One Thing Differentiates Money Between Good and Bad

Episode 224: "One Thing Differentiates Money Between Good and Bad" (כ"ו בתמוז תשפ"ד)

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. We are now in the middle of the Three Weeks. The Three Weeks begins with Shiva Asar B'Tammuz and ends with Tisha B'Av, and these are called the months of mourning — Tammuz and Av.

By the way, I want to mention that the Rebbe once said regarding aveilus (mourning) that one shouldn't be so strict about it. I mean, you have to keep the halachos, but don't be overly strict, because the strictness that you take on in this world will follow you in the next world. So we have to keep the aveilus, but not be machmir beyond what's required — and that's why on Shabbos some people wear their regular clothes and not special mourning clothes, but we don't follow that practice. Anyway, that's a side point.

So we mourn these two months for the two Battei Mikdash. The first Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of gilui arayos (sexual immorality), avodah zarah (idol worship), and shfichas damim (murder) — these were the sins they committed, and that's why the Bayis was destroyed. But they did teshuva, and as the Gemara says, if people do teshuva they are redeemed right away, so Hashem allowed them to build the second Beis Hamikdash.

When the second Beis Hamikdash was built, there was a problem: the people were not united — there was sinas chinam, hatred for no reason. So the second Mikdash was destroyed, and it remains destroyed until today. As the Rebbe brings down, the Gemara says many times — I think it's called — that a generation in which the Beis Hamikdash is not built is as if it were destroyed in that generation. So it's as if the Mikdash is destroyed right now, in our days, in our generation.

The reason the second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed is because there was no unity among the Jews — this is very hard, it's not easy. You know, we say "Shalom Aleichem," and the other person answers — he's supposed to say the opposite, "Aleichem Shalom." Why doesn't he just say "Shalom" back? Because a Jew has to say the opposite — that's just how Jews are. It's strange, but that's how it is. Anyway, that's an aside.

So the Bayis was destroyed because of sinas chinam. And it will come — it says that [Tisha B'Av] will be transformed in the future, and in the middle, now, we are like "bein hametzarim" — but we're still in golus, and if we are in golus, then, so to speak, the Shechinah is also in golus, as we once mentioned.

So if we do teshuva — somebody asked, I mean people wrote letters to the Rebbe asking, "What teshuva should we do, we want Moshiach — what kind of teshuva?" And the Rebbe answered in the letters that we always have to be doing teshuva. And it says that's why we're in golus. So where is the sinas chinam today, where is the murder today, and what is the gilui arayos today? The Rebbe discusses this in different places. It's very interesting, I want to mention it.

Number one, let's say avodah zarah — what is the idol worship today? Power, honor, ego. The ego says, "I can't live without..." — money, today. Years ago, avodah zarah was bowing down to idols — we don't have this today. This is part of the avodah zarah of today.

I want to mention a word — speaking about money. Money is called in Yiddish "gelt." The Tzemach Tzedek said — I think it was the Tzemach Tzedek — the gematria of "gelt" is 112; "zevel" means waste. Gelt is zevel — gelt is waste. What does this mean — gelt is something important, so why is it called zevel? He explained: when is zevel bad? When you keep the waste gathered together in one place — it starts to smell, it's not good. But when you take that zevel and spread it out, it becomes rich soil, and it makes things grow. Manure, when you spread it out all over, is good. So too, gelt is zevel only when you keep it all gathered together; but when you spread it out — when you use it to help other people — then it's good, then it's good to have money, because you help other people with it. Otherwise, gelt is just zevel, and if you don't use it properly, it becomes your idol — this is part of avodah zarah.

Another thing, which the Rebbe did not mention because there was no internet in those days, I guess, but I can tell you I've seen in other places — the internet has become such a thing, and the websites. Young people even walk around with their telephones, and they have the telephone when they go to sleep. They push a button and they can see all kinds of things from all over the world. This is the avodah zarah of today — this is how far it's gone. Right after Shabbos, some people, the first thing they pick up is the telephone. When they go to shul they have the telephone with them, and excuse me, when they're in the bathroom they also have a telephone, and in the middle of learning, in the middle of davening, they text each other.

Years ago I remember people spoke very strongly against television — but television doesn't compare to the internet; what we see today is much worse. So if television was bad, for sure the internet, with one button, is what people have now. We have great speakers, great lecturers who talk about the philosophy of it excellently. I think this has to be said, because unfortunately a lot of people from good families are losing children because of this, and something has to be said about it. Sometimes you have to speak the emes (truth) of the matter, but you also have to express the concern about what's happening. You have to say — look, it says in Tehillim, "...nevertheless, it is good..." — sometimes you have to say this. So this is one of the things we have to do teshuva for today.

Number two: gilui arayos, sexual immorality. Now, we know there are six mitzvos that every person is obligated in 24 hours a day, seven days a week — young, old, children, adults. One of them is: not to look where you're not supposed to look. This is something the Torah tells us — you're not supposed to do this. Also, when a husband and wife are in the status of niddah, they cannot hand things directly to each other — this is very important, this is one of the halachos. And it says that many people are not careful about this.

Besides that, I remember years ago hearing about a woman who went to the mikvah every single day — nowadays, many people don't go to the mikvah at all. This reminds me — I heard in the name of Reb Mendel [?], who was in Russia. I remember him — he went to America later, he passed away, the whole story — but he said that in the old days, great chassidim used to go to the mikvah every single day, not only every day, but sometimes a few times a day. We're not on that level, of course. He said that in Russia, once, when it was twenty below zero, he went to the river, broke the ice, went into the mikvah — Reb Mendel [?] was there — and he went into the water at twenty below zero, and immersed 310 times. He was exhausted. Then he said, "Mendel, come, I can't," and he was told that a mikvah won't hurt you, you won't get sick. So he went in once more, but he couldn't do it again — he got dressed and couldn't continue. So he rested after trying 310 times. Then he went up the hill, and by mistake he saw the shkia (sunset) again, so he thought he had missed the time, and he went back and did another 310 immersions.

We're not talking about doing things on that level — these were great people — but at least we have to be careful to go to the mikvah, especially before Shabbos, even if it's not on that level.

Number three: murder. Nobody literally murders anybody nowadays, but embarrassing people — people are not careful about how they speak to others, not to embarrass them. On these three things we have to do teshuva — these are the things for today.

But the second Beis Hamikdash was destroyed not because of these three sins, but because of sinas chinam — and maybe that's worse than all of them, because when a person commits one of those three sins, he knows he did something wrong, he knows he has to do teshuva — whether he embarrassed somebody or killed somebody. But sinah (hatred) has to do with the heart, and that's very hard to do teshuva for. That's why we've been in golus so long — because it's harder to do teshuva for this.

What does it mean, how can you hate somebody for no reason? The Rebbe speaks about this. He once mentioned the word "kinah" (jealousy) — when a person is, let's say, in a certain profession, and he sees another person in the same profession, he feels a certain jealousy. The other person didn't do anything wrong, but there's a certain jealousy, a certain ayin hara. He has a cousin, or a fellow speaker, somebody — and maybe that other person is a better speaker, or did better than him — there's a certain jealousy. This is much harder to get rid of, and that's why we've been in golus for so long.

This is what Yaakov, before he passed away, did — he called his children together and said, "Come together, I want to tell you when the geula will be, when Moshiach will come." He wanted to reveal it to them. But then, right away, he saw that there is no ches (sin) in the letters of the names of the 12 tribes — meaning, there was no sin there. But then he also saw that there is no kuf and tzadik — there is no "keitz" (end) — in other words, there was no indication of when the end would come. Why wasn't there an end? Because there was no unity among the tribes. This took away his ability to reveal it. So we see that unity is the opposite of this, and unity is what will bring the geula — and this is something that everybody has to work on.

Therefore, as we read last week — this connects to the Three Weeks — the haftorah says: Hashem showed the Navi a vision, and Hashem said, "What do you see?" And the Navi said, "I see a branch cut from an almond tree." And Hashem said to him, "You have seen well; for just as an almond tree is quick to blossom, I am hastening My word to fulfill it. And just as it takes twenty-one days for the almond tree to ripen its fruit after the blossoms appear, so twenty-one days will pass from the day the enemy breaches the walls of Yerushalayim until the Beis Hamikdash is burned."

That's why we don't refer to this period as "21 days" — because 21 days has a negative connotation — we call it "the Three Weeks" instead. Because the truth is, even though the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed because of these sins, it's not only a punishment. I don't think we'll have time this week to explain fully — I'll explain next week why golus is not only because of punishment, but because in order to reach the geula, we have to go through golus. That's why we say "Three Weeks": three alludes to the Beis Hamikdash, the Torah was given in the third month, and that too is connected to "three." So we don't use "21 days," but "Three Weeks," to show the positive — that the Three Weeks is not only to focus on the negative, but there is a positive here too, and that's something I will continue next week.

We should merit Moshiach, and next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.