It is impossible and even inadvisable not to think about money when one lacks the essentials—food, warmth, shelter from the rain, or access to medicine.
But what happens when a person already has enough to cover his or her basic needs and still can’t stop thinking about money—because they want more?
Most people reading these lines on their computers or phones live in a historically privileged society, as described in Superabundance—a book I consider required reading to appreciate that we live in an incredibly generous reality.
In times of superabundance, our relationship with material things can become complicated. If we suffer from the syndrome of King Achashverosh, we’ll find it impossible to feel satisfied, even when nothing is lacking. Whether consciously or not, having more—and showing that we have more than our neighbor—becomes normalized as a need.
We’ve grown so used to this accumulation mentality that it has become part of our lifestyle. And even when we wish to disconnect mentally from work and money, we often find ourselves unable to do so.
Our Parasha, Vayaqhel, addresses this issue subtly yet unmistakably. The verse introducing Shabbat resembles the one from the Ten Commandments: “For six days you shall work…” (ta’ase melakha).
But our Parasha introduces a subtle yet beautiful difference: by modifying just a vowel, the text shifts into the passive voice: “For six days, work shall be done” (te’ase melakha)—as if to say, it is done, finished, completed, there is nothing else for you to do. When you enter Shabbat mode, you must assume and feel your work has been taken care of—and you must stop thinking about it.
Abstaining from financial worry is one of the most elevated forms of spirituality: the ability to focus on what transcends this world and outlives earthly life. As Borges writes in Seven Nights, after our 120 years in this world, one of the most painful experiences in the Olam HaBa will be longing for material needs. That is why we need to train ourselves to mentally disconnect from work and money, at least during Shabbat—which is me’en Olam HaBa, a sample of the World to Come.
