The Wealth of the Avos
Q: Is wealth an ideal? If not, why were the Avos wealthy?
“וַה׳ בֵּרַךְ אֶת־אַבְרָהָם בַּכֹּל — Avraham was blessed with everything” (Bereishis 24:1). It is a remarkable aspect of this great man’s history that he was always wealthy. When he came to Eretz Canaan at the command of Hashem, he already had an entourage: “וְאֶת־הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן — And the souls they made in Charan” (Bereishis 12:5). He had achieved a following; people came with him, servants and admirers. Then he came to Mitzrayim and quickly left. Soon after the episode when Pharaoh sought to take Sarah, it says, “וְאַבְרָם כָּבֵד מְאֹד — Avraham was heavy with wealth” (Bereishis 13:2). He became a very rich man. And later, his wealth increased even more.
We see that it was Hashem’s plan for the father of the Jewish nation to spend his life in affluence. It is not an accident, and it is not merely to make it sound better or make him appear better to us, because to the Jewish people, the ideal eved Hashem is willing to forgo all the luxuries of life, even fame, to serve Hashem silently, anonymously, and in poverty, too.
We had great men who succeeded in becoming great avdei Hashem in the midst of poverty. We need no better illustration than Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya. He was the Av Beis Din, a great sage, and he was poor all his life. He toiled in his little hut, making needles over a charcoal fire. When Rabban Gamliel came to visit Rabbi Yehoshua, he was amazed at the depth of the poverty. He said, “From the walls of your house, I see that you are a man who works with charcoal” (Berachos 28a). There was soot on the walls. Probably, it was a little one-room place, and in that one room he worked and he slept. So, all his life, he endured poverty — and yet he became great. He became tremendously great. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya is everywhere in the Mishnah and the Gemara. He is one of the great teachers of our people. He stands out on the horizon of our history like a great sun that never set. To this day, he shines from the pages of the Talmud. We live by many of his statements.
He was the chief spokesman of Beis Hillel after the Churban Beis Hamikdash. When you speak about Beis Hillel after the Churban, it means Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya. Behind him stood millionaires, but he took nothing from anyone. Instead, he lived in poverty and became a great man.
Therefore, to us, wealth is not an ideal. So we must understand that if the first father of our nation was extremely wealthy all his life, there was a purpose that Hashem had in doing so.
And the answer can be found at the beginning of Hilchos Avodah Zarah, in the Yad Hachazakah, where the Rambam describes the career of Avraham Avinu. It was the career of a philosopher — a man who spent his life in thinking. Avraham studied the world, and from nature, from history, from the world of reality, he learned all that could be learned from the Torah.
Avraham was able to discern from observation the darkei Hashem. He was able to fulfill the Torah even before the Torah was given (Yoma 28b) because he studied the ways of Hashem in the world. Now, that’s worth investigating — to follow in the footsteps of our first father and discover some of the things that he saw in nature and how he arrived at certain conclusions — but that’s a separate subject.
With this knowledge, we understand that Avraham spoke and taught wherever he went. “וַיִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם ה׳ — He proclaimed in the name of Hashem” (Bereishis 12:8, 13:4, 21:33). Avraham was constantly talking, constantly explaining. And in the course of Avraham’s lectures to the world, he himself became even greater. Like the Gemara says, by teaching others, the teacher himself gains the most. וּמִתַּלְמִידַי יוֹתֵר מִכֻּלָּם — One becomes very great by teaching (Taanis 7a).
Wherever he went, he argued with people who were not convinced. He had to bring examples, proofs from nature, from history. Gradually, he built up a great system, a great edifice of reason — and that system is actually a parallel to the Torah. If we could have had Avraham’s system today, we would see that it’s a parallel to the Torah. Of course, there are certain things that required Matan Torah, but in general, there’s no question that our great forefather used his mind all the days of his life to ponder, reflect, contemplate, and think. That was his career.
Now, at the same time, he was a businessman — but he didn’t have to handle it himself. He managed his business through a multitude of servants. Avraham was able to spend his nights in meditation and his days sitting at the door of his tent, speaking to his guests and lecturing to crowds of people. He built a mizbei’ach here, a mizbei’ach there, and gathered people. He held public lectures and spoke about all the great truths of the world.
That was Avraham’s life.
Yitzchak followed in his father’s footsteps. When Rivka was coming from Padan Aram to marry Yitzchak, she saw a man walking in a field: “וַיֵּצֵא יִצְחָק לָשׂוּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶה” (Bereishis 24:63). A mysterious pasuk. “Yitzchak went out to speak in the field.” You might think he went out to spend a little time with his friends, talking over things, chatting. Oh, no. Yitzchak didn’t chat. Yitzchak was “talking” in the field — whether he was talking to himself, talking to Hashem, or talking to his talmidim, when he was talking, it was with purpose.
From that, Chazal derive that he was the one who instituted tefillas Mincha. But not only Mincha. He didn’t go out merely to daven Mincha — he went out into the fields and spoke every day. That was his practice. He meditated, and he spoke in the fields — but he didn’t have to work. Yitzchak was even wealthier than his father Avraham. Whatever Avraham had when he passed away, “וַיִּתֵּן אַבְרָהָם אֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ לְיִצְחָק — He gave everything to Yitzchak” (Bereishis 25:5). Yitzchak increased the property. We know that when he went into agriculture, “וַיִּמְצָא בַּשָּׁנָה הַהִוא מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים — That year, he found a hundred times” as much as others did in their crops (Bereishis 26:12). He was extraordinarily successful. He became much wealthier than his father, and that’s saying a lot. It’s a remarkable story. And you can be sure that they didn’t do menial work. They had servants. They had people who were willing to do things for them.
Wealth is what enabled Yitzchak to spend his life in meditation and speaking. וַיִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם ה׳ — he continued his father’s system. He became very great through the opportunities that wealth afforded him.
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Q: Why should we desire wealth?
Wealth means opportunity. As the Gemara says, “אַרְבָּעָה חֲשׁוּבִין מֵת: עָנִי — Four types of people are considered like a dead man: a pauper …” (Nedarim 64b). A poor man is enslaved. He has to toil by the sweat of his brow to earn his bread. He comes home dead tired at night and falls into bed from sheer exhaustion. He doesn’t have the ko’ach to think about deeper matters.
But men who are blessed with wealth have leisure. Americans say, “Time is money.” Well, we say, “Money is time.” Money means time. A wealthy person has time and can make use of it. And that’s what Avraham and Yitzchak did. They spent their lives thinking, meditating, discussing. Therefore, Hashem blessed them with the opportunity to continue that way all the days of their lives.
As it states: “כָּל הַמְקַבֵּל עָלָיו עֹל תּוֹרָה, מַעֲבִירִין מִמֶּנּוּ עֹל מַלְכוּת וְעֹל דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ — If a man accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah, then from Shamayim, they relieve him of the yoke of the government” (Avos 3:5). He won’t have to serve the government or pay excessive taxes. And they relieve him of the yoke of making a living.
A man who wants to learn Torah will find, as life goes on, that more and more leisure is afforded to him to learn Torah. And therefore, as Avraham and Yitzchak’s lives progressed, they became wealthier and wealthier. They had even more time than before.
From Rav Avigdor Miller on Money by Yaakov Astor.
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