Ethical Teachings of the Torah

Acquiring and Spending Wealth - Part 3

Ideally, the abolition of private property, of the profit motive and of economic independence would be a viable solution both to the evil economic man and to the behavior of S’dom. A solution that would cure all the hatred, jealousy, crime and the interpersonal and national strife caused by greed and egoism. Since time immemorial down to our own days, religions, philosophies and revolutions have adopted variations of this solution ranging from hermitages to medieval monastic orders to socialism and communism, to the communes of 19th century England and the USA and to the Israeli kibbutz. In all of them, experience has shown that, since the negation of private property so vividly contradicts human nature, any economic system built on it creates new evils and distortions even while definitely solving others.

Private property rights are necessary for a viable economic morality. Private ownership presupposes rights and obligations, so that an individual is responsible both for earning his own wealth and for preventing it from damaging others and even for the effects of how he uses his money. An individual cannot escape responsibility for the interpersonal and social effects of wealth nor can he transfer this responsibility to some amorphous group possession. This would, for example, contradict the corporate veil that is aimed at separating the individual shareholder from moral responsibility for illegal or immoral acts of the directors, or to enable the individual to escape guilt for damages caused by the corporation to the environment or to the health of others.

Furthermore, private property creates a direct link between earning and spending money. When people demand, or are given a standard of living which has no relationship to what they create, they become dependent either on government officials or on the decisions of philanthropic bodies. This leads to injustice and the necessity of bribing or corrupting the decision making officials; the latter are themselves invariably corrupted by the power they have over the lives of the poor. Similarly, although unemployment may be immoral, the removal of this link between earning and spending money through artificial full employment policies, if continued for long periods, promotes a culture of immorality through receiving money for a job not done.

Judaism does not teach the destruction of yetzarim but rather their education, limitation and sanctification. This applies not only to money, wealth, economics or business but to all of the human desires, lusts, motivations and aspirations. Rabbi S. R. Hirsch translates yetzer hara as, ‘the ability to choose evil’. So that rather than considered good or evil or noble or ignoble, they become for us merely ways of conducting affairs in this real and materialistic world, that can become holy and sanctified through our own free will. In that vein, Man is not merely an economic creature, but rather one created like the Divine Image of G-d, capable of choosing to elevate, purify and make holy his private property, his legitimate profit motive, and personal economic freedom and independence. Money, wealth and economic assets thereby are transformed into mere legitimate means for our existence but not an end in themselves nor values that dominate our lives.

At Marah, G-d showed Moshe a bitter tree that, when he cast it into the bitter waters of that oasis, miraculously sweetened them. So, the private ownership of wealth is sanctified by making it the basis for mitzvot that restrict our personal use of our own wealth. The Arbaa Minim have to be privately owned by the individual using them to praise and thank G-d on Sukkot. Pe’ah, leket, shikhacha, trumot and ma’aserot that are obligatory gifts to the poor, have to come from our own private possessions. In the religious kibbutzim communal ownership of all property created halakhic problems for chatanim who are required to give their brides a ring that is their own private property. The great moral merit of giving charity requires the existence of private property; people have to own property and have private wealth from which to help others. The individual’s active decision to part with his own money means that he is consciously giving up that which is legally and morally his own. This means that he is able to overcome the yetzer hara of selfishness, egoism and of greed. It is the overcoming of that yetzer which is the basis for economic morality, not the attempted abolishing of that yetzer.

“One who says, ‘what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine’, is an ignoramus”, in the presentation by the Tanna of the Mishna (Avot 5:10), of a philosophy of the utopia envisaged in the abolition of private property. Not evil nor egoistical but simply an Am Ha’aretz.

• Other Ethical Teachings of the Torah
• Today is the Birthday of the World, whether as Children or as Servants [2] by Dr. Meir Tamari
• Funding Social Costs - Taxation [2]
• THE CHALLENGE OF MONEY - Funding Social Costs - Taxation [1]