Parshas Acharei Mos - Kedoshim: Billionaires Without Wives: A Torah Lesson on Rootedness

The wealthy billionaire who has everything but lacks a home and wife serves as a powerful metaphor for our spiritual lives in this exploration of the Torah concept "Shchutei Chutz." Drawing from the double Torah portion Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, we unpack a seemingly technical prohibition against offering sacrifices outside the Temple to reveal its profound relevance for modern Jewish life.

At its heart, this teaching addresses a spiritual crisis affecting many observant Jews today—the tendency toward religious wandering rather than rootedness. Like the billionaire who can fly anywhere on his private jet but has no fixed address, many of us practice a Judaism of convenience: catching prayer services wherever fits our schedule, consulting different rabbis case-by-case, and moving between communities without deep investment.

The wisdom of Shchutei Chutz challenges this approach. Just as God established one central location for Temple service, we benefit from establishing spiritual home bases in our own lives. The Rambam, Midrash Tanchuma, and contemporary teachers like Rabbi Lopiansky all emphasize how crucial this rootedness is for authentic spiritual growth. Rabbi Schneir Kotler's prescient warning from the 1960s about "breakaway minyanim" and self-guided Judaism speaks directly to our current moment.

Whether you're deeply observant or reconnecting with tradition, the message resonates: true spiritual depth comes through commitment to place, people, and practice. Ask yourself: Have you found your spiritual home? Do you have a rabbi who knows your situation? Would people notice if you missed services? These markers of connection may be the difference between a religious life that's intellectually stimulating but rootless, versus one that's transformative and grounded.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Double Parsha
• 1:43 The Mitzvah of Shchutei Chutz
• 5:23 Rambam's View on Temple Centrality
• 9:07 The Wealthy Man Without a Wife
• 12:31 Modern Applications of Shchutei Chutz
• 17:14 Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

A double Parsha, double the goodness. Here we go, late in the afternoon of Erev Shabbos, Friday, may 9th. The double Parsha Achar Mos Kedoshim. An action-packed set of Parshaos, a couple, literally, of Parshaos that contain, include cadres. A real tidal wave of Mitzvos, asei and Losa Asei Padres. A real tidal wave of mitzvos, ase and losa ase, from prohibited unions to the Yom Kippur rite, to loving thy fellow as thy neighbor, to not crossbreeding, not wearing shatnes, not talking to ghosts, not engaging in divination, not consuming blood, not offering child sacrifices. Amongst all these riveting, thought-provoking and encompassing not encompassing, engrossing mitzvos, today I'd like to talk about the one that is most all riveting and inspiring. It is the one that you may gloss over while you are reading from the Torah, but it is the one that contains one of the most powerful rationales and conclusions of all of the mitzvos that address an acute issue In 2025, if you're living on the east coast of the United States of America and well, maybe if you live anywhere else the words of the Rambam, the words of Rabbi Lopiansky, the words of the Medrash Tanchuma and the words of the Sefer Achenuch.

Speaker 1: 1:35

They may just strike a chord in your heart so we can jump right in. May it dabber, hashem el Moshe Leymar, so we can jump right in. We take a big cannonball and we see that there's a mitzvah, there's a commandment. Tell it to everyone, spread the word, put it on the bulletin boards, take notes in class. Anyone who does bring from an Israelite that brings in slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp, but he doesn't bring it up to the Beis Hamikdash, lo heviu, lehakrev, karman lashem, lefnei mishkanashem. Anyone who makes a breakaway minion and offers his sacrifice not in Shul, not in the great Beis Hamikdash, in the holy domicile, not in the Mishkanashem, in the Beis Hamikdash lashem, in the Kiddush not there, but instead in his backyard. He makes a breakaway Mizbeach or he decides that he is more all inspired by rabshayel, is kever, and there is where he offers his karbon toida or karbon shlomim or karbon chatos. That man, dam yei choshev. It will be considered a cold-blooded murder, for the blood is not a blood of a sacrifice, but but after that you've slaughtered this animal. It was murder, it was a karbon in vain.

Speaker 1: 3:07

The nekras, ha-hish ha-hu, make care of Amo. That person is chayiv kore. Spiritual exorcism, spiritual disenfranchisement. L'man asher yavi, yub b'nei, yisrael ziv chayim asher yim zoiv, chimau p'nei as bring them up to the main house, bring them up to the base, bring them in front of God. With this commandment, hopefully nobody will continue to offer their sacrifices to the goat demons. It seems like this concept is a concept of not engaging in idolatrous worship, not making breakaway minyanim. That for law throughout the ages is to not bring karbanos to anywhere but the base. Hamigdash to unpack this commandment.

Speaker 1: 4:13

Mishneh Torah, the chosen temple, the holy Rambam. Chapter 1 describes kind of the other side of the coin of this mitzvah, if you will. The Rambam says as follows Kind of the other side of the coin of this mitzvah, if you will. The Rambam says as follows Mitzvahs ase asos bayis lashem. It's a positive commandment to make a house for God, muchan li yoysh, makrivim boyar karbonos, that is fully prepared to offer sacrifices, v'choy giginay lov shalosh, pa'amen bashona, and a place that the Jewish people should go up three times a year. The Rambam continues there's a mitzvah to build a and once this holy house, this epic and spectacular temple, has been built in Jerusalem, ne'estru kol ha'mekomos kulon livnos bohen bayis lashem, u'lahakriv bohen karbon. The commandment to build a home for God contains within it, rambam writes, an aspect of not offering karbonos anywhere else. There is to be one house of worship, ki beisi, beis tefil l'kol ha'amim, not your backyard. The Medrash Tanchuma explains in an epic mushal of how we're supposed to make sense of, as we're digging deeper here, what the real lesson of shchutei chutz is. It gives a mashal about the building of the beis ha-amigdash and why it's also further obligated to have this centralized offering rule.

Speaker 1: 5:55

A mashal, l'mohadav ar-doimah, a parable L'hoashir. There is this famous philanthropist, a wealthy person Gadol, jeff Bezos, bill Gates, elon Musk, larry Ellison, vainlo Isha but they do not have a wife. Wife, I fact-checked. All of those individuals currently do not have a wife. So they are all good mishalim, and those are the top four wealthiest people according to Forbes. Ain't baso bias? The wealthy philanthropist who's got it all but doesn't have a wife, doesn't have a house.

Speaker 1: 6:41

Lama Kishahasarissim bo'im, when guests come, distinguished individuals come to stay. Hu omer, l'chul l'chanos, b'machim acher. Well, I don't really have food here. My paradise home down in the south, you can have all the vodka you want and we have the most exclusive yachts, but if you don't have a wife, there's no bread, there's no water, there's no hominess, there's no coziness, there's no established home.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Llama, she ain't no bias for Loisha. He's just got nothing. He's lacking being solidified and established in a very regular kind of routine-like life. He's everywhere because he has a private jet, but he's also nowhere because he doesn't have a set home and a set wife, not al-Ishah. When he takes a wife, he can tell all the distinguished clients and investors that come to his home. You can stay here If you ever have a investors that come to his home. You can stay here If you ever have a document that needs to be signed. If you never need a place to stay now you have my address. Bring it home. This is my address. I have a wife. I'm established. I am grounded. So too, all of the days.

Speaker 1: 8:11

Until Moshe Rabbeinu established a house for God in Oel Moed, you could have brought a sacrifice and met Hashem. You could have traveled the world to find Hashem. You could have gone all over on your private jet like a rich usher. You could go anywhere you want. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is all accessible. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the usher. But once Moshe Rabbeinu built the home now the Karbanos now where is Hashem found? Everything is to be sought after in one place in the Mishkan Hashem.

Speaker 1: 8:52

The Mejershtan Chuma continues. The Bairi Olam is called the Ashir. That has everything. He's wealthy, beyond wealthy. He has so much that he has Ba Kol Mi Kol and Kol the Ashir Sheba Ashirim much, that he has bakol mikol and kol the asher sheba ashirim Ad ein sof la'olam void, and he was all accessible but a bias.

Speaker 1: 9:16

But once a hamigdash has been created, that's Hashem's house. Hashem has an isha. The Jewish people are there. That's where is his home. That's where God can be found and that's where we offer our fancy tubishvat platters to him and that's where we bring up our yearly gifts. That's where we bring our investment money. That's where we go ask the boss for some paid time off. P-t-a. That's the Beis Hamikdash. P-t-a. That's the Beis Hamikdash.

Speaker 1: 9:48

And Shchutei Chutz means that anyone who goes elsewhere to engage in their Judaism. It's like trying to find the billionaire philanthropist in his yacht that's parked in Tahiti, but that's really already old news. He hasn't visited there for years because he's now well-established, with a Esh-es-chayil living a normal and healthy and productive life in his nice mansion on the top of the hills of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Shchutei Chutz is going to the unestablished wandering in the middle of the desert type of makom Shemos Rabbah 33.3,. Another medrash says this in a similar song. It sings it to a different tune when it says Take for me.

Speaker 1: 10:46

The medrash says that Hashem moans, laments how long will I be the wealthy one that we've already stated, but that I will not have a house, that I'll not have a kovei hamakom. That is fully established. That's what it says. Make for me a house that I won't be outside. All of the it comes from the fact we see here to create a unique structure where Avedis HaKadish goes on.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Rabbi Lepensky explained this concept very precisely that if somebody has all of the wealth in the world and somebody has everything going for him but he doesn't have that set routine, he doesn't have a wife, he doesn't have dinner, breakfast, he doesn't have someone that he can share it with, he doesn't have a unique relationship. You're scatterbrained, you're all over, you don't have structure. The Beis Hamigdash is the house of God that now God has an Isha and has a Kevei Hamakim and it's our obligation to engage in that Avodah in that way, because that solidifies our Avodah. When our avodah Hashem is chapping a mincha, that would be shchutei chutz, like trying to find a minion factory, as opposed to just a nice well-established seat, with a well-established rav, with a well-established chavrusa. Shchutei chutz is going to any possible shiur at any time, davening wherever it is that you can find a minion. It's well some form of Aboides HaKodesh. But Shchutei Chutz reminds us that you're supposed to establish one spot, and the Gemara in Megillah on page 28 tells us that while we don't have a Beis Hamikdash anymore, the Asuli Migdash V'shochanti Besocham cannot be fulfilled in all of its glory, but our Botei Migdashos, our Botei Knessios and Botei Midrashos take the place, and they're what we have and it's what we'll have to do with until we have the ultimate building of the Besom Migdash.

Speaker 1: 13:02

So the lesson is don't be a wealthy, all-encompassing, usher philanthropist that runs around doing his yiddishkeit all over the place but doesn't have a set makom that doesn't have a spot in a shul. Younger generation we constantly find ourselves chapping min yanim, running to min yanim, running to different shmuzim and to different gaboyim, and to different palitstaka and to different. There's no routine, there's no life with a wife. In our Judaism, many people don't have a Rav. They'll just look it up in a Sefer. But that's Judaism before it's ossified and been established. Our Botei Mikdashos, botei Midrashos and Botei Kinesios are to be like the Beis Hamikdash in Shchutei Chutz would be to go elsewhere and think that davening with ten men in the office is just as good. It is not keva, it is not established and it does not feel solidified and concretized. It's like being wealthy without a wife without having structure, being wealthy without a wife without having structure. The Sefer Achenuch continues in this same niggin in Mitzvah 306.

Speaker 1: 14:34

But for the sake of time and bathing the kids before Shkia, we're going to jump to what Yosef Chaim Schneir Cutler had to say at a Mowetzes Gedolah Torah meeting in the 1960s. Schneir Cutler is the Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbi, the son of Reb Aaron Cutler, one of the Rosh Hashanah Yeshivas of Beis Medrash Kevaya, who established Lakewood-style kolos in more than 30 cities worldwide and pioneered an established community kolos and afternoon of Torah study for Bala Batim. He was a Rosh Hashiva for 19 years and in one interview an old audio clip the moderator asked the question of in a Torah community like Lakewood, what is it that we should look out for that may derail some of our success? Some gedolim said we need to make sure that we are very scrupulous in our business. Some gedolim offered that we need to make sure that our Can't remember, but, ripshner, I remember this one. So we need to make sure that people have spots in Mignonim and people have connection to their Rabeim, their Rav, to ask questions to, and they're not finding it that they can have Breakaway Mignonim and David in their basements and really become their own Ravs because they do have Torah. But it needs to be where life has kivei situations. In the Adetown community you naturally have this Everything goes through the rabbi, all of the leadership goes through someone who is a verified and bona fide leader the rules for the kiddush, the rules for the girls' school, the rules for the JCC, the rules for the minyan, the rules for the restaurant.

Speaker 1: 16:25

He has the ability to give hadracha and see things through the eyes of the Torah in a way that is unbiased and just how shockingly right Ripshner is. There is so much paskening without rabbis and so many people that feel disconnected because they merely daven in a place that's like shchutei chutz. That's just a basement minion or a marav in someone's house. It's Judaism, but it's shchutei chutz. It's not going up to the house of Hashem in a way. That's like living Judaism. That's well-meaning and wholesome and kiveya, a kvias and wholesome and a a, a living, breathing, husband-wife relationship that will be enduring, all lasting.

Speaker 1: 17:14

That's the problems that one needs to watch out for, said Ripschner, because, man, we must congeal as much of our Judaism, and I mean congeal as much of our Judaism. And I mean congeal like, solidify and make things that you have a place in a shul and a chavrusa that's set in the morning and it's well-meaning and it's wholesome and it's not running to hear this Rav speak and then chapping a chavrusa here and then maybe, okay, that's not working, let's try something different. It needs to be non-Shchutei Chutz oriented and davka and specifically going up to the house of Hashem and entrenching and believing and formalizing and solidifying our avayit as Hashem. That is the crucial takeaway from shchutei chutz. Much can be used even to take this concept and explain why it is that this concept is sandwiched between the Arias and Achremos and before it of Yom Kippur, but we don't have time for that.

Speaker 1: 18:17

What we do have time for is to internalize the lesson that get for yourself a rabbi, an old and wise rabbi. Let him know your situation that he can help you in life. You can find a minion that you go to constantly. That is your place. Buy yourself a shtender, plop it on the table, be there, and to the point that you are there and so now set with your wife and your house, and you are finding yourself in a place and you feel like, if you were in that minion, that people would ask hey, johnny, where were you? That is what it's supposed to be like when you're serving Hashem at the place that you're supposed to be in a kivea ofen, and not like an usher that doesn't have a house. That is one of the most crucial takeaways from this double parasha of Acharimos Kedoshim. A wonderful and good Shabbos to you.