Is time really money?

Rabbi Landau answers that if you still believe time is money, you don’t yet understand how wealth is created. Some people earn while they sleep, while others stop earning the moment they stop working. “Poor people, they sell hours. Wealthy people are building systems.”

“The problem is not that you work hard,” he says, “is that your business cannot be without you.” People think working harder creates wealth, but that is not what the Torah says. “B’zeias apecha tochal lechem,” by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread. “Bread, not wealth.”

Rabbi Shimon takes it further, he teaches: when the Jewish people do the will of Hashem, their work is done by others. In his words, “When you are aligned with the will of God, your work is done through others. Someone you never met is going to buy your items while you’re sleeping.”

His advice: “Never build an income that depends entirely on your own effort.”

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

Surface claim

Time is not money; selling hours earns a living, but wealth comes from building something that works without you.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

When your business cannot run without you, your income stops the moment you stop.

What may be behind it

What does the Torah promise for hard work?

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread”: bread, not wealth. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that this is a real promise of getting by, but wealth is something else.

Deepest human truth

When a person is aligned with the will of Hashem, his work is done through others. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that this does not free a person from working; it makes him a vessel rather than the engine.

More questions from this teaching

• What does it mean that when we do Hashem’s will, our work is done by others?