The Second Richest Man In History

0:03So here the Chachamim say this is a prophecy: the same Haman is the Haman of Purim. It's spelled the same way. The manna, bread from Shamayim, is spelled the same way: Hey, Mem, Nun. It's also the name for Haman HaRasha from Purim, the Hitler from 2,500 years ago. The same manna... that's going to satiate you, could torture you also. It's the same one. What's the connection? The connection is the whole issue with Haman HaRasha; the whole reason why Haman HaRasha... got furious enough to try to destroy all of Am Yisrael was all because of a horrible middah that he had. What was the middah that he had that was horrible? Greed. Greed. It doesn't matter what Hashem gave him, he wanted more. To such an extent that the Midrash says, and the Gemara in Masechet Megillah says, aside from Korach,

1:23No one in the history of mankind was ever richer than Haman. He was the second richest man of all time. He was richer than (context is missing, so in the likely context) Ahasuerus when he came to Ahasuerus, and he said, "Listen, there's a strange nation; they're not following this, they're not following that, they're all over the place, and so on and so forth. Listen, give me the authority to destroy them, and just in case, here's a down payment." What did he give him? 10,000 kikar kesef. What's 10,000 kikar kesef? The same math that I used for the machatzit hashekel. If you do the math of how much that is, it's 334 million dollars. He gave Achashverosh 334 million dollars to give him the okay to destroy Am Yisrael. That's a nice bonus. Why did Haman care so much that he saw money? Listen, a lot of people hate us. People have always hated Am Yisrael. But not everybody's willing to put their money on it. Not everybody's willing. Many people dislike Am Yisrael, but not everybody's willing to mortgage their house to start a campaign against Am Yisrael.

2:45This guy is willing to put $335 million on the line. Why? At the end of Megillat Esther, Rabotai Yekarim, he says to his wife, I have everything. I have kavod, I have this, I have this, I have this, I have this. I have everything I have. He has billions and billions of dollars. Trillions and trillions of dollars. He has no end of the money that he has. Forests full of money. I only have one thing missing. Mordechai HaYehudi doesn't want to bow to me. So why is there one thing missing for you that makes everything else you have worthless? Well, it's not enough that you have ten trillion dollars. It's not enough that you have a bigger position than anyone else in the world except the king, and even he is kissing up to you. It's not enough that you have all of this; it's still not enough. No, you want one more thing, and if you don't have that one more thing, everything else is worthless. This is someone who, mamash, exhibits the horrible nature of a person. This is a person who's no different than many people today who have confused their greed with ambition. They think that they're ambitious. They call themselves ambitious. They wake up extra early in the morning and go to sleep extra late. Why? They're chasing money. They think it's ambition. In reality, it has nothing to do with ambition.

4:12It has to do with greed. Ambition is good. Ambition is healthy. Ambition is necessary. But if your whole life is money, it has nothing to do with ambition. zero to do with ambition; it just means you're greedy. That means if you made a hundred thousand last year and you're still working full time, pretty much 24 hours a day, it has nothing to do with ambition—you're just greedy. Now, you've made a million and you're still going to work. Even if you made 10 million, you're still going to work non-stop. You've made a hundred million, and you're still going to work non-stop. It has nothing to do with ambition. This is why the billionaires in the Forbes 500, both those on the list and those not on it, still go to work every day, still make deals. They're 90 years old and still making billion-dollar deals. For what? You, your children, your grandchildren, your children's pets, your children's pets' pets, and even your pets' grandchildren will not be able to spend the money you have today. What do you need more money for? It has nothing to do with ambition. Nothing. It's only greed.

5:14That's why the Gemara says, you give him 100, he wants 200. You give him 200, he wants 400. You give him 400, he wants 800. And no human being has ever died with half of what he wanted. Because when it's all based on greed, it's never going to be enough. Whatever you have is always going to be meaningless. It's always going to be meaningless. No, no, no. Once I get to a million, I'm going to relax at that point. Then I'm going to come to the shiur. Once I have a million dollars, I'm going to come to the shiur. How many shiurim do you have? Three? Okay, I'll come to five shiurim. I'll come to your house too. I'll come to your house. I'll come. I'll see you in your house. Maybe I'll listen to you. I once had a million dollars. What about now? No, now I only have half a million. I can't. I can't. I have to work. Why? It's not enough? Are you starving on the street? It's free, the shiur. It doesn't cost you half a million dollars. It's free. You don't have to pay. Baruch Hashem, it's free. This is the satan, the malach ha-mavet, yetzer hara altogether in the person's brain, convincing him he needs money. Not needs it like he needs it to just buy some food and some groceries and survive. He needs it like he needs air. And a person like that, unfortunately, he's his own biggest enemy.

6:27No matter how much he has, it's never going to be enough. That's why even the manna, the manna that could taste like anything you want, the manna that's amazing, that the whole thing goes into the blood system—you don't even have to go to the bathroom—Am Yisrael still complained about it. Why? It's perfect food. You want something else? Make it into something else. "I want steak." It can taste like steak. "I want ice cream too." Make it taste like ice cream. The Gemara says that even in the middle of them eating it, they could decide on a different taste. It tastes like that now. So what do you want, something else? What? It's never enough. It's never enough, rabotai. Haman, same thing. Purim, the whole holiday. I'm writing a book, b'ezrat Hashem, a big article about it. I'll provide you with a few sources and chidushim about the whole issue of greed. It's mamash one of the diseases. It's one of the diseases of this generation. And the whole reason of a near Holocaust is greed. Greed of Achashverosh, greed of Haman HaRasha, greed of all the people that are involved in the story on the bad side. It all has to do with greed. People are like, oh no, they're anti-Semitic. No, that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Yeah, of course they use anti-Semitism as the vehicle. But it was all about greed.

7:50Why more? How much do you want? More? How much more? More than what I have now, and once you have it, you want more again. This is sick; this is a cancer. It's a spiritual cancer. A person that's greedy has spiritual cancer, and maybe in some people, there's never going to be a cure for them. Why? The cure is very difficult. It's not chemo; the cure... For the spiritual cancer of greed is extreme. How extreme? In Megillat Esther, what was the cure? What was the cure for Am Yisrael? Fast for three days, wear sackcloth. Yeah, but you're a millionaire? I'm wearing sackcloth. Yeah, you're a billionaire? Wearing sackcloth. Extreme. The cure for greed has to be extreme. You have to give a lot, and you have to get yourself to such a point that you don't enjoy this world. It's the only cure to greed. Otherwise, you're always going to have a little bit in you. It's not necessarily something you do in one day. But the point is that some people literally have to do it because they're so greedy they can't see straight. Haman couldn't see straight. Yeah? Is it possible that someone would be greedy and not a kfui tova?

9:15Someone who's greedy and not a kafui tova? It's a contradiction. It's an oxymoron. He has to be a kafui tova. Someone who's greedy must be a kafui tova. He can't see straight. His nature is wrong. Everything is wrong. He's not giving tzedakah. He's not, and it's not canceling out the fact that he's greedy is not canceled out because he gives tzedakah. It's still a mitzvah that he gives to Hashem. The problem with greedy people is that they are not necessarily giving to the right cause. It's the classic case of giving in order to make more money. For example, the guy that's greedy is usually going to be the one who gives a million dollars and then asks you to publicize to the whole world that he gave a million dollars. Why? Because after everybody knows that he gave a million dollars, he'll make ten million from it because they'll want to do business with him. "Oh, he looks so generous; let's do business with him." If they're not giving tzedakah for the right sake, meaning, "Yatza min hatameh tameh," something that's impure, something that comes out of something impure is always impure. You cannot have kosher milk come out of a pig. It just can't be. So, greed is a very, very difficult thing to fight, but it's possible. What's the cure? Mussar. So, that was the chiddush on the manna bread. The manna bread...

10:31...is either going to starve you or it's going to satiate you. You have to decide, just like Torah. Torah is either going to be the potion for life or potion for death, as the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says. He realizes he's sick. He's spiritually sick. There's nothing wrong with it. We're all spiritually sick. There's nothing wrong with being spiritually sick; there's only something wrong with denying it.