Q:
You said that having money can help a person serve Hashem. So how come it appears that when Jews acquire money, they seem to move from Orthodoxy to Conservative, to Reform?
A:
Why is it that people who become wealthy tend to forsake the principles of their fathers?
Now this is something that’s a well known phenomenon. It’s constantly reiterated in the Scriptures, in the Tanach. וישמן ישרון ויבעט – The righteous nation became fat and began kicking.
It’s like a cow. A cow, if you don’t feed it too much, it’s docile. But once you give it too much food, then if you come to milk it, it’ll give you a kick in the face.
And that’s how children are too, by the way. They’re overfed today with too much candy and ice cream. And that’s why they’re so fresh. If they had to go to work in order to support themselves, then you’d see it would be a much more decent population.
Money is a great test.
Now, for good people money is a glorious opportunity. They become more grateful to Hashem and they utilize their wealth for the support of the Torah causes. And they become like Rabbi Akiva or like Raban Gamliel or like Rabbi Tarfon or like Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, all the great people of our history who knew how to live with money.
But those who are not trained, those who are not prepared for wealth, are ruined by wealth. Like Shlomo HaMelech said: רש ועושר אל תתן לי – Don’t give me extreme wealth or extreme poverty, הטריפני לחם חוקי – Give me just enough.
And therefore, it’s a great test and very many people have stumbled and have fallen because of this test.
TAPE # 400 (March 1982)
