NY Loves Money

Decades ago, while visiting Los Angeles and liking it, I phoned a NY rabbi and asked his advice on whether I could move to LA. He said, "In life you have to stay away from tuma and LA is tuma par excellence."

To my credit, I thought immediately, and NY doesn't have tuma? To my discredit, I obeyed his directive and returned to NY where I was miserable. I would have done much better in LA.

So what's the tuma in New York? For starters, it's the obsession with money. They don't stop talking about money. I once attended a funeral for a non-religious Jewish man where the hesped was given by an Orthodox rabbi. The rabbi said, "He wasn't rich but he knew every stock on the New York stock exchange." That was the praise.

NY Jews in particular, and worse, NY Jewish rabbis never stop talking about money. I know one who mentioned Bill Gates every time I met with him. Those were the days when Gates was the world's richest man. I would say that he mentioned Gates 50x for every time he mentioned a talmid chocham. Maybe it was 100x.

I had a consulting job working for New York City. I was pretty thrilled to be out of corporate America and always wanted to work in government, which to me is much more interesting and worthwhile. A friend's father, a NYer, asked me what I was doing these days. I told him. He said, "You aren't going to get rich that way."

A friend told me he was at a Simchas Torah celebration at a yeshiva in New York where someone asked the shiur rebbe, "What's the best kind of talmid?" Said the rebbe, "One with a six figure income."

This is NY talk, not even in the yeshiva world but especially there.

Here's another example. The person talking here is somebody who has good things to say. I like him. He's talking here about belief in G-d, which is a great topic. But because he's from New York, he can't help himself but talk about millionaire's and money, money. Examples:

A "life goal" is one that brings you to a heightened state of being. For example, a businessman's goal is to be rich. Trading stocks or investing in real estate is the means to help accomplish that goal.

The U.S. Defense Department spends millions of dollars each year to send broadcast signals to distant stars, on the chance there's life out there. It may take 2,000 years for the signals to get there, but they're still listening 'round the clock.

If your parent gives you a dollar, you're actually diminishing his net worth – even if he's a multi-millionaire. But if the Almighty gives you a billion dollars, it does not diminish His net worth. God has all the power. He created this universe from nothing. He can make you a genius. He can heal your child. He can do anything.

Everything God does for you is a gift. And whatever you want from God is nothing compared to what He's already given you. If you're asking for a billion dollars, it's nothing compared to a pair of eyes that He gave you for free. 

If you heard about a business opportunity that would bring you millions, is there any limit to how far you'd go to make it work? If I said I'd give you a million dollars if you'll memorize one page of the phone book by next week, could you do it? 

The Chofetz Chaim (20th century Poland) says: If you're going out to raise money, the amount you ask from people depends on their status. If you're speaking to a newspaper vendor, you're not going to ask him for $500; the guy is struggling. But if you ask for a penny, you'll insult him. So you ask for $50. He'll argue a bit, and if he gives you $20, you did okay.

Ask the successful businessman for $5 and you're insulting him. Ask him for a million dollars and he says you're crazy. So you ask for $5,000, you have an argument, you come out with $500, and you've done well.

Now you come to the billionaire. (If he gives you an appointment!) If you ask for $500, you're wasting his time. So you ask for $5 million, you argue back and forth, he gives you $500,000, and you've done well. 

That's six refences to business and wealth and millions and billions in one short article.

Another person talking about this man, praising him, talked about the school that his wife started. He said she hired "the best women teachers in Yerushalyim, everyone an expert in what whatever they were teaching and that costs money you know." (doubtful that they were experts) .As soon as I heard the word "money" I thought, he must be from New York. Sure enough, "Raised in Borough Park, Brooklyn." I have nothing against this person. I have heard good things about him. So all the more so we see that NYers are obsessed with money, even the good ones!

Of course, all of this amounts to pressure on the man and dissatisfaction by his wife.

So when you become frum and move to New York or deal with NY rabbis you can get a warped picture of Judaism. No, Judaism isn't obsessed with money. The money worship is something we got from WASPs and other ruling class gentiles. In the shtetl they didn't talk about getting rich as least not as far as I can tell. How could they? They lived in poverty.

Ignore the money talk. Even good people do it, so you learn to subtract out that part and take the good they offer.