamayim that I'm going to become very, very wealthy, that I'm going to be a very wealthy person. And I asked not to be born with money because I knew that if I would be born with money, that's going to be a big challenge. It's going to disturb me from learning Torah. I didn't want to be born for money. So, they said, "Listen, habibi, we not asking you which this is not a request here. But, since you in your destiny is to be very, very rich and you don't want the money, you know what we going
To do? We can't give over the money, but we'll deposit the money in by a few other people, like a bank. You have a lot of money, you put a little bit of money in this bank, a little bit of money in that bank, a little bit of money in this bank. Whenever you need, you pull the money out of the bank. You agree?
Yeah, I'm agree. So, he says, "I came down to the world and I gave over my money. And I gave over my money to a few bankers. And one of the guys that I gave over the money is him. And I deposit my money with him. So, every time that I needed to give charity and we give money, I sent them to him to give the money. Now, you are not a trustworthy banker, because I deposit my money with you. It's not your money. And I sent people for you to give my money. It comes for you, but it's not your money. Since you not a trustworthy banker, you didn't treat my money right, then you lost all the money. And now the money is given to a different banker and you know who's the other banker that got it? The guy that invested my money well. He's a good banker. You know what my how my how banks make money? Cuz of interest. That's how they make money. They have a lot of money, they give you my money. And then they they charge you the interest and that's how they banks make money. They don't make money from the monthly service charge that they charge you. That's bupkis. They make the banks make money off interest. Same thing here. The tzaddik said, "This is my money. I deposited my my with you. You didn't deal well with my money. So, I moved my money to this person. He's a more trustworthy banker. Now, he became 10 times more rich."
Story is over. The prosecution had nothing more to say. So, the point is that the money that I have to give, it's not my money. I have the money that comes to me, that's supposed to be to me, and then I have a certain portion that comes to me that doesn't even belong to me. Hashem is just saying, "I'm going to give you money so you can give it to somebody else." That's how it works. So, the 10% that I'm supposed to give is not even mine to start with. So, by me holding it, not only that I'm not giving it to the person that belongs to that's supposed to get it, I'm actually holding money that doesn't belong to me. So, when the Torah obligates me to give the 10%, it's not even my money. So, if I made a thousand dollars, a hundred dollars of it doesn't belong to me. I was supposed to make 900, and Hashem just gave me an extra hundred to give out. So, giving money is not, you know, when it comes to give your own money, what doesn't belong to you, you have to give out. So, by giving out, you actually make room to get something back. And the point of the tzedakah is Hashem makes you a banker. He says, "I'm going to give you now money. Some of it is yours, some of it is not yours. And the part that is not yours, you have to give over. That's why it's an obligation because if you're holding the money that doesn't belong to you, this is like theft. It's not your money.
Now, I need to learn from that is that the Torah tells me you have to give 10% of what you what you make. So, you calculate your expenses, and even if you're very, very poor, then you're saying, "Instead of me making a a hundred shekels or a hundred dollars, I should I was supposed to make only 80. 20 doesn't even belong to me." And this is the nisayon. when you are able to give something that is so hard and it's so tight. That's why I said that the test is when you have a little bit of money or a lot of money. Because when you have to give a $5 million check, 10% of what you make, that's so easy to give $5 million. Okay, I'll give 100,000. But that's what happened to to like David Ben-Gurion. He gave a lot of money, but in relation to what he was supposed to give, he didn't give enough. So it wasn't even his money.
Now comes already a big question. Is that why everything that comes to charity in the Torah it's talking about in doubles? It says patoach tiftach, naton titen, aser teaser. Everything is double. Now there are many different explanations, but the Alshich, Rav Moshe Alshich, he gives a very interesting explanation why it says in doubles. Because you know, it says in the Torah when it comes to a person patoach tiftach or naton titen. He says the double is because Hashem gave gives you in order to give over. That's why it says twice. So when Hashem gives me something, if I'm taking it to keep, then then I'm I'm losing the point. Hashem says, "I'm giving you in order to give." If I gave you something, here it's not only with money. I gave you a home, then open your home and get some bring some guests in it. It's not your home. And I gave you a car, then use it car to help somebody. And I gave you some wisdom with something, then you have to help another person. And that's where I'm talking here about money, but it anything that Hashem gives me it's to give it over. But especially when it comes to money, Hashem gives me so I can give it give it over. And if and if I'm holding it, then I'm stopping the chain. And it's basically Hashem's money. Hashem says, "This is your money. This is my money. And I'm giving it to you for your for you to give it to somebody else. Either way you're looking at it, you never lose from charity. You never will lose from charity. Doesn't matter what you do, you're going to give charity, you will never never lose it. And what's the proof that I never lose from charity? The first time that we see the concept of giving charity in public was in the Torah in the story of Machatzit Hashekel. And Moshe Rabbeinu could not understand the concept of Machatzit Hashekel. Why are you telling me to give half? Tell me tell me to give a whole from a small portion. But what's the concept of giving half? So when Moshe Rabbeinu could not understand why we giving half a shekel, then the Torah says that Hashem showed him a a coin that's going up in flame, Matbeah shel esh. Now what's the concept of the coin going up in flames? This is what I told you before. Is when a candle gives over the light to light another candle, is the lighting candle losing fire? No. When the first candle is used to light the other candle, not only that it's not losing from its own fire, now it's doubling the flame. That's why Hashem showed Moshe Rabbeinu the fire the the coin made out of fire. Because when you give fire, you don't lose fire. Anything else that you give, then you have a deficiency. If I now take a cup of water and the cup is full of water and I give you half of my cup, then my cup is now half empty. I I now in a deficiency. But when it comes to charity, charity is like fire. I can give as much as fire as I want. I can have one candle and light now a thousand candles. It not doesn't take away from my fire. Lehefech, if I put it all together, it makes it even a stronger fire. So charity is like fire. It's like a candle that lights something else. So, the more that I give A, it doesn't take anything from me. But, it when I put it together, then that's when I it's it becomes much, much bigger and much, much stronger.
Now, a lot of people look at it that when I give charity, I give something to somebody else. This is for you, Alyssa. When I give somebody Most people say when I give, I'm lacking now. I'm I'm giving something of mine to somebody else. But, really when I give charity it's the charity that gives to me. Because I'm now creating the space to receive. So, this is the point of the tzedakah and this is why the tzedakah is actually a uh uh a must. You must give charity. It's a positive mitzvah from the Torah that I have to give. And the Torah is very clear. It tells me you have to give between 10% to You can give 15. But, you want to make sure that you give that amount. And even though that you don't have, because the the amount that you got, doesn't matter how you got it. Whether you got a tax refund, whether you got a wedding present, whether somebody gave you a $100, maybe whether you worked, it doesn't matter how the money came to you. Money came to you, that's why the right way to give ma'aser is that any money that comes to you. Somebody told me not long ago not too long ago, should I give ma'aser from tax tax returns? Yeah, why not? Yeah, but I deserve it. It's I didn't work for it. Doesn't matter. Hashem sends you money. He could have sent you the money in many different ways. He decided to send you the money in a tax return. So, you give charity from that. You give 10% from that. I had a bride and groom that told me we made X amount of money for from the presents. And I told them then if you cover the wedding expenses, then deduct the wedding expenses, and the rest give myself. And they said, "No, our parents paid for the wedding." So, I said, "Okay, so take 10% of your wedding presents and give myself with that. You got money. That doesn't matter if you worked for it or not." And the right approach to look at it, it's not your money. You were supposed to get a thousand, Hashem gave you 1200. Now, give from that something. Hashem gave you 1100, so you can give 100. So, the money that I'm supposed to give is not even my money.
Now, when I come to the realization that the more that I give, the more that I get, then that's when I understand the purpose of the tzedakah. And Hashem created it in such a way for me to learn that I have to constantly give from myself. And that's why it's the I don't like using the word remedy, but that's the the the is the remedy. That is the key for success in finance is by giving. And the more that you give, then you get get more. And I know a lot of people say, "Yeah, but I give a lot of charity, and my business is not working well." So, first of all, could very much be that the money that was made in the business that was not made kosher. And then the money that was given out is not a kosher money. I know somebody that all his businesses let's put it in a nice way, is not kosher. And he says, "I give a lot of charity." And I said, "Where do you think you're going to steal from here, and then you're going to give charity, and you're going to get uh a freebie?" That doesn't work like that. You have to work You have to be kosher in your work. Can't steal from here and then try to, you know, wash it up and give charity to the shul. That may maybe work somewhere else, but not in the eyes of the Kadosh Baruchu. More than that, I told you, maybe you're not giving in the right amount. Maybe you're supposed to give much more in the same example of Nakdimon ben ben Gurion. That he had a lot, he gave a lot, but not in comparison to what he has. But if somebody like for example for us that first year of our marriage, somebody paid for the rent. Would it be No, the money went directly to the rent. If he would give you a check and tell you use it for whatever you want, then the right way would be to give 10% from that. But if he paid directly for the rent or even if he gave you money and said this whole money goes to rent, hey, you just you were just the messenger to move it from one hand to the other hand. Then you don't have to pay. So, the point is when it comes to ma'aser, one really needs to consult with their with a rabbi how to give, when to give, to who to give. So, it's not so simple, but guarantee that when you go out of your way to give from money that doesn't belong to you, that opens all the channels of blessings to make money. And since money is such a dominating thing in our life and a very hard test with money, then Hashem says with this you can test me. Put it to the test. And the secret to success is to give. And the more you give, the more you get. That's why the Torah made it an obligation because if it would wouldn't be an obligation, there wouldn't be any charity in the world. There would be very little charity in the world if there wouldn't be an obligation. So, the Torah says I want you to do it because it's a it's not your money. Hashem is made you the banker to hold the money. Therefore, you have to give it over.
So, we want to take from that that we're a week before Rosh Chodesh Elul. And in Elul, we are going to be looked now under we're going to be under a magnifying glass. We have a whole month. Some people start saying slichot. Some people start only say slichot at the end of the month, but it's a month of repentance. Starting from next week, we're going to start learning a lot about what do we need to do in Elul. We have 40 days before Rosh Hashanah, before Yom Kippur. It's 40 days that I have to do teshuvah. It's days of teshuvah. And all of our sages they explained it this is the time that Parashat Re'eh will always come before to remind me this is the time to to clean up and the more I clean up the more I give away and then that's how they look at me from Shamayim. I want to be judged beyond the letter of the law. I know I wasn't so perfect here and there then I want to be you know looked upon that beyond the letter of the law so our sages teach us then you go beyond the letter of the law and even you give even when you don't have even when you don't want even when it's hard that's the right period to start giving. That's why we see that the no of the prayer in Yom Kippur we say Teshuvah Utfila Utzdaka Ma'avirin et ro'a hagzerah. Hagzerah. Teshuvah and prayer repentance and pray and charity. Why charity? Because I'm giving over something that is very hard for me to give. It's one of the biggest biggest challenges is to give over my money the money that I have even though it doesn't belong to me. It's hard to give to to to part with with with this money. So it comes the Torah and tells me no don't worry you don't lose when you give the more you give the more you great make yourself a greater capacity to receive. As I wish you with that can only wish you a beautiful restful week and a charitable week and just to remember that the more that you give the more the more you get.