The One Who Rushes to Get Rich
“A man of faith will have many blessings, but one who rushes to get rich will not be clean.” King Solomon begins with these words: “A man of faith will have many blessings, but one who rushes to get rich will not be clean.” The question is simple. What does “will not be clean” mean? If it means he will be punished, the verse could have said so plainly. If it means he will not succeed, the verse could have said that too. But “clean” is a word of purity and wholeness. There is a hint here to something deeper. A Parable from the Kitchen Imagine that you are baking a cake. You put it in the oven at the right heat, for the right amount of time. Then you walk into the kitchen and think, “I want this to be done faster.” So you turn up the heat. How will it turn out? Burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. It is not a cake, and it is not charcoal either. It is something in between that is neither one nor the other. As King Solomon wrote: “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; patience is better than pride.” His wisdom here is simple. Some processes need their own time, and they cannot be rushed. That is how it works with making a living. That is how it works with every flow of blessing. Hashem’s light is always ready. What holds it back does not come from above. What holds it back is on the side of the vessel that receives it. And the vessel is you: your body, your inner self, who you are as a person. A vessel like that is not built in a rush. The New Idea: The Wealth Doesn’t Grow, the Person Grows Here is the point that is the heart of this essay. You look at a friend who has done well, and you think, “He held on for five years with nothing, and then, suddenly, everything came to him.” And you ask yourself, “Why should I wait? Why should I be patient?” But that question shows a basic mistake in how you see things. You think that during those five years the wealth was piling up somewhere, in hidden pipes. It was not. During those five years the person grew. He became bigger inside. His inner self became faithful, his judgment became sharper, and his heart became firm. He turned into a vessel that can hold five million. And when the vessel was ready, the blessing came. This is the new idea. The goal is not to get the wealth. The goal is to become the person who is ready for it. The wealth doesn’t grow. The person grows. What “Not Clean” Means Now let us go back to our verse with new eyes. “Will not be clean” is not only about punishment. It describes something that is flawed at its core. The one who rushes to get rich, even if he seems to succeed, does not receive something “clean.” It is not whole. His vessel was not ready yet, and the blessing that was forced into it is mixed with waste. It is the cake again, burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. The dough never baked properly. The same is true of a person who hurried. The blessing did not truly “enter” him as it should. This is how the Tzemach Tzedek, a great Hasidic master, explains our verse in his book Or HaTorah. “Will not be clean” is about how whole the receiving itself is, and not only about the punishment that comes afterward. And here is the real sadness. The person who hurried feels it himself. He has money, but he has no peace. He has success, but he does not feel whole. His vessel, which is he himself, has not grown big enough for it.
Putting It into Practice
Young married man, if you are reading these lines, you know the pressure. You see friends who have “already made it,” and you are still building. You hear a voice inside you saying, “Hurry up. Skip steps. Do something.” That voice is not telling you the truth. The real work, in practice, is to build trust in Hashem. This means believing that there is an order Hashem has set, that there is a right time for everything, and that the rush itself is a sign that your trust in Hashem is flawed. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, explains this in his collection of letters. Put your strength into building yourself: through Torah study, through improving your character traits, and through preparing your inner self. Know that this is the true way to hold a blessing that is whole and that lasts. Don’t turn up the heat. Let the cake bake. In Closing Now turn the verse around: “A man of faith will have many blessings.” It is exactly the man of faith, the one who trusts the order Hashem has set and does not try to force things before their time, who receives many blessings. Not a few blessings, but many. The vessel he built with his faith and his patience is wide enough to hold a great flow of blessing. True wealth is the calm inside you. The material success will come on its own, as the natural fruit of a vessel that is ready.
Questions and answers
Q: What does "one who rushes to get rich will not be clean" mean in Proverbs?
Rabbi Landau answers: “A man of faith will have many blessings, but one who rushes to get rich will not be clean.” King Solomon begins with these words: “A man of faith will have many blessings, but one who rushes to get rich will not be clean.” The question is simple. What does “will not be clean” mean? If it means he will be punished, the verse could have said so plainly. If it means he will not succeed, the verse could have said that too. But “clean” is a word of purity and wholeness. There is a hint here to something deeper.
Q: What does the parable of turning up the oven to bake a cake faster teach?
Rabbi Landau answers: Imagine that you are baking a cake. You put it in the oven at the right heat, for the right amount of time. Then you walk into the kitchen and think, “I want this to be done faster.” So you turn up the heat. How will it turn out? Burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. It is not a cake, and it is not charcoal either. It is something in between that is neither one nor the other. As King Solomon wrote: “The end of a thing is better than its beginning; patience is better than pride.” His wisdom here is simple. Some processes need their own time, and they cannot be rushed. That is how it works with making a living. That is how it works with every flow of blessing.
Q: What really happens during the years a successful person waits before wealth comes?
Rabbi Landau answers: Here is the point that is the heart of this essay. You look at a friend who has done well, and you think, “He held on for five years with nothing, and then, suddenly, everything came to him.” And you ask yourself, “Why should I wait? Why should I be patient?” But that question shows a basic mistake in how you see things. You think that during those five years the wealth was piling up somewhere, in hidden pipes. It was not. During those five years the person grew. He became bigger inside. His inner self became faithful, his judgment became sharper, and his heart became firm. He turned into a vessel that can hold five million.
Q: Why is wealth gained by rushing not "clean"?
Rabbi Landau answers: Now let us go back to our verse with new eyes. “Will not be clean” is not only about punishment. It describes something that is flawed at its core. The one who rushes to get rich, even if he seems to succeed, does not receive something “clean.” It is not whole. His vessel was not ready yet, and the blessing that was forced into it is mixed with waste. It is the cake again, burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. The dough never baked properly. The same is true of a person who hurried. The blessing did not truly “enter” him as it should. This is how the Tzemach Tzedek, a great Hasidic master, explains our verse in his book Or HaTorah.
Q: What should a young married man do when he feels pressure to get rich quickly?
Rabbi Landau answers: Young married man, if you are reading these lines, you know the pressure. You see friends who have “already made it,” and you are still building. You hear a voice inside you saying, “Hurry up. Skip steps. Do something.” That voice is not telling you the truth. The real work, in practice, is to build trust in Hashem. This means believing that there is an order Hashem has set, that there is a right time for everything, and that the rush itself is a sign that your trust in Hashem is flawed. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, explains this in his collection of letters.