Ethical Teachings of the Torah

THE CHALLENGES OF MONEY: Acquiring and Spending Wealth (part 2)

“There are 4 types of people regarding money” (Avot 5:10); 4 approaches to evaluating wealth that are the basis for the whole question of ethics and morality in acquiring and spending money. All of them revolve around our attitude to what other people earn, what they spend and what assets they possess.

Greed fuels the acquiring of money and wealth and coveting stimulates us to emulate others and to strive to achieve the wealth or possessions that they have. This yetzer hara is so essential for people’s living, that without it there would be no progress, no development and no human creativity. “‘And G-d saw all that He had created and it was very good’: what was very good? Good is the yetzer hara” (B’reishit Rabba).

However, it is that same greed and covetousness which fuels immorality in the acquiring of wealth. When we are unwilling or unable to satisfy that yetzer through moral and legitimate means, then we often resort to fraud, crime or coercion to gain that which other people possess and which we desire. “Coveting leads to desiring which leads to theft which, when the theft is opposed, leads to murder. As we see from Achav who coveted the vineyard of Navot. [When Navot refused to sell his vineyard, Achav sulked, refused to eat or drink showing his frustration with his unsatisfied lust]. Achav oppressed him and when he still refused to sell his vineyard, Achav had Navot murdered” Hilkhot G’zeila v’Aveida 1:11.]

“‘One who says, what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine’, is evil” (Avot 5:10). In that definition of economic evil there is no mention of any evil action, no theft and no fraud, only of a thought process, a thought process which is the father to immoral economic acts, since it is that need, that lust, that jealousy that leads one to steal or to injure another’s wealth or property. In our modern consumer society, pressures from our peers, from the media, from advertising and from all the various and manifold marketers, revealed and hidden, lead to similar evil effects of coveting and desiring. Such coveting and desiring represents a major test to present day Judaism.

It would seem that the same Tanna of the Mishna offers an alternative scenario for this yetzer for money, one that does not involve theft, fraud or oppression. “One who says, ‘Mine is mine and yours is yours’, is of average merit: Many say that this is the way of the people of Sodom’”. Such a person will not harm the private property of others, but neither will he help them; egoism substituted for greed. At best this is mediocre moral and religious behavior, but when it becomes the prevalent accepted social norm then we find ourselves in S’dom. “S’dom was rich and powerful but its people feared that the poor and needy would enter their city and benefit from their money. Therefore they legislated against such entries and punished anybody extending help to the poor and to the strangers” (Malbim).

S’dom is the anti-thesis of Avraham, of whom G-d said, “I know that he will teach his descendants to do justice and righteousness” (B’reishit 18:19). The nation-community nature of Judaism makes society a real and viable economic personality having an obligation to meet social needs but also the right to use some of the private wealth to fund them. Personal charity, taxation of private wealth and public sector intervention in the market have always been accepted by halakha as tools to finance the needs of the poor, the weak, and the sick.

S’dom is the antithesis of the ‘you shall love your neighbor’, ‘you shall pursue justice’, and ‘you shall do that which is good and straight in the eyes of G-d’, of the Torah given to Avraham’s descendants, to be observed in their Promised Land. “The people of S’dom were no more immoral or more egoistical than any other nation, but since they dwelt in the Land promised to Avraham, S’dom had to be destroyed” (Ramban).

The unlimited yetzer for money that leads to greed and the uncontrolled egoism of S’dom are 2 sides of the same coin; neither of them have a place in Israel’s Torah or in its Promised Land.

• 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]