Money is Nothing…for Hashem

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

Financial problems can be very difficult to deal with. A person may have tried so many ways to make more money, but nothing has worked. To make matters worse, he finds himself in enormous debt and doesn't see any way of getting out of it. He still needs money to cover his current expenses, but there's nowhere left to turn for help. He has prayed. He has made hishtadlut. He has worked on his emunah. He has improved his deeds. What is left for him to do? One advice is to improve more on having the emunah that Hashem can take care of all his financial issues in an instant. Honestly believing to the point that it affects the heart and calms the person down is a very big zechut. Money is nothing for Hashem. The midrash says a student of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai left the yeshiva and became very wealthy. Seeing that the other students were envious, the Rabbi took them to a valley and said, “Valley valley, become filled with gold coins.” The valley started flowing with gold. The Rabbi then impressed upon his students that the money had no value in comparison to the Torah they were learning and the World to Come. It's something that we need to get by with, but it's not a goal in itself. When someone is in great need of funds, his best option is to strengthen his emunah and pray with the real belief that Hashem can help him despite what it seems. Rabbi Gamliel Rabinovich told a story that he heard firsthand from a ba’al teshuva named Roni, who married a righteous convert and built a family with children who were yirei shamayim. They lived in dire poverty, but never complained. They always strengthened each other in emunah and bitachon. They did have one wealthy relative who they reached out to help for, but he denied them saying, “You chose this lifestyle now you have to live with it.” One day Roni, who then became known as Aharon, decided he needed to do some hishtadlut to earn parnasa. He set aside time every day from his learning to pursue a livelihood. Before he became a ba’al teshuva and went into learning full-time, he used to be a real estate broker. So he decided to give that another chance. He made some inquiries and one of his friends told him about a huge building that the sellers were asking forty million dollars for. The building had been on the market for quite some time with no potential buyers in sight. The friend said, “They have been stuck with that building for years and would most definitely give a large commission if someone could sell it for them.” Aharon went to speak to the property owners. They gave him all the details about their building and allowed him to be a broker for it and told him about the commission. Aharon put his trust in Hashem and made a hishtadlut by putting an ad in a local newspaper for the building, with the addition, “Serious prospects only.” The newspaper's secretary put in the ad even though she secretly laughed at it. This was a prime piece of real estate, the kind that the best realtors sold to the wealthiest magnates, not some joe who stuck a tiny little ad in a local newspaper. The ad ran, and wonder of wonders, one evening Aharon received a call from the owner of a respectable real estate company wanting to hear about the property. Aharon scheduled a meeting to show him the building and, lo and behold, they signed a deal for it. Each side paid Aharon 1.5%, for a total of 1.2 million dollars. When this sale became known, everyone wondered which successful realtor managed to make that elusive deal. From then on Aharon became the address for real estate investors, both buyers and sellers, closing on very lucrative deals. Hashem can help everyone in an instant. It is up to us to feel empowered, knowing that we have Hashem with us who can take care of all our needs in an instant.