Money that Hurts and Helps

By RABBI DAVID ROSENN

Parashat Mishpatim (Exodus 21:1-24:18)

If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act towards them as a creditor; exact no interest from them.

(Exodus 22:24)

Money has great potential to do good in the world, but it can is also be an instrument of terrible harm. The rabbis recognized this double-edged quality of money and warned people away from absolutist views of money as "the greatest good," or "the root of all evil." According to the teaching below, our responses to money can save us or destroy us:

"It is written, There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches hoarded by their owner to his hurt; and those riches perish by evil adventure (Ecclesiastes 5:12). Happy the man who can withstand the test, for there is none whom God does not prove. He tries the rich man to see if his hand will be opened unto the poor, and the poor man He tries in order to see whether he will accept suffering without bitterness, as it says, And that You bring the poor that are humbled to Your house (Isaiah 53:7).*

"If the rich man withstand his test and practice charity, then he will enjoy his wealth in this world, while the capital will be preserved for him in the Life to Come, and the Holy Blessed One, will, moreover, redeem him from the punishment of Hell, as it says, Happy is he that considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of evil (Psalm 41:2).

"If the poor man withstands his test without rebelling he takes a double portion in the World to Come, as it says, For You save the afflicted people (Isaiah 18:28). Whence can you learn this?—From Job, who suffered in this world and whom God repaid in double measure, as it says, And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before (Job 17:10).

"The rich man who grudges to give, however, perishes with his wealth from this world, as it says, And those riches perish by evil adventure; for he is mean towards those who collect for charity. Why so? Because there is an ever rotating wheel in this world, and he who is rich to-day may not be so to-morrow, and also he who is poor to-day may not be so to-morrow. One God casts down, and the other God raises up, as it says, For God is judge; He puts down one, and lifts up another (Psalm 75:8)."

(Shemot Rabbah 31:3)

[* Treating the word merudim as a derivative of yarad, "those cast down," i.e., poor people who take their poverty in a submissive and contrite spirit.]

QUESTION: Do you agree that money presents a spiritual test to rich and poor alike?