Man, everything I think of is forgotten by the time I want to post! Well, from what I can scrape back together...
Money. So benign. So necessary. So good. Yet so evil. The more I try to think about this the more mind boggling it is; we don't view paper money (especially the ''dollar'') in the same way we would view things bartered (obviously), or even fine metals and such. The dollar we see so often here in America (or it's electric equivalent) is really a pretty abstract idea. We know that with this paper is the potential for anything physical. But that's it- potential, and not actual physicality and earthiness which subconsciously blinds the explicit evil that could be viewed in items and services. But it is! Is money not the essence of 'גשמיות' itself?And yet, so many of our dear flock, give all their time and attention to this one thing, without a second thought. Perhaps that is why I was in yeshiva for so long? A pure scorn of the low interests of the mindless -and therefore thoughtless- un-spiritual majority.
But again, of course, I have no negativity towards the idea of making an ample living -for one's family! Again, this kind of thing we cannot take for granted. All the yeshiva people and monks and priests don't live like they do for nothing. Money is very dangerous. And it takes intense intent and judgment to know how to approach it in a spiritually healthy way. Especially Jews! (Perhaps we will speak more about that over-ambitious lot another time).
3 comments:
Interesting point.
I feel that more than money is dangerous, it's a time waster and a conduit for gluttony. Which is also quite upsetting...
And about forgetting what you intended to post, you gotta write the points down exactly when they strike, not matter when or where (except, I suppose, like Shabbos...)
Can I ask what prompted you to think of this topic?
Hello, and welcome to 'lomo land! (..I'm "lomo", -I hang out with Spanish speaking people who can't pronounce the 's' in my name (shlomo) (which cold also come out 'eslomo'), though I kind of caught on to the first one)...
Nonsense! What propted me to think about money? And then write a post about it way after I stopped thinking about it?
Well, obviously you don't know, I don't think I made it too clear here- I attended post high-school yeshiva for many years, then (very slowly) came to the realization that, perhaps it wasn't a TOTAL waste of time for me (I was studious), but it was maybe a bit unpractical at that point in my life. I perceive myself of being disliked by females mainly because of my finantial situation (I'm a mashgiach), I plan to start college this January, but I do think it would take me so long to become 'moneteraly eligible' for 'shidduchim'. I never planned to go to college. I also never planned to get married after my early twenties...
Thank you ever so much for reading and commenting by the way,
העבד
Perhaps that is why I was in yeshiva for so long? A pure scorn of the low interests of the mindless -and therefore thoughtless- un-spiritual majority.
Let's see. Someone had to pay to build or buy the yeshiva building where you studied. Someone had to pay for the salaries of the rabbaim. Someone had to provide the money for the electricity and heating and furnishings. And yes, someone had to pay for all the talmidim who didn't have the money themselves to pay yeshiva tuition. "Thoughtless unspiritual majority?" Hardly.
It takes money, lots of money to run the religious institutions of Klal, to support the tzedaka and chesed organizations of Klal. It takes money, lots of money to be able to afford the necessities of being frum, like yeshiva tuitions and kosher food and living in frum neighborhoods.
Are there those with an unhealthy love of money and with unbridled consumerism? Yes. But those qualities exist across the spectrum of yiddishkeit, including in the yeshivishe olam. Being in yeshiva is no protection against the desire for money.
And poverty is no blessing either.
Post a Comment