Blessed is The GOD of Shimon ben Shetach! (Kiddush HaShem)

When a person looks at things, he sees that the sages also conducted business, but they conducted business in a very different way. Their blessing was extraordinary at times, but nonetheless tested. In the safer enough it's a vote by Rav Ovadia in the Mishnah in perek aleph, Mishnah 9, he brings a story about Shimon ben Shetach that's in the Gemara in Yerushalmi Masechet Berachot. Shimon ben Shetach was one of the Gedolei Hador, was the head of the Sanhedrin. But not only that, Shimon ben Shetach was a very, very poor. Extraordinarily poor. And one time his students wanted to or they saw that he's struggling and he's getting older and they wanted to help the rabbi and they said, "Can we buy you a donkey? Can we buy this? Can we give this?" He says, "No, no, no. I don't want anything. Don't buy me anything. I don't So, okay, can we at least get a donkey for the rav?" He said, "Okay, go to the Arab and get a donkey. I'll buy a donkey." They went to the Arab and they bought a donkey. They come back. On the way, they see that the donkey has something dangling on his on his neck. They open up the little bag and they see there's a huge diamond. Worth a fortune. Immediately the talmidim are excited. Why? For their rabbi. Today, you know, I would be amazed if the talmidim ever arrived with that diamond for their rabbi. Perhaps the donkey, but not the diamond. But nonetheless, they come to the rabbi and say, "Kvod HaRav, we have fantastic news." "What's the news?" "The donkey." "No, no, not the donkey. The donkey came with a present from Hakadosh Baruch Hu." "Here it is." Shimon ben Shetach says, "Where'd you get that?" "Came with the donkey?" He said, "Yeah." He goes, "No, no, I didn't buy a diamond. I bought a donkey." So they say, "Kvod HaRav, it's it's Hashem has given you a blessing. You could even halakhically you could you could take it. It's tota it's the mistake of a of a non-Jew. You're allowed to technically benefit from it." Shimon ben Shetach says to his talmidim, "Do you think Shimon ben Shetach" he talks about himself in the third person you don't you think Shimon ben Shetach is looking for riches? I only bought a donkey. And I'm only looking to sanctify Hakadosh Baruch Hu's name in this world. That's it." Immediately he went with his talmidim to this Arab and said, "Here you go. I only bought a donkey. This is your diamond." The Arab from that day on would walk in the markets saying, "Blessed is the God of Shimon ben Shetach." "Blessed is the God of Shimon ben Shetach." Literally he uses Hashem. Now this very same Shimon ben Shetach had tests. Had tests other than just this one. And one time, 300 nazirim, people that made a vow not to cut their hair, not to drink wine, and uh came to the bet din of Shimon ben Shetach and came to the Sanhedrin. Problem is that in order for their vows to end, they have to bring three different types of sacrifices. And all 300 of these Nazirites were poor. They didn't have any money. Now, Shimon ben Shetach also doesn't have any money. Needless to say, not for four for for 900 cows. So, he went to his brother-in-law. Who was his brother-in-law? Yannai the King. Yannai was a king and he was filthy rich. And he's his brother-in-law. So, Shimon ben Shetach was the one of the uh advisors of the king, too. Cuz he was his brother-in-law and he was the do la do. And he says to Yannai the King, "Listen, we have 300 Nazirites that are poor. And in order for their uh uh vow to end, they need to bring sacrifices. Why don't you pay your half and I pay my half?" Yannai said, "Okay, no problem." He commanded his uh his people, "Give uh give Shimon ben Shetach the 450 cows that he wants or uh animals that he needs for half of the 300 people." Now, the other Now, he has money for half. What about the other half? Before he went to Yannai, he looked for different halakhic reasons, valid reasons of if he can cancel any of the vows because there was a mistake, what's called mekach ta'ut. There was a original mistake in the vow itself and thereby the vow was really never valid to begin with. And he found that a of them were not valid vows and therefore they don't need to bring any sacrifice they don't need to cancel anything. In fact everything that they did was for naught but nonetheless they go back to regular life. So now that the United King brought him the the what was needed for half of them and the other half were already cancelled out everybody is free to go. But of course there's always the out there and they come to United King and they tell him you know this Shimon Ben Shetach is advisor of yours you know he cheated you right? How did he cheat me? You gave money for half the people the Nazirites. He didn't give any money. What do you mean he didn't give money? He said to give me half and I'll give half. Yeah he didn't give any money free them that's it. Immediately and I was a hothead got angry and put a warrant for the arrest of of Shimon Ben Shetach. Shimon Ben Shetach knew that his life is on the line he fled ran away. Some time passed and some people from some dignitaries from a different country came to visit United King. And when they saw and they said oh your highness the last time we visited you you had a very wise advisor. Someone that we've never seen such wisdom sitting right next to you. What happened with him? Of course United knew that they were talking about Shimon Ben Shetach the genius. And immediately told his wife who was Shimon Ben Shetach's sister he told his wife go send out a message to your brother in his hiding spot wherever he's hiding and tell him that he can come back be in my palace I won't do any harm to him and here is my signet ring that is you can give it to him as this is a you know the uh promising that I won't do anything to him. This is the guarantee. Shimon ben Shetach got the message, came back to the palace. After he came back to the palace, he sat he saw that there's the king, the queen, which is his sister. Shimon ben Shetach took a chair, and put right between them, and he sat there between them. Yannai found this amusing, and he says to him, "Why did you cheat me?" Shimon ben Shetach says to him, "I Hashem shamayim, I never cheated you. Me cheat? Hashem shamayim." He says, "Yeah, but you said you pay half, and I pay half. You didn't pay any money." Chovah rah, he says, "Uh Your Highness, no. I said you pay half, I pay half. You paid with what God gave you, which is the money. I paid with what God gave me, which is the Torah. I used the Torah wisdom that I learned, that I toiled for, that I sacrificed everything for, to do the same exact thing, just like the Torah commands us to. Your currency is money. My currency is Torah." So, Yannai says to him, "You answered wisely. So, why did you flee?" He says, "Because that very same Torah taught me that when someone is angry, you can't rationalize with him. I knew my life was on the line, you wouldn't hear me." He says, "Okay, then why did you sit between me and the queen?" He says, "Because the very same Torah that we're talking about says that when you have Torah wisdom, you'll sit in between the the uh the the kings. And that's what I'm doing." Shimon ben Shetach acted in accordance to the Torah. Now, of course, in the business world today, people sometimes think that the business is only speaks in dollars and cents. And the truth is that if a person follows the Torah, there are plenty of opportunities for that person to bring parnassa, to bring bracha, to bring a lot of good things to their life. It's all based on how loyal a person is to Hakadosh Baruchu. Are you going to sell Hashem for those few dollars? Are you going to sell Hashem for that ambitious desire that you have? Do you really think you could succeed without Hashem? And that's one of the things that a person needs to always ask themselves. One of the things that people need to know is that in order for us to get a real blessing, we have to make sure that we're not only following Hashem's ways by doing mitzvot, investing in Torah, investing in helping people do teshuvah, but also staying away from sins and cleaning up as much as we possibly can. Mhm.