Q:
According to the Torah is it right for a person to strive to have more than just enough? Is it right to work to have more money than you need right now?
A:
Absolutely it’s right. What else will you do? You’ll be idle? Idleness is not good for you. גדולה מלאכה – work is a great thing!
Sure you have to save up money. Maybe you’ll want to buy a house. Maybe you want to do other good things with your money. There are always good institutions that can use your money. And your children have to be sent to the yeshiva. Many times children need tutors. It costs a lot of money to have special tutors for your children. There are a lot of good things to do with money.
And therefore, absolutely you should keep working. If a person makes up his mind that he won’t work except for the barest minimum, he becomes a bum. He won’t sit in the beis hamedrash and learn Torah. He becomes a bum. He’ll sit in the beis hamedrash in the back and say a little Tehillim and he’ll sleep and he’ll be a bum.
TAPE # 587 (February 1986)
