KLM Charity Saves from Death! Reason for Enthusiasm with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

[Music] is welcome back to klm in the yibbana base midrash what a merit in the month of ello um so here is a i've got a very important question for you two questions okay how do you react when someone asks you for tadaka question number one okay number two how do you respond to all those requests online from organizations torah organizations charity organizations etc how do you respond right so here's my recommendation my recommendation with extreme enthusiasm okay that's what i want to explain to you i want you to realize how amazing tzedakah is how amazing supporting torah is all right so let's start with a few stories true stories um years ago in the yeshiva i was one of the fundraisers and i went to bene brock and i saw a certain alumni from the yeshiva he had his he had a wealthy father thank god and they raised money for a cola torah learning you know married to our learning and so we were telling fundraiser war stories it's not easy to be a fundraiser in fact the famous rabbi noah weinberg right who founded asia torah so he was a very deep thinker and he thought about the future meaning the world to come so he he imagined himself uh in the world to come and they say it's the entry gate right so they say do you have a mask no i'm kidding no they said the entry gate and they say to him what did you do to her to deserve to come into the world to come so he thinks he's ready so he says i did kiruf i brought jews closer to the torah so he he he imagined he's going to hear the falling voice i'm sorry now you're surprised right they said you received so much honor for that that you got all your you got all your reward here in this world that's what he said he says you know i you got just so much honor right so he says well tell us what else he did he says i did fundraising he said come on in you don't get a lot of honor in this world for fundraising but you should know the gemara says that greater is the person who actually causes someone to do a mitzvah than the actual doer right so it's it's very big but now now here's a real story okay i mean not that that's not super significant listen to this okay this was over 30 years ago there was thank god a lot of um non-religious israelis were doing chuva and coming back and they wanted to raise their kill kids with torah education now the schools weren't really equipped you know let's say a kid you know parents became religious and the kids already nine years old so to fit him into the torah current torah schools for young kids was it wasn't easy so they decided they would open up a set of um hadarim torah schools for these newly religious israelis right that would gear to them very good cause correct okay so they go to the united states and they go to fundraise that's classic america right so they went to lakewood and these were by the way these were very um important distinguished rabbis they go to lakewood and they they get to meet with a man who was supporting half the budget of lakewood what was the budget of lakewood at the time 22 million dollars a year and he was giving 11 million a year so the rabbis they look and they said how did you have the merit to support lakewood like this he says i can tell you i i think i'm i'm sure i know the reason okay so we have to scroll back so that was in the 1980s let's say 90s that this had that happened maybe 2000 scroll back to the depression in new york excuse me and we know how rough it was for jews because if you wanted to observe the shabbat you started your job on let's say sunday monday and you got a pink slip if you didn't break the shabbos right terrible challenge so there's one you know religious man and he was a strong person his family was strong and he just refused to work on chavez so he he lost this job and that job let's say it was in brooklyn someplace like that job after job he lost and basically had a few kids two six seven kids and he didn't have he's basically homeless with his family terrible right so i think it was probably a jewish man who had a factory a clothing factory something like this and he he took rachmanis on this poor family and he said um you know what i have some room in the boiler room of the factory you and your family can sleep there okay not easy right okay some time passes now it's a street of brooklyn and there's a wealthy jewish man who's not religious right and he goes down the street and he sees these kids playing they used to call baseball at the time stickball right they played stickball and he sees these little black kids and they're playing stickball but they're speaking yiddish and he's i never saw something like this ever you know these little black boys speaking yiddish and then he gets closer and he sees its soot on their faces right these are the jewish kids that were in the boiler room he thought they were black right and so what happens he he says take me to your father so he sees the father and he says you know he feels for me and his heart goes at me gives him a thousand dollars okay now a thousand dollars in 1930 1929 that's a lot of money right so uh he goes he goes he goes sees his wife he says hashem we're out of here you know and he says this jewish man came and give me a thousand dollars so the wife says um let me just ask you a question was the man who gave you was he religious did he was he shomar shabbat and he says uh i don't know probably not he says you give that money back to him we uh we don't accept that money so he listens to his wife he tracks down the man he asks him you know excuse me i just wanna are you do you observe somebody says no he says sorry uh we can't take the money right so that wealthy non-religious man goes home he speaks to his wife and he says you won't believe what happened you know these uh and and they took back the money because you know we don't observe shabbat so the wife says to him his wife or the wealthy man says you know um when we first got here and you couldn't keep a job you told me it was pakuhne it was life-threatening for us to not work on shabbat so i accepted but now that we're wealthy you know i don't understand why we we don't keep the shabbat and if we don't keep the shabbat from now on i'm giving you a divorce so the husband saps it and now let's go back to lakewood this man who's supporting that half a lakewood says that was my gr uh great grandfather and he married the family of the poor family you know they married he he married the daughter of the poor people so the two people ended up being married and marrying together right those two families and he understood that that kind of self-sacrifice and commitment to torah that's why i had the merit to have so much money and to be able to support lakewood now why why am i telling you that story because why didn't the rabbis the rabbis get this meeting with this person's making 11 million a year and he's religious great he can support torah causes etc so he they didn't ask him what do you do for a living they didn't ask that they said what how did you get such a merit to support torah and to support such a whole torah uh town right so this what do we learn from this that if you really understand how should you respond when you get a request to support torah to support that with great enthusiasm it's such a merit you know when you know if you you're in troll right that people come in and you're like you know the guy comes in rift sadika cohen says do you realize that you have to thank hashem when a poor person comes and asks you for money what a merit what a merit and in fact i saw this one rabbi he took it so seriously you know what he said you know what usually happens if you're davening and they're coming in and they have their bags and they're asking for money you're like uh like this he says get up get up from your seat and go to them yeah you realize what a merit they're giving you go to them i i tried doing that you get the point more when you do that okay so my first point is it is a tremendous merit and the more spiritually enlightened you are the more you realize that that's why the guy didn't say yeah well i worked hard and i made some good deals he says my grandparents were so self-sacrificing for chavez and torah and et cetera et cetera it's a merit it's such a merit okay so that's point number one why isn't that now i want to next explain to you um how amazing sadaka is for you me for us for those who give it okay listen to this okay this is in michelle and there are two verses in michele um by the way wait doesn't back up slightly why am i talking about all this because it's lo it's because it's almost rosh hashanah right and what do we say on rosh hashanah this is i let me set this up first we say that chuva tefila tadaka maviri raw esquezera right um doing true but repenting obviously praying to shem for your life but tzedakah they tear up a bad decree okay all right so now we want to understand this the dynamics of this better so let's go to michele listen to this this is what it says in two places in michelle first is in the 10th peric the possibility second puzzling it says like this russia the storehouses of wickedness won't help yo ilu means help utsudaka on the by contrast sadaka rescues from death so you have storehouses of ill-gotten gain won't help on the other end of the spectrum seductive stays from death one more pussic okay it says in michele in uh parachute aleph uh possible 11 4 similar language okay loyol hon wealth won't help beyond evra on the day of anger utsadaka tatseo mamavis and sadaka rescues from death okay so melech says two times that sadaka rests from death well we don't accept repetition you know he has to be telling you something different each time and that's what the bill nagon explains so first let's talk about the villenegon says to understand all this you have to understand what is money for what do people use money for okay and this isn't his own theory it's hinted to in the navy there's three categories arrev sweets yo eel benefit and tov good okay in other words your money you have three your investment decisions are as follows you're going to use money for pleasures of this world okay you're going to be that's number one number two yo eel you're going to use it for in times of need you need to a medical expense insurance shelter right so that's another thing use money for practical needs okay third is good what is using your money for good charity and kindness right you're you're helping others with your money so the three uses now let's look at the first one it said uh otsuros russia um a wicked person stores it he does it maybe in bezels he cheats a little and he's he's got a lot of money he's got store houses so it says it won't help what does that mean he'll be able to get all the suites he wants nice cars jacuzzi fancy he that he had that he's going to get but mel says guess what when he needs it for some medical operation it's not going to be there it's not going to work we're sorry we're sorry but there's no operation to help you god forbid right so that's if you use your money for bad you can have a good time but it's not going to help you now let's go to tzedakah right tadaka is the expenditure is pure good you're being good right and yet in terms of helping it helps you to the degree that there could have been a decree that plony gets in a car accident and will be spared because he gives a ducka so it helps to the ultimate that it can save your mortal human life here but says the vilna going not just that it's going to help you for everything everything between the greatest need in this world to that it helps for right sounds good right now let's go to the other one now let's contrast not cheating and theft versus sadaka now we're saying wealth someone's wealthy now if they're wealthy their money can help them lot yeah they can have sweets and it'll help them but let's say they don't give to daca right they don't give that too much but they don't cheat they hard earn money with integrity can help however it can't help on the day of anger okay i'm going to talk about ghanam you know the punishment of the world to come for a second in a previous class i explained you know we avoid talk about things that makes us uncomfortable and we no one likes to feel afraid and anxious but when you do it as a mitzvah you'll be you'll be safe and you'll be elevated and you'll be strengthened okay so i'm going to talk about gahannam for a second okay the the run bond says like this you know uh it's been a couple there's some very hard times lately right but i think no one had a harder time than eo of job right now job had the hardest of times because hashem permitted you know events to go against him to test him etc and he had the worst things he had you know lost his property in a big immediate thing lost children what's worse than that hashem your rockham right terrible physical sight he had all the worst thing for years and years and years and years right so it says that ron bonham [Music] ramban right now he says like this he says if we understood what one second of gehenom is like he says we would say hashem give me 70 years of eo's challenges and suffering and pain god forbid right so you don't want to be there for a second now listen to this this is unbelievable so a person who had a lot of wealth and this and that it may help them now but if they did wrong things and they have gehennam coming to them it's coming and it's terrible right so listen to this if you gave zadaka if you did good with your money says the vilna goin they'll say no skip it he doesn't have to have gehennam all right now i don't know if it's total whatever but it's you so you hear it rescues from death in this world and it rescues from death in the world to come amazing right amazing so now by the way now we understand why we say to dhaka my bearing raha gazera right charity because you know the judgment on rosh hashanah that it for life where everyone's asking for life right and everyone should have life please god but the thing is this everyone's asking for life what life life in this world or life in the world to come so it's a debate okay there's it's a debate some say this something that some say both okay but you can't lose what's a duck it saves from death in this world and it saves from death in the world to come you hear this it's such a good investment okay now i now i'm just gonna come to the final part which is the under no two more parts now i understand why is so great why is it so great in the eyes of hashem right so here's the uh here's the idea and i think you'll everyone knows i asked my son on the way here uh does he know what a mirage is and uh he he certainly should because israel is surrounded by desert you know and they they say it's incredible if you've ever seen the the pictures of it i know most people know but you're in a desert and you're dying of thirst and then you see like an oasis you see water right and you you you would if you will swear by it that there's water there but it it's an optical illusion okay so you get there and there's no water there right uh that's a mirage okay so there's two mirages that occur with money okay let's take a wicked person right who uses according to the michele he has storehouses he has bank accounts in switzerland right right so it looks like it's there but when it comes to times of need it's not there it's a mirage okay now with zeducka it's a reverse mirage you're taking the money out of your pocket you're putting on your credit card you know ybanet klm you know you're supporting god sarah you're you're you're doing that it looks like the money's leaving you right but it's there for you in the most profound way right now what's the greatness though of zudaka is that takes ammuna right because the muna is that it's not clear to you at the time that what you're doing is going to be good and good for you but you trust in hashem right so i saw that they bring um like this it says that it's very interesting it says avraham of inu he believed in hashem now it wasn't way early on but that he believed in hashem and shem considered it like sadaka okay his amuno was compared to zeducka now what they explained is when was that said that was after he despite um being told he's going to bring the jewish people have children his wife and he were aging and they had no ability to have children and he's told he'll be in israel and he's kicked out of israel he could have a lot of doubt in hashem's promises and yet he marched forward he was even willing to sacrifice his only sun etc right so that amuna right see that was like zadaka because he's acting with faith and doing things even though right now it doesn't look like it's good for him it's just like sadaka when you pull out of your own personal resources and give of your moa decca right it looks like you're losing but you have a promise from hashem right and so that's why it's such a powerful thing it's such an expression of amuna okay that's why it's so big now this is klm and i i i hope i've inspired you about how powerful tzeduk is and i hope you'll do it and i hope when you're in troll you'll get up and tackle the the guy and give him some money or you're right so but let's have the the thing i you know the reason i got this whole klm started cavanaugh missus for that you're doing is when you think i'm doing the mitzvah beforehand it enhances it so much right because we just do it we feel good we forget to think about hey hashem commanded me i'm doing it because you asked me to hashem because i love you okay so i'm going to show you a little scheme to remember the mitzvas at zadaka and that's how we're going to finish off you're going to know what the mitzvahs are and i please god hope you'll have them in mine okay after we just heard what an amazing thing tzedakah is and why you're amazing when you give it right so i said it wouldn't be a shame not to maximize the giving by doing it for sure as a mitzvah tuition so i came up with thing we said that tzedakah tears the bad decree t-e-a-r-s it tears so this is how you can remember the mitzvahs and uh by the way um if you're interested we're gonna create a um a chart to remember this uh and that'll be in the descript description box below yeah uh or set was send me an email and request it that's the best way but first let's look at the five mitzvahs that you can get so and this just takes a moment of thought okay you know it's funny because uh since i started this focus on reminding people have in mind take a second think about this and you just change it so like i'm doing it like i'm nagging my kids i'm nagging my wife don't forget to have this in mind before she goes to sleep having mine taking care of yourself before you go to sleep et cetera et cetera and i was doing it in the shiva so this one guy said you know i think we're having a webb break cares about our ola maba or eternity more than we do so i do i really do okay that's what we're doing at klm so have in mind t to dhaka when you give okay you just maximized by just two seconds thought then e emulating hashem hashem pours he gives he take he cares for people's physical needs that's what you do and and you spread you spread the word of hashem in the world you're emulating hashem okay so that's t e a a hat to the rafa just like your well-being and your financial status is important to you express your love by taking care of others and helping others loving a neighbor like yourself and this we just spoke this book about what's so great about sadaka a righteous person lives by a moonah the mitsuhzadaka is or you're acting like a righteous person you're living by a muna because you're trusting that you'll take away from yourself to give to others and he'll take care of you right so righteous lived by yamuna and finally as always do this for simcha i told you you see a cause a worthy cause you see a poor person say wow what a merit i have that i have possessions that i can give to other people i can share the wealth right so i just can't stress enough how valuable it is right now and i want to make a special appeal um first of all for yibanet because of all the torah they're putting out in the world and also they they work on tested too which is a huge investment and also at klm we're doing a campaign too because i think you you can recognize that you're changing people's eternal connection by just giving them an awareness of how much they can uh connect and do misses that bond them to hashem uh tremendously so i just would say that uh it's a very big mitzvah to support the yemini drive and the klm drive and if you look in the subscription box below you'll see a link to those sites and if you do it just realize it tears bad degrees so have in mind sadaka emulating hashem's kindness and giving after effect loving hashem like you like you're loving others like you love yourself righteous people live through their muna their moon is expressed by their giving and their mitzvahs and doing it okay [Music] is