Funny - one criticism of the Charedim is how much they care about money.
But they are ALSO criticized that they don't prepare their children for the outside world and set them up for a life of poverty by denying them a secular education. Which, on one level is true. Learning Torah all day is not the ideal preparation to enter a lucrative profession [unless one considers $500 a month in Kollel "lucrative"].
So which one is it? Do they love money too much or not??
The truth is that becoming wealthy is not a value at all in the Charedi educational system. They raise their children to strive to either become a great Torah scholars or to be married to one. THAT is the highest goal. Girls are taught a profession so that they can marry a man who they help support so that he can devote themselves solely to Torah.
Money is never an ends - just a means. The END is to serve Hashem and keep his Torah in the best possible way.
That is also why Charedim give so much tzdaka. Money is just a means to serve Hashem. One way of serving Hashem is by helping others in need.
There IS a problem in the Charedi world and that is that the custom for yeshiva boys getting married is to get not only a wife but an apartment. This is a problem because most people can't afford this. I look forward to the day when this changes. In the mean time, it's killing people. I had to buy my daughter an apartment because it is very hard to get a good shidduch without that. Pretty scandalous given the fact that I never in my life earned more than my rent [except one year when my rent was $1,300 a month and my salary $1,500 a month. But the $2,000 in taxes on the apartment I rented wiped out the extra few dollars....], nor did my wife ever work [barring a few months before our first child] so how can a poor man like that buy an apartment?? But so it goes - for me and countless people like me. There are so many people drowning in debt because of this insane practice.
An imperfection [among many] many in a society that is otherwise closer to perfection than any other of which I am aware.
