Operation Inspiration
Around Sukkos time, someone sent me a joke. It was a picture showing a graph of stock value for Esrogim, with a sharp drop-off after Sukkos. It was intended to point out how once Sukkos is over, the Esrog is just a piece of fruit with no value. I recall thinking it was like a lottery ticket which seems so valuable before the drawing, but when you don’t win, it’s basically a worthless piece of paper. Not only that, it shows you how far off you really were so it’s almost painful to look at.
However, the same can’t really be said about the esrog. On the contrary, looking back, we appreciate the esrog for having helped us do the Mitzvah. We may not need it now, but we’re glad we had it when we did. Which is why the joke isn’t really that funny upon further reflection.
When you make an investment, the point is to grow your money in the future. When you buy a stock, you expect it to rise in value so that later you can sell it for more than you paid. Were it to sharply drop off and lose its value, that would be upsetting. However, that’s only because you did nothing with the stock while you had it.
Had you invested in a stock that gave you other benefits, though, that would be a different story. For example, let’s say you bought stock in Verizon or T-Mobile and because of that you got a discount on your phone bill or a special limited-edition phone. Or better yet, you invested in Disney or Six Flags and got invited to a special investor-only event at one of their theme parks. If you broke even, or even lost a bit on it, you’d have benefited from your investment and it was not a waste of money because you got something you could not have had by simply holding onto your cash.
It’s like ordering sunglasses or clothing for your summer vacation and having to pay for expedited shipping. Sure, you could save a few dollars by using regular shipping, but if they come after you’re gone, and you don’t have them on your trip, then the whole thing wasn’t worth it. But if you get to use them when you want to, it doesn’t matter that it cost a few dollars more because you achieved your goal.
The same applies to the esrog on Sukkos. Sure, the monetary value of the esrog is not there after Sukkos, but its value on Sukkos outweighs that greatly. In fact, when you waved the lulav and esrog on Sukkos, you were cashing out at that very moment, earning your big returns. No joke.
This same methodology can be applied to many things in life. The Rambam writes that no one ever became poor or lost out by giving Tzedaka. If you’re looking at it like the esrog stock chart, you wouldn’t understand what he’s saying. My bank account balance is lower now than it was before. How is it possible that I didn’t lose?
The answer is simple now. When you gave the tzedaka, you traded the money for something much more valuable. You got the merit of giving tzedakah. You got the opportunity to help someone else, which is a reward in and of itself. And not only that, in actuality, you cemented your gains and deposited them for safekeeping with Hashem, Who is more reliable than any bank, even if it’s FDIC insured.
When you sacrifice your time for another, or give up what you like, to give them what they like, it might objectively look like you’ve lost something, but in truth, each time you do something like that, you’ve banked the profit. Want to do something but you don’t because the Torah tells you not to? You’ve just made a profit that can never be lost to the whims of the market.
Don’t let the people making jokes at the expense of Torah and Mitzvos fool you. The things we do as Jews are measured on an entirely different scale than the rest of the world uses. Forget about a different stock symbol; they’re not even on the same exchange. There is no human commodity that can compare to the returns we can earn on the mitzvos we do. We have no way to gauge their worth on this world.
If you were to try to make a graph that showed the value of that esrog before Sukkos and after Sukkos, you would not be able to. Because no matter what you paid for that esrog beforehand, once you use it for the mitzvah, its value is… ahem… off the charts.
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