Reish Lakish's Saffron
Reish Lakish leaves some saffron to his children and laments it, applying a harsh verse to himself for the time he spent earning what he never needed.
When Reish Lakish passed away, he left over some saffron as an inheritance to his children. He lamented about this and applied the following verse to himself, “The fool and the brutish together perish, and they left to others their wealth” (Tehillim 49:11). What upset Reish Lakish so much about the saffron? Why did he assume the verse applied to him? The answer is that Reish Lakish worked to earn a livelihood. He spent time earning funds to be able to purchase the saffron he needed. When Reish Lakish was about to die, he realized that the saffron was superfluous. He lamented that he wasted precious moments of his life trying to work for something that it turned out he didn’t need.