Colors: Cyan Color

If you’re working as hard as ever but can no longer make ends meet, don’t feel badly.  You’re not doing anything wrong and lots of people are exactly in the same boat.  High inflation and taxes are to blame, and they’re taking a toll in ways that are obvious and in others less obvious.   

Years ago, when Bill Gates was the world’s wealthiest person by a significant margin, he visited Israel.  Gates held a wide-ranging news conference, and as one would expect, one of the questions was about money and particularly suited to him. The question: Does money create happiness?  Gates answered without blinking an eye. “Absolutely not,” he said.

For most of us, important elections, baseball and football games, and major boxing matches are incidental to our lives; even if we follow them, we focus most of our attention on more pressing things.  Gambling addicts are cut from a different cloth.  Events like these are exceptionally exciting, and sometimes dominate their lives, their thinking, and even their finances.  Like other addictions, this one is expensive, difficult to break, and destructive.

The year between last Rosh HaShanah and this one will likely be remembered as a difficult one, with rising global tensions, division at home and painful losses in markets. Among the prayers millions of people will have in mind this year is that Hashem bless the world and resolve these challenges very quickly.  All of us are desperately in need of these blessings.