The Lesson of a Billionaire

It was a beautiful day, but we needed some gas. Refiling my car, a man stepped out of his high end vehicle dressed in a polo shirt, with fancy khakis, and Ray Ban sunglasses.

“Howdy” he smiled.

“Hi.” I returned, a little curious at his open demeanor.

“Boy, I love this country. It’s been way too long since I came back.”

He filled up his tank until the price hit 242 shekels, then he took out the pump and went back into the car.

“Hey, you still have 8 shekels left. That’s around $2 worth of gas you paid for.” I hollered.

“Aw heck, brother. I am worth one billion dollars, and my broker gets me 11% on my money every year. I just don’t have the time to waste an entire minute watching the gas pump super slow so it stops on the exact amount.”

“You’re that wealthy.” I asked.

“Do the math partner.”

So I did.

One billion dollars at 11% means my fast friend makes 110 million dollars every year. That amounts to a little over 9 million dollars a month, three hundred thousand a day, twelve thousand an hour, boy he’s rich, two hundred dollars a minute, and yep, $3.50 for every second. At the current exchange rate, he saves more money by getting in the car and leaving the remaining 8 shekels for someone else.

What a great lesson in life.

If a person will earn $3.50 for every second he is alive, in a year he makes $110 million.

Put it in spiritual terms.

Our Sages relate that if we were to quantify the reward of a mitzvah, a single mitzvah, it would be greater than all of the material wealth on earth combined.

Can we accrue mitzvot every second the same way our friend accrues wealth?

Certainly.

By performing the constant mitzvot you receive blessings from Hashem at a similar pace. Take the mitzvah of emunah. This is the primary commandment of the Ten Commandments: I am Your G-d. It’s the commandment of faith, to recognize that there is One Creator Who created, creates, and will create everything in existence. To acknowledge this, you can follow the dictate in Psalm 37 to Trust in G-d and do good by always doing what’s right even in the face of a reality that all too often appears messy to your limited eyes.

What is the opposite of this? The opposite is what you are warned about in the second of the Ten Commandments: Do not commit idolatry by assigning godly powers to anything outside of Hashem. That means not getting mad at anyone or anything because everything comes Hashem and there is no reason for hate or anger directed at anyone or anything in this world. Our Sages relate that anger is the same as idolatry for this very reason.

When you perform this ongoing mitzvah, you make your own $3.50 per moment. It may seem small, but over a longer period of time it accumulates. Over a 90 year span it can really amount to a staggering total. If our friend earns 11% on his $1 billion in 40 years he will have over $65 billion.

Think about what you earn as you perform the moment to moment mitzvot.

Living in the Land of Israel is a moment-to-moment mitzvah that you perform with your entire body at every moment. Not hating a fellow Jew is also another mitzvah you can do all of the time. A happy Jew in Jerusalem is as rich as the heads of Google and Facebook combined!

The world is full of opportunities to enrich your moments with holiness in this world, and tremendous wealth in the Next. Hashem, in His love for you, places you in an existence where every moment counts.