Judaism and Love of Money
If you ever thought that Christian apologists, and Evangelicals in particular, are masters of quote-mining, out of context citations, and misinterpretations fueled by a need to support a particular agenda, you are sorely mistaken. Compared to Orthodox rabbis, who are de facto the representatives of normative Judaism of today with all its bells and whistles, they appear as poor amateurs and incompetent minor leaguers.
No wonder, since Judaism is in this business for several centuries longer.
Let me demonstrate it on a true “gem.” As recorded in the opus magnum, Likutei Moharan, chapter 68:1, by his scribe and primary student Rabbi Nathan of Breslov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a great-grandson of the founder of Hasidic movement, says:
All souls desire and hunger after money; and they hunger after and love not only money itself, but even a person who has money. It is common for people to be drawn to him and to adore him on account of his money. We see this empirically, and it is also written (Proverbs 14:20), “whereas the wealthy man has many friends.”
The reason for this is that the soul originates from the same supernal source from which money issues, devolves and comes into being. Money’s origin, from which it extends downward, is undoubtedly an aspect of holiness and [a source of] holy influx. But afterwards, in the process of devolving, [this influx] acquires corporeality and becomes money. Thus the reason the soul desires money is that the soul and money share the same source.
Even so, one should not hunger after money. As has already been explained many times, avarice is very disgraceful. Rather, one should hunger after and love the place from which money originates and devolves. And it is in this aspect that “Rebbi would honor the rich,” as our Sages, of blessed memory, taught (Eruvin 86a); on account of their having money, which emanates from an exalted realm.
Now, you may argue that this is merely one of the plethora of positions and interpretations, and a rather young one at that, but look at what Babylonian Talmud, which was quoted and used as a basis for the argument made in the passage above, says:
Make way even more for one who possesses two hundred maneh. Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei, said before him: My teacher, Bonyas, father of this one, has a thousand ships out at sea and, corresponding to them, a thousand towns on land. He should be granted pride of place due to his exorbitant wealth. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: When you reach his father, tell him: Do not send him to me in these garments. Dress him in accordance with his wealth and status, so that he will be honored accordingly.
In explanation of this story, the Gemara comments: Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi would honor the wealthy, and Rabbi Akiva would likewise honor the wealthy, in accordance with Rava bar Mari’s interpretation of the verse: “May he be enthroned before God forever; appoint mercy and truth, that they may preserve him” (Psalms 61:8). When may he be enthroned before God forever? When he appoints [man] mercy and truth that they may preserve him. Rava bar Mari explains the word man as referring to portions of food and interprets the verse as follows: If one provides food to others, he deserves to be enthroned before God, to be shown honor and respect. Consequently, it is proper to honor the wealthy who bestow such kindnesses.
When you consider these snippets, please bear in mind that, in context of Jewish law, Talmud is legally binding, and rulings of prominent religious authorities, such as Rabbi Nachman and the citation above, are always considered as an authoritative opinion that must be taken into account, if not outright followed.
Here I must elucidate the reader that it would be all just a funny arcane cultural excursion, if there was not for one important fact — the goal of Orthodox Judaism at large, even if the term itself is a rather broad umbrella for various sects and movements that differ in particulars and minutiae, is to bring Tikkun Olam, that is “restoration of the world.” Religious Jewry expects arrival of Moshiach, who will usher in the age of redemption.
Unlike other messianic religions, however, Jews have the “option” to work toward bringing Moshiach. Thus, they mold the world in order to prepare it for the long awaited time, which should, according to universally held beliefs, bring all Jewry out of exile.
In this context of the “world to come,” the role of Jews is to be the “light upon the nations,” that is, according to rabbinical lectures you can watch on YouTube, sit all day in yeshiva and study Torah while upholding 613 mitzvot (which includes animal sacrifices), all in order to impart blessings and the will of God on the rest of the world, i.e. all those goyim (non-Jews aka gentiles) who would work, build, and otherwise uphold the material infrastructure of the worldwide society, because, as Orthodox Rabbis tell in unison, those are the alleged purposes of all respective nations and their places in the large scheme of things.
Basically imagine the Jewish intellectual and religious elite governing the gentile population all across the world like kings, lovingly and with care as they (mostly) say, essentially not moving a finger.
When you add to that that, e.g. only Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty has enormous political influence all across the world, not that dissimilar to Vatican, Eastern Orthodoxy, or US Evangelicals (but other religions certainly don’t fall short in this regard), it’s obvious that this is neither a game nor an anti-semitic conspiracy theory by any means. In fact, it’s very similar to stated goals of Muslim orthodoxy (worldwide instituting of sharia), or what US Christian fundamentalists are after (transforming at least US into a clero-fascists monarchy).
With that out of the way, let’s go back to Rabbi Nachman and Talmud and let us have a look at the psalm and proverb that were used as the basis for that mental gymnastics quoted above.
The proverb in question (as all proverbs from that book) simply states:
A pauper is despised even by his peers,
But a rich man has many friends.
It’s obvious that it is just an observation of a fact. There is no judgment in that verse. It simply states that people flock to rich and despise the poor. From my own empirical observation, when people evaluate others by their wealth it’s almost always because of greed, hope of siphoning off from the rich person, and the derision of poor stems from there being no profit in a pauper. Plus, there is also that tendency that, by associating with wealthy, one hopes to be seen as wealthy, too, and hence, be liked by those who evaluate others by amount of possessions in turn. In a world where people assign values to everything, it’s simply like that — a logical outcome.
So far so good, but let’s look at the incriminating psalm (emphasis mine — that’s the quote mined in Talmud):
For the leader; with instrumental music. Of David.
Hear my cry, O God,
heed my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to You;
when my heart is faint,
You lead me to a rock that is high above me.
For You have been my refuge,
a tower of strength against the enemy.
O that I might dwell in Your tent forever,
take refuge under Your protecting wings. Selah.
O God, You have heard my vows;
grant the request of those who fear Your name.
Add days to the days of the king;
may his years extend through generations;
may he dwell in God’s presence forever;
appoint steadfast love to guard him.
So I will sing hymns to Your name forever,
as I fulfill my vows day after day.
I don’t know about you, but to me it’s obvious that the whole poem is about David pleading with God to show favors to him. In other words, a king, while voicing his utmost submission, is begging God to prolong his rule and success as long as possible. It’s hardly an endorsement of rich, especially when the narrator of the whole piece is not God, but the king in question, (partly) speaking about himself in third person. (Perhaps, it was intended to be read or sung to David, maybe as a choir and refrain, while he was playing the accompaniment on lute singing the rest.)
So, to sum it up. Misquoting things left and right, the writers of Talmud as well as Rabbi Nachman, even in the most benign interpretation, encourage Jews to strive for and love not (exactly) money itself, but certainly that in which money originates, that is, God as source of all. But de facto, they encourage to love the concept of value, which goes all the way back to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In other words, we are told to aspire to and love that which actually separates and prevents us from seeing, and being one with, the one who cannot be named — the Name, the Absolute. How perverse is that? Or is it merely utterly ignorant?
Be as it may, it is one of the precepts circulating in Jewish community. It’s still a firm part of the Jewish lore, and it’s not some marginal thing, mind you — have a loving relationship with money and venerate the rich. Sigh.
Oh and by the way, in the glorious Jewish “world to come,” as I’m legally not a pure-blood Jew, merely a genetic and cultural bastard, I would be not only not allowed to study Torah (which I already extensively do merely by writing this article), but I would be eligible to be sentenced to death for it since another pseudo-intellectual, albeit “lawful,” pretzel from Talmud, Sanhedrin 59a:2, states:
And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: A gentile who engages in Torah study is liable to receive the death penalty; as it is stated: “Moses commanded us a law [torah], an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4), indicating that it is an inheritance for us, and not for them.
Quite a pickle.
Of course, things are probably not as extreme because, in reality, many orthodox Jewish organizations provide a (somewhat limited) Torah and Kabbalah studies even for non-Jews. The segregation, however, is very real and the vision of how the “world to come” should look like is, as I said, shared almost universally.
However — and this is the crucial point of this whole lengthy exercise — how can religious Jews hope to know God and shine light upon the nations when their understanding of Absolute is this fundamentally flawed?
Beats me. But it does not surprise me one bit that Judaism is no different from other Abrahamic religions because, as the rest, Judaism, too, just twists and turns the truth in deluded attempts at world domination. It seems that Christianity and Islam, indeed, learned from the best. But to paraphrase Richard Dawkins when he criticized Faroe Islands’ dolphin hunts, essentially all people on Earth could be told, “If this is your culture, please get a better one.”
Well, I’d say, it’s high time.
