There's a one in four chance of getting into a car accident while texting, yet we say, "It'll never happen to me!" Winning the Powerball is a chance of one of 292 million, yet we all pay up and say, "Hey, you never know!"
We all were faced with the interesting question of how winning the jackpot of 1.5 billion dollars would change our lives. How would we spend the money?
And then came the worst part of it all: waking up yesterday morning to find out that you didn't win the Powerball and that you actually did have to go to work today!
Rumor is spreading through the Internet that the Powerball winner from Chino, California is a 62-year-old nurse, mother of seven, whose observant Jewish boss, Shlomo Rechnitz, bought 18,000 Powerball tickets and distributed them to hundreds of his employees in his nursing homes statewide. Whether it's true or not, time will tell, but it's a good story nonetheless.
Our mystics advise us to "live with the times" and find meaning and direction from our daily dilemmas through the weekly Torah Portion. The devastating plague of locusts inflicted upon the Egyptians this week gives us an interesting perspective on how winning a billon dollars should change our lives.
Whilst G-d Almighty could've easily extracted the Jews from their Egyptian bondage in one fell swoop or a single miraculous gesture, He chose to do so through ten devastating plagues. Why?
If the purpose was to extract the Jews out of Egypt, then one miracle would have sufficed. But G-d was trying to accomplish more: he was trying to extract Egypt out of the Jews!
Powerful as they were, citizens of the Egyptian empire was very superstitious and worshipped a plethora of gods. They were true idolaters and the antithesis of the foundation of Judaism: monotheism. To prepare for Sinai's revelation of the Torah and the formation of the Jewish People, the Hebrew slaves needed to reject the idol worship in which they were steeped for so long.
Each plague represented a different deity that they worshipped. The plague of locusts this week wiping out all the food of Egypt, represented Hashem's dominance over our food supply, our money! Instead of worshipping gelt, the plague taught us to obey G-d instead!
And here were faced with the tough questions:
If someone offered you a billion dollars to cross your "red line" just once: to violate Shabbos, eat ham, or miss Tefillin, would you do it? Can (enough) money make you modify your morals, or are you clearly committed to your values and ideals, no matter how much money is waved in your face?