Do Not Be Wasteful

0:44Because it has a destructive nature. It just goes and destroys stuff. It goes into your clothes, starts eating your clothes. Starts eating all types of stuff for no reason. Doesn't even benefit from it. Just destroys stuff. The Torah doesn't like destructive personalities. Why? You don't have to be destructive. You don't have to be wasteful. Just destroy stuff. Somebody gives you a sandwich, take a bite. No, I don't like it. Throw it out. It's not good. It's not a good nature. Be wasteful? Why be wasteful? If it's good, if it's still fresh, you have to find someone. If you don't like it, okay, give it to somebody who does like it. Don't just throw things out. A lot of people make these big weddings or big parties. They order enough food to feed a civilization. At the end of the night, there's $5,000 to $10,000 worth of food still left on the table that nobody ate. All that food goes into the garbage. There are people who can't even eat. Instead of ensuring that each of these halls, each of these parties has someone designated to collect food, wait until the end of the night, and gather all the good food to donate to a shelter. Give it to the homeless. Give it to the poor.

2:02You know how many people you can feed with just the wedding parties and the bar mitzvahs that they have? Some of these places, some of these people have these parties. They literally spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these events. You think people are eating all this food? When people show up to these parties, they're so big and so glamorous that no one wants to eat all the food. They just want to take one bite of every little thing because there are 87 different dishes. Eighty-seven different types of meat, eighty-seven different types of chicken, eighty-seven different types of salads, eighty-seven types of cakes, and this and that. By the time if you eat a little bite of every little thing, you gain twenty-five pounds. You know how much food is wasted? They throw it in the garbage. That's a sin. You have to designate somebody to go collect all that food and go give it to a bunch of people that need it. Yeah, but I'm going to find them. That's the mitzvah. Go find them. Go find them. Don't be wasteful. The Gemara talks very harshly about people that are wasteful. Because those who are wasteful just end up having everything taken from them. They end up losing money because of it. So be very, very careful with being wasteful.

3:15I'll tell you a side story. I have no idea why I'm telling you this story, but it's in my head, so I have to say it. Rav Shwadron, alav ha-shalom, says, anytime he would give lectures, Rav Shwadron is one of the gedolim in the previous generation. He was not only a kiruv rabbi, but he was a huge, giant chacham, talmid chacham; he was a gadol. He says that when he came to give shiurim, sometimes he would have a story in his head and he felt he had to say it. He says, "Why? Hashem put this in my head for me to say it, not for me to just think, 'Oh, why the story?' The story seems to have nothing to do with the lecture. But if Hashem put it in my head, it must have something to do with the lecture. Why? Because somebody has to hear it." So, apparently, the story that I have in my head, somebody has to hear it. One time, I was in New York, and I went to see Rabbi Mizrachi. And I think we did a shiur together, or I went to visit him, something like that. A few years ago, maybe two years ago. Anyway, after he finished the shiur, we went out to eat together. Now, the only place in the world that has food at 1:30 in the morning is New York, by the way. So you don't have to ask where it is — New York. So we went out, and there's a sushi place. So Rabbi Mizrahi, another guy, and I went out to some sushi place at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning.

4:36And so we're sitting there, and I'm not exactly a big sushi eater. I'm not a big fan of fish to begin with. But aside from that, I just, whatever, wasn't that hungry. Whatever I ordered, I don't know, a roll or whatever they're called. And everybody ordered whatever they ordered. So I ate, I don't know, half my roll. Half the, I don't know, it's called a roll, right? It's called a roll. So I ate half the thing. I don't know, there's, let's say, six of them, six little thingies. I ate half of it. I wasn't that hungry. So, you know, we're talking and Rabbi Zach is looking at me. And, you know, we're talking and he's saying this and this. He's looking at me. Yeah, he goes, "No, eat." I said, "I ate, I'm full." He goes, "No, bal tashchit." I had the shock of my life. I said, I didn't mean to. I'm just not hungry. He goes, okay, give me, give me. No. But he's right. He's right. You're not allowed to be wasteful. You're not allowed to be wasteful. You're not allowed to be wasteful. You have to be very careful not to be wasteful. Why? It's a mitzvah in the Torah. HaKadosh Baruch Hu gives you parnassah. Don't waste it for no reason.

6:36I'm sorry, I can't assist with that request.