Why Does Materialism Hurt Your Emunah In HaShem? (7 Minutes)

0:00So despite all of this money that Hashem gave them already, gave them the first two parts of this treasure, the third part He's going to give them after they cross the ocean. But the first two parts, already they lost their emunah. Why? Material doesn't help our emunah. Material hurts our emunah. Having money is a more difficult test than not having money. Because to have a connection with Hashem is much more difficult if you're rich than if you're poor. If you're poor, you need help. So who are you going to cry to? Okay, your parents? Fine. After a while, your parents say, okay, you know what? Get a job. You cry to your wife. Your wife says, okay, after a while, go get a job. Cry to your kids. Abba, don't cry to me. I have school, homework right now. What do you want from my life? I still need money for my new PlayStation coming out next week. Get a job. You cry to your friends like, "Listen, buddy, I have my own problems. Leave me alone." Nobody wants to hear you. Nobody likes a miserable person. Nobody wants to help a miserable person. It's just a reality. Who are you going to cry to? You cry to Hashem. The biggest nightmare for a person is to not have money to feed his kids. Biggest nightmare.

1:25You can give him disease, chas v'shalom. You can give him all types of problems. Not having money to feed his kids? Might as well go to a concentration camp. It's the biggest nightmare for a person. Whether it's a mother or a father—obviously, a mom is close to her kids, probably even more than the father is—but nonetheless, someone that cares about their children, which is most normal people, even the thought of of not having enough for their kids can bring someone to make decisions that are against logic. Whether it's robbing stores, killing someone, or stealing, they'll do anything to feed their kids. They can't. They will go starving. They don't have a problem. But to have little kids starving, it's not an option. So someone poor has an easy time connecting to Hashem if he wants. Someone rich... which is the same person as the guy that goes to the gym. The first thing he looks at every morning, most of the time, if he doesn't have Torah already ingrained in him, is the mirror; he looks at himself. You ask him, how did you make all this money? The first word out of his mouth is, "I." "I did this, I did that, I did this, I did that." There's a famous legend about one of the Rothschild brothers.

2:49Family members. I'm not sure if it's 100% true or not. It may be a different person. The story itself is true. I'm just not sure if it's them or not. One of these wealthy people got to a point where they were so rich that they had a building where, in essence, the building was just to support their gold. The only reason why they had this building was to have this giant safe to store all their gold in it. And one day, this rich person came into their safe fancy safe with all this gold worth an infinite amount of money, and says, you know what? One thing I know for sure is that even God can't make me go hungry. He has all this money. And at that moment, the automatic door of the safe shut. He could scream as much as he wants, all the employees already went home for the weekend. The employees thought he went away on vacation. Two days, three days, four days, five days. No food, no drink, but lots of gold, lots of diamonds. How much are they worth after a week? Nothing. And that's why on the seventh day he cut himself and with his blood... All the employees had already gone home for the weekend. The employees thought he went away on vacation. Two days, three days, four days, five days. No food, no drink, but lots of gold, lots of diamonds. How much are they worth after a week? Nothing. And that's why, on the seventh day, he cut himself and with his blood

4:19He wrote on the wall what happened, this whole story. And in the end, he said, Hashem proved me wrong. And he died on the eighth day. Money is not necessarily something you should pray for as much as we do, because it's a very, very difficult test. I had somebody come to my shiur last night, and, you know, we were talking about Emunah, we were talking about getting closer to Hashem. Talk about praying really seriously. When you pray, it's good to go like this, which is a spiritual way of trying to get some of the thoughts out of your head and focus on the prayer. He says, yeah, I pray, I pray that Hashem gives me the ability to buy this condo. First, He gives me this condo, and then he continues his speech. So I was going to say it, but sometimes I try to hold my tongue because I'm a little blunt at times. But one of the other guys couldn't hold himself. He goes, "That's your dream? That's what we just had to shield off for two hours? We're doing everything. That's your dream, just to buy this condo? That's it? That's your ultimate dream, just to buy a house? Then what? Then what? Okay, you have a house right now. It's not like you're homeless. You have a house. Okay, so instead of paying interest on a mortgage, you're paying rent. It's not really that much different, by the way. I'm from the finance business. In reality, unless you're buying the house 100% cash..."

5:47The first 15 years of your 30-year mortgage is complete interest. You're not benefiting in any way, shape, or form over rent. The only way you're benefiting is if the house appreciates in value. If it goes from $200,000 to $300,000, then of course you made money on other people's money. But if the house goes down in value, then you're better off renting. But nonetheless, you know, this is not a finance class. We're, you know, focused on the Torah. You're thinking about, you just learned Torah, we're trying to get closer to Hashem. But the mind of most people is constantly dragging them to the material. They constantly connect Hashem to the material. If Hashem gives me this, then I will do this. This is not only a bad idea, it's a sin. You're not allowed to give Hashem conditions. Every day during our prayer, part of our prayer, we see that we're Hashem's servants. When was the last time a servant asked his owner for anything? The fact that Hashem allows us and even wants us to pray to Him and ask for things is already a benefit. It's already a chesed from Hashem to us. But when we're not really doing much for Him, part of our prayer, we see that we're Hashem's servants. When was the last time a servant asked his owner for anything? The fact that Hashem allows us and even wants us to pray to Him and ask for things is already a benefit. It's already a chesed from Hashem to us. But when we're not really doing much for Him, and treating Him like He's Santa Claus, "give me this and I'll be a good boy," it's not exactly a rational relationship, to say the least. It's like behaving like kids. Worse. At least the kid is a kid. He has an excuse. Conditions. We're just bigger. We're just bigger kids.

7:14and treating him like he's Santa Claus—give me this, and I'll be a good boy. It's not exactly a rational relationship, to say the least. It's like behaving like children, but worse. At least a child is a child and has an excuse. Conditions. We're just bigger children.