More Old Stuff - Bad Things

I heard a nice dvar Torah from Rabbi Kaplan this weekend that I wanted to share. In this week’s Parsha there was a dispute among various elements of the Bnai Yisroel. Some felt that Aharon did not deserve to be the Kohain Gadol. They felt that Moshe was unfairly appointing his relatives to important positions. The dispute was centered on, who appointed Aharon as the Kohain Gadol. Was is Hashem, or did Moshe do this on his own?

A test was agreed upon by all parties with signs determined that would tell all who was correct.

The Torah tells us that the ground opened up and swallowed Korach, Dasson, and Aviram, along with their entire families. But still people felt that the conflict was not resolved. Then a fire came down from heaven and killed the 250 men who each felt that they should be Kohain Gadol. But still the people were not convinced. Then there was a plague that killed thousands. But, the people still were not sure.

Finally Moshe setup sticks of wood in the ground near the Mishkan. One stick for each tribe. In the morning the stick which represented Aharon and the tribe of Levi had sprouted almond leaves, almond buds, and ripe almonds (all at the same time). This event convinced the masses that Hashem had truly chosen Aharon and that Moshe was not merely peddling influence.

Why did the tragic events which obviously were Hashem’s response to the conflict, not convince the masses, but the stick spouting almonds finally put the issue to bed?

There are some people within every religion that attempt to explain why bad things occur. American soldiers died because of homosexuality, Katrina wrecked Louisiana because of a breakdown in morals, Ariel Sharon is ill because of Gaza, Israeli soldiers died in Lebanon because they were not observant, the Holocaust occurred because of… (I am sorry; I can’t even repeat this one).

The lesson we learn from the episode in this week’s Parsha is that we do not have a right to create moral equivalencies. Just because something bad happens to a group or to an individual does not allow us to explain why it occurred. Even if it seems obvious. We don’t know, and cannot know why G-d punishes people or groups. Our job is to accept bad things as G-d’s will, but not to explain why an individual or group suffers. (Writer's addition - How we view bad things that happen to ourselves is different. I think that Rabbi Kaplan was referring to how we view bad things that happen to others).

But when something positive happens, then we can create an equivalency. When the stick sprouted almonds we had the right to equate it to Aharon’s merit.

Some Old Stuff - Basic Personal Finance

I changed jobs recently and have been going through some old files. Here is something that I wrote up a while ago, but never posted.

Basic Personal Finance

I just don’t get it. I was in shul a few weeks ago, and was talking to a gentleman who I would guess is in his mid sixties to early seventies. He lamented how he needs to adjust his retirement plans because he lost so much money in the recent downturn of the stock market. He doesn’t know what to do. His retirement nest-egg has decreased 50% as it was all in mutual funds that tanked.

In recent testimony before congress regarding the Madoff scandal, Allan Goldstein, age 76, explained that he lost his entire 50 years of retirement savings to Madoff. He can make his next two mortgage payments and will be broke.

I just don’t get it. Personal Finance 101 states that investors who will need their money in the short term should not be invested in equities, particularly in options. There was no question where Madoff was investing. He was investing in high risk securities. That was his niche. Everyone knew that from the start. Why would a retiree have all of his money invested in options? Why does my fellow congregant have so much money in stocks and stock mutual funds?

I guess I could understand if seniors, or almost seniors, had a small portion of their investments in these types of investments. Maybe 10 or 15 percent. But someone in or approaching their “golden years”, has little or no business investing in equities or options.

Here is another thing. From http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org:

“We are writing to inform you that the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity had $15.2 million under management with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities. This represented substantially all of the Foundation's assets”.

Why on earth would a foundation invest all of its money with a hedge fund? Seriously, are these people just plain stupid. If you have a 15 million dollar endowment, how can you invest all of it in one hedge fund? It makes no sense. Is it greed, stupidity, or something else?

Yeshiva University lost a bunch of money with Madoff. However, it was a small portion of their endowment. I still don’t think that charity money should be invested in equities or options, but I can understand a small percent.

Why does this seem so obvious to me, but eludes so many people?