Lichvod Klal Yisrael
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Becoming
rich during recession
By
Rabbi Tzvi Price
A recession by definition means
that there are fewer jobs available and fewer deals being made. Thus, conventional wisdom says that it is less likely
that you will become rich during a recession. That is how it looks on the surface. However, we believe that there
are deeper, spiritual reasons why people become rich.
Of course, there are many possible reasons why G-d might make one
person wealthy and another needy, but there are some strategies that improve your chances of being on the receiving end
of G-d's bounty. And from a spiritual vantage point, the recession offers a great 'business opportunity'; namely, acquiring
for yourself the merit of acting with honesty and integrity during a financial crisis. Dealing 'on the up and up' while
business is down is a great way to show G-d that He can trust you with more of His wealth. The following story found in the
sefer Aleinu L'shabeach, parashas Kedoshim, page 314, helps illustrate this point.
Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, zt"l, known as the Chazon Ish, was once asked by a certain
landlord if he was permitted to evict his tenant. The landlord explained that the tenant had been living in the apartment
for many years and was still paying the same rent as he had ten years earlier. The tenant was a poor man with a large family
and he simply could not pay more than that. However, the neighborhood in which the apartment was located had become a very
popular one and rents had significantly increased. The tenant claimed that he was protected by Israeli secular law which
made illegal the eviction of a tenant in order to raise the rent.
The
Chazon Ish ruled that Israeli secular law was not binding upon the landlord and that he could evict the tenant. Furthermore,
he said that, if the tenant would not leave, the Torah would consider him to be a thief. The Chazon Ish knew how difficult
it would be for the tenant to follow his ruling so he himself went to the apartment to inform the tenant that he must leave.
The tenant asked the Chazon Ish, "Rebbe, what should I
do, I have no place to go!" The Chazon Ish told him that it would be better for him and his family to sleep in the park
than to be guilty of stealing. Certainly, the tenant faced a difficult financial situation if there ever was one. What would
you do?
The tenant was a righteous person who feared
G-d. He understood that according to the Torah he must leave the apartment, and that is what he did. He took his wife, his
children, and all his worldly possessions and went to live in the park.
When
the Chazon Ish heard that the tenant had accepted his ruling and was now living in the park, he went to visit him and he
gave him a blessing. He told the man that since he had proven to G-d without a shadow of a doubt that he was a man of great
integrity, G-d would bless him with the joy of walking all of his children to their chupah, the wedding canopy, and with
the financial means to buy each of them a beautiful apartment. The author of Aleinu L'shabeach, HaRav Yitzchok Zilberstein,
writes that he kept a close eye on this man and his family to see what would become of the Chazon Ish's blessing. And indeed,
HaRav Zilberstein attests to the fact that the man did merit seeing each of his children happily married and living in a
beautiful apartment.
When did this poor tenant become
rich? Was it later on when he made a few good business deals and the money started flowing, or was it when he was sleeping
in the park with his family struggling to keep his integrity? Maybe the recession offers more 'economic opportunity' than
first imagined.