Billionaire Ron Perelman Tells His Father Why He Became Religious (Forbes Magazine)

In a recent interview with billionaire Ronald Perelman and his father Raymond, he reveals why he became religious. His parents were not religious, although they were proud of being Jewish and took their children on a trip to Israel. Says Perelman, "As I grew, it became very clear to me that what I do, I am not doing alone. I am placed in situations with opportunities in those situations that others are not. I don’t believe that that is happenstance. I believe that there is a God that has a plan for me. " This describes the Divine Providence that is at work in everyone's life. This concept, that G-d is intimately involved with every person, is a central belief in the inner dimension (or mystical level) of Torah that is permeating the world in the era of Redemption.

Billionaire Ronald
Perelman

Embracing Religion   

RAYMOND: I want you to hear this, Ron, it’s very important. The one thing I don’t understand about Ronald. Everybody asks me the question, “Why he is so religious?” And so I said to him one day, I said, “Ronald, why are you so religious?” Now, I did take him to Israel, and he didn’t want to leave, but he did leave. And so I said to him, “Why are you so religious?” He says, “If I’m gonna be a Jew, I’m gonna be a Jew.” And he is almost so Orthodox, and his religious beliefs, it’s incongruous with me and my wife and the siblings. [Looks at Ronald.] Do you know that? You know that.

RONALD: Mmm-hmmm.

RAYMOND: But you will tell me now. Why are you so religious? And, just a second, let me add one thing. I love it. There’s nothin’ wrong with it. And it’s great, and I’m proud of it. You don’t know this, I’m very proud of the fact that he’s so—and he stands out, he stands out! I mean, here’s a guy who’s got so much money he can’t spend it, why is he religious? He has these Orthodox kids he brings from all over the world when he wants a minyan [a required quorum of ten adults for prayer] on Saturday, he flies them in.

RONALD: I’ll give you the answer.

RAYMOND: What?

RONALD: I’LL GIVE YOU THE ANSWER!

RAYMOND: Go ahead, that’s what I want to hear, son.

RONALD: [Speaking slowly:] As I grew, it became very clear to me that what I do, I am not doing alone. I am placed in situations with opportunities in those situations that others are not. I don’t believe that that is happenstance. I believe that there is a God that has a plan for me. And, you know, why did I get some of the things I got and other people didn’t? Some of it, it was just—I walked in on the guy at the right moment, and the day before he wouldn’t have done anything, and that day, you know, he got something from his wife, and he was feeling good or something.

And so I believe that God plays this enormous role in my life. And I believe that it’s my obligation to give back and to follow the rules that were set. And it also gives me an enormous sense of my own place and an enormous sense of stability. And I don’t work on Shabbos. I don’t ­answer the phone on Shabbos.

RAYMOND: He won’t talk to me on Saturday!

RONALD: I won’t drive on Shabbos. I won’t do it, you know? And [my wife] says that “That is an amazing thing for you. Because it cuts off the 300 phone calls you get a day and people come to you with—nobody comes to you with good stuff; it’s always a problem.” It allows me to just spend the day with my family and sleep and relax and get reinvigorated. And she said, “That is clearly the purpose of it—I can see it in you.”

But I truly believe that I am placed where I’m intended to be placed, not my doing. Now, I have to take the opportunity and make good of it, but I am given the opportunity, [it’s] not created.

RAYMOND: Now this is a very touching moment. I’m tellin’ ya. As close as I am to Ronald, I didn’t realize that was his motivation. Okay. And so it’s, it’s something that I believe but in a different way. Why do I give to charity? I want to do good for other people. I want people to have the benefit of what my money will buy for them.

RONALD: Right.

RAYMOND: Better health, better Judaism—and he—in a sense, we’re the same. I just didn’t have the patience to be as religious as he is. I mean, it’s remarkable. This is a very touching moment, I wanna tell you something. In the whole of my 94 years I’ve never heard what I just heard. I never heard it. And I love it. I love it. I mean, what’s bad about it? Can you complain about someone loving God? In his own way and what he wants. That’s remarkable.