Money - Part 1: Why Do People Love Money So Much And How Was Copper Wire Invented

Money is what makes the world go round. Everything seems to revolve around money. If not for money people wouldn't work and the world would crumble because nothing would get done. Go to a busy street. Where is everyone going? Either to earn or spend money. Money is at the root of most political issues, the fuel for revolutions and the obsession of the masses. Money is the most prominent issue in marriage. Before the marriage there are fights about money [אין כתובה בלא תיגרא]. After marriage it is the number one issue of contention between spouses. Therefore I have decided to conduct an on-line seminar on money. Not how to earn it [not my expertise:-)] but how to relate emotionally and spiritually. First - the basic psychology behind people's constant involvement with, and connection to, money.

Why do people pursue money with such reckless abandon?? After all - it is just a piece of paper with pictures of politicians wearing badly done sheitels [I have a reader who is a trained sheitel macher and she can attest to that:-)].

Imagine the scene: Someone invites you to a wedding. You say nonchalantly "How much a head?" The answer "Two hundred dollars". You think for a moment and say "OK - How about this? I will come, I won't eat, and you give me 190 dollars cash."

How weird would that be?? It is also not socially acceptable. Why not??? The person is getting his guest and 10 bucks off??

The terutz [heard from Rav Moshe Schapiro Shlita] is [sorry for writing talmudically but it's almost Rosh Chodesh Elul and I am sharpening my yeshivish] that money is unlimited potential. Money can be converted into anything. A car, a boat, dinner, a new outfit, a college education, a vacation in Miami, a new set of Minchas Chinuch [li-havdil], anything. People are not so quick to give up something than can be translated into almost anything. Hence the famous joke: How was copper wire invented? Two Jews found a penny:). So in theory, you can find someone who will invite you for  Shabbos meals every week for a year while having you sleep over which can be worth a thousand dollars [room and board] and they won't take anything in return but if this same guest asks these same hosts for a thousand dollars in cash, they wouldn't give it to him. People are very connected to their cash.

Indeed, in Hebrew the word for money is כסף which comes from the word meaning "intense desire" as in נכסוף נכספתי or the word כיסופין.