קהלת פרק ה - אוהב כסף, לא ישבע כסף

(1) Keep your mouth from being rash, and let not your throat be quick to bring forth speech before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; that is why your words should be few. (2) Just as dreams come with much brooding, so does foolish utterance come with much speech. (3) When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. For He has no pleasure in fools; what you vow, fulfill. (4) It is better not to vow at all than to vow and not fulfill. (5) Don’t let your mouth bring you into disfavor, and don’t plead before the messenger that it was an error, -but fear God; else God may be angered by your talk and destroy your possessions. (6) For much dreaming leads to futility and to superfluous talk. (7) If you see in a province oppression of the poor and suppression of right and justice, don’t wonder at the fact; for one high official is protected by a higher one, and both of them by still higher ones. (8) Thus the greatest advantage in all the land is his: he controls a field that is cultivated. (9) A lover of money never has his fill of money, nor a lover of wealth his fill of income. That too is futile. (10) As his substance increases, so do those who consume it; what, then, does the success of its owner amount to but feasting his eyes? (11) A worker’s sleep is sweet, whether he has much or little to eat; but the rich man’s abundance doesn’t let him sleep. (12) Here is a grave evil I have observed under the sun: riches hoarded by their owner to his misfortune, (13) in that those riches are lost in some unlucky venture; and if he begets a son, he has nothing in hand. (14) Another grave evil is this: He must depart just as he came. As he came out of his mother’s womb, so must he depart at last, naked as he came. He can take nothing of his wealth to carry with him. (15) So what is the good of his toiling for the wind? (16) Besides, all his days he eats in darkness, with much vexation and grief and anger. (17) Only this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion. (18) Also, whenever a man is given riches and property by God, and is also permitted by Him to enjoy them and to take his portion and get pleasure for his gains—that is a gift of God. (19) For [such a man] will not brood much over the days of his life, because God keeps him busy enjoying himself.

(12) He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it.

The amount of charity one should give is as follows: if one can but afford, let him give as much as is needed. Under ordinary circumstances, a fifth of one's property is most laudable. To give one-tenth is the average disposition. But to give less than one-tenth is niggardly...RMI.—But a man should not squander more than one-fifth to charity, so that he might not himself become a public charge.

R. Simeon ben Halafta said: He showed him Korah, as stated (in Numb. 16:32): AND THE EARTH OPENED ITS MOUTH. (Gen. 28:12:) WITH ITS TOP REACHING TO THE HEAVENS. He showed him Moses, as stated (in Exod 24:1): THEN HE SAID UNTO MOSES: GO UP UNTO THE LORD.

§ Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: Moses became wealthy only from the waste remaining from hewing the Tablets of the Covenant, as it is stated: “Hew for you two tablets of stone like the first” (Exodus 34:1). “Hew for you” means that their waste shall be yours. As the tablets were crafted from valuable gems, their remnants were similarly valuable.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, rests His Divine Presence only upon one who is mighty, and wealthy, and wise, and humble. And all of these qualities are derived from Moses.