Protecting One’s Properties
On a visit to New York, a relative of mine who lives there came to see me. In the past, this man had been a multi-millionaire. When the man was near eighty, his son had him sign all sorts of papers. The father had no idea what he was signing on, trusting his son implicitly. But his son betrayed this trust. The man got into various serious difficulties on account of his signatures and was finally sentenced to appear in court. He stood to serve a severe sentence, for three years.
At the end of the trial, the man was dispossessed of all his money. He was left with not a penny from all that he had amassed throughout his lifetime. This man, who had been considered one of the wealthiest Jewish tycoons in the state of New York and owned large portions of real estate, was left with nothing.
When I met him now on my visit, he asked if I had heard about his fall.
“Certainly.” Before me, stood a man who had invested his money and his life to amass greater and greater fortunes. At the ripe age of eighty, he lost everything, in one fell swoop. Rebbi Hakadosh said (Avodah Zarah 10b), “There is one who acquires his world in a single instant.” We see that there is also one who loses his world in a single instant. One day, a man is on top of the wheel of fortune; the next day, he is at the bottom.
“Honored Rav, why was I destined to lose everything at the age of eighty? I invested my entire life in my wealth. I built synagogues and schools and scores of other public institutions. I willingly gave of mine to others. Now I depend on others for my daily sustenance. An entire lifetime was lost because of an act of foolishness.”
I had no idea what to answer this broken man. But I took a lesson from his experience. He lost his entire enterprise due to a careless act. Let us not lose our life enterprise of spiritual assets in the same way.
