Rabbi Jeremy Wieder, a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, recently did a podcast episode on Orthodox Conundrum about materialism within the Orthodox Jewish community. Since I reread Let Us Make Man by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski yesterday, I thought that his chapter on money and wealth was apropos, and worth sharing with a larger audience. Note that this is not me judging you if a desire for wealth and all the privileges it conveys is your personal temptation- all cravings are difficult, and are unique to each human. The following excerpt is from pages 97-100 of Rabbi Twerski’s book.
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Wealth
It is widely assumed that wealth is measured by the extent of the fortune one has amassed. It is difficult to break loose from deeply entrenched and universally accepted cultural values. Yet just a bit of fresh, unbiased thinking will indicate that the Torah values is correct. Wealth has nothing to do with how much one has, but rather with the capacity to enjoy whatever one has.
When we generally speak of the pursuit of wealth, we are not referring to efforts expended to provide for the necessities or even some of the pleasantries of life, nor to a nest egg put away for a rainy day. Hardly anyone would consider these possessions as wealth. In common usage, wealth is the possession of material assets above and beyond one’s immediate and anticipated needs. It is when people amass more than they can possibly use that they are considered wealthy.
The folly of accumulating wealth in excess of one’s needs is illustrated by the story of the man who consulted a psychiatrist. “What is your problem?” the psychiatrist asked.
“I have no problems,” the man answered.
“Then why did you come to see me?” the psychiatrist asked.
“Because my family insisted that I must see you,” the man replied.
“Well, then what is it that your family thinks is wrong with you?” the psychiatrist asked.
“They think there is something wrong with me because I like pancakes,” the man said.
“That is absurd!” the psychiatrist exclaimed. “There is nothing wrong with liking pancakes. Why, I like pancakes myself!”
The man’s eyes brightened with evident joy. “You do?” he asked. “Then you must come to my home. I have trunks and trunks full of pancakes in my attic.”
Preparing several pancakes for breakfast or even a few extra to put away in the freezer fo another day is perfectly normal, but obviously when one collects crates of pancakes, this is gross insanity.
Let us analyze this a bit, and see if we may find a principle that has broader applications. Pancakes are a type of food, whose function is to satisfy one’s hunger and appetite, and they are thus. a means to a specific end. When one collects them without regard to their utilization for their appropriate purpose, it is insane. We may infer from this that insanity is present when something which is only a means becomes an end in itself.
Money is a means to acquire goods or services to satisfy one’s needs. When a person continues to amass money or goods over and above one’s current and foreseeable needs, this is not wealth. It is insanity.
Are all multimillionaires who continue to work to increase their vast fortunes to be considered insane? By cultural standards, of course not. By Torah standards, probably yes.
Can we escape this insanity? Are we not all dragged along by the cultural tide?
There is a beautiful story told by Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, of a king who was once informed by his prime minster that a terrible blight had affected his kingdom’s entire crop oof grain. Scientists had determined that anyone eating of that grain would go mad.
“But do not worry, Your Majesty,” the prime minister said. “I have set aside adequate provisions for the two of us to tide us over until the crop of the following year is harvested.
The king shook his head. “No,” he said, “I cannot eat anything different than my subjects. You and I will eat whatever everyone else will eat. However, we will mark our foreheads with a symbol, so that when I look at you and you look at me, we will be reminded that we are insane.”
Sometimes we cannot avoid being pulled along with the cultural insanity. But if so, let us be aware that we are insane, for then we may at least search for ways to restore our sanity.
Insanity has been appropriately defined as a minority of one. If all the people in an auditorium hear a spoken voice when there is no speaker visible, it is assumed that someone is speaking over the public address system. If only one person hears a voice which no one else in the room hears, this is assumed to be a hallucination, a symptom of psychosis. If one person collects pancakes, he is crazy. If pancakes were somehow to become legal tender, people collecting trunks full of pancakes would not be considered insane.
This is not the Torah view. Torah values are not subject to majority opinion. Torah values are absolute, universal and eternal.
The prevailing secular value given to the accumulation of physical assets beyond their possible use may result in the attempt by a person with low self-esteem to enhance his status by amassing a fortune. Accumulating riches to compensate for a negative self-image is as futile as any other mechanism intended to compensate for a fantasied deficit. Furthermore, accumulation of riches often leads to anxiety, because physical assets may be lost. Whereas any loss of assets is always unpleasant, a person with good self-esteem who has adequate means for comfortable living is not apt to be devastated by a loss of part of his fortune. However, if one’s fortune comprises a major portion of one’s ego, such a loss can be very depressing.
The person who embraces the Torah value that true wealth means being satisfied with what one has is not subject to the devastation of loss of physical assets. His needs are determined by what is required to fulfill the Divine will, and his feeling of worthiness in striving to fulfill the Divine will makes the pursuit of riches unnecessary.
I like the overall piece, but this quote seems inaccurate:
“Money is a means to acquire goods or services to satisfy one’s needs. When a person continues to amass money or goods over and above one’s current and foreseeable needs, this is not wealth. It is insanity.”
This is a self centered view of why to make money. Another reason to make money is to help individuals (charity) and improve the world (via investments, starting new schools/organization, etc.)
Though perhaps he includes helping others and building new things/organizations/institutions as “needs.”