Why should we buy a home? If Mashiach comes, we'd have to liquidate it and go to Eretz Yisroel, so maybe we should keep the cash in the bank?
ANSWER:
Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Yirmiyahu haNovi: "You're going to Bavel for 70 years." He says, "Bnu botim, build homes in Bavel, and see that your daughters are married off. Get busy and lead a normal life wherever you are, because life must go on. When the time will come, I'll call the shots; don't disturb your normal life."
While you are doing all these things, do it l'Shem Shomayim, remember Hakadosh Baruch Hu, be grateful all the time, teach your children Torah and so on, but don't break up your lives. We are not supposed to break up our lives. If you liquidate your house and make it into money, and you'll wait for Mashiach, by the time Mashiach comes you won't have any money left! And who knows if you won't have to go to the poorhouse before that.
Therefore that's the system of the Torah; we don't liquidate anything now. You don't know how long it will take, you have to hope every day, but you cannot make any reckless steps. And even people that tell you, "Go now, sell your homes and settle in Eretz Yisroel!" Even though they are not saying because of Mashiach, settle in Eretz Yisroel, you need a lot of circumspection; you need a lot of good advice before you do such a thing.
I'll tell you a little story. Reb Yisroel Salanter was once approached by a man, many years ago, who was thinking of going to Eretz Yisroel; so Reb Yisroel said "No!"
So he said, "Why?"
"Because in Eretz Yisroel you'll become a beggar, you'll have to come constantly to beg for money, there's no way of making a living." In those days you couldn't make a living in Eretz Yisroel.
What do we see from these words of a big chochom? Making a living is a very important thing, your moral around breaks down when you don't have a parnassa. When you need charity who knows to what moral depths of degradation you will fall. It's very degrading, it's breaking of the spirit and discouraging. Only great people are able to overcome poverty and to continue. And even of those, you have to know a lot of people have died young in Eretz Yisroel because they didn't work. Now I am not discouraging work, people that are able to learn successfully go ahead, but there are people who did not have enough to eat and neglected their health, and died young as a result of poverty, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is not happy when people ruin their health because of poverty.
So if you're able to live successfully under certain circumstances, then go ahead and do it, but most people must take good advice before they do it. It says, "Harbei asu k'Rebbi Shimon Ben Yochoi v'lo olso b'yodum." Many people tried to do like Reb Shimon Ben Yochoi, who didn't want to do anything except learn Torah, and they didn't succeed. Some can, but the multitude cannot, not everybody is suited for that existence.
Therefore it's important to take counsel, don't liquidate anything before you get the go-ahead from somebody who knows.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
