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A passage in the Christian gospels implies that money will impact a person’s ability to get into heaven.

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
— Matthew 19:23-26, New Living Translation

Not to mention it has verses suggesting that the love of money is the root of all evil.

For the love of money is the root of all evil.
— 1 Timothy 6:10, Authorized Version (King James Version)

The closest verse in Judaism seems to be this one that I have found.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept by the owner thereof to his hurt.
— Kohelet 5, 12

But this seems to imply sharing and not that the love of money is in itself evil. I find this better considering judging someones heart is rather difficult to prove and someone can both be wealthy and sharing.

Is there any verse that seems to say that being rich implies difficulty?

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  • I was led to believe that one Jewish response to “why do bad things happen to good people” was that the reward for the righteous comes to them in “the world to come.” Consistent with that, SOME less-than-righteous people are rewarded with material wealth in this world but have less share in the world to come
    – JJLL
    Jul 31, 2018 at 12:57
  • To clarify, my comment above is not to imply materialistically successful people cannot also be righteous people. Perhaps the same holds true for the Matthew quote.
    – JJLL
    Jul 31, 2018 at 13:15
  • 3
    Reminder to VTCers that a Christianity-motivated question that asks a Jewish question is very different from a question that requires both Christian and Jewish knowledge. Voting to leave open.
    – DonielF
    Jul 31, 2018 at 22:41
  • Comparitive religion is off topic
    – Dude
    Jul 31, 2018 at 23:30
  • 1
    Don't forget their mammon. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammon
    – user6591
    Aug 7, 2018 at 4:08

1 Answer 1

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Both wealth and poverty are tests and pose different difficulties.

שָׁ֤וְא ׀ וּֽדְבַר־כָּזָ֡ב הַרְחֵ֬ק מִמֶּ֗נִּי רֵ֣אשׁ וָ֭עֹשֶׁר אַל־תִּֽתֶּן־לִ֑י הַ֝טְרִיפֵ֗נִי לֶ֣חֶם חֻקִּֽי׃ פֶּ֥ן אֶשְׂבַּ֨ע ׀ וְכִחַשְׁתִּי֮ וְאָמַ֗רְתִּי מִ֥י יְה֫וָ֥ה וּפֶֽן־אִוָּרֵ֥שׁ וְגָנַ֑בְתִּי וְ֝תָפַ֗שְׂתִּי שֵׁ֣ם אֱלֹהָֽי׃

Keep lies and false words far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches,
But provide me with my daily bread,
Lest, being sated, I renounce, saying, “Who is the LORD?”
Or, being impoverished, I take to theft
And profane the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

The Mesilat Yesharim (chapter 1) quotes this verse with these words of explanation:

כל עניני העולם בין לטוב בין (למוטב) לרע הנה הם נסיונות לאדם, העוני מצד אחד והעושר מצד אחד

All things, whether for good or for bad, are tests for a person: poverty on one side, and wealth on the other.

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  • 1
    It's said in the name of various gedolim 'There's a test of being rich and a test of being poor. We pray for the test of being rich'.
    – user6591
    Jul 31, 2018 at 11:52
  • @user6591 quotes.net/mquote/31600 Perchik: Money is the world's curse. Tevye: May the Lord smite me with it. And may I never recover.
    – Double AA ♦
    Jan 16, 2019 at 22:46
  • @Double AA, As far as I know, Tevye was no gadol and neither was Perchik (!), Since the OP wasn't asking from a Jewish perspective, I vote to close this as off-topic.
    – suse
    Jan 17, 2019 at 4:58

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