Let My People Know

"The definition of a perversion"

 

Money, by its very definition, is never an end. 

It is a way of exchanging, of acquiring things. 

When it becomes an obsession, when it becomes an end in itself, that obsession is a slightly pathological situation. 

This is true about anything. 

Chewing is a way of eating. 

When a person begins to chew before he eats, it is a sign of an illness. 

Washing your hands is very important to cleanliness. 

When you see a person washing his hands sixty times a day, it is a sign of compulsiveness. 

Money is a way of transforming assets into other things, whatever they are. 

If it becomes a purpose in itself, that is defined psychologically as a perversion. 

This is exactly the definition of a perversion: in perversion, you have something that is auxiliary but that becomes a purpose in itself.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From We Jews by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz