[Avodah] Conflict -- the value of money...

[Micha Berger]

In honor of the parashah in which Yaaqov goes back for some small jugs,
I liked the question posted in this mailing from torah.org. More than the
answer, so I'll just share the question as a discussion piece for the
chevrah...

-micha

Edutainment Weekly
by Jon Erlbaum

"Ipods, Eyeballs, & Happiness?"
(Insights from this week's Portion: <u>Vayishlach</u>)

INTRODUCING... A CLASH OF 2 COMPETING QUOTES (LET'S GET READY TO
RUMBLE!). WHICH CLASSIC QUOTE WILL EMERGE VICTORIOUS?

In the first corner, we have this week's RRR-1 (Relevant Religious
Reference #1):
    One who makes a vow to ABSTAIN from wine is a considered a 'sinner'"
    (because he has DENIED one of the permitted pleasures that his
    Creator made available)
			-- Babylonian Talmud, Nazir 19A.
VS. 
And in the other corner, we have this Week's RRR-2 (Relevant Religious
Reference #2):
    Eat bread with salt, drink water in small measure, sleep on the
    ground, live a LIFE OF DEPRIVATION... If you do this, you will be
    happy...
    			-- Ethics of the Fathers (Avos), 6:4

THE I-POD & THE EYE-BALL

The secret to happiness? A Panasonic 58" Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV, hands
down! Come to think of it, I'm pretty partial to the iPod Touch. And
dare I neglect to mention the iPhone 5G (coming soon, to an online
merchant near me), the newly anointed "APPLE" of my eye? Speaking of
my eye, by the way, I think we've stumbled upon the happiness dilemma:
neither the I-POD nor the I-PHONE is any match for the EYE-BALL, which
is constantly scoping the scene to find the next best thing. So what
does Judaism send us as a recipe for true happiness? A mixed message!

On one hand, we are held accountable for all of life's "permitted
pleasures" that we abstain from and don't take advantage of. And on the
other hand, we're told we can somehow be happy through living "a life of
deprivation" (see the 2 competing RRR quotes above). Can we really attain
pleasure through salt and sleeping bags, as the 2nd quote suggests? And
how does that strategy mesh with the 1st quote's mandate of making sure
to sample the smorgasbord of life's pleasures?
...

[The author's answer is at
<http://torah.org/learning/edutainment/5769/vayishlach.html>]