Jewish Teachings About The Right Use Of Money

Jewish Teachings About The Right Use Of Money

The major religions of the world all teach that God is good and he

therefore wants every human being to lead a good, happy life. They

also teach that their followers should try and make the world a better

place for everyone to live in. Despite this, however, there still

exists a major difference in the quality of lives throughout the

world. There are poor, very underprivileged people in the world, while

there are very wealthy people, living comfortable and extravagant

lives. In Judaism, it is taught that humans do not own wealth; they

are just purely minders of wealth. They believe that wealth is a

blessing from God, and striving after in and believing that it is

yours alone is wrong. This is why in Judaism, it is obligatory by

their religion to use money to help those who are poorer and less

privileged than them. This is irrespective of how much or how little

they own or earn. There is no choice about whether or not to give

money. In Hebrew, this is called Tzedakah. Translated to English, this

more or less means 'doing righteous acts'. All Jews have to give

money, goods or time into making the world a better place for

everyone, and to help resolve the problem of human suffering. Tzedakah

can be given by an individual, a family or as a community. To begin

with, it was like a kind of tax, and was usually set at 10% of the

income, and a maximum amount was set at 20%. However, giving even a

small amount was acceptable, and it still is.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the

way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your

harvest. You shall no...

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... to support and feed. In these kinds of cases, they

may be forced into going into something like prostitution or drug

selling. It is very hard for people who have not been in such a

position to understand the pressure on some people, but I still

believe it is wrong.

I definitely disagree with this statement. I believe that money should

be earned fairly and honestly, and without causing harm in any way to

any other people around us. There are many sinful and morally wrong

jobs in the world, but there are also more than enough honest and

clean jobs where people can earn their money. In very extreme cases of

pressure and the need to earn money, there are many charities which

are there to help people in these kinds of situations. Nobody should

be exploited, cheated, morally or physically harmed by anybody else's

job.