What does “the poor will never disappear from the land” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains that the Torah's words, “The poor will never disappear from the land,” are not saying there will never be enough money. “Not because there's not enough money, but because poverty is a mindset, and wealth is a system.”
That is why money handed over cannot end poverty, and money taken away cannot end wealth. Give the poorest person a fortune and he soon returns to where he started; strip the wealthiest person clean and he is soon back on top. “If money made people rich, lottery winners would stay rich.”
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau adds that right after this verse the Torah commands “open your hand.” Giving is the answer to inner lack: charity helps the poor man outside you, and most of all it heals the poor man inside you, turning a taker into a giver.
Related concepts: Mindset · Generosity that cannot be taken back
In A Soul at Peace: The Poor Will Never Disappear
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Poverty persists not for lack of money but because poverty is a mindset and wealth is a system.
What may be behind it
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the verse is not an economic forecast but an insight into the inner self.
Deepest human truth
Change the inner structure and the outer numbers follow. Wealth is in your wiring, not in your wallet.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wealth, Work, and Divine Sustenance · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz