Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Amsal 15:15

Who is the rich one? He who is happy with his lot: [This is] the one who says, "I have enough with my lot: since I am able to support myself and my household and to engage in Torah [study], what is there [for] me with [any] other money - it is only for me to have what I need and to uphold the word of God." As one who is not happy with his lot and is not satisfied with what God, may He be blessed, gave him is a poor person; as it is explained in the verse (Proverbs 15:15), "All the days of a poor man are bad, but one with a good heart has a constant feast." He wanted to say [in this verse] that all the days of a 'poor man' that desires money are bad - 'a lover of money never has his fill of money': but all the days of the one with a good heart, who is happy with his lot, are good (as the one) [like] one who makes a constant feast. Hence it is an extremely good trait to be happy with his lot. And he is called rich, since God, may He be blessed, gave him with what to support himself and engage in Torah and in the commandments. As 'what is the advantage to man in all of his toil,' except to fulfill the Torah and the commandments.

Bahya writes. “Better a little with fear of the Lord than great wealth with confusion” [Proverbs, 15:15]. King Solomon teaches us that it is better to acquire little money with the fear of God. That is to say, honestly accumulated is much better than accumulating great wealth unjustly through theft or usury. King Solomon said near this how one should acquire the honest [kosher] penny. He said: “better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fatted ox where there is hate” [Proverbs, 15:17]. That is to say, the best honest penny is to be acquired where one can. Therefore, he says that it is better to eat vegetables without meat, if there is love in it. That is to say, no person hates him because he has not sworn falsely against any person, taken usury or stolen it. This much better than a person who eats fat ox meat and there is hatred with it. That is to say, he acquired much money and eats well and the people hate him because he had taken it from them or had sworn falsely or stolen it, since the worst sin is stealing. Our sages said that a full measure of sins is not so evil as stealing. The Holy One signs the decree against the people because of stealing. We find that the Holy One drowned the whole world with the Flood because of stealing. Though they engaged in illicit sexual relations and worshiped idols, yet the Holy One did not kill them except because of stealing. Bahya writes, “Better a little with fear of the Lord” [Proverbs, 15:15]. This means that the person should take an example from the fact that the person desires to eat vegetables without meat, if only there is love with it, with good friends or with a good wife who does not complain to her husband and there love for each other. Then the vegetables without meat are tastier than ox meat, and the enmity that goes with it.¹Bahya, Exodus, Pekudei, Introduction.

The Midrash also writes. “All the days of a poor man are wretched” [Proverbs, 15:15].⁴Yalkut Shimoni, Proverbs, Remez, 953. That is to say, the person who is poor, it is good for him to believe that he is always fearful that he does not have enough. He remembers that he is a poor man. He does not eat his bread to satiety. All of his days are painful and he is always sorrowful. “But contentment is a feast without end” [Proverbs, 15:15]. The one who relies on God is always happy. He eats and drinks all the time with a happy heart. The person who does not have enough money, according to his opinion, his thoughts are that he must steal from people. He always wants to increase his accounts. These are among the greatest of sins, as the Talmud says in [tractate] Baba Kamma. When someone steals even a penny from his friend, it is like he steals his soul.⁵B. Baba Kamma, 119a. Not only that, but when he owes him wages and tarries and does not pay him immediately it is like he stole his soul, as the Talmud says in [tractate] Baba Mezia, chapter nine. When someone owes his friend wages and says to him, come tomorrow, and he does this every day, it is like he stole his soul.⁶B. Baba Mezia, 112a. It is a much more severe sin when someone steals from his friend than when he steals from charity or the synagogue, as the Talmud says in [tractate Baba Bathra], chapter five. There are many people who steal and perform mitzvot with that money. They think they have done a mitzvah with that. However, the Talmud says in [tractate] Sukkah.⁷B. Sukkah, 30a. Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Simeon. The verse says, “I hate robbery with a burnt offering” [Isaiah, 61:8]. He hates the person who steals and brings a sacrifice from that money or performs a mitzvah with it. He cannot recite a blessing over the money that he stole, as the Talmud says in the first chapter of [tractate] Sanhedrin.⁸B. Sanhedrin, 6b. Rabbi Eliezer the son of Jacob said. When someone steals a measure of grain or wheat and makes dough from it and gives hallah, how can he recite a blessing? He angers the Holy One with the blessing, as the verse says, “the grasping man reviles and scorns the Lord” [Psalms, 10:3]. That is to say, the one who steals and recites a blessing over it, angers the Holy One. The sin is great even for a gentile, as the Talmud says in [tractate] Baba Kamma. The sin is greater when one steals or robs from a gentile, than when he steals from a Jew, since it is a desecration of the Divine Name.⁹B. Baba Kamma, 113b.