איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו
Who is wealthy? The one who enjoys his wealth.
Abot, Chapter 4
HAVING MORE OR NEEDING LESS?
Wealth is not measured by what one has but by what one needs. The rich person is not the one who has more but the one who needs less. Regardless of how much I have, when I feel that I need more, I am a poor person… My poverty level is determined by the difference between what I have and what I feel I need to have. If I have 10 (ten dollars or ten million dollars), but I desire to have 20, according to Pirque Abot, I am poor! Our rabbis explained that poverty is essentially a mental state (en aniyut ela mida’at) that consists of believing and feeling that I don’t have everything I need. In order to be materially wealthy, all you need is to value and enjoy what you have and feel that you lack nothing.
WEALTH AND FRACTIONS
A sense of fulfillment, that is, feeling 10/10 or 2/2, does not consist of having everything I want, but enjoying everything I have. Let me explain it with numbers. Do you remember fractions? The numerator is the number on top, and the denominator is the one on the bottom. In our case, the numerator is “what I have,” and the denominator is “what I desire to have.” Normally, people try to increase their numerator to reach the denominator. And success is supposed to be achieved when reaching 10/10. But many times, when one reaches the denominator, the denominator rises again! And consequently, some people live in a constant state of mental “poverty.”
THE GRASS OF THE NEIGHBOR
The denominator can change for many reasons. Let’s imagine that I worked for several years to buy a car. I have a 2022 model car that works perfectly. My level of fulfillment is a total: 10/10! Perfectly fine. But one day, I saw that my neighbor or friend bought a beautiful 2023 model car. And suddenly, my denominator rises, expands, from 10 to 12 or 15… without anything — except the perception of my own reality! — changing. But now I feel I have less. And it affects me. And I will convince myself that I am not, and will not be, happy enough until I have that car… I have allowed the desire to have that car to transform in my mind into a new material need that, if I cannot satisfy, will make me feel incomplete, unhappy, and poor…
According to Pirque Abot, if I want to be rich, I have to be in total control of my denominator: the number below. By learning to appreciate and love what I have, I feel I possess everything I need.
