Is it greedy that I always want more money?

Rabbi Landau answers: “You think your constant desire for more money is because you are greedy. It’s not.” Imagine if a million dollars made you feel completely secure forever. “You would stop asking and depending on God.” He teaches that while you think you are chasing money, “it’s God using money to keep you chasing Him.” The more you make, the hungrier you become, and the bigger and riskier the moves, the more you have to trust Him. “That’s the design.”

He reframes the goal. You may be trying to make enough money that you won’t need God anymore: financial independence. “How about God’s goal is that you never become spiritually independent?” So perhaps “your next financial goal isn’t about making more money, it’s about learning deeper trust.”

He cites Shlomo HaMelech, “a lover of money is never satisfied,” and the Sages’ saying that one who has a hundred wants two hundred. His practical advice: the next time you open your bank app and panic because it’s not enough, “you can smile. The system is working.”

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

Surface claim

The constant desire for more money is not simply greed.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

The bank app never seems to show enough, and a person panics. The more he makes, the hungrier he becomes.

Underlying need or longing

Many people want financial independence, enough money never to need anyone, including God.

Deepest human truth

What if the hunger is there on purpose?

Rabbi Landau teaches that God uses money to keep a person chasing Him, so that he never becomes spiritually independent. The real goal is learning deeper trust.