Priorities

This week we read a story about two of the tribes of Israel who made a special request of Moses. They had abundant herds of livestock and the land east of the Jordan River was especially suitable for grazing. So they asked Moses if they could receive this lot of land as their inheritance.

Moses eventually grants the request.

Now look closely at their request and Moses’s response:

These are the words of their request:

"Pens for the flock we shall build here … and cities (we shall build) for our small children."

And these are the words of Moses when he grants the request:

"Build for yourselves cities for your small children and pens for your flock."

Did you notice the subtle difference? Did you notice the switch?

Yes, Moses turns around their sequence, putting the children ahead of the animals. He was sending these tribes a message: before you settle down and begin life, you need you have your priorities straight. Family before money!

This is a lesson that we too need to be reminded of. Yes, we need to earn a living, but our family comes first. How many workaholic husbands have told their wives, "Honey, I'm doing it all for you and the kids." But the businesses we are busy building for them actually take us away from them in the most important and formative years of their lives. Rightly has it been said, "the best thing you can spend on your kids is not money but time."

In our society, when we call someone a “success" we usually refer to professional success, career success, business success, growing in fame and fortune. However at the end of the day, our deepest satisfaction and true “success” comes from raising a family. Or what our Jewish parents and grandparents simply called nachas.

To paraphrase the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, "Jewish wealth is not measured in property portfolios or stocks and bonds; true Jewish wealth is being blessed with children who walk in the ways of G‑d." For that, we need to be there for them and with them.

A congregant once walked up to his Rabbi and proclaimed, "Rabbi, I am a millionaire!" Now the Rabbi knew the man to be of modest financial means but he immediately explained, "I'm a millionaire in nachas!"

Amen. I wish it upon all of us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Raleigh Resnick