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איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו
Who is rich? The one who rejoices with what he has .
MORE TO HAVE, OR LESS TO NEED?
Wealth is not measured by what one has, but by what one needs. The rich man is not the one who has more — he is the one who needs less.
No matter how much I have, the moment I feel that something is missing, the moment I mentally feel that I need more, I am a poor person. The depth of my poverty is determined by the gap between what I have and what I believe I need. If I have ten — ten dollars or ten million — but I want twenty, then according to Pirkei Avot, I am a poor person.
Our Sages explained that poverty is essentially a state of mind — en aniyut ela mida’at — the belief and feeling that I do not have everything I need. True wealth, on the other hand, is about learning to value and enjoy what I have, and feeling that nothing is missing.
WEALTH AND FRACTIONS
Wholeness — 10/10, or 2/2 — does not mean having everything I want. It means wanting everything I have.
Let me explain with numbers. Remember fractions? The numerator — the number on top — and the denominator — the number on the bottom? In our case, the numerator is “what I have,” and the denominator is “what I want to have.” Most people spend their lives trying to increase their numerator to match their denominator, and success is supposed to mean reaching 10/10.
But very often, just when you reach that denominator, it goes up again. And so some people live in a permanent state of mental poverty.
THE NEIGHBOR’S GRASS
The denominator can shift for many reasons. Imagine I worked for years to buy a car. I have a 2022 model that runs perfectly. My sense of wholeness is complete: 10/10.
Then one day I see that my neighbor just bought a beautiful 2023 model. Suddenly my denominator rises — from 10 to 12, or to 15 — without anything in my actual reality having changed. Only my perception of it shifted. Now I feel like I have less. It bothers me. I convince myself I will not be truly happy until I have that car. I have allowed a desire to become, in my mind, a new necessity — one that, if left unsatisfied, will make me feel incomplete, unhappy, poor.
THE KEY: CONTROL YOUR DENOMINATOR
According to Pirkei Avot, if I want to be rich, I need to be in full control of my denominator — the number on the bottom. That means learning to appreciate and love what I have, and feeling that I already possess everything I truly need.
True wealth is not a number in the bank. It is a decision — the decision not to let the denominator rise just because the neighbor’s grass looks greener.
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