He made all the utensils of the altar—the pails, the scrapers, the basins, the flesh hooks, and the fire pans; he made all these utensils of copper. (Shemos 38:3)

The verse tells us that the auxiliary vessels that were used for the altar sacrifices in the Tabernacle were made of copper, as opposed to gold. The Bartenura (Tamid 5:5) says that because these vessels were used repeatedly and would quickly wear out, Hashem had pity on the money of Bnei Yisrael and told them to make these vessels from copper, which was significantly cheaper than gold.

There is a question that the gemora asks regarding the concept, “There is no such thing that a tzibur serving Hashem should be treated as poor”. Shouldn’t Klal Yisrael be expected to make every effort regarding their serving of Hashem? Yet in this case it seems that this Chazal is telling us that Hashem wanted to save us the money!?

My grandfather once told me the following story: There were two boys who were very good friends – Reuven and Shimon. Reuven came to Shimon’s house to play. There was a generous piece of cake leftover from Shabbos and Shimon’s mother said, “You can split this piece with your friend.” Shimon cut the piece as evenly as he could, but as you would expect one piece ended up larger than the other. As a good host, Shimon gave the larger piece to the guest and he himself took the smaller half. The next week Shimon went to Reuven’s home and in Reuven’s home there was also a piece of cake leftover from Shabbos, and Reuven’s mother said that they could split it. Reuven cut it in half, took the larger half, and gave the smaller one to Shimon. Shimon was surprised and asked, “Reuven, why did you give me the smaller piece?” To that Reuven replied, “If we were in your house, which piece would you give me? The LARGER one! So that is the piece that I took!” We all understand the faulty logic of Reuven, and his self-centered view of the world.

So, should the Jews be frugal or not? Rav Shalom Schwadron answers the question by saying that when Hashem tells klal Yisrael not to spend a lot of money, that shows that Hashem cares about klal Yisrael’s money, and emphasizes His love for us. However, when WE are the ones looking for a cheaper way to perform Mitzvos, then that says something about how we look at our relationship with Hashem.

With Yom Tov is coming soon, with extra expenses above and beyond a “regular” month, and some people will try to figure out where they can cut corners. My role is not to give financial counseling, but it is important to keep in mind that one should not cut expenses in inappropriate places.

An incident once happened to me which illustrates this idea. Many years ago, I travelled to a beautiful park in the USA and met a friend of mine there. It was a very hot day and he bought himself a rather expensive drink from one of the street food venders. He was usually a frugal fellow, so I asked him why he stepped out of character and willingly spent this rather large sum of money on a drink. His response taught me a lesson: “Chazal say, ‘אין עניות במקום עשירות’– that when one is living an opulent lifestyle, he cannot at the same time be pinching pennies. I spent a good deal of time and money to travel to this park in order to have a good time. If I have to calculate every penny I spend while I am here, the whole enjoyment of this recreation will be lost.” We should not be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

As we look forward to the Yom Tov of Pesach, we must keep this idea in mind: We should not spoil the main event by concerning ourselves with the smaller side issues. One of the situations that I would like to bring to your attention is the fancy tablecloth and the crystal glasses that are customarily used at the Pesach Seder. Those are precious and important customs brought down by the gedolei haposkim. But if you are not going to be able to enjoy the seder because of the worry of these things getting ruined, it is worthwhile to rethink your priorities. Probably – and hopefully – when you take it all into account, you will realize that the extra expense is well worth it.

Chag Kasher v’Sameach!