Our Gemara on Amud Aleph makes a number of suggestions regarding money management from a practical and metaphysical point of view.

Rabbi Yitschok advises a person to keep a certain amount of money liquid, presumably, so that he can respond quickly to investment opportunities. He also states that financial blessing is found on matters that are hidden from the eye. Similarly, Rabbi Yishmael says that financial blessings are only found when “the eye has no dominion over it”.

There are different explanations offered for why this is so, ranging from this prevents the evil eye, as well as allowing God to miraculously intervene without it appearing as an open miracle. Another possibility is that by not counting and measuring, it shows greater faith in God, similar to the idea that the Manna was meant to be taken on a day by day basis (Shemos 16:4.)

There are some interesting features and ideas latent within this text. Ben Yehoyada notices a discrepancy between Rabbi Yitschok’s and Rabbi Yishmael’s terminology.  Rabbi Yitschok says, “hidden from the eye”, while Rabbi Yishmael says, “the eye has no dominion over it.” Ben Yehoyada says that Rabbi Yishmael has a stronger standard than Rabbi Yitschok. For Rabbi Yitschok it needs to be merely out of sight, that is just covered.  If you see a bulging wallet, you know there is money there, but you just do not see it. But Rabbi Yishmael requires the eye to have no awareness of its existence.

This is notable, as elsewhere we find Rabbi Yitschok stating the famous principle of “a person is prone to feel his money pouch constantly”, which Gemara Bava Metzia (21b) uses to justify why we can assume found money is already ownerless, as the person already noticed he lost it and gave up.  Also of note, Rabbi Yishael famously argues against Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Berachos (35b), stating that though one must always learn Torah, it cannot be in contravention to the normal way of the world. That is, one must first do what it takes to earn a living.  

This is the fascinating and paradoxical way that Torah values often work. It is not so much an issue of black and white, but rather competing and balancing tension between values.  (As we discussed in Psychology of the Daf, Bava Metzia 37. The Ritva, in Eiruvin 13a, famously explains that every halacha has 49 aspects to allow and 49 aspects to forbid.) Thus, inasmuch as Rabbi Yitschok says a person is constantly checking his money, he also says one must keep perspective and understand that the true source of money and blessing is God.  Similarly, Rabbi Yishmael who stresses practicality and the need to earn a living which supersedes Torah study, also pushes an even stronger level of faith than Rabbi Yitschok, requiring an even greater renunciation of financial awareness.

As a final thought, there is a deeper idea to the principle discussed in our Gemara that blessing is found when it is hidden from the eye. As we have discussed elsewhere, in the mystical world, opposites are related. (See Maharal Tiferes Yisrael 37 and Gevuros Hashem 4, where he observes that Light and Dark, cold and hot are merely on a continuum.  Dark is just a far-end manifestation of much less light, and cold is on the far end of a continuum of heat.)  Thus, God’s divine flow, which is the ultimate reality, stems precisely from nothingness, ex-nihilo, because God is so much the other, and so much the opposite of physicality, that His manifestation must come when “space” is made for Him by removal of the physical. Ironically this is another way that we can model God’s behavior. God needed to withdraw in some way in order to allow for anything to exist since He is omnipresent, known as the mystical concept of tzimtzum. So too, when people remove their own petty concerns and investments in material matters, we make room for God‘s blessings to flow. This also may be related to the theological principle discussed in Gemara (Megillah 31a): 

“Wherever you find a reference in the Bible to the might of the Holy One, Blessed be He, you also find a reference to His humility adjacent to it. For example: “For thus says the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity, Whose name is sacred” (Isaiah 57:15), and it is written immediately afterward: “In the high and holy place I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah 57:15). It is stated a third time in the Writings, as it is written: “Extol Him Who rides upon the clouds, Whose name is the Lord” (Psalms 68:5), and it is written immediately afterward: “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of widows” (Psalms 68:6).

There is a related idea in the addiction recovery community. One must hit bottom in order to break through the rationalizations, see the truth, and seek the higher power. Wisdom first begins, and possibly even material attainment begins, when we realize that we truly have nothing, and are nothing – save for God.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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