Clean Money

Businessmen and prospective entrepreneurs frequently seek my blessing before opening a new business or making a major transaction. If I don't know them personally, the first question I ask is whether the business will be closed on Shabbat. I often receive responses like, "But Rabbi – Saturday is the biggest sales day of the week. There's no way that I can shut the door in the face of so many customers…"

Who provides for you? Your business? Shabbat teaches us that Hashem is the Provider.

The Jewish People must learn that's it's Hashem's task to provide us with a livelihood. It's our task to get close to Hashem, to believe in Him and to serve Him! Until people get this straight in their heads – that it's Hashem's job to provide a living for us and not our job, and that it is our job to do teshuva and not Hashem's job – their lives will be one big confused mess.

A lot of people want to switch jobs with Hashem. They say to Hashem, "Listen up, Hashem – You can occupy Yourself with Torah, prayer and teshuva, and I'll make a living on my own." Is anything wrong with that attitude? These "considerate" folks want to make life easy for Hashem! "Master of the World, I'm not going to make Your job any more difficult, so don't worry about me – I'll bring in the bucks on my own."

Not so simple, my friend – you'll bring in the bucks on your own? Until a person knows that it's Hashem's job to provide a living and not his, he won't be able to rid himself of lust for money. And, if a person has a lust for money, he will surely transgress the Torah's laws of integrity and honest dealings. In his love for money, he will allow himself to lie, cheat and swindle; his evil inclination will pat him on the back and tell him that he's doing a great mitzvah by taking money that doesn't belong to him. Just as a person would smell bad if he were walking around with clothes that hadn't been laundered in a month, his soul in like manner exudes a stench from the money in his possession that's not rightfully his. Spiritually, unclean money smells much worse than an unclean shirt, even one that was worn to clean a cowshed.

Money is to be used, not to be loved! Our love should go to Hashem, to the Torah, to the tsaddikim and to our fellow man. We don't love money, we use it. And, the money we use must be clean money – earned honestly, according to Halacha (Jewish Law).

Money can't help you. I've seen fantastically wealthy people whose money was just a slap in the face to them. They chased money all their lives but their money couldn't by them health, peace of mind, marital bliss or joy from their children. Just the opposite – their money gave them no inner joy.

Who says that money can help you? Only Hashem can help a person! Hashem loves you and He's available round-the-clock, 24 hours a day. He's the One Who gives a person his livelihood.

One must study the Code of Jewish Law to realize how many laws we have that determine what honest commerce is. There is no way to uphold these laws if a person has a lust for money? How? The lust for money is the strongest type of lust there is; it penetrates the heart and overrides the brain. A person with a lust of money disdains any rules, laws or regulations that hamper him in any way from seeking what he lusts – more money. That means that he will steal, lie, shortchange and manipulate in any way he can to make more money. In that his money is spiritually filthy, it carries no blessing. He who lusts for money will have no rest for the more he has, the more he lusts for, and the more he lusts the more he seeks to satisfy that lust. This vicious circle voids any normal family life or peace of mind. The person with the lust of money will also be a familiar figure in the courts because he's always fighting, suing other people and dealing with others suing him.

In stark contrast, an individual who has bitachon, trust in Hashem and especially in financial matters, compromises and gives in to other people rather than getting involved in financial squabbles. He neither lies nor cheats. He can raise ten fingers and declare that none of them have touched a cent that doesn't belong to him. The money in his pocket is clean – spiritually, it smells like it's freshly laundered and treated with aromatic fabric softener too.

Would you like a long life? The Gemara tells a story about the students of Rebbe Nechunia ben Hakana; they asked their teacher how he lived to such an old age. Rebbe Nechunia replied, "I would give in to other people in money matters."

What does giving in to others in money matters have to do with long life? Easy – he who doesn't give in and fights like a panther for every cent is eaten up with anger, frayed nerves and much anxiety. Much of his finagled profits go to paying his lawyers. If he would only look at what we say in the Grace After Meals, "For He is a God Who feeds and provides for everyone." Hashem makes the living, blessed be His Name!

Until a person acquires the measure of trust in Hashem – bitachon – his money won't be clean. He will allow himself to cut corners in Halacha, for his subjectivity and lust for money will tell him that all's fair in the dog-eat-dog business world. Yet, a Jew doesn't eat dogs! Just as our food must be kosher, so must the money that buys that food be kosher. Therefore, the only way to get rid of the lust of money is to have complete trust in Hashem, especially in financial matters. Our job right now is to strengthen our bitachon – why?

Trust in Hashem is a prerequisite for inner peace. People have stress and anxiety when it comes to money because they don't have bitachon. As such, you need to trust in Hashem for your emotional health. And by the way – there's one more big dividend that bitachon pays off, and that's an ample income with clean money. So rather than working overtime, go head and learn the Garden of Riches and work hard on reinforcing your trust in Hashem. May everyone enjoy an ample and kosher income, amen!