1
6 And Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach was saying also to the talmidim, A certain oisher (rich man) had a sochen (steward, estate manager or agent), and the charge brought against him was that he was squandering the property of the oisher (rich man).
2
And having called him, the oisher said to the sochen, What is this I hear about you? Submit to a bikoret beshbonot (audit) for that which is under your pekuddat (stewardship care), for you are no longer able to be sochen.
3
And the sochen said to himself, What may I do, because Adoni takes away the pekuddat from me? I am not strong enough to dig, I am ashamed to beg.
4
Oh! I have daas of what I may do, that when I am removed from the work of the sochen, they may receive me into their batim.
5
And having summoned his Adon’s debtors one by one, he was saying to the first, How much do you owe Adoni?
6
And he said, One hundred jugs of olive oil. And the sochen said to him, Take your bill, sit down, quickly write fifty.
7
Then to another he said, And you, how much do you owe? And he said, One hundred containers of wheat. He says to him, Take your bill and write eighty.
8
And the Baal Bayit praised the unrighteous sochen because he acted with chochmah. Because the Bnei HaOlam HaZeh have more seichel in dealing with their own generation than the Bnei HaOhr. [Psa 17:14; 18:26]
9
And I say to you, use the mammon (the wealth of the Olam HaZeh) to make for yourselves yedidim (friends, chaverim), so that when unrighteous mammon fails, they may welcome you into the mishkenot olam (eternal dwellings of the Olam HaBah).
10
The one oisgehalten in little, also is neeman in much, and the one who is unrighteous in little, also in much is unrighteous.
11
If, then, you were not ne’eman with unrighteous mammon, who will entrust you with hon emes ?
12
And if you were not neeman with that which belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
13
No eved is able to serve two adonim; for either he will have sinah (hatred) toward the one and he will have ahavah (love) toward the other, or one he will be devoted to and the other he will despise. Your avodas service cannot be for both Hashem and Mammon.
14
And the Perushim, who were ohavei kesef (lovers of money), heard all this and they made leitzonus (fun) of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.
15
And Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, You are the ones who in the sight of Bnei Adam credit yourself as being yitzdak im Hashem (justified with G-d, IYOV 25:4), but Hashem has daas (knowledge) of your levavot. Because the thing highly esteemed among Bnei Adam is a to’eva (abomination) before Hashem.
16
The Torah and the Neviim were proclaimed until Yochanan; since then it is the Malchut Hashem that is being preached as Besuras HaGeulah, and anyone entering it must strive to do so.
17
But it is easier for HaShomayim and HaAretz to pass away than for one tag (ornamental flourish) of the Torah to fail.
18
Anyone giving the get to his isha and taking another wife commits ni’uf (adultery), and the one marrying a gerusha (divorcee) commits ni’uf (adultery).