Money, Money, Money - Parshat Vayishlach

We are spiritual beings by nature.1 We like to believe that we view the world around us not only for its physical benefits but for what it can afford us. We are not always successful at this process but we like to believe it.

Yet, notice the number of songs we listen to, activities in which we engage, discussions that we have surround the realm of hard, cold cash – how to make it, how to save it and how to use it. Look at some of the popular phrases we use about money – money makes the world go round, money is a necessary evil, show me the money – and it may seem out of proportion with how we wish to view our relationship with money.

Yet, in this week's parsha, Parshat Vayishlach, we see that even Yaakov cares for his little pots and pans in an almost obsessive way. He was filthy rich while on his way home from working with Lavan. 2 Yet when he crossed the Yabok stream, he went back to retrieve some small pots.3 He didn’t need to do that. First of all, he could’ve left them there and would not have felt their absence. Second, he had servants or children who he could’ve asked to perform this action. And to even further strengthen the question, the Gemara quotes Rabbi Elazar who said: for the righteous, their money is as dear to them as their body for they come by it honestly.4 Really??

In his wonderful commentary, Rabbi Hirsch writes that this is in fact true because the righteous are truly aware of the value of money and wish to use it for only productive ideals - as if they felt that the money was sent their way because it is known that they will use it wisely. They are acutely aware that every single penny that they receive came their way for a purpose. Once we are dealing with purpose and meaning, they can no longer take lightly the value of even a single penny.

If this is their approach to their physical possessions, how much more so do they understand the value of time and of life itself. Money is a tool, a vessel to get from one place to another. If we know how to use it then our journey will be easier. Even if the journey is a difficult one, and we all know that we are sometimes confronted with times of great difficulties and challenges, if we have the right vessel, then these confrontations are just a bit easier to bear.

If we have the right outlook of the money and possessions we own, then we can use them more wisely, know how to function in their absence, and feel that we are living a fuller, more meaningful life.

 

Notes

  1. Viktor Frankl in his books speaks of us being not only mind and body but a third level of existence which he termed the noos – the human spirit.
  2. Bereishit 32:6
  3. Ibid. 25
  4. Chulin 91a

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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