Frugal

5 Nissan 5782

“The kohen shall order that they clear out the house, before the kohen comes to look at the lesion, so that everything in the house should not become unclean. After this, the kohen shall come to look at the house.” (Vayikra 14:36)

Rashi explains, “For if they do not clear it out, and the kohen comes and sees the lesion, the house will have to be quarantined and everything inside it will become unclean.” The Sifra goes even further, “Over what is the Torah concerned in ordering these precautions to be taken? If it had in mind wooden or metal vessels, which need only be immersed in water in order to restore them to cleanness, he can immerse them and they will become clean. If it has in mind food and liquids, he can eat them during the time of his uncleanness. Consequently it follows that the Torah is concerned only about earthenware vessels, for which there is no means of purification in a mikvah!” (Earthenware vessels are the least valuable items in a household.)

The Talmud in Rosh Hashanah 27a comments on this, “The Torah is frugal with the property of the Jew.”

We even find this sentiment stated explicitly in Halacha (Kitzur Shulchan Oruch 190:3), “Just as you must guard your body, and not allow it to deteriorate, to be damaged or to be injured … so, too, you must guard your property against destruction, ruin, or damage. Anyone who breaks a vessel, tears a garment, or destroys food or drink, or pollutes them, or throws away money, or spoils anything that is fit for man’s enjoyment, violates a negative precept.”

There must be a deeper explanation for this in Chassidus…

“There, in the sefirot, the Ein Sof-light shines forth and is revealed, meaning the blessed Divine will vested in the letters and in the kavanah of the Torah that one studies or the Divine will in prayer and in its kavanah or in a mitzvah and in its kavanah.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, beginning of Chapter 40)

In order to understand this statement, we must first go back to Chapter 37 and remind ourselves what happens when a person fulfills Hashem’s will with a physical object: “Now that one fulfills G‑d’s commandment and will with these objects, the vitality within them ascends and is dissolved and absorbed into the blessed Ein Sof-light, which is His will that is clothed in the mitzvos.” In this chapter, the Alter Rebbe further specifies this idea by explaining that in order for an illumination of the Ein Sof to take place, the mitzvah must be performed with actual kavanah, stemming from love and fear of Hashem.

“Young lions may want and hunger, but those who seek the L‑rd shall not lack any good thing.” (Tehillim 34:11)

From the above it follows why exactly the Torah is so careful to guard a Jews property. Every single item a Jew acquires in his life, every skill and talent he possesses, has come to him for one and only one reason: To use it in his specific mission to further G‑dliness in the world. This is why he must be exceedingly careful not to lose, waste or damage anything that has come under his auspices, because each and every item is an integral tool in his service of Hashem. Just as a person invests his time and money wisely in business, so too must he invest his time wisely, not wasting any of it on matters not related to his particular mission, and examine carefully where he invests his maaser (10 %), or better yet chomesh (20%), in the furtherance of Torah and mitzvos.

One who acts in this way is guaranteed not to lack in any area, for anything he receives is put to pure and complete use.