The Borrower Is a Slave to the Lender

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.” Opening “The borrower is a slave to the lender.” So wrote King Solomon in his wisdom. The simple meaning is clear: if you borrow money, you become a slave to the person you owe. But let me tell you something, young married man. This verse touches you even if you have never taken a single loan from a bank. The Question Look at how things seem. The salary is good. The position sounds respectable. Your family is happy. Why go looking for a problem? But quietly, deep inside, you know that you cannot leave. The mortgage depends on this job. The car depends on it. The “standard” of your home depends on it. Then comes the morning when you need to say “no,” and you can’t. Then comes the day when you need to stand your ground, and you don’t. So here is the question. You never borrowed any money. Why, then, are you a slave? The “Loan” You Don’t Always See Here is the new insight. The “loan” in the verse is not always a loan of cash. A person can borrow a whole way of life. Then he pays for it again every month, with his time, his freedom to choose, and his peace of mind. The moment a person builds his life around his salary, the salary stops being income. It becomes his master. The “lender” in the verse is not the bank. The lender is the job itself. And when the job is your lender, you are a slave. Not Against Work, Against Slavery Here we have to be precise, so that we do not make a mistake. Our Sages said it clearly: “Torah study is beautiful together with earning a living.” They also said: “Any Torah study that has no work alongside it will in the end fall away.” That is not the claim here at all. Working to earn a living is a good deed. It is honorable. It is the proper way of the world. The claim is about something completely different. It is the difference between working within the material world and being a slave to the material world. Working within the material world means using your income as a tool for a life of Torah and serving Hashem. Being a slave to the material world is when the tool takes the place of the owner. Your material lifestyle starts to dictate all of your spiritual decisions. When that happens, your free choice is lost, and your peace of mind is lost. Going Deeper with the Tanya: A Lack of Trust Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, writes in one of his holy letters about worry over making a living. When that worry lies on a person’s heart like a heavy load, it shows that something is missing in his trust in Hashem. True trust is a living knowledge that “Hashem feeds and sustains everyone.” It is not the “boss.” It is not the “company.” It is not the “position.” Your workplace is an emissary. It is a vessel, a channel. It is not the source. When a person forgets this, he turns the emissary into his master in his own eyes. He turns the means into the purpose. At its core, this is a subtle form of that ancient mistake: attaching your trust and your heart to something that is not Hashem. The Morning That Was Sold Very often the “cage” does not slam shut all at once. It closes slowly, one bar after another. First you give away the overtime hours. After that, your set times for Torah study. After that, the inner quiet that true prayer comes from. And what is left? A man who works hard and earns well, and feels empty. He sold his mornings, his peace of mind, and his ability to say “no.” He sold them for a paycheck that he is afraid to touch anyway. In Closing You don’t need to quit your job. That is not the lesson. The lesson is an inner one: change the way you think. Look at your salary and say: “This is a channel. Today Hashem sends me my living through this channel. But tomorrow He can send it through a different channel.” From this awareness, take back your freedom to choose. Set times for Torah study that are not “subject to the pressure at work.” Live with contentment, happy with your portion. And remember, every morning anew: the true “lender” is Hashem alone.