Will financial pressure finally stop if I make enough money?

Rabbi Landau answers that it won't: “You're always going to live with financial pressure.” A lot of people think that if they just make enough money, the pressure will finally stop.

But Chazal said, yesh lo maneh, rotzeh masayim: one who has a hundred wants two hundred. “The number changes, the pressure changes, but the pressure does not disappear.” A man with less feels pressure, and a man with more also feels pressure, “usually, just with bigger bills, bigger lifestyle,” and a bigger appetite.

So, he says, “stop chasing the fantasy of a life with no financial pressure. That life does not exist.” The real question is not how to make the pressure go away, but whether it is making you smaller or making you bigger.

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

Surface claim

Financial pressure is a permanent part of life. Earning more changes the numbers, not the pressure.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

The hope that one more level of income will finally bring relief, and the disappointment when it doesn't.

What may be behind it

Why does a person with more still feel squeezed?

Because, as Chazal said, one who has a hundred wants two hundred. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the pressure does not come from what is missing, but from a desire that has no end.

Deepest human truth

Since a life without pressure does not exist, the only real question is what the pressure is doing to you.

More questions from this teaching

• What does money pressure reveal about a man?