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The Price of PossessionsBy RABBI DAVID ROSENN Parashat Lech L'kha (Genesis 12:1-17:27) Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them staying together; for their possessions were so numerous that they could not stay together. – Genesis 13:5-6 This week's torah portion relates how great wealth created a situation in which it was difficult for Abraham and Lot to live together. For them, wealth was an obstacle to community. The following midrash considers the “cost” of wealth from another perspective. “Even as they were full and many, now they are shorn away....” (Nahum 1:12) What is the meaning of “now they are shorn away”? The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Whoever “shears” off some of his possessions and gives them away as tzedakah is rescued from the judgment of hell. It's like the case of two sheep that were trying to cross a river. One was shorn and the other was not. The shorn one made it across, and the other one did not. – Gittin 7a According to Rabbi Yishmael's parable of the sheep, what is the reason we give away our money as tzedakah? If you read the parable without the part about “judgments of hell,” is there another reason that emerges? © AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps 
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