The Slavery of Wealth

i.

Speaking of the Children of Israel, this other nation within his own nation, Pharaoh tells his people:

Come, let us deal wisely with it, lest it grow mighty—and it will come to pass that a war will come upon us, and it will join forces with our enemies, and fight against us, and it will depart from the land.

This is Pharaoh’s rationale for enslaving the Children of Israel. It does not entirely make sense. On the one hand, Pharaoh is enslaving the Children of Israel as a matter of national protection: he is afraid that the Children of Israel will join forces with his enemies. That is a reasonable fear.

But at the same time, Pharaoh is afraid—terrified to the point of cruelty—that the Children of Israel will depart from the land. This is what does not make sense. There is no reason, on the surface of things, for Pharaoh to view the Children of Israel departing the land as a problem in its own right.

What is Pharaoh's fear?


ii.
Manhattan, the melting pot where I live now, is the place where the children of all the peoples of the earth can be seen holding hands and kissing in the park and walking together slow. It is a place of the union of all nations.

The other meaning of this place is money. People work late into the night and early into the morning and throughout the day. They do not see their children and they do not see their wives and they do not see their husbands. Or they put off finding a husband or finding a wife or having children for years and years because they are busy striving towards money (I am included in this sin). And we wear beautiful clothes.

Manhattan is not a spiritual place.

I think all these points are connected. As a place of wealth, Manhattan  is a place that is focused on the surface of things. As a place focused on the surface of things, it is a place where people do not ask the deeper meanings of what their nationality might be: this is the notion of a melting pot. As a place focused on the surface of things, however, Manhattan is a place where God is not noticed. Because God is invisible when you look only at the surface of things. 

iii.
Egypt is also a place of wealth, a place of plenty. Abraham and Jacob both descended to there because there was famine in the Land of Israel, but there was plenty in the land of Egypt. Lot, who had lived in Egypt for a time, looked over at Sodom in its good years and saw a place like the Garden of the Lord; like the land of Egypt: which is to say the plenty of Egypt and the plenty of Eden were alike. And notice how Joseph, whose life destiny is to become the leader of Egypt, has a life story that also revolves crucially around clothes. (This observation about the wealth of Egypt is taken mostly from an article on the Virtual Beit Midrash; I cannot recall which.)

And, as Rav Ezra Bick has pointed out, Egypt is also a place of incredible acceptance. Joseph was sold down to Egypt as a slave from a foreign land, and yet he was made leader of the whole nation there.

iv.
The Children of Israel build treasure-houses for Pharaoh in their slavery under Egypt. As they leave from Egypt, the people of Egypt hand over to them vessels of silver and vessels of gold. Treasure-houses, vessels, silver, and gold: this is a struggle around money.

*
Here is what has happened. The people of God are enmeshed within the people of wealth.

The nature of wealth, as I have said,  is a force of assimilation, a force of the melting pot. It is also a force of the rejection of a life of God in the name of a life of money.

But the people of God have a different meaning of their nationhood. And they have a different meaning of their life. They belong to God.

This is why Pharaoh subjugates them to slavery, making them build his treasure-house. Pharaoh enslaves the  people of God to money. And Pharaoh will not let them go, and is afraid that they will go, because for a nation to leave Egypt would be to deny the absolute truth of money’s all accepting, all-embracing absorption of the brotherhood of man into that treasure-house.

v.
As the Children of Israel leave, the roles are reversed. The Egyptians hand  vessels of silver and vessels of gold over to the Children of Israel. Now Egypt hands it wealth over to the people of God, on their way to serve God in the Desert.

i.

Speaking of the Children of Israel, this other nation within his own nation, Pharaoh tells his people:

Come, let us deal wisely with it, lest it grow mighty—and it will come to pass that a war will come upon us, and it will join forces with our enemies, and fight against us, and it will depart from the land.

This is Pharaoh’s rationale for enslaving the Children of Israel. It does not entirely make sense. On the one hand, Pharaoh is enslaving the Children of Israel as a matter of national protection: he is afraid that the Children of Israel will join forces with his enemies. That is a reasonable fear.

But at the same time, Pharaoh is afraid—terrified to the point of cruelty—that the Children of Israel will depart from the land. This is what does not make sense. There is no reason, on the surface of things, for Pharaoh to view the Children of Israel departing the land as a problem in its own right.

What is Pharaoh's fear?


ii.
Manhattan, the melting pot where I live now, is the place where the children of all the peoples of the earth can be seen holding hands and kissing in the park and walking together slow. It is a place of the union of all nations.

The other meaning of this place is money. People work late into the night and early into the morning and throughout the day. They do not see their children and they do not see their wives and they do not see their husbands. Or they put off finding a husband or finding a wife or having children for years and years because they are busy striving towards money (I am included in this sin). And we wear beautiful clothes.

Manhattan is not a spiritual place.

I think all these points are connected. As a place of wealth, Manhattan  is a place that is focused on the surface of things. As a place focused on the surface of things, it is a place where people do not ask the deeper meanings of what their nationality might be: this is the notion of a melting pot. As a place focused on the surface of things, however, Manhattan is a place where God is not noticed. Because God is invisible when you look only at the surface of things. 

iii.
Egypt is also a place of wealth, a place of plenty. Abraham and Jacob both descended to there because there was famine in the Land of Israel, but there was plenty in the land of Egypt. Lot, who had lived in Egypt for a time, looked over at Sodom in its good years and saw a place like the Garden of the Lord; like the land of Egypt: which is to say the plenty of Egypt and the plenty of Eden were alike. And notice how Joseph, whose life destiny is to become the leader of Egypt, has a life story that also revolves crucially around clothes. (This observation about the wealth of Egypt is taken mostly from an article on the Virtual Beit Midrash; I cannot recall which.)

And, as Rav Ezra Bick has pointed out, Egypt is also a place of incredible acceptance. Joseph was sold down to Egypt as a slave from a foreign land, and yet he was made leader of the whole nation there.

iv.
The Children of Israel build treasure-houses for Pharaoh in their slavery under Egypt. As they leave from Egypt, the people of Egypt hand over to them vessels of silver and vessels of gold. Treasure-houses, vessels, silver, and gold: this is a struggle around money.

*
Here is what has happened. The people of God are enmeshed within the people of wealth.

The nature of wealth, as I have said,  is a force of assimilation, a force of the melting pot. It is also a force of the rejection of a life of God in the name of a life of money.

But the people of God have a different meaning of their nationhood. And they have a different meaning of their life. They belong to God.

This is why Pharaoh subjugates them to slavery, making them build his treasure-house. Pharaoh enslaves the  people of God to money. And Pharaoh will not let them go, and is afraid that they will go, because for a nation to leave Egypt would be to deny the absolute truth of money’s all accepting, all-embracing absorption of the brotherhood of man into that treasure-house.

v.
As the Children of Israel leave, the roles are reversed. The Egyptians hand  vessels of silver and vessels of gold over to the Children of Israel. Now Egypt hands it wealth over to the people of God, on their way to serve God in the Desert.