Bechukoti 5771

Lose it all:

In this week's parsha Hashem gives us an option of two paths. One path where we follow the Torah and everything we need He gives us. The other, we don't follow the Torah and lots of unpleasant things happen to us.

We have quoted the Ramban from the end of Bo where he says that one must believe that the world is run completely based on our actions, if we do mitzvot then Hashem rewards us, if we sin Hashem punishes us. This idea can be seen clearly in this week's parsha.

We know from many sources that the amount of money one has is decided by Hashem, and that at any moment it can all be taken away.

There is a story with a very rich Jew who comes to a chassidish rebbe. He asked the rebbe "How can it be that God can take away all of my money? I have my money spread out over many investments, so even if oil crashes I have gold. If that fails I have stocks, if those go bad I got real estate. There is nothing that could make me lose it all. How can the statement be true?" The chassidish rebbe just told him he had to believe it was true.

The man could not accept this answer, because of this he decided to leave Judaism and join the church. He walked in to meet the duke and after showing the duke that he really wanted to convert he was let into the church to learn to become a good christian. After several weeks, the duke said that he was almost ready to completely conv but before he did he just needed to do one thing to truly show his belief in the religion, to give up his worldly possessions to the church. The man pulled out a pen and signed all of his wealth away, now he was an official christian.

Several minutes later, as he is walking down the street he realizes that he has in fact lost all of his wealth in an instant. He ran to the chassidish rebbe crying to him that it was true that Hashem controls all of the money and that he now has nothing. The rebbe said "just as Hashem could take all of the money from you, so too He can get it all back."

That night there was a fire in the city, burning down the church, with this rich man's document giving away all of his wealth. Now, the church could not prove that he had given it over.

If you have been following the news this week, then you would have heard about Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Let's go back to last week. This Jewish man was head of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, a corporation which leads billions of dollars to companies all over the world. He was a strong candidate to win the presidential elections in France coming up very soon. Basically, he was one of the most influential people in the world.

Now fast forward to today. He now sits in a jail cell in Rikers Island prison, with no bail. He was basically forced to resign from his job and lost the support of the people of France in the election. This huge change took basically one day to happen.

In one moment Hashem could take away everything you have, or He can give you more than you could dreamed of. But this choice is up to you, will you follow the mitzvot or not?

In honor of my birthday tomorrow the 16th of Iyar may we all be zoche to choose what is right and may Hashem always be giving to us and not taking.

Have a great Shabbat!