Money'm Jewish Thought STEPHEN D. FRANKLIN

J, EWS have often been accused of coveting and displaying wealth. Anti-semites on the popular level have often criticized and indeed condemned Jews for the accumulation of wealth and the display of riches. On the scholarly level the lack of a fixed ascetic tradition in mainstream Judaism has been used as "proof by some 19th century European academics that Judaism is somehow inferior to Christianity. These mean-spirited attitudes towards Jewish wealth are, like most prejudices, rooted in ignorance, in half-truths, in stereotyping and in a triumphalism of one group's values over those of another group.

Historical facts are often ignored by bigots. It should be noted that Jews from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Twentieth Century often restricted ostentation through their own "sumptuary laws" which went so far as to regulate how many guests could be invited to a party and to restrict the wearing of expensive clothes.

The accumulation of wealth was deemed evil by rabbinic authorities if it did not include a propor­tional measure of charity and a likewise propor­tional paying for the support of communal institut­ions. It should be remembered that Christians who practice tithing of 10% of wealth are following a command of the Hebrew Scriptures, which was enlarged by rabbinic Judaism's teaching that charity

should be given to the point of, not beyond, pain. In fact, that potpourri of rabbinic wisdom, "The

Sayings (Chapters) of the Fathers," declares that the purpose of the tithes is to keep riches from accumulat­ing to excess. (A both 3:14).

Competing values must be judged on a consider­ation of merit, not by loyalty to one's own theological system. To impoverish oneself by giving wealth away - giving beyond the point of pain - was considered by Jewish teachers to be both wrong and foolish. The same teaching in "The Sayings of the Fathers," attributed to Rabbi Akiba, which sees the restriction on riches as a crucial curb, also deems extreme abstinence as a tendency which must be curbed.

The very learning of God's Word is seen to be difficult, if not impossible, in the midst of poverty. Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, a contemporary of the Apostle Paul - whose words are often used to justify Christian asceticism - is quoted in "The Wisdom of the Fathers" as saying, "If there is no flour, there is no learning of Torah." The word "flour," like the word "bread" in today's slang parlance, clearly means "money." Money is not bad: it has the power to perform much goodness if used wisely.

Stephen D. Franklin is rabbi ofRiverdale Temple, River dale, Ν. Y.

Sin City (continued from page 16)

The play, Inherit the Wind, is making a comeback on Broadway. One of the characters in the drama tells that when he was a little boy he saw a rocking horse in a store window. It was the most beautiful rocking horse he had ever seen. It was gold and silver with large purple spots. He wanted that rock­ing horse for Christmas. But his parents were poor and he knew it was never to be. But on Christmas morning - Santa had brought him the rocking horse in the window. His parents had sacrificed to get their boy his dream horse. The boy jumped on the horse and began to rock.

A terrible thing happened — the rocking horse broke. The horse broke half in two. Looking back, he says, whenever you see something bright-shining, all gold with purple spots, look behind the paint. And if it's a lie, show it up for what it is.

Once upon a time my father tried to ride such a horse and it broke and broke his heart as well. I want more for our citizens than a horse that will bring only pain and disappointment to their lives.

Roger Lovette is pastor of the Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham, Ala.

THE LIVING PULPIT # 1 7

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