Is a high-paying job I can’t afford to quit a trap?

Rabbi Landau teaches: “A salary that you can’t afford to quit is your biggest expense.” It feels like success. The money is good, the title sounds impressive, and you even think people respect you. “But slowly, the job starts owning you.”

You can’t leave because the mortgage depends on it, and you can’t say no because the lifestyle depends on it. You trade your mornings and your peace of mind for a paycheck you are afraid to touch. “The second you can’t afford to quit, that salary stopped being income and became a master.”

As King Solomon said, “eved loveh l’ish malveh,” the borrower is a servant to the lender. “The man who owns his future,” Rabbi Landau says, “is richer than the man whose future is crushed by his paycheck.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

A salary you cannot afford to walk away from is your biggest expense.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

The mortgage and the lifestyle depend on the job, so you cannot leave and cannot say no.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that a person can “borrow” a whole way of life and pay for it every month with his time, his freedom to choose, and his peace of mind, even without taking a loan.

Deepest human truth

The one who owns his future is richer than the one whose future is crushed by his paycheck.