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Ep 61Answering Age-Old Money Questions with Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz
1:20

Torah & Jewish outlook · 1:20

At the end of your life, you won't wish you made another deal

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

Ep 61Nov 27, 2023

Answering Age-Old Money Questions with Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz

with Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

Do I own my possessions or do my possessions own me?

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

More moments · 5

1:16
A 90-second fax to China, Pepsi points, and who owns whom
1:05
Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky: if you cheat some people, you'll cheat everyone
1:00
Chazal exempted workers from saying a bracha so they wouldn't steal 10 seconds
1:09
Why don't we crave idolatry anymore? It was replaced by money
1:19
Why the man-to-man commandments were engraved larger on the Luchos

Try this · top 3

Quotes

“At the end of a person's life, he's not going to say, I wish I made another deal ... A person's going to say, why didn't I spend more time with my wife? Why wasn't I kinder to my children?”

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

“In many ways ... the challenge of wealth is even greater than the challenge of poverty.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

“The whole theory of advertising is to ... create the want and then elevate the want to a need.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

“If you believe your [parnassah] comes from God, then how can you possibly think you're going to come out ahead in the long term ... by violating God's laws?”

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

“Money is a means and not an end.”

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

Takeaways

  1. 1 Money is neutral in Torah - neither evil nor the goal. "With all your me'od" means with all your money: using it rightly is a daily, lifelong test.
  2. 2 Work is dignified. Chazal say work brings honor to the one who does it, and honest work is a kiddush Hashem.
  3. 3 Wealth and poverty are both tests. Wealthy parents need to teach that prosperity brings responsibility.
  4. 4 Advertising turns wants into needs, and needs into compulsions. Ask whether you own your things or they own you.
  5. 5 Teach delayed gratification. Instant-gratification culture hurts focus, Torah learning and marriages.
  6. 6 Things that bring calm (cleaning help, a pleasant home) can count as needs - Hashem doesn't want nervous wrecks. Avoid both hedonism and asceticism.
  7. 7 The common trait of wealthy Torah role models (Avraham, Yaakov, Yosef) is careful honesty with other people's property. The first question in heaven is "did you deal honestly?"
  8. 8 No double standards. Dishonesty toward some people poisons your honesty toward all.
  9. 9 Money has replaced idolatry as the big pull. Even seconds of an employer's time count - workers were exempt from a bracha to save them.
  10. 10 Ask why you work and what your life is for. If you have enough for your family and for giving, the push to always earn more isn't a Torah value.

Full episode

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