 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Feb. 20, 2003
/ 28 Shevat, 5764
Jews and money
By
Rabbi Berel Wein
A prominent author and historian gives the lowdown
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
In Temple times, the Talmud tells us, the collecting of the half-shekel
"tax" for the support of the Temple services began with the entrance of the
month of Adar. Therefore, in commemoration of this ancient Jewish rite, this Sabbath is known as "Shabbes Shekalim".
The half-shekel was to be assessed "b'shekel hakodesh," by the standard of the holy shekel. The Talmud describes in great detail the actual amount of silver required
in each coin to meet that specification. But the Talmud indirectly reminds us that part of the task of Judaism, and therefore of necessity of its adherents, the Jews, is to somehow invest a sense of holiness into the shekel — into otherwise grubby money.
According to
Midrash, Moses was shown a holy shekel of fire on Sinai. The Jewish
understanding of the symbolism of fire has always been that fire is
ambivalent — it can burn and destroy or it can light and warm. So, too, with
money. Money can accomplish great good and it also is able to bring about
great evil. It can build hospitals and schools and help the needy or it can
wreck personal character and corrupt society, government and industry. It
finances war and causes violence and cultivates crime and yet it can just as
well succor the widow and orphan and save the helpless from disaster.
Thus, the notion of "shekel hakodesh" exists in our world as strongly as it did in
the times of the Temples in Jerusalem. To take the ordinary shekel and
transform it into the "shekel hakodesh" is the mission of Torah and Israel.
There is an entire section of Shulchan Aruch (the Code of Jewish Law)
devoted to money and the task of transforming it into the "shekel hakodesh."
There are many volumes of Talmud devoted to this issue as well. Judaism sets
a minimum standard of human behavior regarding monetary matters that is
recorded in these legal tomes. But it also sets a standard of moral behavior
that though legally unenforceable is nevertheless necessary in order to
attempt to create a more just society — in short, in order to raise money to
the level of "shekel hakodesh."
This moral standard regarding money is called "lifnim meshuras hadin" — above the minimum face of the law itself. The Talmud saw that one of the spiritual causes of the destruction of the Temples was the lack of willingness to behave "lifnim meshuras hadin." People insisted on their legal rights and were not willing to accommodate
others even when morally obligated to do so. A society that does not allow
for a moral code of law to accompany the strictly legal code of law
eventually turns corrupt and rotten and dooms itself to destruction.
The Talmud is replete with examples of "lifnim meshuras hadin" in monetary
matters. Money is a great test in life. The rabbis of the Talmud held
monetary probity in such high and necessary esteem that groups of people
(such as shepherds, for example, who usually grazed their herds on other
people's property) who had bad reputations as far as money was concerned
were held to be unacceptable as witnesses in Jewish courts of law. A great
rabbi once told me that it is far easier to have glatt kosher meat on one's
plate than to have glatt kosher money in one's pocket. Sadly, he was right
in that assessment. "Shabbes Shkalim" comes to remind us about glatt kosher
money.
Judaism has always stressed the importance of imparting knowledge to its
children. But it has stressed even more the teaching of values. In current
world society, we speak of the value of money in purely economic and social
terms. But there is a value of money in spiritual and holy terms as well.
And it is that value of money — the "shekel hakodesh" value — that needs to
be addressed in the education of our children and in our own personal and
national life.
Throughout Jewish history, movements arose to help cleanse
the money of the House of Israel from immorality and cupidity. The Mussar
movement that originated in Jewish Lithuania in the nineteenth century did
wonders in developing a "shekel hakodesh" attitude amongst its adherents.
The influence of the Mussar movement was widely felt throughout Jewish
society. To a certain extent, even the secular Jewish labor organizations of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also were trying to
achieve a "shekel hakodesh" attitude and society, being still based upon the
Torah rules and attitudes regarding money that were part of the Jewish
psyche and soul over the ages.
Improving our attitude towards money is a
vital step in rebuilding ourselves spiritually and morally and refocusing
our attention towards creating a more just society.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in uplifting articles.
Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Rabbi Berel Wein is one of Jewry's foremost historians and
founder of the Destiny Foundation.
He has authored over 650 tapes, books and videos which you can purchase at RabbiWein.com.
Comment by clicking here or calling 1-800-499-WEIN (9346).
© 2004, Rabbi Berel Wein
|
