Earning a Lucky Dollar | Rabbi David Sutton

When I was in elementary school, I did a book report on a famous figure, and I don't know why I chose this, but I chose Lucky Luciano, 1897 to 1962. He was a famous mobster and actually interesting, he mentored under a Jew. But this Lucky Luciano was a crime figure. Organized crime. I actually know why he got the name Lucky. He was once going through a motorcade, and they tried to assassinate him, and he luckily survived and got the name Lucky Luciano. What does this have to do with us? Lucky Luciano was put in jail, still running crime from jail, and during World War II, the mob owned the docks and they were influential in keeping German spies out. And in recognition for what Lucky had done for the country, they allowed him to leave and go back home to Sicily to live out his life. And he was interviewed by an autobiographer for a book, and they asked him: Lucky, if you have one takeaway from your life, what do you want to share? And he thinks for a moment and he says, It takes the same energy to make a legal dollar as an illegal dollar. He meant to say was, I went through my life running organized crime. I was a brilliant man. I knew how to control all those things. I could have run a fortune 500 company for the same money. I didn't have to do it illegally. You can make the legal dollar with the same efforts of the illegal dollar. This is actually a lesson in Bitachon the Beit HaLevi brings down, that don't think that by cutting corners, you're going to make more money. HaKadosh Baruch Hu decides the money you're going to get, and legally, illegally, you will get exactly what you deserve. And this is an important lesson. The same goes for worldly pleasures. We can't take worldly pleasures that we're not deserving of. Any worldly pleasure you take is coming out of your worldly pleasure bank. So you think: Oh, I looked at something I shouldn't look at, I observed something I shouldn't see, and I gained on the deal. No, you just took it out from another pocket. You might have acid indigestion. I'm not here to scare people, I'm just saying as a Mashal. You might have some other woe or worry. You can't gain from the illegal dollar. And therefore, when you control yourself, don't think you're losing out. Every time you control yourself, you're going to get it someplace else. And not only are you going to get it someplace else equally, because otherwise, it would pay to sin. No, you're going to get even more. That's the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot, Weigh the reward of the Mitzvah towards its loss. Which means, a Mitzvah has a loss. It's painful to control yourself sometimes. You're losing out when you control yourself. But the reward has to be more, because otherwise crime would pay. And that's Lucky Luciano's ultimate lesson. Crime doesn't pay. The illegal dollar, you could have done it legally. And all the things we do to chase worldly pleasures, do it legally and you'll be ahead.