Go on vacation and enjoy whatever it is you want to do ... but share them with nobody who wasn't on the trip.
More moments · 5
Ep 48When people get wealth, their brains change, and it takes one helicopter rideRabbi Jeremy Wieder
▶1:03
When people get wealth, their brains change, and it takes one helicopter ride
Ep 48You need $150,000 pre-tax just to pay tuition for four kidsRabbi Jeremy Wieder
▶0:51
You need $150,000 pre-tax just to pay tuition for four kids
Ep 4820 years ago people didn't drink like this. Now they're self-medicating.Rabbi Jeremy Wieder
▶1:07
20 years ago people didn't drink like this. Now they're self-medicating.
Ep 48If every family paid $15,000 a year for life, the tuition crisis would be solvedRabbi Jeremy Wieder
▶0:58
If every family paid $15,000 a year for life, the tuition crisis would be solved
Ep 48One of the most effective forms of birth control is yeshiva tuitionRabbi Jeremy Wieder
▶0:44
One of the most effective forms of birth control is yeshiva tuition
Try this · top 3
Quotes
“You are just an executor of an estate. You're a trustee and the money all belongs to God. (explaining the Tur on tzedakah)”
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder
“There's a not an insignificant piece of the consumption where part of the pleasure is showing everybody else. And that's deeply problematic.”
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder
“Everything should be assumed to be private until there's a reason that it should be public.”
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder
“What I see is people are self-medicating. They're dealing with overwhelming anxiety. They're dealing with emptiness in their lives.”
Rabbi Jeremy Wieder
Takeaways
1 Materialism and the tuition crisis are one problem: how we value money. Wieder sees it as a threat to the community's future.
2 Wealth tends to reduce empathy (the "power paradox"); poorer people give more in proportion. Moshe warned against forgetting where you came from once you're rich.
3 You're a trustee of God's money. The ideal is 20% to tzedakah, with 10% the minimum.
4 Once maaser is given, spending is technically allowed, but lavish spending isn't in line with Torah values. Communities once limited simcha sizes because of the effect on others.
5 When the community is suffering, even private indulgence is wrong (Gemara Taanis). Showing off pours salt on the wound.
6 Tznius means privacy and not showing off - it applies to money, not just dress.
7 Tuition math: four kids at $20,000-25,000 each takes $120,000-150,000 pre-tax just for school. Moving helps some but costs family closeness.
8 Wieder opposes government money for yeshivas: it comes with strings, and in the wealthy Modern Orthodox world it takes from public schools that need it more. Schools should be solid "Chevy" schools, not "Cadillac" ones.
9 The real fixes: a communal fund where every family pays a fixed amount for life (hard to enforce in individualistic America), or wealthy members funding the schools. Torah values are communitarian.
10 The pressure has costs: fewer children, two parents in extreme jobs, adults self-medicating with alcohol and marijuana, and careers chosen for pay over social value.