Posted on 06/22/2010 7:27:51 AM PDT by Jewbacca
Question:
Should one who is blessed with vast wealth spend it on luxuries? Is a wealthy person expected to live with restraint, or is it okay for him to spend his hard-earned money on living a lifestyle beyond that which an ordinary person can afford? How much should such a person give of his earnings to charity?
Answer:
You're raising some very interesting questions. On the one hand, a person blessed with great wealth should seemingly enjoy his blessings—isn't that why G‑d chose to bless him with affluence? And yet, we have to consider whether there's something improper about maintaining a standard of living considerably higher than those around you.
There are stories told in praise of very wealthy individuals who lived simply and austerely, never exhibiting the means they had at their disposal.
To balance that, there's the tale about a rich man who explained to his rabbi that he intended to live as a regular individual, to eat meat only once a week, generally suffice with bread and vegetables, etc. To his surprise, the rabbi disagreed and said, "It's preferable that you live very comfortably and eat meat every day."
When the rabbi's students expressed surprise at their mentor's advice, he explained: "This way, if he lives according to his means, perhaps he'll give meat to the poor once a week, and bread and vegetables more often..."
In other words, knowing this man well, the rabbi realized that practicing self-restraint would only serve to make him less likely to be charitable. After all, if he could suffice with less, why couldn't others? And once he would become accustomed to being economical, it would be harder for him to part with his money for any reason. This is human nature, and something one should seriously consider. If living simply will result in less charity and generosity—it's not preferable.
On the other hand, it is also important not to set a standard that will come to hurt others. If having a ten-piece band by your child's wedding will have the peer-pressure effect of causing others who really can't afford it to feel that they have to do the same, then perhaps you should reconsider.
As for charity, technically, one is required to give ten percent of his earnings to charity, and giving more, up to twenty percent, is considered praiseworthy. Someone who can easily afford to, should certainly aspire for the twenty percent mark.
However, as Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains, charity – and specifically unstinting and munificent charity – is the most effective way of achieving atonement for past misdeeds and educing G‑d's infinite kindness. As such, even one who isn't wealthy can give more than twenty percent if he wishes—and certainly someone who has erred in the past and wishes to be restored to G‑d's good graces. And how much more so if giving more than twenty percent will not hurt the giver financially.
What's most important in all this is that we all realize that our blessings come directly from G‑d, intentionally and with reason. A wealthy individual is charged with the responsibility of utilizing that wealth in a way that G‑d Himself will appreciate and can celebrate.
I prefer to think that every dime of my family's Federal tax contribution is going to pay our daughter's Coast Guard salary. It's less than we spent on her when she lived at home!
You're welcome to pay my father's Navy pension, if you'd like. He's a great man.
Excellent article, btw.
“Should one who is blessed with vast wealth spend it on luxuries?”
The vast majority of those with wealth were not simply “blessed,” they have overwhelmingly worked hard, planned for the future and lived a lifestyle that has led to their wealth. I prefer to think of the wealthy as an example for a way of life and not simply consider them blessed.
They are blessed by native inteligence (usually) and a work ethic (typically from parents chosen by G-d).
We have nothing that does not come from G-d, even frugality.
God bestows wealth to those that He can trust to be good stewards. Until one starts behaving financially, then they aren’t generally blessed with wealth.
Yes, both elements exist. However, my point is that it is not that people of wealth are simply blessed. They behave in ways that make them wealthy.
Every person is charged with stewardship of the blessings he or she has, be that monetary wealth, intelligence, talent, good looks, charm, whatever. We all have a responsibility to use it wisely in accordance with the wisdom God has given us.
We also have a responsibility to see that whatever we do give to others is used wisely. People who advocate high taxes as a sort of forced charity (ala Gates and his ilk) don’t want us to be able to control how our charity is used. Likewise, people who assuage a guilty conscience by tossing a few coins at the local cardboard signholder at the intersection also don’t take responsibility for whether the contribution helps or hurts.
The best approach is a balance between ensuring your needs and the needs of your own loved ones are covered and ensuring that whatever donations you make will be used for purposes in line with God’s work. We therefore try to minimize our tax burden as much as legally allowed, and we give money only to persons, organizations or charities we trust will use the funds wisely.
“They behave in ways that make them wealthy.”
And what makes them behave in those ways?
The rewards that are reaped from hard work. Something that is now considered evil in our society. The reference to wealth as only “blessings” is one of the tools being used to demonize hard work and success.
That makes no sense in connection to my point. Again, my point is that wealth is a matter of hard work and responsible living. It is not simply a blessing.
If wealth is only a matter of being blessed, then yes we should redistribute it to those that have not been so greatly blessed.
Get it?
I think you misunderstand what “blessing” means in Judaism.
You also do not understand tzedekah. It’s not “charity” in the English sense. It’s a positive mitzvah.
It seems to me the more wealth one has, the more they become *their own GOD* and need not the GOD of all creation and life....
1. Bill Gates-Atheist
2. George Soros-Atheist
3. Oprah Winfrey- New Age Mumbo Jumbo....
Better to give employment than charity. Hire a maid.
As soon as I get my house uncluttered enough to do so, I’m going to, and when I get all the edging in around the plants I don’t want mowed, a yard service.
Godless billionaires ask super-rich to ‘give it up’
Who says atheists, agnostics and freethinkers don’t give a lot to charity? Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, two of America’s wealthiest men and greatest philanthropists, issued a call Wednesday for the nation’s billionaires to make a moral commitment to donate at least 50% of their money to charity or other philanthropic causes. They’ve even launched a website, The Giving Pledge, where the super-rich can “take the pledge”:
The Giving Pledge is an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in America to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice either during their lifetime or after their death.
http://www.examiner.com/x-8947-LA-Atheism-Examiner~y2010m6d17-Godless-billionaires-ask-superrich-to-give-it-up
The *GODLESS WEALTHY* IMHO are cursed not blessed.....
I really don’t worry about them. I have enough problems dealing with myself.
I don’t know if you’ve ever read the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, but in one of the books, a man is seen to be stingy and selfish by his refusal to have servants even though he could easily afford them, because so many people are in desperate need of employment in Botswana.
When my neighbors advertised for yard help on craigslist, even putting in the ad that they could pay only $8 an hour, they had to take the ad back down after just a few hours, because they were overwhelmed with responses.
Hire out as much work as you can afford to. People need it.
Well I am concerned, as I speak on other sites where to Atheists (Especially young ones) truly a generation of people who do not know G-d and reject him....
Anyway’s they look to Gates and Buffett, and Dawkins, and Hitchens and Winfrey by all their supposssed wealth, knowledge and wisdom, why people should give up (GOD) and see GOD as a Myth, Fairytale and Religions are for the weak minded....They reject and do not want to know the Creator...OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN...
PSALM 14:1
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good... (So much for those wealthy billionaires)
This is how wealth can be used for demonic and
Good article, thanks.
Tzedakah is a tremendous mitzvot and Maimonides (Rambam), the greatest Jewish philosopher ever, gives us a guide as you pointed out. I personally prefer to turn Rambam rather than Rashi first.
I do not concern myself on how others spend their money. That is their decision.
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