GEN1616 R. Me’ir said: Whoever occupies himself with the study of Torah for its own sake merits many things … Pirkei Avot VI:1 … While R. Me’ir dwells on the spiritual value of Torah study and its great benefit to character, it can bring great material benefits too. The tradition of the Sages gives a graphic example: When the time came for the Israelites to leave Egypt, all became busy acquiring gold and silver vessels, etc. from the Egyptians Exodus 12:35-36 (a kind of “salary” or “reparations” for the centuries of forced labor), as the Almighty had commanded them. Exodus 11:2  Moses, however, did nothing of the kind. He alone bore in mind the dying oath that Joseph had imposed on his people: “God will surely remember you – and you shall carry up my bones from here.” [this verse]. Amid problems and duties as leader of a slave people on the verge of freedom, Moses gave no thought to gold or treasure, but he heeded a sacred tradition – the sacrosanct oath of a tribal ancestor. “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.” Exodus 13:19.   A red-blooded “go-getting hustler” would surely have considered Moses’ action dubious. All handily gather their little fortunes, to become wealthy literally overnight – and Moses gathers nothing but an old coffin! Could an American business-man have seen our Lawgiver then, he would have shaken his head sadly at him, in pity. The Midrash thought otherwise: “This shows the wisdom and pious kindness of Moses … to him does the verse apply, The wise in heart will take up mitzvot.” Proverbs 10:8; Mechilta to Exodus 13:19 (b’shallah, vay’hi, proem).   A hustler might retort, “Pious kindness, maybe, but wisdom?  How was Moses wise in heart?” Let us follow the Israelites to the Red Sea. As they stood laden with treasure, the Egyptians appeared in hot pursuit, and the Israelites faced a choice between imminent death and return to slavery. Only a miracle saved them: the sea divided to let them go across; and when the Egyptians followed, the waters returned and drowned them. What possessed the sea to split? We read in the Midrash, “The sea saw and fled: what did it see? … it saw the coffin of Joseph going into the water. Said the Holy, Blessed One: Let the sea fly before the one who fled from sin [with Potiphar’s wife] – for it is stated, he left his garment in her hand and fled … Even so did the sea flee before him.” Psalms 114:3; Genesis 39:12. Midrash T’hillim cxiv 8 (similarly Mechilta, b’shallah, yah’hi 3, Genesis Rabbah lxxxvii 8.   Thus the sainted R. Aaron Kotler once quoted, to draw his sound conclusion: All the “wise” people collected gold and silver, and Moses collected the bones of Joseph. But the “wise” people would not have lived to enjoy their treasure had there been no pious deed of Moses to bring their rescue. Who but Moses, choosing mitzvoth, could be called wise among his people?  Today many “wise” people work and slave a lifetime to build up a business and accumulate a fortune. Ever preoccupied and harried, they have little time to “take up mitzvoth,” to study Torah with their children or take them to the synagogue. In time they reap the fruits of their negligence: children marry out of the faith; grandchildren with no share in Judaism inherit their wealth, and lavish it on strange beliefs and stranger values.   Moses took aron Yosef, Joseph’s coffin, the most sacred object among his people—and the history of his people did not end in disaster before it had hardly begun. Before this aron, calamity dissolved, and the people went on, to follow a meaningful destiny under Heaven.   It is for every family head in Jewry to make the aron kodesh, the holy Ark of the Torah (now our most precious possession) his greatest treasure, the center of his devotion, his hopes and dreams. Everyone raising a family will face dangers and disasters on his journey through life; if he takes the aron kodesh with him—if the Torah remains at the immutable center of his values—every sea of adversity will divide, give way before him, and his family will continue on its true destiny, its Jewish identity sound and intact.  What good is all the wealth we amass for our family if we do not safeguard its blessed identity and destiny? Without Torah, who will live in our houses? Who will wear our diamonds? In time we will not be able to recognize our heirs, nor the principles by which they live. It is sheer prudence, far-reaching wisdom for the head of a Jewish family to follow the example of Moses.   SINAI3 265-7