Material success & spiritual failures
Parshat Behar (see Vayikra 25:35-36) is one of the many parshiot in the Torah where the prohibition of taking interest is listed. Yet beyond addressing the clear concern that taking interest from someone in need is not a ‘kind’ or ‘fair’ thing to do, Rabbi Hirsch adds that taking interest from others highlights a deep misunderstanding of our relationship towards God, money and materialism: ‘God is the Master of the material goods.. [and] possessions do not belong to the possessor… Therefore, every Jew who accepts interest.. denies, in so doing, that wealth really belongs to God, and [in so doing] commits idolatry and apostasy.’ (Horeb, paragraph 567)
As should be evident, this remark is not limited to the topic of interest, with numerous other laws mentioned in Parshat Behar, such as the law of Shemitta, further emphasising the message that God is ultimately the Master of the world and all material goods.
Interestingly, the focus of the latest edition of Tradition is ‘Material Success and its Challenges’, and in his essay titled ‘The Religious Perils of Materialism’ (which can be read here) Rabbi Jeremy Wieder notes that:
‘An individual who understands that, on a moral level, his money does not truly belong to him but rather is a trust over which he has been designated as a trustee, behaves very particularly in how he uses it. On the other hand, one who operates under the presumption of “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:17), and regards his accumulated wealth as completely his own, in the spirit of “what’s mine is mine; what’s yours is yours” (Avot 5:10) behaves quite differently. This spiritual failure damages three distinct areas—the broader community, the children being raised in such a milieu, and the person him or herself.’
I would strongly encourage all those interested in this topic to read the rest of Rabbi Wieder’s essay where he presents a range of insights and examples about the devastating spiritual effects which we are seeing today among those who truly believe that their money and their possessions belong to them.
Ultimately, as he concludes, ‘As individuals and as a community we must find ways to shift our focus away from the obsession with the material and orient ourselves in the direction of that which truly matters… to set aside our fleeting desires and pursue a life of enduring value.’
Shabbat Shalom!