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TIPS TO SPEED YOUR PESACH PREPARATIONS
by Rosally Saltsman
Although much of halocho regarding money has to
do with giving and not with restraining ourselves,
there are people whose natural tendency is to be
generous, to spend lavishly, to throw caution and their
cash to the winds. The thing is, as I've mentioned
before, that money is a tool -- a very powerful one. By
acting like we don't want to have it and we need to get
rid of it as soon as possible lest it corrupts us by
diminishing our faith, or disappears or a dozen other
psychological rationalizations, we're not according it
the respect it deserves.
Money isn't everything, of course, but it is the path
to most things, even spiritual things. If you want to
buy an esrog mehudar, you need money; it you want
to give charity, you need money and if you want to feed
your children, you need money. As much as we would like
to live on a purely spiritual plane, we need money to
get health care, food, clothes, books, education and an
aliya in shul.
People who spend lavishly are denying money's power by
acting as if they don't need it. While we should
certainly not be hoarding money and we should use it to
benefit as many people as possible for the highest
motives possible, we first have to have it, which means
not getting rid of it. We have to appreciate our money
and keep it long enough to figure out the wisest way to
spend it. Idealism is great but even idealists need to
eat and pay taxes. And in this world, each machatzis
hashekel counts.
No matter what spiritual, emotional and idealistic
notions you associate with money, the bottom line is
that you have a limited amount and you have to budget
it according to your needs, and live within that
budget. Money is the currency by which you acquire
everything tangible and many intangible things in life.
If your daughter wants a Torah scholar, she has to have
a dowry. The things which have a high spiritual value
often also have a high price tag: a set of Shas,
a sefer Torah, tefillin, matza shmura and so on.
The more mehudar, the more it costs.
In many ways, money helps us to buy our olom
habo. Most mitzvos involve spending money. The
key here is not to separate the sacred from the
practical. In order to lead decent and religious lives,
we need money. If money is the tool we use to ply our
mitzvos, then money is, in fact, everything. All,
of course, in the right perspective.
DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME. I am not advising anyone to
give up philanthropic ways or women who are devoting
their energies to home and children to hire a sitter
and go check out the bourse. I'm only saying that
those of us who have a cavalier attitude towards money
should take a lesson from their less open-handed
friends and learn how to stretch the shekel a bit so
that they get the most out of it and save enough so
they'll have what they need for every chag and
simcha. [Without resorting to gemach loans
and beginning an unending cycle!]
When we reach the Supreme Court after 120, we're going
to have to account for everything: every minute, every
word and every shekel.
Each one of us has a good idea about where she stands
on the spending scale. Whoever said "Money isn't
everything" was referring to the fact that being rich
isn't important. It isn't. But when you don't have it,
money can be everything. So let's remember to give
money its due.
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