Day # 6 – Your Relationship with Money

September 26, 2009 | Comments 0

Leaving kollel is all about taking control of your own finances, and so you will be focusing more attention on your finances. Before you get in “over your head” it important to make sure you control your attitudes towards money so that it doesn’t gain control over you.

The Chafetz Chaim pointed out how in Ne’eilah of Yom Kippur, the one aveirah that is singled out is that of gezeila – “L’maan nechdal meioshek yadeinu”. See the mishna brura who explains that theft is the sin that stands out the most to accuse a person, that is why we ask forgiveness especially for that. On Yom Kippur, when we are as holy as malachim, we beseech Hashem for forgiveness for something that seems so distant from us at that moment. However, the yetzer hora is very clever, and he is able to get us with this more than anywhere else.

In a study conducted by the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, they surveyed dozens of ultra wealthy people, looking for qualities that were shared by a singnificant number of them. They found the one quality that stands out the most was super high levels of integrity. Contrary to popular belief that most millionaires got rich by ripping off everyone, instead they found that the super rich people generally were people of high integrity.

Business requires lots of trust between partners, customers, suppliers, and everyone else it interacts with. Trustworthy people, besides their honesty are also so much more pleasant to work with. Money tends to flow towards those who can be trusted.

You may think, at this point what could I possibly be dishonest about? But the yetzer hora is already sowing the seeds of malice, little by little. It starts off with small amounts that you can rationalize, and pretty soon it becomes “just the way of doing business.”

Don’t get caught in this disasterous trap of dishonesty. Integrity rewards you both in this world, and the next.

bookmark this post