... not particular [as to the exact amount of money], he [the former] acquires it, for it partakes of the nature of barter. 'Nevertheless, he has a claim of fraud against him,' — because he had said to him, 'Sell it me for these coins.'2  R. Abba said in R. Hunas name: [If A said to B.] 'Sell [it] me for these coins,' he acquires a title thereto, and he [the vendor] has no claim of fraud...

... against him.3 Now, it is certain [if money or an article is delivered as] payment, but he [the recipient] is not particular [that the value shall correspond] — then we have just said that he [the giver] acquires title, for it partakes of the nature of barter. But what if it4  is delivered as barter, and he [the recipient] is particular?5 — Said R. Adda b. Ahaba: Come and hear: If...

....' Shall we say that in R. Huna's opinion coin may effect a barter? — No. R. Huna agrees with R. Johanan, who ruled: Biblically speaking, [the payment of] money effects a title. Why then was it said that only meshikah gives possession? As a precautionary measure, lest he say to him, 'Your wheat was burnt in the loft.' Now, the Rabbis enacted a preventive measure only for a usual occurrence, but not...

... possession therewith'?28  'With a utensil' — that rejects the view of R. Shesheth, who maintains: A title may be effected by means of produce. 'That is valid' — this excludes Samuel's dictum, viz.: Possession can be obtained To Part b Original footnotes renumbered. See Structure of the Talmud Files If the money is less than the value of the article by a sixth, the vendor can claim the...

... cancellation of the transaction (v. infra 49b). 'Sell' would imply to the vendor that the coins approximated to the value of the object. R. Abba holds that no particular significance attaches to the word 'sell' in such circumstances. Any other object except money. That the object given in symbolical delivery shall have a certain value. Is it still regarded as barter, and therefore the transaction is...

... consummated by this symbolical delivery: or perhaps, since he insists that it shall have a certain value, it is the equivalent of money, and therefore does not effect a title? And the values tallied. Although it may be regarded as the equivalent of money. When the ass died. Lit., 'proper'. V. p. 276. n. 4. the transaction under discussion is likewise most unusual. As above. I.e., you are in doubt whether R...

... money, i.e., buying the animal back (since substitution is separately dealt with, as the Talmud proceeds to shew); thus here too, by 'redeeming' selling for money is meant. Ibid. 10. Thus we see the same dispute here as between Rab and Levi. I.e., produce cannot be employed as a symbol of acquisition. Which he translates, for to confirm with all things — i.e., any article can confirm a...

... redeemed with coins that are presented as tokens at the baths.12  But, said R. Johanan. What is 'asimon'? A disk.13  Now, R. Johanan follows his views [expressed elsewhere]. For R. Johanan said: R. Dosa and R. Ishmael both taught the same thing. R. Dosa: the statement just quoted. And what is R. Ishmael's dictum? — That which has been taught: And thou shalt bind up the money in thine hand...

...;14  this is to include everything that can be bound up in one's hand — that is R. Ishmael's view. R. Akiba said: It is to include everything which bears a figure.15 E. G., IF [A] DREW INTO HIS POSSESSION [B' s] PRODUCE, WITHOUT PAYING HIM THE MONEY, HE CANNOT RETRACT, etc. R. Johanan said: By Biblical law, [the delivery of] money effects possession. Why then was it said meshikah effects...

...; only if the purchaser was defrauded. Whence do I know it if the vendor was cheated? From the phrase. 'or acquire aught…ye shall not defraud.' And Resh Lakish?26  — He learns both therefrom.27 We learnt, R. SIMEON SAID: HE WHO HAS THE MONEY IN HIS HAND HAS THE ADVANTAGE. [This means,] only the vendor can retract, but not the purchaser.28  Now, should you say that [by Biblical...

... law the delivery of] money effects possession, it is well; therefore the vendor can retract, but not the vendee.29  But if you say that [the delivery of] money does not effect a title [even by Biblical law], then the purchaser too should be able to retract!30  — Resh Lakish can answer you: I [certainly] did not state [my view] on the basis of R. Simeon's opinion, but according to the...

... dictum of R. Hisda, whilst the Rabbis agree therewith. We learnt: BUT THEY [SC. THE SAGES] SAID: HE WHO PUNISHED THE GENERATION OF THE FLOOD AND THE GENERATION OF THE DISPERSION, HE WILL TAKE VENGEANCE OF HIM WHO DOES NOT STAND BY HIS WORD. Now, if you say that the delivery of money effects a title, it is well: hence he is subject to the 'BUT etc.'. If, however, you maintain that money does not effect...

....] For this purpose cancelled or defaced coins were used. M. Sh. I, 2. I.e., 'coins that are presented etc.' is not a separate clause, but a definition of 'asimon'. Tosaf. observes that on this hypothesis 'or' (coins etc.) would have to be deleted. 'Ed. III, 2. [H] Jast: circular plate or ring used as weight and as uncoined money. Deut. XIV, 25. I.e., a stamped image; [H] is connected with [H], 'to...

... holds good when the vendor is the victim, and since 'hand' is written in conjunction with 'acquirest' rather than with 'sell', we learn that the acquisition is made by passing the purchase from hand to hand. I.e., when the purchaser has paid the money, the vendor, who holds it, has the advantage of being able to retract, but not the vendee. For, when the vendee delivers the money, ownership rests in...

... delivery of money consummates the sale by Biblical law, and therefore the vendee cannot retract, whilst in the view of the Rabbis meshikah is a Scriptural requisite, and therefore both the vendor and the vendee can retract. Probably on the score of equitableness. For, notwithstanding the reasoning stated on p. 283. n. II (q.v.), there would be a distinct feeling of unfairness if only one could retract...

... money or inheritance will be subject to the payment of a stamp progressive tax. Any transfer of property, whether money or other, without evidence of payment of this tax which will be strictly registered by names, will render the former holder liable to pay interest on the tax from the moment of transfer of these sums up to the discovery of his evasion of declaration of the transfer. Transfer...

..., proceeding from State sources, will blind the working class firmly to the interests of the State and to those who reign. From these same sums also a part will be set aside as rewards of inventiveness and productiveness. 15. On no account should so much as a single unit above the definite and freely estimated sums be retained in the State Treasuries, for money exists to be circulated and any kind of...

... stagnation of money acts ruinously on the running of the State machinery, for which it is the lubricant; a stagnation of the lubricant may stop the regular working of the mechanism. 16. The substitution of interest-bearing paper for a part of the token of exchange has produced exactly this stagnation. The consequences of this circumstance are already sufficiently noticeable. 17. A court of account will...

..., and are interested only in their own and not in the common interests of the State. 20. Economic crises have been producer by us for the goyim by no other means than the withdrawal of money from circulation. Huge capitals have stagnated, withdrawing money from States, which were constantly obliged to apply to those same stagnant capitals for loans. These loans burdened the finances of the State with...

... the payment of interest and made them the bond slaves of these capitals .... The concentration of industry in the hands of capitalists out of the hands of small masters has drained away all the juices of the peoples and with them also the States .... (Now we know the purpose of the Federal Reserve Bank Corporation!!). 21. The present issue of money in general does not correspond with the...

... requirements per head, and cannot therefore satisfy all the needs of the workers. The issue of money ought to correspond with the growth of population and thereby children also must absolutely be reckoned as consumers of currency from the day of their birth. The revision of issue is a material question for the whole world. 22. You are aware that the gold standard has been the ruin of the states which adopted...

... it, for it has not been able to satsify the demands for money, the more so that we have removed gold from circulation as far as possible. GENTILE STATES BANKRUPT: 23. With us the standard that must be introduced is the cost of working-man power, whether it be reckoned in paper or in wood. We shall make the issue of money in accordance with the normal requirements of each subject, adding to the...

... quantity with every birth and subtracting with every death. 24. The accounts will be managed by each department (the French administrative division), each circle. 25. In order that there may be no delays in the paying our of money for State needs the sums and terms of such payments will be fixed by decree of the ruler; this will do away with the protection by a ministry of one institution to the...

... a double sum, in sixty - treble, and all the while the debt remains an unpaid debt. 31. From this calculation it is obvious that with any form of taxation per head the State is baling out the last coppers of the poor taxpayers in order to settle accounts with wealth foreigners, from whom it has borrowed money instead of collecting these coppers for its own needs without the additional interest. 32...

.... So long as loans were internal the goyim only shuffled their money from the pockets of the poor to those of the rich, but when we bought up the necessary person in order to transfer loans into the external sphere, all the wealth of States flowed into our cash- boxes and all the goyim began to pay us the tribute of subjects. 33. If the superficiality of goy kings on their thrones in regard to State...

... affairs and the venality of ministers or the want of understanding of financial matters on the part of other ruling persons have made their countries debtors to our treasuries to amounts quite impossible to pay it has not been accomplished without, on our part, heavy expenditure of trouble and money. 34. Stagnation of money will not be allowed by us and therefore there will be no State interest-bearing...

... paper, except a one per- cent series, so that there will be no payment of interest to leeches that suck all the strength out of the State. The right to issue interest-bearing paper will be given exclusively to industrial companies who will find no difficulty in paying interest out of profits, whereas the State does not make interest on borrowed money like these companies, for the State borrows to...

... paper of tribute by loan operations will be transformed into a lender of money at a profit. This measure will stop the stagnation of money, parasitic profits and idleness, all of which were useful for us among the goyim so long as they were independent but are not desirable under our rule. 36. How clear is the undeveloped power of thought of the purely brute brains of the goyim, as expressed in the...

... fact that they have been borrowing from us with payment of interest without ever thinking that all the same these very moneys plus an addition for payment of interest must be got by them from their own State pockets in order to settle up with us. What could have been simpler than to take the money they wanted from their own people? 37. But it is a proof of the genius of our chosen mind that we have...

... understand me at all, who must be a newcomer. The Indians think they are the most religious people in the world; all bullshit. They are the most irreligious people in the world - they just have an egoistic idea that they are very religious. If you are really religious, you will be ready to pay for your meditation with everything, even with your life. What is money? If you pay five rupees for something, and...

... if you earn ten rupees a day, then you have paid with half the day. Money is just a symbol that you have devoted half your day's labor for it. You go to the movie and you pay ten rupees for a ticket; you earn ten rupees per day. You are saying that this movie is worth it - "I can stake one day's labor for it." But you are not ready to stake anything for your meditation, prayer, for...

... life. Those few rupees that you have to pay are very symbolic, just symbolic, just token - they indicate something. If you are ready to pay something, then I know you will be persuaded to pay more. By and by, one day you will be able to stake your whole life for it. If you are not ready to even pay five rupees, it is impossible for you to stake your whole life. Gurdjieff used to ask much money for...

... his lectures; and not only money, he would create all sorts of obstacles. For example: no lecture would be declared beforehand. If the lecture was going to be this morning at eight o'clock, early - in the wee hours, at five o'clock - you would receive a phone call: "At eight o'clock reach a certain place" - and the place would be twenty miles or thirty miles or fifty miles away - "and...

... interested only in the few sincere seekers. They have to show their mettle. And, the money that you have to pay is just the beginning. It is just the alpha; by and by I will persuade you to pay with your life. Unless you have that much courage, nothing is going to happen. Religion is not cheap, certainly not free. But the Indian mind is very money-minded: they talk about being religious but they are very...

... money-minded people. Their whole outlook about things is money. No westerner has ever asked this; they understand: the ashram has to be maintained, the place has to be ready for you, some musician has to prepare for the music, somebody has to conduct the meditation, the gardens have to be looked after, the buildings have to be built. All needs money - from where is it going to come? And you know well...

... that I don't do any miracles. There are only two ways. One is: somebody else should donate for you. But why should somebody else donate for you? You will meditate and somebody else will donate for you? Why? If you want to meditate, you pay for it. And if you really want to meditate you will be ready to pay for it; there should be no hitch about it. If you don't have money, go and earn it. If it is...

... mean much. You have to show that you are sincere, you have to show that you are not just here out of curiosity. What is the way to check a person? The easiest way is money... because the greatest greed is for money. The greatest greed is for money, so whenever you have to lose your money you have to lose a little part of your greed. When you pay five rupees for entry, you are paying by dropping a...

... little greed. The money is not the problem, the problem is greed; you are dropping a little greed. And this is just a beginning - because meditation can happen only when all greed disappears. A slight greed inside you and meditation is not possible. For a greedy mind there is no meditation; meditation happens only in a non-greedy mind. If you don't have money, then work. Pay by your work and show your...

... sincerity. But the person who has asked must have money, otherwise he would not have been allowed to enter here. He must have paid... must be greedy, must want to have everything free - at least about God. Because nobody bothers about God. I have been moving in the masses for years. I have not decided in a hurried way to drop out of the mob - I saw that it was absolutely absurd: you go on talking to...

... it ends in death. And there is nothing else to do. You have become aware. the fourth question: Question 4: MY GREED FOR MONEY, TO HAVE MONEY AND TO SEE THAT I AM ABLE TO MAKE MONEY, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? It simply means that you are greedy. There is no need to go into great philosophy about it. It does not mean anything else than what it means: you are greedy. And greed says that you must be empty, so...

... you want to stuff yourself with something or other. Money is a way to stuff oneself with things. Money can purchase everything, so money becomes very important. Then you can stuff your emptiness with everything: you can have as many women as you want, you can have as many palaces as you want, as many cars, airplanes - whatsoever you want. You can go on stuffing yourself with things. You are empty...

... will not increase. In fact it may start decreasing - because each time you run after money you lose some soul. It is a great risk. By losing your soul you earn money; by destroying your inner purity, your inner virginity, you go on selling your inner for the outer. You go on exchanging. In the end you have piled up much money and many things, but suddenly you realize that inside you are a beggar. The...

... inner can be fulfilled only by the inner. I am not saying to renounce your money; that too is foolish. To continuously run after money is foolish, to renounce money is also foolish - because nobody can fulfill his inner emptiness with money, and nobody can fulfill it by renouncing money... because both are outside. Whether you accumulate any money or renounce, both are outside. That is not looking...

... into the problem directly. You are empty inside: something has to be done there. A prayer has to fill it, a meditation has to flower there - only God's fragrance will be able to give you a fulfillment. So I am neither for money nor against money. Money can purchase many things: all that is outside can be purchased with money, there is no problem about it. But money cannot lead you to the inner...

... contentment... and that is the problem. You have to work for that. My own observation is this: that the more money you have, the more is the possibility of becoming aware of the inner emptiness, because the contrast makes things very clear. A person who is poor inside and poor outside does not know his inner poverty. That's why poor people look more happy, beggars look more happy than rich people, than...

.... So I am not against money. In fact, my whole approach is that only rich people can be religious. A poor person cannot be. It is very difficult for a poor person to be religious. To be poor and to be religious needs great intelligence, very great intelligence, unique intelligence. Only then can you be religious. To read something written with white chalk on a white wall you need very penetrating...

... they remain greedy; even DEATH does not make them aware. Solomon and Irving were both partners in the dress business. They had the worst season of their careers, and were at a complete loss as to what to make that would sell. There was not a dress to be cut in their cutting-room. They both decided: the only way out to leave their families any money was to agree to a suicide pact. They drew straws and...

... kicked him and pushed him into the gutter. Finally he got up, brushed himself off, and said to a man at the end of the line, "If they do that once more, I am not going to open the store." Still he is ready to open the store! They have thrown him in the gutter! But people go on rushing, almost insane. Greed is a sort of insanity. Use money, but never be greedy. As a means money is perfectly...

.... Ika said: They are satisfied with the extra discount they receive.6  Wherein do they differ? — In respect of a new trader.7 In Sura four [se'ahs] went [to the zuz]; in Kafri,8  six. So Rab gave money to the carrier,9  accepted himself the risks of carriage, and received five [se'ahs per zuz]. But why not take six?10  — For a man of great repute it is different.11 R...

..., since he repays more than it is worth where he receives it, it is usury. For it is as though they were immediately transferred to the lender, and if they appreciate, it is the lender's which appreciates. Lit., 'ass drivers.' They receive money in the dearer place to supply provisions at a later date at the lower price of elsewhere. For through the ready money they thus have in hand they are recognised...

... as traders and receive credit, and this is ample repayment for their labour of bringing the provisions at their risk from one place to another (Rashi). Tosaf. in name of R. Han.: They are satisfied by being kept informed, by those who advance them money, of any rise in the market price in the dearer place during their absence, and thus aided in their sales. [In consideration of the fact that they...

... informed thereon). But on the second view, being new, they lack the farmer's confidence, who may not believe that they are supplying the produce in the dear place at cheap rates, and hence receive no additional discount. Therefore the transaction is forbidden, for his labour of carriage is merely on account of the money advanced, and thus partakes of the nature of usury. [South of Sura, Obermeyer, op...

... in other merchandise the prices are more stable, which disposes of the first reason as explained by Tosaf., and the demand is less constant, and hence he is not likely to receive a greater discount, for the demand having been satisfied, it will not recur for a considerable time; nor is he, for the same reason, likely to receive recognition as a trader. Rashi: 'vineyard'. I.e., to advance money at a...

... the other hand he may lose it. V. supra 30a top. Hence there is a greater element of risk which converts it into a speculation. [Tosaf.: Cattle breeders (who buy the offspring before it is born) since the risks are great.] Rashi and Jast. Tosaf.: who advance money for loads of faggots, to be delivered at vintage time. Lit., 'who cut grapes or branches.' Lit., 'turn over.' On which the grain grows...

... you until you are paid out'.6 Raba of Barnesh7  said to R. Ashi: See, Sir, the Rabbis enjoy8  usury. For they advance money for wine in Tishri, and receive choice quality in Tebeth!9  He replied: They too pay their money for wine, not vinegar, and from the very beginning, wine is wine, and vinegar, vinegar;10  it is then [when they pay] that they select choice wine.11 Rabina gave...

... money [for wine] to the residents of Akra dishanwatha,12  and they supplied13  a liberal addition.14  So he went to R. Ashi and asked him: Is it permitted?15  Yes, he replied; they but forego [their rights] in your favour.16  But, said he, the land is not theirs!17  — The land is pledged for the land tax, he replied, and the king has decreed: He who pays the land...

... tax is entitled to the usufruct. R. Papa said to Raba: See, there are some scholars who advance money for people's poll tax and then put them to much service! — He replied: I might have died, without telling you this thing. Thus said R. Shesheth: The surety18  of these people lies in the king's archives, and the king has decreed that he who does not pay his poll tax is made the servant of...

... brethren the children of Israel [likewise].20  I might think that this is so even of one who behaves in a seemly fashion; therefore it is taught, but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.21 R. Hama said: If a man gives his neighbour money to buy wine for him, and he negligently fails to do so, he must compensate him as it is sold in the market of...

..., conceived before conversion and born after, and was therefore called by his mother's name. For the coming year, but not for the past. Therefore I was entitled to live rent-free in the house. V. supra 67b. Lit., 'make (the creditor) quit. Lit., 'until I cause you to quit by (payment of) money,' i.e., until I compel the heathen to repay you. This was not forbidden as usury, since not Raba but the heathen...

... owed him money (Rashi). [Near Matha Mahasia, a suburb of Sura, Obermeyer, op. cit. p. 297.] Lit., 'devour'. Whereas had they taken it in Tishri, it might have turned sour by Tebeth. Thus in return for their advancing the money before the receipt of the goods the vendor takes the risk of deterioration, which is usury. Now, though it was stated, supra 72b, that one may buy wheat ahead if the buyer has...

... stock when the money is paid, Raba of Barnesh thought that wine is different, because it is liable to turn sour. (Rashi). I.e., good wine remains good; if it turns now, it was poor from the very beginning, already containing the germs of deterioration, as it were, but its faultiness was not then discernible. And they insist on receiving it, because only if it is sound now was it sound then. [Fort of...

... Shanutha, 4 parasangs west of Bagdad, and identical with Be-Kufai; v. B.B. (Sonc. ed.) p. 120, n. 8, the former being the Arabic, the latter the Aramaic name of the Fort, Obermeyer, op. cit., p. 268.] Lit., 'they poured'. [So Jast. Others: an additional jug, measure.] Or is it usury for having paid the money in advance? The right of giving you exactly the stipulated quantity. By paying the land tax on...

...  But being a scholar, he will [certainly] not learn of his ways. Others referred this statement of R. Huna to [the teaching] which R. Joseph learnt: If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee:4  [this teaches, if the choice lies between] my people and a heathen, 'my people' has preference; the poor or the rich — the 'poor' takes precedence; thy poor [sc. thy relatives...

...] and the [general] poor of thy town — thy poor come first; the poor of thy city and the poor of another town — the poor of thine own town have prior rights. The Master said: '[If the choice lies between] my people and a heathen — "my people" has preference.' But is it not obvious? — R. Nahman answered: Huna told me it means that even if [money is lent] to the heathen on...

...: He who has money and lends it without interest, of him Scripture writes. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved;7  thus you learn that he who does lend on interest, his wealth8  dissolves.9  But do we not see [people] who do not lend on interest, yet their wealth dissolves? — R. Eleazar...

... need.] I.e., for one who is borrowing money on interest. Tractate List / Glossary / / Bible Reference Baba Mezi'a 71b A surety to whom? Shall we say to an Israelite?1  But we learnt: The following violate the negative precept: The lender, the borrower, the surety, and the witnesses!2  Again if it means to a heathen:3  since, however, it is the law of the heathen4  to claim direct...

... from the surety, it is he [the surety] who borrows from him!5  — R. Shesheth answered: It means that he engaged himself to bring his actions in accordance with Jewish law.6  But if he engaged to abide by Jewish law, he should not take usury either! — R. Shesheth replied: He pledged himself for the one but not for the other. AN ISRAELITE MAY LEND A HEATHEN'S MONEY [ON INTEREST...

...] WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEATHEN, BUT NOT OF THE ISRAELITE. Our Rabbis taught: An Israelite may lend a heathen's money [on interest] with the knowledge of the heathen, but not of the Israelite. E.g., if an Israelite borrowed money from a heathen on interest, and was about to repay it, when another Israelite met him and proposed. 'Give it to me and I will pay you as you pay him' — that is...

... forbidden; but if he presented him to the heathen,7  it is permitted.8  Similarly, if a heathen borrowed money from an Israelite on interest, and was about to repay it, when another Israelite met him and proposed. 'Give it to me, and I will pay you as you pay him,' it is permitted; but if he presented him to the Israelite, it is forbidden.9  Now, the second clause is well, for there the...

... ruling is in the direction of greater stringency; but as for the first clause, since the law of agency does not apply to a heathen, it is he [the Israelite] who takes interest from him [his fellow-Israelite]!10  — R. Huna b. Manoah said in the name of R. Aha, the son of R. Ika: Here it is meant that he [the heathen] said to him [the Israelite], 'put it [the money] on the ground and you may...

... go.'11  If so, why state it? — But, said R. Papa, it means, e.g., that he [the heathen] took it [from the first creditor] and personally gave it [to the second]. Yet even so, why state it? — I might think that the heathen himself, in acting so, transfers the money pursuant to the wish of the Israelite,12  therefore it is taught otherwise. R. Ashi said: When do we maintain that...

... Structure of the Talmud Files I.e., on behalf of a Jew borrowing from a Jew. Infra 75b. I.e., a surety on behalf of a Jewish borrower to a Gentile lender. [I.e., according to Persian law, v. B.B. 173b.] From the point of view of Jewish law there are two transactions in this loan: the surety borrows money from the Gentile and pays interest thereon, and lends money to the Jew, upon which he receives...

... is legally as himself. But this does not hold good between a Jew and a heathen. Now, in the second clause, where the heathen presents the Jewish borrower to the Jewish lender, yet actually gives his own money, the transaction should be permitted, because he cannot be legally regarded as the Jew's agent. Nevertheless, since the transaction does appear as between two Jews, the heathen acting merely...

... as a vehicle of delivery, the Rabbis recognised the principle of agency, and forbade it. But in the first clause, where the Jew actually gives the money to his fellow-Jew, why should he be regarded as an agent of the heathen, and the transaction rendered legal? So that the second Jew does not receive it from the first. I.e., that he is merely the means of the actual loan from one Jew to another. V...

...', those whom it includes must be similar to 'ye'. In Kid. 41b; hence just as a heathen cannot be deputed to separate terumah, so he is invalid in all other matters. Hence in the first clause under discussion the loan is permissible, if the second Jew was presented to the heathen, even if the money passed directly from one Jew to another. I.e., the same exegesis which shows that the agents must be Jews...

... suffering brings sympathy from people - which they cannot purchase with their money. Although sympathy is not love but a very poor substitute, something is better than nothing. These people have never been loved by anyone. Those who have loved them have loved their money; those who have been friends with them have been friends because of their money. I was a professor in a university and in the whole...

...;Although he has so much money, he is suffering. We don't have that much money but we are not suffering, we are still in a higher state of mind than him." There is no harm in sympathizing with the person... but the person cannot leave his suffering because the moment he leaves his suffering all those sympathizers will be gone. He is caught in a net. And his life has not been a total lie - he has only...

... been an earning machine. He has earned enough - at the cost of everything that is valuable, at the cost of everything which cannot be purchased with money. You cannot purchase love with money, you cannot purchase truth with money, you cannot purchase beauty with money, you cannot purchase understanding with money; you cannot purchase anything that has real value with money. He has wasted his whole...

... life in earning money and now he is at a dead end. Money is there and he is just a beggar. His whole life he has learned only one art: how to earn more and more. He has never paid any attention to great music, to great art, to great paintings, to great architecture, although there was time. His whole life was devoted to one thing - he had only one god: money. Now the money is there but he remains a...

... very primitive barbarous being - uncivilized, uncultured, unsophisticated. I have heard a small story which will help you.... Mulla Nasruddin was very rich - it is a Sufi story - and he had devoted his whole life to earning money. One day a friend said, "Mulla, you are getting old but you have never seen a movie." Mulla said, "I don't have any time." The man said, "I have...

... brought a ticket for you too. You don't have to waste money, just a little time." Mulla goes with him to the movie. In the movie there is a classical singer, and the whole movie is around the life of that classical singer. Indian classical music is totally different from that of the West; it is far more scientific. Each scale is played in a different way, and for each time of day there are...

... music! This is not classical music, I tell you. I had a goat which cried 'ahhhh, ahhhh, ahhhh,' the whole night and finally died. This man is certain to die. Do something!" He had all the money, but only the money. The man was empty, no sensitivity for anything, no understanding for anything. The people you are asking about in Switzerland have beautiful houses, a beautiful land, all the money...

... that they need or perhaps more than they need, but they are stuck. From where is their misery coming? Their misery is coming because they have never learned anything else than accumulating money. Their being is hollow, empty. From that emptiness their misery is coming. And now they have lived with that misery their whole lives; that is their only companion, and that misery is the only thing that they...

... are not worthy to be an emperor. But that was the feudal world; in a capitalist world things have changed. You have to earn money, and you have to earn it fast because life is small and competition is hard. In earning money you forget that there is much more to life than money. Money is nothing; it is a good means of exchange, but more than that it has no value, no spiritual value. Somebody has to...

... point out to the rich people of Switzerland, "You are not rich, you are utterly poor." They have to be made aware that they have lost themselves and found money, they have sold themselves and gathered junk. Unless a rich man realizes his emptiness, there is no way for him to start working to gain the things that he has missed in his life. And it is never too late - because it is only a...

... nonsignificant things, who is busy about the trivial, who is busy about the outside, who is busy about things, commodities, but not about himself. He has completely forgotten himself, he is lost in the world. He thinks of money, possessions, but never of consciousness, because consciousness is not a commodity, it can neither be sold nor purchased, it is useless. A businessman is one who is a utilitarian...

...: poetry is meaningless, religion is meaningless, God is meaningless, because they cannot be converted into saleable objects, you cannot earn money through them. And money is the most significant thing for this type. He can sell himself, he can lose himself, he can destroy his whole life, just to accumulate money. This is the first characteristic of the type. I have heard that two businessmen met in a...

... market. It was the peak of the season, of the year. And one said to the other, "Have you heard that Sheik Fakhruddin, the clothier, died this morning?" The other said, "What! In the middle of the season?" Neither is life meaningful, nor death, only the season. His measurement is money, he measures a man with money; how much you have got, not who you are - that is meaningless. If you...

... have money you are significant, if you don't have money you are nobody. If he pays respect to you, he pays respect to your possessions, never to you. If you lose your possessions he will not even look at you. Once it happened: A rich man became poor. He was in misery and he was saying to his wife, "I believed that I had so many friends. Fifty percent of them have already left me, and the other...

... fifty percent do not yet know that I have become poor." All of them are going to leave, they were never with you. You cannot have a friendship with a businessman. No, he is only friendly with the money that you have. The moment money is not there, the friendship disappears - it was never with you. You cannot relate to a businessman, that is impossible: you cannot be a wife, you cannot be a...

... husband, you cannot be a son, you cannot be a father to a businessman, because he relates only to money. Everything else is beside the point, his target is money. If your son starts earning money, the son is valuable; if your father is rich, then he is your father; if he is poor, you would not like people to know that he is your father. This actually happens every day in life: you will recognize a...

... father who is rich; if he is a poor man or a beggar, you will not recognize him - you recognize only the money. The businessman - the type - cannot love, because love is the most anti-money phenomenon in the world. Love is concerned with being. Love is a sharing, it is a giving away - not only what you possess, but what you are. A businessman can never be a lover, and a businessman always thinks that...

... lovers are a little crazy, they have gone nuts, they are not in their senses, they are doing nonsense. "Why are you wasting your time? Time is money!" - that's what a businessman says. I have heard about one businessman who purchased one hundred clocks and put them all around his house. Somebody asked, "What are you doing?" He said, "I have heard that time is money, so the more...

... of it the better!" His whole concern is about things, not about persons. Love is concerned with persons, the money- oriented mind is concerned with things. And this type of man is continuously busy; he is never at rest, he cannot be, because there is always more and more to be accumulated. There is no end to it. A man of love can rest. There is a fulfillment when you can rest. But a man after...

... money can never rest because there is no end to it. And there is never fulfillment because money cannot fulfill the soul; the soul remains empty, the inner remains a void. You go on throwing things into it but they never touch your inner emptiness. The more you accumulate, the more you become aware that you are empty, your hands are empty; money is with you but you have lost yourself. Your whole...

... effort is not to look at this fact, because this is very painful. The businessman runs after money more and more. He wants to completely forget himself in the money; money becomes an intoxicant. He is always busy, a businessman is always busy about nothing. I say about nothing, because in the end it proves nothing. All that you possess proves to be as if you were making drawings on water: they...

... moment it would crash. So the minister said, "Okay, there is no time left now. So you just behave as if you are in a church." The businessman walked down the aisle and collected money from people. The type - even at the moment of death he knows only one way to behave in a church: to collect money. At the last moment money still remains the focus. This is the first thing to be understood, then...

... achieve out of it?" And if I say, "Nothing," they simply cannot understand. Why are people coming to me? To learn nothing? To attain nothing? The businessman needs something visible, tangible. If he meditates and money starts falling on him, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and he becomes successful in the world, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and the illness disappears from...

..., "Why?" This 'why' cannot be understood by a businessman. He said, "Why? To earn some money!" The primitive started smiling and again asked, "Why?" This was impossible. The businessman became annoyed and he said, "Why? To have a bank balance so that you can retire and rest, and then there is no need to work." The primitive closed his eyes and said, "I am...

...; A businessman remains a businessman because the type cannot change so easily - unless you become aware of the whole fallacy of postponing, future, money, possessions; unless you become so intense in your awareness that the very intensity burns your type. And if you are not a businessman then you become a religious man. The invitation comes every day, it knocks at your door every day - every moment...

... man has so much time to enjoy and dance and sing that you cannot conceive of it. An ambitious man has no time. Even to love he has no time, because there is always the future, the bank balance, the money that he can get out of this time if this time is used. A businessman even dreams only of business, thinks only of business. HE CAME TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO...

... working out of love. While I was in Poona, thousands of centers around the world were working without any order, without any structure. Each had its own uniqueness its own individuality, and it was upon themselves what to make of it, how to make it. She dissolved all those small, beautiful centers and created big communes simply so that more money can be generated. My interest is not money. My interest...

... is how more consciousness can be generated. But her whole effort and her whole clique was concentratedly working at one goal: how to create more money. And this was necessary, that small centers should be dissolved, people should move into bigger communes, and there should be strict discipline, strict orders, and everybody should be dependent on the commune for everything. Naturally, more money can...

... be produced. But what we are going to do with the money? Money is not a value. It is useful, but it is not something that has to be worshipped, that you have to make a goal of it. So my situation now is that if you feel bigger communes are difficult to maintain -- they will be difficult -- without structures, without somebody dictating everything from higher up and you have simply to follow... now...

... there will be nobody else to do it. I have never ordered anybody to do anything and I have never dictated anybody -- that is against human dignity. So I would like that if your bigger communes are becoming difficult to run disperse them, let your small communes sprout up again in different places. And we have nothing to do by generating money. We have to generate more consciousness and more living and...

... thinking that she has been very clever because she has accumulated money in Switzerland -- that's why in Germany she has created these six communes, destroyed all small communes. And Germany has a tendency -- you have to be aware of that -- Adolf Hitler does not happen from nowhere. It comes from your consciousness, it is something in your unconscious that creates that monster. Why she concentrated on...

... Germany? She could see that Germany can be structured, people can be enslaved, disciplined... they love me. In the name of my love they will be ready to do anything. And all the money she was siphoning into Switzerland and it is just a guess -- American government thinks twenty million dollars she has in one bank account. Her own secretary who left her two years before because she had cancer and had to...

... go for treatment in California remembers that at the time she left she had forty-three million dollars in two bank accounts. And she left two years before. So there is every possibility that she may be having something nearabout sixty, seventy or eighty million dollars in her own name. But this is what I was saying. That money is not a value. Now she will rot in a jail her whole life and the money...

... will rot in a bank. And you all worked for that money and for Sheela unnecessarily. It was a sheer wastage. So now make it a point that no more of anything that Sheela may have left in your minds should remain in the communes, in the sannyasins -- it has to be cleaned. So if big communes can be run without destroying people's freedom, individuality -- good. If you feel it is difficult, make smaller...

... communes, smaller centers and let people live according to their own ideas. That's my whole message to the sannyasins. Now whatever Sheela has done has to be undone. And it has been in a way a blessing in disguise. It has been a good learning. It should not happen again. BHAGWAN, I KNOW THE MONEY SOURCE OF THE COMMUNES -- OF COLOGNE AND MANY OF THE OTHER COMMUNES -- TWO OF THE BIG COMMUNES, AND I KNOW...

... THAT THEY WERE HARDLY, OR WE WERE HARDLY ABLE TO GATHER THE MONEY FOR GOING TO THE FESTIVALS. SO JUST FROM THIS FACTUAL SIDE, I KNOW THAT THIS MONEY SHEELA HAS IS NOT COMING FROM THE BIG COMMUNES. JUST THE FACTUAL INFORMATION, I DON'T KNOW WHICH INFORMATION YOU GET. BUT KNOWING THE COLOGNE BUSINESS AND THE MONEY FLOW IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE FOR HER OR FOR ANYBODY TO TAKE OUR MONEY BECAUSE WE WERE REALLY...

... WORKING HARD TO GET THE MONEY TOGETHER TO GO TO THE FESTIVAL. IT'S LIKE A COMMUNE OF THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE, WE COULD TAKE ABOUT ONE POINT FOUR MILLION DEUTSCHE MARKS TO BRING EVERYBODY OVER TO THE FESTIVAL. I can understand it may not be coming from the communes, then it must be coming from rich sannyasins directly of which you were not aware and you cannot be aware that, and she will not make anybody...

... aware. Money must have been coming because even in my case the government raised again and again the question that twenty million are there in Swiss accounts, in Sheela's name. And Sheela's old secretary says there were forty-three when she left. And it is possible because in the commune in Rajneeshpuram we have invested almost more than two hundred million dollars. So it is possible that from...

... individual sources... and more informations are coming that Sheela was also dealing in heavy drugs. These were just known to few people who were partners in it. That she was also dealing in gold and this dealing was continuing from Poona days and now everything that people who have been participants in those dealings are going to be witnesses in the court. So the money may have come from drugs, from gold...

..., from individual people -- it is difficult for us to figure out. It may not have come from the communes. But the effort was to structure communes in such a way that soon they can become sources of money. Money was some kind of phobia in her mind but now you have to start fresh from the scratch and don't expect anything that you have become accustomed with Sheela and her group. I will not be giving you...

... directions how to run your communes, how to make more money... I will not be dictating anything because I trust in your intelligence -- you should function out of your intelligence. It is better to fail, but work through your own intelligence. Rather than to succeed on somebody else guidance. That success is not of any value. So spread the idea that sannyas is reborn, it was a nightmare that is ended and...

... the power of the world, you have all the money of the world -- we don't have anything. If we can make a society for four years where there has never been a rape, a murder, a theft, any other kind of crime... why can't you make such a society? There is nobody unemployed, not a single beggar. America has thirty million beggars on the streets dying. We had accept two hundred street people and they...

... the world of crime, did not commit a single crime. We proved a far better communism in the commune because we stopped the circulation of money in the commune -- nobody should use money in the commune. You can donate to the commune but you cannot purchase by money. So you may have million dollars and somebody may not have a single dollar, but you are not rich by having a million dollars because you...

... Babylonian Talmud: Nazir 25         Previous Folio / Nazir Directory / Tractate List / Navigate Site Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Nazir Folio 25a But money for a sinoffering is included in it?1  — R. Johanan said: This is a traditional rule2  relating to the nazirite. Resh Lakish said: The Torah says, [in the verse] Whether it be any of their vows or any of...

... their-freewill offerings.3  This indicates that anything left over from [money subscribed for] vowed offerings is to be spent on freewill-offerings.4 Now if we accept the view of R. Johanan who says that this ruling concerning the nazirite is traditional, we can understand why it [applies only to] a lump sum of money and not to earmarked money.5  But on Resh Lakish's view that it is derived...

... from the verse, Whether it be any of their vows, or any of their freewill offerings, why should it apply only to money in a lump sum? Surely it should also apply to earmarked monies? — Raba replied: You cannot maintain that the reference is also to specific monies, for a Tanna of the School of R. Ishmael has already given a [different] decision [as follows]: The verse, Only thy holy things...

... Should not this be 'taken to the Dead Sea'? Lit., 'a halachah'. Lev. XXII, 18. And here there is money left over from the naziriteship money. For presumably the tradition mentioned one and not the other. Deut. XII, 26. The words in themselves are superfluous. Substitution of a sacrifice was not allowed, and if it was attempted both animals became sacred, v. Lev. XXVII, 33. Deut. XII, 27. I.e...

...., sacrifice it in the same way. 'Offspring' is not mentioned in connection with the burnt-offering or guilt-offering because these are males. That they be offered as guilt-offerings or sin-offerings. The particle, er only, is one of the particles invariably considered to indicate a limitation of the rule that follows it. Lev. V, 19. The word [H] 'it is', is emphatic in the Hebrew'. Hence if money is ear...

... Structure of the Talmud Files Since it says, 'Thou shalt take (them) etc.' When it would be sold and the money devoted to sacred purposes. Viz.: that only the others are to be sacrificed and not this one. A prohibition inferred from a positive command, as here, is called a positive precept. Lit., 'was transferred (from the category of guilt-offering) to pasture.' And the flesh may be burnt on the altar...

.... As a guilt-offering and if offered as a burnt-offering, the flesh is not fit for the altar. That no account is taken of the presence of money that should have gone to purchase a sin-offering, but the whole of the money if in a lump sum is utilised for freewill-offerings. As well as the nazirite. E.g., a leper who must offer on recovery a sin-offering and a burnt-offering, and may provide birds if...

..., in the ultimate analysis, ordinary success proves to be a failure -- utter failure. I always say: Nothing fails like success. You may have accumulated much money, then one day suddenly you find life is gone. Money is there, but you are gone -- so what is the point of this success? You indulge with many women, with many men: energy is wasted, and suddenly there you are -- a desert land, a wasteland...

... Ganges into their mouths -- but they themselves are still thinking of sex, or money, or power. This is a very stupid way of living life. Kabir says: I don't live by sense, and I don't live by law. Then there is another way which is also stupid in the same way, but more respectable -- stupid, but more respectable: people who live by law, who always follow the authority -- the state, the priest, the...

...: I AM NEITHER BOND NOR FREE, I AM NEITHER DETACHED NOR ATTACHED. Both are wrong -- both are extremists. People are attached to money, and then they become detached from money. To have any attitude of attachment or detachment means you are still obsessed with the money. Somebody says, "I am detached from money" -- but why? What is the point of being detached from money? Is there still some...

... fear of attachment lurking in your consciousness? -- because the idea of detachment arises only when you are attached. When you are not attached it is perfectly okay... money is money! There are people who think that money is the only god: these are the people who are attached with money -- their only god is money. Then there are people who say that money is dirt; not much difference -- the have...

... moved to another polarity: money is dirt. They won't touch money. There are such mad people in India -- they are worshiped by people as sages. They are simply perverted people; they won't touch money. Once it happened: I was staying in a village and a man came and he gave me nearabout five thousand rupees. A very rich man -- but very traditional. I told him, "Right now I don't need the money, but...

... if I need it sometime, I will ask you." He had come to examine me -- whether I would take the money or not. But this statement was puzzling for him because I had not said that I would not take it; I said, "When I need, I will ask you." And I had not taken and not accepted because I was in no need. So he was very much puzzled. He said, "You have confused me again. I had come here...

... with this money because my guru said, "You go, and you will see: take the money to this man -- that is the only criterion to know whether somebody has achieved or not. If he has achieved, he will say: Keep it away, don't bring it close to me, money is dirt. He will not touch it." You have not taken -- that's okay -- but you say that if you need, you will take it?" I said, "Yes...

... -- because money is neither God nor dirt; money is simply money. And money is a utilitarian thing -- when you need, money is valuable; when you don't need, there is no value in it. The value is not in the money; money in itself is not valuable. It is just a simple means of exchange -- and a perfectly good means of exchange. Nothing is wrong in it." He said, "You always puzzle. Why can't you give...

... me a certainty? -- either you take it or you refuse it." In India there are saints whose whole sainthood depends on this phenomenon -- that they don't accept money. If you bring money to them they will be very angry. They will be enraged, they will start shouting at you: "What do you think about me? Do you think that I am so low that I will accept your money?" And you will come back...

... full of deep respect for them. These are mad people, perverted people. They are the same people, now standing on their heads -- first they thought that money is God, now they think that money is dirt. But they cannot accept a simple phenomenon -- that money is money. It is neither God nor dirt; it is not the greatest value nor the lowest -- it is just a utilitarian means of exchange. Kabir says: I AM...