How to Be W.e.a.l.t.h.y and Happy
Wealth, like poverty, is neither a virtue nor a vice. Although, like poverty, it can be either. Wealth can make a person happy only if its possessor conforms to six rules. LECHA LECHA
Wealthy Biblical Figures
G-d promises Abraham great wealth. Indeed, upon his return from Egypt where his wife was abducted, he is rewarded with wealth from Pharaoh to compensate for all the pain Sarah endured. Abraham was again offered wealth from the King of Sodom when he saved him in his battle against the alliance of four kings who had abducted his nephew Lot. Abraham refused to take this wealth. In the end, Abraham became independently wealthy and prosperous.
When we review the Torah’s description of Isaac, he too is extremely wealthy; so too Jacob. Joseph, the viceroy of Egypt accumulated enormous wealth, and according to the Midrash, Moses became wealthy from the chips of Sapphire that were hewn for the purposes of the Tablets upon which G-d engraved the Ten Commandments.
LECHA
What is it about wealth that was the hallmark of the Patriarchs and progenitors of the Jewish people? Doesn’t religion disparage the accumulation of great wealth?
No Disparagement of Wealth if…
In truth, there is no such disparagement. What is strongly denounced is the attitude that wealth can bring to its possessor that makes him infinitely poorer than the greatest pauper. With the correct perspective on wealth, wealth can be extremely positive.
One of the pitfalls of possessing the wrong perspective towards wealth is that it does not lead to happiness; on the contrary. In the words of our Sages, “One has a hundred wants two hundred; one who has two hundred wants four hundred.”
A wealthy person’s distorted attitude towards the acquisition of wealth causes him or her to never be happy with their lot. In the words of Ethics of the Fathers: Who is rich? One who is happy with his lot.” How does one accomplish this and still acquire material wealth?
LECHA
The Six Rules for Happiness
There are six rules that will help the wealthy stay happy. They can be remembered by way of a mnemonic: W.E.A.L.T.H.
- Where it Comes from.
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Emotion, Energy and Enthusiasm.
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Accomplishment.
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License and Legitimacy.
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Tzedakah.
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Healthy and Happy Soul
The First Rule: Where it comes from
The first rule of being wealthy and happy is to recognize where wealth comes from. Who is the source of our success? To be happy one must know that wealth comes from G-d like Manna from heaven.
King Solomon puts it succinctly:
The blessing of G-d is what makes one rich and there will be no sadness with it.
LECHA
When we realize that it all comes from G-d, we feels that whatever we have, is beyond our expectations of ourselves. It is all a gift.
Indeed, it was Abraham who taught us this lesson. When Abraham refused to accept the wealth from the king of Sodom after winning the war that liberated his nephew Lot, he explained:
I raise my hand to G-d, the supreme G-d, Who possesses heaven and earth, that (I will not take from the spoils), even a thread or a shoelace, nor will I take from whatever you possess—so that you will not say, “I have made Abram wealthy…”
Abraham did not want to accept a notion of wealth if it was not connected to the belief that it is G-d’s blessing that makes us rich and not simply our own business acumen and hard work.
The Second Rule: Emotion. Energy and Enthusiasm.
One might get the erroneous impression that the above heading suggest that to be happy LECHA with our wealth we must invest our emotion, energy and enthusiasm in our work.
Nothing can be further from the truth; the very opposite is the reality. To be happy with wealth we must not invest all of our emotion and enthusiasm in its pursuit.
King David taught us this lesson in his Psalms:
The toil of your hands and you will eat.
This is interpreted to mean that we should not place our heads in our work just our hands. Of course, this does not mean that a doctor, for example, should not use his head in treating his patients, for that would render him totally derelict in his duty to provide good medical care. What it means is that we should not be obsessed with our work as a means of acquiring wealth to the extent that this pursuit becomes all consuming.
If the physician wants to invest his emotions it should be in the desire to help his patients; not the accumulation of wealth. The same holds true, of course, for every profession.
Thus the “head”— i.e., the first consideration of a person—should not be the pursuit of LECHA wealth. The pursuit of wealth and the toil in one’s pursuit of a livelihood should be viewed as a means to the end; not and end unto itself.
This too we can see in Abraham’s life. Not only is it seen in Abraham’s reluctance to take the wealth from the king of Sodom, but in subsequent narratives as well. Among them, we find Abraham saying to G-d, when G-d offers him great reward:
“G-d, A-mighty G-d, what could you possibly give me?”
Abraham laments, of what use is his wealth if he has no children who would inherit it. In other words, Abraham was not interested in his own wealth and success; he wanted it for his children.
A Third Rule: Accomplishment
Accomplishments must be savored. Workaholics never have time to sit back and appreciate what they have accomplished. They are so enslaved to their work that they cannot enjoy what they’ve done—assuming it was productive and positive—and they certainly cannot enjoy their families, friends LECHA and the other more enduring things in life. They also cannot find enough time to fulfill their spiritual needs, the needs of others as well as their religious and communal obligations.
This is one of the reasons we have the Shabbos. Shabbos not only teaches us that G- d is the Creator of the world, but, it also expresses the notion that G-d is our Liberator.
Shabbos is a day when we are liberated from the six work days; when we can turn our attention to more enduring and more enjoyable matters. Shabbos puts a limit on our worldly involvement so we can enjoy an “other” worldly delight. No matter how much importance we attach to our work, when Shabbos comes we desist.
On Shabbos we’re allowed to not think about business and not feel any guilt. It is indeed a liberating experience from the constraints of the week.
Furthermore, as we sit back and rest on the Shabbos we can savor our accomplishments.
Kabbalah teaches us that it is the soul’s power and faculty of delight that motivates LECHA us to work. But while we are engaged in the actual work, the delight is eclipsed by the work itself. Only on Shabbos does the soul’s inner delight come to the fore, and we can feel the most powerful experience of pleasure.
Moreover, on Shabbos we can devote ourselves to the higher pursuits of life, and the true sources of joy. Shabbos is what gives us a sense of what we’ve accomplished and it is therefore what makes us enjoy the fruit of our labor Again, Abraham can be seen as a model for this emphasis on Shabbos. The Talmud states that Abraham observed the Torah’s commandments even before they were given at Sinai. The example they give is associated with preparations for the Shabbos. Abraham knew the value of Shabbos even before it became a formal commandment.
A fourth Rule: License and legitimacy.
The Midrash tells us that G-d created gold for the construction of the Temple. Once it was created, He gave us the ability to use it for our own personal uses.
LECHA
There is another way of looking at our use of gold, the symbol of wealth. G-d gave us gold, and wealth in general, not half-heartedly, or as a concession to us, by saying, G-d forbid, “What the heck, I created it already you might as well use it.” In giving us gold and wealth it was G-d’s way of licensing the rights to it to us so that we should utilize this wealth to fulfill our mission and role as G-d’s partners in making the entire world a Sanctuary and dwelling place for Him.
Once we recognize that the use of wealth to make our homes and communities Sanctuaries for G-d—where G-d finds a comfortable and hospitable place, and that we are therefore His partners in creation—it gives our lives legitimacy that we might not feel we earned otherwise.
There is no greater feeling of joy than the sense of legitimacy. When our wealth serves as a justification for our existence it provides us with a profound sense of satisfaction and genuine happiness.
The fifth Rule: Tzedakah.
LECHA
The greatest source of joy for a human being is the joy of giving. When we take our wealth and give it to those who are in need, we receive far more than what we give. What we give—even if it is billions of dollars—is finite. What we receive from the knowledge that we have made a difference in someone’s life is of infinite value. In the words of our Sages:
“The poor man does more for the rich man, than the rich man does for the poor.”
To truly enjoy one’s wealth one must be on the giving side.
The Sixth Rule: Healthy and Happy Soul.
We can easily relate to the fact that it is hard for us to appreciate our wealth if we are ailing and in constant physical pain. The same is true when our souls are undernourished and writhing in pain we cannot be happy. The more we try to distract ourselves from our soul’s discontent by drowning our misery in more material matters, the more the soul is in anguish and LECHA the more depressed we become and the less we can enjoy our wealth.
When we allow our soul to flourish by nurturing it with more Torah study and more Mitzvot, our physical wealth and pleasure that goes along with it is enhanced. The physical wealth becomes an external manifestation of our spiritual wealth. One feeds and feeds off the other.
The Ultimate Happiness of the Future
In the Messianic Age, Maimonides writes, “All of the world’s delicacies will be as abundant as the dust of the earth.”
At that time we will be able to fully appreciate material wealth because at that time:
a) We will all know where our wealth comes from.
b) We will also put our emotions and energy into the more important things in life, build the Temple in Jerusalem and our own personal Sanctuaries with that wealth.
LECHA c) We will then also fully savor all of our accomplishments, inasmuch as the future Messianic Age is regarded as the Sabbath of Creation.
d) In that era all selfishness will obviously disappear, and we will be the most selfless and giving people.
e) Our souls will be healthy and enjoy perpetual happiness.
LECHA
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Lech Lecha by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
