The Way of Judaism
Your people shall be volunteers
in the Day of Your Power
(Tanach, Psalm 110:3)
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is emptiness.
When goods increase, they increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
except to see them with their eyes?
(Tanach, Ecclesiastes 5:10-11)
There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing;
And one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
(Tanach, Proverbs 13:7)
"I have made the earth,
And create Adam on it.
I—My hands—stretch out the heavens,
And all their host I have commanded.
I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will direct all his ways;
He shall build My city And let My exiles go free,
Not for price nor reward,"
Says HaShem of hosts.
Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
For thus says HaShem: "You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed without money."
You shall not covet
(Torah, Exodus 20:17)
Vengeance and repayment are Mine.
Be not like the servants
who minister to their master
upon condition of receiving a reward;
but be like servants
who minister to their master
without the condition of receiving a reward;
and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.
Hear this, all peoples;
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
Both low and high, Rich and poor together. . . .
Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,
men who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom himself,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of his life is costly,
and can never suffice,
that he should continue to live on for ever,
and never see the Death.
For he shall see that even the wise die;
Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever,
Their dwelling places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names.
Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain;
He is like the animals that perish.
This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who approve their words.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave,
far from their dwelling. . . .
Do not be afraid when one becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dies he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.
Though while he lives he blesses himself
(For people will praise you when you do well for yourself),
He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never see light.
A man who is in honor, yet does not understand,
Is like the animals that perish.
(Tanach, Psalm 49:1-20)
Even a poor man who himself subsists on charity
should give charity.
Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice and pervert all equity,
Who build up Zion with bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
Her heads judge for a bribe,
Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on HaShem, and say,
"Is not HaShem among us? No harm can come upon us."
Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.
(Tanach, Micah 3:9-12)
He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like foliage.
(Tanach , Proverbs 11:28)
A man with an evil eye hastens after riches
and does not consider that poverty will come upon him.
Wail, you inhabitants of the market district!
For all the merchant people are cut down;
All those who handle money are cut off.
(Tanach, Zepheniah 1:11)
And there is no merchant any more
in the Temple of the HaShem of Hosts in that Day!
(Tanach, Zechariah 14:21)
Receive My instruction, and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choice gold;
For Wisdom [Hakmah] is better than rubies,
And all the things one may desire cannot be compared to Her.
(Tanach, Proverbs 8:10-11)
Do not forsake Wisdom [Hakmah], and She will preserve you;
Love Her, and She will keep you.
Wisdom is the principal thing;
Therefore get Wisdom.
And in all your getting, get understanding.
Exalt Her, and She will promote you;
She will bring you honor, when you embrace Her.
She will place on your head an ornament of grace;
A crown of glory She will deliver to you.
(Tanach , Proverbs 4:6-9)
Incline my heart to your testimonies
And not to greed.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,
And revive me in your way.
(Tanach, Psalm 119:36-37)
I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
They will throw their silver into the streets,
And their gold will be like refuse;
their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them...
They will not satisfy their souls,
nor fill their stomachs...
(Tanach, Ezekiel 7:19)
As a cage is full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have become great and grown rich.
They have grown fat, they are sleek;
Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan;
Yet they prosper,
And the right of the needy they do not defend.
(Tanach, Jeremiah 5:27-28)
"Even the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But My people do not know the justice of HaShem.
....Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to greed;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.
[The Prophets Jeremiah and Hosea observed that environmental destruction goes hand-in-hand with greed. Notice how, in Hosea, as in all the Tanach, greed is synonymous with prostitution (working for money, not love) and adultery (not being content with who or what you have, but lusting after another) and idolatry (serving the symbol, the image, rather than Reality)]:
I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation,
Because they are burned up,
So that no one can pass through;
Nor can people hear the voice of the herds.
Both the birds of the heavens and the animals have fled;
They are extinct. . . .
Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness,
so that no one can pass through? . . . .
...And HaShem said,
"Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them.
How long will the Earth mourn,
and the herbs of every field wither?
The animals and birds are extinct,
For the wickedness of those who dwell there,
Because they said,
He will not see our final end.
Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your greed,
for shedding innocent blood,
and practicing oppression and violence.
Hear the word of HaShem, You children of Israel,
For HaShem brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:
"There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of HaShem in the land.
By swearing and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery,
They break all restraint,
With bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Therefore the Earth will mourn;
And everyone who dwells there will waste away
With the beasts of the field
And the birds of the air;
Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. ...
My people ask counsel from their images,
And their staff informs them.
For the spirit of prostitution has caused them to stray,
And they have played the prostitute against HaShem.
For in-depth Hebrew theology in the Tanach (Old Testament) about money & banking, see also
The Seven-Headed Dragon: World Commerce
and
Is Banking Criminal? What the World's Ancient Philosophers & Religions Say
Moses' & Elijah's hangout, the cave on Jabal al Lawz
near ancient Midian in today's Saudi Arabia
(likely the true Mt Sinai/Horeb)
The Israelites Gathering Manna
Ercole de' Roberte (probably 1490s)
According to Torah (Exodus 16),
Manna was Food for Today Only,
not to be stored for tomorrow.
Okay, this was just too funny;
I just had to add these next two pics with the scripture from Jeremiah.
When I was at my cave dwelling in the area of Moab, Utah,
I randomly opened up the Bible to the book of Jeremiah
and I randomly put my finger on the verse below.
It made me laugh.
"You who dwell in Moab,
Leave the cities and dwell in the rock,
And be like the dove making her nest
In the sides of the cave's mouth."
(Jeremiah 48:28)
Above, Caves in Petra, in the terrain of ancient Moab, Jordon -
that's right - the Moab neighboring Israel.
Below, the terrain of Moab, Utah, USA.
Coincidence?? Divine Comedy, I say, Divine Comedy