The Concept of Economy in Judaism

1 The Meaning of Wealth in the Bible

1.1 Covenanting in the Wilderness

Wealth, like life itself, is a sacred gift from God. Ideally, it is to be maintained, equitably shared, and, in turn, handed off to the next generation. Its annual fruits, born only through caring cultivation and the “sweat of your brow” (Genesis 3:19), are to be fully savored and enjoyed, shared, and celebrated, especially among family and community during Sabbath and communal holy days. Wealth is a this-worldly, tangible gift, given by God with the sole purpose of enhancing everyday human experiences. It is a wonderful gift lovingly received in the context of several covenants between God and Israel, most significant of which is the brit or covenant at Sinai (“we will do and will listen” Exodus 24:7). The brit defines the meaning, responsibilities, and appropriate uses of wealth.

Wealth, as a gift of God, is a central and compelling value in the Mosaic social vision. Wealth satisfies human needs, but it also elevates human dignity and provides the connective tissue of the Israelite community. Wealth, here, is not imagined as part of a utopian society, Eden on earth did not work, but it is promised as an important element toward building a meaningful and sustainable society.

While wealth is a central value, it is just one component in a set of equally compelling Torah values. These include freedom (from slavery), loyalty to the covenant, obedience to the law, peace, justice, mercy, charity, kindness, humility, the Israelite people as a whole, tribe, family, memory, love of God, love of the neighbor, and even love of the stranger. And, it is the singular and paramount value of ḳedushah or holiness that weaves together these values into the tapestry of an imagined holy people working, living, and worshipping peacefully in a holy land, in perpetuity. “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:15). Such a society is to serve as a post-Edenic wholistic model for other nations to emulate, “a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 49:6), a just society that has no knowledge or need of separate economic or, even, political spheres.

In the ḥumash (Five Books of Moses), human actions related to the acquisition and use of wealth gain exclusive meaning only through the sacred lenses of its many mitsṿot (commandments) and narratives. To speak of a domain of economic activity and wealth, with its ubiquitous focus on creating ever more efficiencies, faster growth, and more profits, as a separate and stand-alone realm of human behavior, with its own purposes and its own inner logic, distinct from sacred matters, is wholly anachronistic. Ideally every “economic” activity is defined through and gains its meaning exclusively through the shared brit or covenant between God and Israel at Sinai. The prohibition on usury among Israelites and the cancellation of debt every seventh year provide good examples of sacred thinking trumping self-interested economic rationality. Another example from Exodus concerning non-economic thinking permeating human exchanges, is the requirement of a lender to return a borrower’s pledge before the sun sets. “It is his only clothing, sole covering for his skin. In what else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate” (Exodus 22:26). From the perspective of a modern economist, returning the borrower’s pledge daily, is not likely to be the most “efficient” way to ensure repayment on the loan and to the maximize the lender’s wealth.

Just as every word and every letter of the Written Torah are considered holy and bursting with many levels of sacred meaning, so, too, every human action is fraught with meaning. According to the Talmudic rabbis not only are the words and letters of the Torah considered holy, but even the spaces and crowns on the letters, contain “heaps and heaps” of meaning. This being the case, it is all the more true that human actions, when properly interpreted, potentially form an integrated mosaic of sacred meaning. Human beings can never fully instantiate God’s call to ḳedushah or holiness, but the call itself is permanent.

1.2 What Are the Characteristics of Wealth According to the Covenant?

Examining both the specific mitsṿot and narratives included in the Pentateuch several normative propositions concerning wealth can be derived.

Wealth is constituted mainly by land and, secondarily, by cattle, but also includes water, precious metals like gold and silver, and other booty conquered in God-sanctioned wars, including slaves, women, and children. Wealth is held in perpetuity by the Israelite nation, by individual tribes, and by families within those tribes, but not ‘owned’ in the contemporary sense of the word. The laws of inheritance are fixed.

Wealth, within the context of the covenant, carries a wholly positive valence, as can be seen by God’s promise to lead the people to a land flowing with milk and honey. Thus, wealth is perceived as nurturing and sweet. Kohelet is certainly correct when he notes that “There is an evil I have observed under the sun…that God sometimes grants a man riches, property, and wealth, so that he does not want for anything his appetite may crave, but God does not permit him to enjoy it” (6:1 – 2). Further, wealth, and more specifically the land of Israel, not only carries a positive valence, but it is a sacred concept. The land is holy.

Wealth is finite. Its boundaries are permanently defined. Even though wealth is a gift from God it requires human effort to produce its annual return. This is born out in the narrative of the spies, when the Israelites refuse to enter the promised land after receiving their negative report, God punishes the entire generation and vows that not one of them will enter the holy land, with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb.

Land cannot be sold in perpetuity. Land is returned to its original families during the Jubilee year, occurring once in 50 years. Debts are canceled once in every seven years, during the Sabbatical year and the land must lie fallow. Hebrew slaves are emancipated on the seventh year. Usury is prohibited among Israelites.

Israelites are commanded to guard and to remember the Sabbath and to cease working the land once every seven days, just as God rested on the seventh day, as a reminder and as a celebration that God is the sole creator of the world and redeemer of Israel. The ancient Rabbis taught, “Sanctify the Sabbath by choice meals, by beautiful garments; delight your soul with pleasure and I will reward you for this very pleasure”.1

Israel is entitled to enjoy its wealth only within the context of the covenant. Dire consequences will result if Israel does not live up to its covenantal responsibilities.

Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For the Lord’s anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is assigning you2

These responsibilities include numerous rituals and sacrifices, but also include many social responsibilities including several provisions designed specifically to protect the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers. Among these laws include the laws of pe’ah and gleanings. Leviticus 19:9 – 10 states as follows:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not complete your reaping to the corner of your field, and the gleanings of your harvest you shall not take. You shall not pick the undeveloped twigs of your vineyard; and the fallen fruit of your vineyard you shall not gather; for the poor and the stranger shall you leave them – I am Hashem, your God.3 (emphasis added)

Wealth is a positive value and even holy, but greed for more wealth is not good. The narrative of the Israelites requesting meat to satisfy their hunger in the dessert with its negative consequences, “you shall [eat the quail] until it comes out of your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you,” is a permanent reminder that human desires may be infinite but human needs are finite.

With the aid of 20 – 20 hindsight we look back on the Pentateuch’s aspirations, knowing that the covenant, as described above, seemingly violates many of our own contemporary and hard-won notions of morality, seems to neglect certain realities and regularities of human behavior, and thus raises many difficult questions, especially for those advocating a naïve and unproblematic return to the literal Biblical worldview. Several specific issues are worth identifying explicitly.

Slavery, under certain circumstances, is treated as a legitimate form of wealth. Women, taken captive in war, are treated like a form of property for the benefit of the male Israelites. God commands Israel to...