What does it mean to be an eved hashem (a true servant of God)?  What is the proper way to be a servant of God?

I once had a chavruta, a friend who I used to study Gemara with, who I used to think was the paradigmatic eved hashem.  He was a servant of God.  A more innocent person you could not find; he would never even think about saying a bad word about anyone; he always thought the best of everyone.  In short, he literally followed every single teaching of our rabbis.  Now this
person, had one habit which I especially want to talk about today.  He was not a person of great financial means, but every time a poor person would come wandering around the Beit Midrash collecting money, he would pull out a twenty-dollar bill and give it to every single beggar.  No questions asked.

So this is one model of what it means to be an eved-hashem--to give uncontrollably all of your resources to God. After all, the Shema (which we say twice every day) states, ve-ahavta et hashem elokekhah be-khol levavkhah, vekhol nafshekhah, u-vekhol meodekhah, you should love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your resources.  And our rabbis explain that the phrase, be-khol meodekhah, and all your resources, means "be-khol memonkhah", with all your money--that is, according to the Shema you are supposed to serve God with all your money…and a true eved hashem, without
hesitating, sets aside all of his money and energy for God's commandments.

But our rabbis also give us another teaching which offers a different approach.  Says the Gemara in Ketubot (50a):  Amar rav Ilai, Be-ushah Hitkinu:  Hamevazvez al ievazvez yoter mi-khomesh.  The rabbis in Ushah made a decree that one who wants to give away his money to charity should not give away more than a fifth of his money.

So too, we have another halakhah which discusses, how much money a person must spend in order to fulfill a positive obligation of the Torah.  Based upon the Shema, which states be-khol meodekha, we would think a person has to
spend without limit.  Yet, the halakhah states differently--a person is only obligated to spend up to a fifth of his money in order to perform the mitzvah.

So we see that our rabbis limit the idea of spending all of our money and all of our resources on God.  But we should question this.  After all, the Torah states, be-khol meodekhah--you should serve God with all of your resources.  On what basis did the rabbis have the right to stand up in Ushah and declare that people should only give a fifth of their money!  And there's
an even stronger question: Why did they make such a decree?  What's the logic behind this decree?  If someone wants to give away his money to charity, who are we to stop him.  And, think about it, of all people to try and stop him, it's the rabbis?  After all, rabbis are supposed to try and raise money for charity, not prevent people from giving charity.

So let's look towards this week's parshah for the logical source of this rabbinic decree.  This week's parshah discusses the life of Yosef and it seems that a proper understanding of this rabbinic decree lies in an analysis of Yosef's actions in this weeks parshah.

Yosef was very successful at storing the produce of the Egyptian people. So successful, that soon he controlled all of the land of the entire Egypt. How did he capitalize on this control?  Says the Torah (47: 26), va-yasem otah yosef le-kho ad ha-yom ha-zeh al admat mitzraim le-faroh la-khomesh, and Yosef set down a decree that is in force until this very day that one-fifth
of the produce of the land belongs to Pharaoh.

So there we have it.  Yosef too, legislated that people should give up one-fifth of their property.  But Ramban questions the actions of Yosef.  Why did Yosef only demand one-fifth of their produce?  he should have demanded four-fifths!  In fact, the Egyptian people came crying to Yosef and they said, "keneh otanu ve-et admatenu ba-lekhem, buy us as slaves and buy our
property…just give us bread."  So Ramban is asking:  Yosef had the opportunity to demand everything, why is he settling for such a low amount. He should have demanded an 80% tax, not a 20% tax.

So Ramban answers this question by explaining that Yosef acted with hesed, kindness, towards the Egyptian people.  His great generosity was what motivated him to only demand a fifth of the people's produce.

So that's Ramban's answer, but I'd like to offer a second answer.  This past Wednesday night, as part of our Crossroads series, we were lucky enough to listen to Howard Jonas.  And among other things, Howard told us why he has been so successful in business.  Howard told us one of  his secrets.  He hires a whole bunch of young whippersnappers who have a lot of incentive to succeed and bust their brains to make money for the company.  So these young guys are working hard, and everyone's happy.  They're happy because they have a job and they're making a lot of money, and Howard's happy because they're making the company a lot of money.

This is one of the simple elements of capitalism: people produce more when they have a larger incentive to succeed. So I think in today's world, a world that has seen the success of capitalism and the failure of communism it is possible to add another psychological justification for the actions of Yosef.

We've seen from the failed experiment of communism that people don't produce to their utmost capabilities unless they have a proper incentive to succeed.  Perhaps, Yosef understood this.  Maybe he understood that if he took 4/5 of the people's property, he actually would be getting a lot less profit.  People would realize they had a lot less to gain and so they wouldn't work as hard.  So what did Yosef do…he took less of a percentage from them, which would motivate them to work harder and, as a savvy businessman, he understood that eventually this would translate into more profits for himself and for Pharaoh.

That's why he didn't make them his slaves.  Who needs a population with a slave mentality?  Slaves aren't worried about being creative.  They just concern themselves with following whatever their master tells them to do. Yosef didn't want his economy to be based upon such people.  Yosef wanted an economy of creative and motivated people.  Therefore, he told them work hard,
make a lot of money--Don't worry, I'll only take a fifth of what you produce.

So based upon this understanding of Yosef's actions, I would like to suggest a very different understanding behind the decree of our rabbis in Ushah.  There's a very good reason why our rabbis don't want us giving up more than a fifth of our resources, whether it be in money towards a poor person or in the pursuit of a mitzvah.  And I would add, that we shouldn't give up more than a fifth of our physical energy in the pursuit of any one mitzvah

Our rabbis are teaching us that if you act this way--if you give up all your resources in the performance of every mitzvah, you are in a sense making yourself into a creative pauper.  By fanatically and uncontrollably devoting yourself God…you are paradoxically cutting off from yourself any incentive for a growing, creative, and vibrant relationship with God.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.  Take Yom Tov.  The Torah declares that we should set aside seven days for a Chag.  But of those seven days, only two days are really full-force holidays.  The middle five days are chol ha-moed; a time to relax and enjoy the world.  Let's think about it--what do we do on Chol Ha-Moed?  We go to Great Adventures, we go to
baseball games, and we go to the park.  We spend a lot of time on our holidays doing these mundane, worldly, activities.

But what I'm suggesting today is that these worldly activies serve a valuable purpose.  Going to the park on Chol Ha-Moed directly parallels giving a young businessman incentive to succeed.  When we go the park, we appreciate the fulsome spirit of our lives.  This wholesome feeling is what invigorates us and gives us the incentive to make our spiritual lives more
vibrant.

So what's a true eved hashem?  It's someone who spends his time in a way that follows God's commandments and yet at the same time grows creatively in his pursuit of God.  How do we accomplish this?  For many of us, it might just mean, less is more.   Sometimes when we give to God only 1/5 of ourselves, then that 1/5 qualitatively far outshines the 4/5 of someone else.
 That old adage is also true with respect to God…less is more.