All about Money, Part 1 - Kabbalah Media

All about Money Part 1
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A conversation between Rav Michael Laitman, PhD with the Kabbalah Academy
instructors, Michael Sanilevich and Yevgeny Litvar
Tel Aviv, Israel, April 23, 2008
Y. Litvar: I truly love life in all of its various aspects. Yet I have
to admit that most of all I love money. That is why today we chose to talk
about money, if you don't mind.
M. Laitman: Everybody speaks about this subject because no one
understands what is happening to us.
Y. Litvar: Exactly so. Here's the first question: God created the
Heaven and the Earth. God created animals. God created man. He created
everything! Who created money?
M. Laitman: Money was also created by God, if He exists at all, which
we will talk about. But money was created by God.
There is a need for a universal equivalent: I give to you, you give to
me, we give to others. This is what money was created for. We can take
something of value, let's say, a pouch filled with gold or silver. However,
we need to estimate everyone's effort, the value of each object or of man's
actions. To this end we need an equivalent.
How much does your goat cost? How much is my car worth and how much
should I receive for my work or services? All of these things should be
measured in something! We call it "money." Money, currency (current value
of something), is an approximate equivalent for this and for that.
Y. Litvar: You answered as an economist, yet our question was
addressed to you as a Kabbalist.
M. Laitman: All right, I'll explain this to you in a different way. The
fact is that we don't know human nature. If I was born lazy and dumb and he
was born industrious, diligent and smart, then we are not equal in this
life. Therefore, I will sweat for ten hours and get $10, while he will work
for two hours and get $500. The effort that we put in our work is the same.
But he is smarter and quicker by nature, so he has an advantage over me.
Hence, he will soon become a leader, a manager of a company or a factory.
He will gather "dumb" people like me and make them his servants, slaves.
However, we don't agree with this!
Y. Litvar: Why not? If the pay is good, I agree.
M. Laitman: No, you don't, because he does nothing; he got these
privileges from nature, while you didn't. Why should you suffer as compared
to him?
Why am I telling you all this? It is because we are not equal by
nature. If our attitude to one another was right, we would have to take
into consideration man's physical, inner, mental efforts: how much energy
is spent by me and by you? Quite possibly, I would have to work two hours
and you - ten hours, because for an energetic person like you ten hours is
not much, and for "lazy bones" like me two hours of work is very hard. The
reckoning between us would be completely different. The common denominator
would be different.
In our life the common denominator is wrong, it is expressed in money.
It turns out that for little work you receive a lot, while I get a little
for a lot of work. To earn a salary I have to sweat for a whole month and
you easily play with millions on the Stock Exchange. Why? It is because you
are like this by nature, by chance, by luck. You just lucked it out!
In other words, without an understanding of man's inner essence we can
in no way be equal other than by means of this false money. This
equivalence is false and the equivalent is no equivalent at all.
As long as we were developing egoistically, this equivalent suited us,
we could put up with it. This stopped about two or three hundred years ago.
Various revolutions and technical progress started; in our time it is
equality of rights, the search of emancipation and so on and so forth.
People no longer inwardly agree to this situation.
Egoism grows so much that it demands to be taken into consideration in
its original inner form, that is, it wishes us to get to correct
estimation: I want to receive what I deserve not because I was so created
by nature, but because I wish to be equal to everyone. If we speak of
equality of rights, then it should be an inner equality, in accordance with
my inner powers and qualities, but not according to the results of one's
labor, where everyone can manipulate others by virtue of his natural
potential.
So it turns out that in reality money cannot serve as a universal
equivalent. Therefore, today in our global conflict and crisis we approach
a crisis in our financial relationships. This total crisis will force us to
search for a way to make people equal, to assess every person. We are
obliged to consider man's natural qualities!
That is where we will face the need to master the science of Kabbalah.
Y. Litvar: Then we can answer the person who asked this question that
God created money to make man feel inequality, can't we?
M. Laitman: Yes. Very well. It is said so: "Lechu ve titparnesu zeh mi
zeh" - "Go and profit from one another," because by profiting from one
another you will understand how wrong the connection between you is and
realize the need for correction.
Y. Litvar: We have this question: If God created money, then why didn't
He do this at once, allowing natural exchange to exist for many years? For
example, I grow wheat and run around in search of someone who wants my
wheat and would give me shoes in exchange for it. I come to the person who
doesn't want my wheat. He wants meat. This is awful! As soon as money
appeared, it immediately brought convenience.
M. Laitman: Natural exchange suited people at that time. Everything
depends on the development of egoism.
Egoism gradually develops starting with its initial surge in ancient
Babylon, when they wanted to build the tower of Babel, to distance one from
another, to feel independent; when unity among people ceased to exist and
they were scattered around the world. Egoism began to develop and to
distance man from other people. Its development consists of certain stages.
Kabbalah tells us that there are five stages of the development of
egoism. These five stages of egoism are determined by its inner development
within man and determine the type of relationshipship among people, the way
they unite, communicate, exchange the products of their labor, and so on.
In other words, natural exchange suited people. They were in such a
state when their needs were small: as you say, there were shoes, clothes,
food-those were practically all of their needs. Therefore, in the framework
of a settlement they could easily provide services to one another and trade
their goods without a problem.
Besides, there was a market place, a square, to which they brought all
their products. This was sufficient. As soon as there was a need for closer
interconnection among people due to the rise of egoism, the number of
trades that dealt with things beyond basic necessities (like production of
food and clothes) grew. As a result certain equivalents of exchange
appeared: pouches of gold or silver, etc.
Y. Litvar: Was money created as an instrument of disunity among people? M. Laitman: It was created to connect people. It unites them, helps
them find a common language with one another. I show you a pouch filled
with gold and you immediately understand what I offer you. You just ask:
"What for?"
Y. Litvar: It doesn't really matter!
M. Laitman: It doesn't. Everyone already knows. Here's some gold dust.
You weigh it and already understand what it is.
So this is an additional language between people that does not sum up
our desires, but reduces them to a common denominator. I desire this money,
but I have certain pleasures in mind. You desire this money, but the
pleasures that you have in mind are different. Yet we have a common
denominator by which each of us evaluates his own pleasures. Here we can
already establish contact with each other. Hence, money is the language of
communication between people.
Y. Litvar: Here's another question: Money possesses incredible magic
power. There is no one in the world who is not attracted by it to a greater
or lesser extent. People stay up at night, speculate on the Stock Exchange,
play roulette, cards and lottery, and give up their last belongings. They
are ready to kill, tear apart, rob, devour, and do everything in order to
make or get money. Where does this magnetic power of money come from? Where
is its source? Perhaps it comes from Satan?
M. Laitman: There is nothing harmful in the world. Harm lies only in
the way we use this or that phenomenon. Therefore, money in itself presents
no problem whatsoever, it does no harm and doesn't come from Satan. Its
"satanic" vestments manifest when man misuses it.
Why do I like money? It is because it is a universal equivalent. Now I
feel hungry, in a couple of minutes I'll be thirsty, then I'll want to
sleep, go for a walk, listen to music, have fun, buy something. I have one
equivalent for all these things and I have it in my pocket in a compact
form. I don't have to tend my sheep herd or guard tons of my grain-I have
it all in my pocket, in a bank, in a money-box. In exchange for it I can
acquire quite a variety of pleasures in this world, including honor,
respect, power, everything. This gives me a sensation of might. Naturally
man is drawn to it.
Furthermore, most importantly (not even because I can buy all of these
things tomor