There seems to be no end to the tzaros from the internet. However, the essence of this new issue precedes recent technology and is actually quite ancient. The internet has only made it much too easy, instant and, as always, deadly to body and soul. To its rare credit, the New York Times featured the problem in the cover story of its most recent (October 12, 2025) Sunday Magazine. This most contemporary epidemic did not begin in a Chinese laboratory, but in the greedy mind of avaricious Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) money lenders preying on the prayer-less youth of our generation. Lenders such as Afterpay, Sezzle, Zip and the most popular Klarna — acting as the monetary yeitzer hara — entice mostly vulnerable people into the “vortex of the pandemic.” They are convinced that they are receiving a long range interest-free loan to buy things they don’t need, but desperately want because those around them have them.
It is incredibly estimated that half of Americans have used BNPL at least once. One young women with a Jewish name suddenly realized that she was $50,000 in debt buying stuff I must admit never to have heard of but which to her became necessities. Examples of these “essentials” include Louis Vitton Neverfulls and Proenza handbags worth $1,000. Klarna alone offered this obviously gullible although bright person $12,000 to use at any given time. This woman later reflected that she was led into this morass because she was “seeing everyone around you have a nicer life than you.” Ah yes, the ancient killer of poor souls — kinah, the scourge of jealousy and envy.
Lest we get smug and condescending, let’s think quickly how many weddings we have attended that became concerts instead of simchas chosson v’kallah. Can everyone really afford — or need — that expensive food, giant orchestras and superfluous vorts after elaborate lechaims? As Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky always warned us, “Azoi vi es kristalt zich Yiddisht zich” — whatever the secular world does eventually reaches us as well. Rav Yaakov even hinted that sometimes it tragically begins with us and only then fans outward. To quote once again, these “friendly-looking companies promised transparency, joy and a dedication to helping people achieve the literal stuff of their dreams.”
Many victims realized that they had fallen down a “slippery slope,” but didn’t know how to stop the horrific decline. Although when they realize what has happened to them, they’re all beginning to sound like a cross between Rav Dessler and Novardok, an entire generation seems to be sinking and bringing many of our own, Rachmana litzlan, with them. At one point, the government instituted the Credit Card Act of 2009, mandating that all credit-card applicants under 21 provide proof that they would not be destroyed by their credit escapades, but this was no panacea and didn’t touch the BNPLs. So we turn to what we learned on Sukkos and from Koheles on Shabbos Chol Hamoed.
First of all, we all know that one of the major lessons of Sukkos was to remember that, like the sukkah, our lives in this world are aria, temporary, and we should not worry excessively about ephemeral things (Chasam Sofer, Drashos 2:73-74). Furthermore, our neshomah left its permanent home in heaven to enter this fleeting world only to learn Torah, do mitzvos and attain good middos so that we can enter the real world of Olam Haba. Anything that does not contribute to this purpose is useless and actually quite foolish (Pri Megadim in his Sefer Hamaggid, Sukkos, Drush 3). Although we just read and studied an entire sefer, Koheles, which teaches us this lesson, Rav Chatzkel Levenstein (Mimizrach Shemesh, Sukkos, page 455) exhorts us that this is insufficient. We must leave our living rooms, dining rooms and comfort zones, and minimize. This not only tells us, but forces us to experience the downsizing. This will immunize us against the need for BNPLs, because the sukkah puts our lives into perspective. Each of us in our own way can emulate Rav Aharon Leib Steinman and Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in their disdain for this world. We might never reach their level of total gashmiyus rejection, but Sukkos can help us laugh at the need for a BNPL to get a Khaite puffer or, dare I say it, designer shoes and shirts.
Rav Eliyohu Eliezer Dessler (Michtov M’Eliyohu 2:676) takes us all to an even loftier level by demonstrating that from Ne’ilah, Hashem extends His own hand to us. He Himself opens the door to our realization that there is a much more important world waiting for us, but we must first eliminate — at the very least — our addiction to the superfluous. Hashem wants us to be healthy and happy, but the things that society — and yes, the yeitzer hara — have now made instantly available are not only unnecessary, but literally fatal. The Ibn Ezra (Devorim 21:20) famously explains that the ben sorer umoreh is not executed for any current sin. He, however, is indicted because “he is like a heretic who wishes only to enjoy this world by eating and drinking.” We can only imagine what the Ibn Ezra would say about sinking deep into debt for the folly of “cradling a $700 garment” because it bore the name of some designer who was considered important for that fleeting 15 minutes of fame. It was the Tolna Rebbe, Rav Dovid (Knesses Dovid, page 26), who taught us that the Sukkos injunction, “lemaan yeidu,” to think when we are in the sukkah, is the reminder to be constantly aware of the transient nature of this world. Indeed, the Radomsker Rebbe (Chesed L’Avrohom, page 145) says that the Clouds of Glory represent the idea that even the greatest of clouds are evanescent and move on. Such is this world and certainly the baubles that are offered to us, which can ruin both this world and the next for us.
As was alluded earlier, many of us were privileged to witness the degree to which Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman virtually lived “in the sukkah year round.” His house, apparently like that of the Chofetz Chaim, was testimony to the fact that one can be constantly happy without any of the luxuries of this world. Indeed, I have heard from numerous people who visited the Chazon Ish, who also lived in the sparest tiny rooms, that he was “the happiest person alive.” The people described in the Times article did not even begin to emerge from their horrific self-created prison until they “left the store in a daze.” Perhaps at some point the truth hits; perhaps never. But if we take Koheles and our sukkah with us, we don’t have to be in a daze. We can look clear-eyed at the insane world and reject it happily, because we have a much better deal at our fingertips. The great rosh yeshiva of Lucern who taught Torah when he was well over a century old noted that the Torah (Devorim 11:28) states that there is a curse that people will follow idols. What was silver and gold in those times has now been transmigrated into other adulations. How prophetic he was, seeing the PNPLs for what they really are: pure avodah zarah.
One of the most far-seeing of the gedolim who predicted this phenomenon was the Bais Halevi (Drush for Parshas Bereishis, page 10). He describes the current foolishness as “the yearning for this world to the point that one has fantasies and false imaginary visions of what pleasures will come from their acquisitions.” In other words, we say that what began as a dream was in reality a nightmare. Of course, like the sale and distribution of drugs, this business is promulgated by evil people who feed upon the weak and rootless to the point that it may be too late for many.
One of the simplest points of salvation may be a classic gematriah by the Baal Haturim (Bereishis 28:12). He notes that word sulam, ladder, carries the same numeric value as mammon, money, 136. He explains that money can be used to elevate oneself to higher levels and to even reach the heavens. But one must be extremely careful not to fall or climb higher than appropriate for each person. Rav Chaim Shaul Kaufman, rosh yeshivas Gateshead, was visiting Rav Leib Lopian close to his passing. One of his last teachings was also about this subject. He quoted the Mishnah (Avos 3:17) that “if there is no flour, there is no Torah.” He said that flour here means the material means of this world that should be used only to achieve spiritual results, such as Torah.
Perhaps we won’t be attracted by the seductive BNPLs. But the sukkah and Shlomo Hamelech’s wisdom in Koheles — declaring the world to be hevel — can remind us that true joy is in learning Torah and doing mitzvos. All else is illusory and merely the yeitzer hara’s way of enticing us to value this world over the next. Rav Dessler wisely pointed out that the salesman who is selling junk — a sham — requires much better commercials and advertising than the honest businessman who is selling quality merchandise. This world doesn’t have much to justify itself, so it hires the best P.R. firm. The Torah requires no salesmanship, just “taste her and gain life” (Mussaf tefillah). Let us taste life indeed with a gezunten vinter and the wonderful long Torah zeman ahead.
The author wishes to acknowledge the wonderful new sefer “Veromamtanu,”
by Rav Shimon Vanunu, dedicated by my good friend, Reb Yisroel Max, from which many of these marei mekomos were gleaned.
