The Price of Faith, Being Jewish

For those of you new to Free Money Finance, I post on The Bible and Money every Sunday. Here's why.

Here's a piece from CNN Money that discusses the price of faith, what Jews, Muslims, and Christians have to pay/spend related to their faiths. Here's how Cnn Money describes the series:

To explore how religion affects the way people manage their money, we visited with three families of different faiths who are struggling to reconcile their spiritual beliefs with their wallets. Their stories, and our advice to them, follow. What all three households have in common: the desire to let faith guide their economic prospects, without undermining their family's security or long-term goals. As you'll see, that isn't always an easy task.

I thought I'd highlight this piece in three different posts and give my comments along the way. Today we'll cover the costs associated with being Jewish (or at least Orthodox Jewish.) Here's a summary of what they have to spend because of their faith:

• $18,000 per year for religious school tuition
• $5,000 charitable giving
• $3,600 synagogue dues and events
• $2,000 extra cost for kosher food
• $28,600 Total

In addition, they bought a more expensive house because it was within a Jewish community that "permits certain activities" at a cost of $100,000 more than they would have paid for a similar home in a non-Orthodox neighborhood. Then they also spent $30k renovating the kitchen to help them keep kosher.

A few other highlights:

• Husband and wife are 36 and 33 years old.
• They make $135,000 a year.
• Their net worth is $234,000.
• They have $25,000 in credit card debt.

My take/comments:

1. These people claim to have a tough time making ends meet despite the fact that they have a great income (FYI, this is a theme you'll see with all three of these couples of faith.) It's mind-blowing that someone making $135k in Houston is having budget troubles.

2. That said, they have a decent net worth for their ages. I'm guessing they're ahead of the pack.

3. The credit card debt seems strange to me. Why do they even have it?

4. I was surprised that they didn't tithe. Even if they combined their synagogue dues and events dollars with their charitable giving, they aren't tithing. If Orthodox Jews don't tithe, who does?

5. Wow on the home costs. I never knew this was an issue, but that's a big, big faith-related expense.

Any thoughts on this from Jewish readers or those more familiar with the Jewish faith?

Comments

[Real Man]

People that feel they have to lead with their religion--in how they dress, how they style their hair, how they eat, and what shallow rules and holidays they must obey--are absolute fools. This applies to all religions, not just Jewishness.

I am elated that people who act like lemmings and put religion before there own well-being are suffering. I would only hope that more religious fools suffer the same exact, or worse, financial fate. I have no respect for them or their silly, misguided beliefs.

[Real Man]

People that feel they have to lead with their religion--in how they dress, how they style their hair, how they eat, and what shallow rules and holidays they must obey--are absolute fools. This applies to all religions, not just Jewishness.

I am elated that people who act like lemmings and put religion before there own well-being are suffering. I would only hope that more religious fools suffer the same exact, or worse, financial fate. I have no respect for them or their silly, misguided beliefs.

[MC]

I'm religious, but I'm against organized religion. Among other things, they're always demanding huge amounts of money.

On the contrary, I feel that my primary duty is to take care of my own family, and after that, I contribute to a number of individuals and causes that spend a high proportion of donations on the actual need.

Wealthy Protestant churches running their own music programs and TV stations? They obviously don't need my money more than I do.

[Maria]

Faith is such a personal issue, and the practice of a given religion in recognition of that faith is a personal choice colored by so many things. Family, spouse, community, sometimes even your profession or job make it difficult to make choices based on criteria other than those perscribed by that religion. That said, no one's religious practices that incur expenses can be without scrutiny. Is a particular expense justifiable? Is someone or some organization taking advantage because of a need or practice central to that faith? Lemming like behavior in any area of one's life is self destructive.
The reason I follow this blog is that so many topics are raised that allow for self examination, and if necessary, self improvement.
All behavior that affects monetary resources should be subject to economic reality.
Religious leaders of every ilk should be preaching about personal behaviors that enhance the human experience and help create a world community for the betterment of society. Not to mention helping us to raise children who can be better equipped to solve the multitude of problems that they are inheriting due to the mistakes of the generation before them.

[JoeTaxpayer]

By tithe, you mean hitting 10%? I don't see that after the religious schooling there's enough left to do that. Remember, too, the Orthodox branch is a smaller subset of Judaism. Last numbers suggested 10-11% of Jews considered themselves Orthodox. For reformed or conservative, the synagogue dues are in the right range, but schooling would drop to under $1000 for after hours religious school, similar to Christians CCD. Tough to know how many keep kosher and have that added expense.

[dogatemyfinances]

Wow, this was a really whiny article for expenses they brought on themselves.

$9 for grape juice. Buy a juicer, lady! Groceries too expensive. Grow a garden!

[Matt]

I think that when you are trying to compare what religion is cheaper, you are scraping the bottom of the mud bucket. These stories only serve to cause inflammatory reactions among the less well-educated. Boo on posting this.

[Cathy]

I agree with Matt that this is a strange and unfortunate post in a blog that I respected.

[JerryB]

@Real Man, it takes just as much faith on your part to believe there is no God as it does for me to believe there is One.
Hating someone or feeling they deserve some kind of hardship because of their religion is really sad on your part.

[kate]

Orthodox Jews do tithe, and some even give closer to 20%. However, you can't judge from the skimpy info given here that this couple does not tithe. You would have to go more in depth and question them specifically on that score.

In general, the practice of tithing for Jews and non Jews brings increased wealth and success.

Typically, orthodox Jews are blessed with large families (more than 2 kids) and some are quite large indeed. Clothing the kids, feeding them, paying for their school supplies, and so forth, would not be considered a "religious expense" in this study. So this skimpy amount of info gives a very skewed version of the situation. From the comments it seems to be eliciting less rather than more understanding of a different religious perspective.

A general observation. Whatever the expenses Jews incur for living a traditional religious lifestyle is a "good investment" which in general pays rich returns in the health, happiness, and stability of their families. I have even heard numbers of people comment on the increase in their income from adopting an orthodox Jewish lifestyle later in life.

PS You can certainly keep kosher without doing an expensive kitchen renovation, which is a luxury that not everyone can afford.

[Sarah]

Although practices vary considerably, I know that some rabbis consider it acceptable to deduct the cost of children's Jewish education from the tzedakah.

I'm not sure why you consider it shocking that Orthodox Jews don't tithe the way a modern American fundamentalist would recognize the practice, though. You can't actually believe that readers from a vastly different culture who are reading, in translation, a small percentage of a religion's ancient sacred texts without any further study stand much of a chance of correctly understanding even that religion's ancient practices, much less how those practices have evolved over two millennia-plus to the present day?

[FMF]

Matt/Cathy --

Your reactions are interesting to me. Usually I get "non-religious" people commenting that they hate this topic (The Bible and Money). Now I'm getting "believers" (I assume) criticizing for a totally different reason (because religion wasn't portrayed positively.) Do we really want one-sided polly-anna posts every Sunday? What about looking at real people's lives and how their faith impacts them? Isn't that worthwhile? Or perhaps I should resort to simply a verse of the week -- then the faithful will be happy (presumedly.)

Here's what I write about on Sundays:

*Faith
*Money
*My thoughts on them

I'm interested in looking at all angles on these issues -- things I believe in and things I don't -- then adding my thoughts. Just like the stuff that gets posted during the week, it's likely you won't agree with everything 100%.

Sarah --

I'm counting the days until your vacation. :-)

If you'd like to enlighten us all on what Jews actually believe about tithing (since you're saying I don't know what it is), I'm sure many people would be interested.

[Jeff M]

Why does tithing have to be 10 percent of your "annual income"? I understand that the bible states that you are supposed to give your "first fruits" but a large portion of your money you never get to see. I know there is ongoing debate about this, but in my book you are tithing if you give 10% of your take home pay, and for this couple $8,600 could well be 10 percent, and they get even closer if you consider a portion of the school costs as charity.

If for example the government is taking 90% of what you earn (impossible in practice, but this is just an illustration), does the bible command you to give all of your remaining income to charity?

[borkley]

@Jeff M: A Tithe has to be 10% because it literally means 10%. The root of the word is from an old English word meaning a tenth. You could donate or contribute a different amount but that would not be a tithe.

As for the question of why the Jews do not tithe, well tithing is a tradition specific to Christianity. In nearly all modern Jewish congregations, a set amount of dues are determined, and all members pay their dues in order to keep the temple and congregation running. If a Jewish family wishes to donate additionally funds to either the temple or another organization, they would do so through tzedakah, which literally translates to 'justice' but in modern parlance is equivalent to 'charity'. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzedakah

[FMF]

Thanks for the insight, Borkley.

Sarah -- See how you can actually be helpful/informative without being snarky? ;-)

[Pureboy]

"They spent another $30,000 renovating the kitchen. Among the upgrades: putting in two sinks, two ovens, and two dishwashers - one for meat and one for dairy."

They could stay completely within Orthodox standards and have one sink, one oven, and one dishwasher. Most strictly kosher apartments in Manhattan certainly do. I don't know anyone in the West Los Angeles community with more than one oven. The dishwasher is more difficult, as it can only wash dairy or meat plates, not both. Two sinks is really helpful, but not required.

One reason they might be doing this is community standards. Sometimes a community adopts standards that are stricter than what is totally necessary. There are good and bad reasons for that, but it could very well be that "trustworthy" kosher homes in this Houston community have all those kitchen amenities. Again, in Manhattan, that would be preposterous simply because of space constraints.

One of the reasons the cost of Jewish education is so high is that, in many communities, over half the students are on scholarship, so effectively one half of the tuition is paying for part of the other half. In my community, people are seeking alternatives such as creating charter schools with Jewish studies after hours on the same campus, or pooling resources for some sort of home schooling. Of course, if that is taking away from the base of full-tuition paying students, the mainstream Jewish schools could collapse.

I also wonder about the tzedakah (charitable giving) amount. One is supposed to tithe, but it would certainly be after taxes, if not other expenses. If you factor in tuition and synagogue expenses and likely what the father is giving during weekday synagogue services, it could be well over 10%. The real estate costs are right on the money- houses within walking distance to growing Orthodox communities always carry a premium. Its simple supply/demand.

Kosher food on a budget is very difficult. I was just having a conversation with my wife about cutting expenses, and with the price of kosher meat, especially after the Agriprocessors debacle, it is not so easy to save money on kosher food. Many staple products can be bought in all normal supermarkets, but not meat or poultry, and some dairy is a problem, as well. For some that take on certain stringencies, dairy becomes even more expensive.

I can't speak about the credit card debt- that has nothing to do with religion!

Fantastic blog, BTW. Found it a while ago via Consumerist, and I check it at least once a week.

[EmeraldO]

"They could stay completely within Orthodox standards and have one sink, one oven, and one dishwasher. Most strictly kosher apartments in Manhattan certainly do. I don't know anyone in the West Los Angeles community with more than one oven. The dishwasher is more difficult, as it can only wash dairy or meat plates, not both. Two sinks is really helpful, but not required."

OR......you could do the right thing, like everyone else, and refuse to accept being told what not to do just because of some stupid religious belief. Who the heck cares what food is cooked with what food? What fabric can touch another fabric? Why let this crap clutter your life and waste your time and your money!? Lead your own life, follow your own beliefs, or none at all, but please do not follow the herd and be lead down the path of moral, financial and ethical ruin, just because it feels good or it some else, wearing a funny hat, tells you you have to.

I am NOT singling you out at all here, Pureboy. This applies to all religions and faiths, not just the shallow, selfish, touchy-feely ones.

[ne[email protected] Pilgrim]

This is a bold post.

I am Jewish yet not Orthodox.

You have to add on the cost of education. I sent my kids to Jewish day school for awhile which we didn't really like but it did cost about $9k per year per kid. Much more than other religious schools and I have no idea why.

We moved and saved that expense but we still had Hebrew school and higher dues at temple because of the family. Then we had Hebrew High when the kids got old enough.

I don't know if everyone tithes - we don't use that term in my temple but there is plenty of talk about giving.

It's expensive to be Jewish but for a Jew, it's a lot more expensive not to support our community. At least that is my opinion.

[Apex]

The detractors to religious belief who have posted here have made some very good and convincing arguments.

As a result I have decided to abandon my faith because I am attracted to what I see in them.

Hopefully soon I too will have learned to treat people who think differently than me with disdain, mocking them and promoting myself and my own wisdom which I have gathered in all my 38 years on this earth which is obviously vastly superior to the wisdom that has been collected in any ethical guides by thousands of people over thousands of years.

[Dotty dot dot]

FMF -- I agree that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but in the spirit of tolerance, could you remove EmeraldO's comment?

It's rude, mean spirited and destructive, especially his ignorant comment about people "wearing a funny hat".

[Bill]

I agree with some of the above posters...and your own analysis. Keeping an Orthodox (jewish anyway) lifestyle is no different from any other "religion" in the sense that you live within your means. I know many Orthodox Jews who do not have $30,000 kitchen renovations (or anything close to that). It cost me less than $1000 to make my kitchen kosher.Eating kosher food in American Society is very easy given the large numbers of products that are certified kosher at most supermarkets. $9 for kosher juice is insane...I buy it in bulk for $2.99 (for 96 ounces) at Stop & Shop. That people could even spend $9 on it is surprising.

I find that the cost of "my insane religoius beliefs" is usually less expensive than the "religion" of sports, nail salons, pet care, granite countertops, childrens "growth" activities (endless hours of clinics, coaching and tutoring to make future sports has-beens), tuner cars, cable TV and find yourself vacations. It's all just in what you want to spend your money on, but regardless of the activity it still needs to be within your means.

[john g]

Financial decisions based on spiritual beliefs are very personal and not subject to the approval of others. Often on web-sites, judgement is made concerning such personal decisions as smoking, coffee drinking, and cost of hair cuts......!?!? Why do people think that their opinions matter concerning another's life style? if more money is your only goal....never have children, eat cheap crappy food and live in the worst house in the poorest part of town...oh yeah...never have friends or fall in love because you might have to spend some money....jeez....lighten up folks and quit being so judemental...it's great that these folks have conviction that they live by.....God bless them.

[Cathy]

"Now I'm getting 'believers' (I assume) criticizing for a totally different reason (because religion wasn't portrayed positively.)"

I'm not a believer. My point is that judging the expenses a person chooses to make for religious reasons is divisive to the point of being unprofessional, especially when you do that judging in a space that you usually use to promote your religious beliefs.

[FMF]

Apex --

You crack me up! ;-)

Dotty --

It's a close call, but still allowable under my rules for when a comment goes too far. He doesn't attack another person and he's not posting hate-filled comments just to degrade another race, group, etc. In addition, I think the comment reflects more negatively on him than it does on those he's talking about.

Bill --

Good points about other "religions."

[Neil]

Hi

As a christian I would say that a lot of these expenses are deliberately putting distance between one religion and another (sending children to single-faith schools, living in a particular area etc.) I personally think that religeon should as much as possible be a matter for the home, with education and everyday life lived together with people from different faiths. The lessons of the past teach us that separate communities breed distrust.

I am aware however that I am a christian living in a (at least nominally) christian country so maybe I have everything the way I want it without having to make an effort.

[Barbara]

Perhaps if you are interested in Jewish philantropy you should take a look at the perecentage of giving nationwide to various foundations and causes as well as contacting Jewish charities- United Jewish Communities, for example. I think you will find overall that Jews are among the most if not the most philanthropic of Americans. Your focus in this post is a bit narrow for a real discussion on "tithing" or giving( tzedakah).

[FMF]

Cathy --

I'm not "judging", I'm "commenting" on. That's what this site is BTW, my comments on personal finance.

[FMF]

Barbara --

It's not my focus -- it's from CNN Money. I just commeneted on it.

If you or anyone else reading this would like to write a guest post on tithing or giving (tzedakah) from a Jewish perspective, I would LOVE to post it.

[Barbara]

Yes- but the comments are focused on the subject and it's important to expand the view for all the readers. I'll give thougt to the subject from a Jewish perspective.

[Paul]

I find it a bit sad that CNN choooses to write an article about religion as if it might be a financial burden to participants of that religion.

[guinness416]

Pureboy - I had the same thought regarding New York. I worked with a number of Orthodox and other variously observant Jews during my time in NYC and for most of them additional kitchen fixtures would never fit in their very small Bk/Queens/Manhattan apartments where often having even one dishwasher is a luxury!

CNN says that these requirements apply to 13% of US Jews (a figure I'm not qualified to comment on) so their headline of "how much [religion] costs" seems a bit of an exaggeration. The same would apply to the Muslim and Protestant couples profiled I'm assuming.

[MLR]

My g/f is jewish.

The act of tithing itself is contested in the Jewish faith. Some Rabbi's actually say it is sinful to tithe nowadays, whereas some still accept tithes.

As many mentioned, Hebrew school can be considered as part of your tithing.

Jews often pay for their seats in a synagogue and get sent bills (can't handle money on the Sabbath). This would be comparable to the collection plate being passed around. A lot of people gift more to help pay for the staff and synagogue expenses.

Most people I have talked to look more at the attitude of the giver and the quality of the gift. Someone who makes $10,000/year and tithes $500 impresses me a lot more than someone who makes $100,000/year and tithes $15,000/year.

And I also think volunteering time is a lot more important than giving money.

To each his own.

[Sarah]

FMF, my comment was critical, but it wasn't snarky. I think you're an intelligent man. If, as I understand you to be, you're a conservative American Protestant with no particular further training in Jewish studies, Biblical languages, or non-Christian religious history, and you actually are under the impression that what your religion tells you about tithing has much of anything to do with Jewish charitable practice, ancient or modern, then I guess I'll have to modify that belief. But I actually am convinced you know better. The conservative American Christian view that they know all about Jews because really Christians are just Jews fulfilled is ignorant to the point of offensiveness, so I sincerely hope I'm right.

[FMF]

Sarah --

Are you trying to be helpful/constructive in any way? If so, it's not working.

[Dan]

With respect to tithing, this family seems to come pretty close or meet its tithe. If they make $135,000 salary that's about $94,500 after taxes (assuming 30% rate for simplicity). Tithe is $9,450. They give $8,600 in charity and synagogue dues.

I am pretty sure that many authorities on tithing permit some percentage of religious tuition as tithe as well (after all, the school is a charitable institution). Also, I seem to recall some opinion that "income" for tithe calculations even excludes rent/mortage. It certainly is calculated with after-tax income, not pre-tax salary.

[Jim]

I agree with John's comment: "Financial decisions based on spiritual beliefs are very personal and not subject to the approval of others."

[Noam]

Just a quick point:

The Jewish obligation for giving one tenth, while in Hebrew is "maaser", or literally a tenth, should not be assumed to be overly comparable with the Christian version of "tithing". Maaser (which is sometimes referred to simply as "tzedaka") is not especially meant to be given to one's synagogue; rather, it can be given with equal preference to a wide variety of places, including charitable organizations, non-profits, needy individuals, and more. Also, as has already been mentioned, religious school dues are widely viewed as part of charitable giving, so when Orthodox parents in the New York area, for example, spend $20,000 PER CHILD PER YEAR for Jewish Day School tuition (and it's very typical in Orthodox communities to have at least 3 or 4 kids), the tithing picture becomes very different.

[Noam]

Addendum:

Yes, it is pretty universally held that income is subject to maaser (giving one tenth) after taxes and certain other expenses. For one Orthodox rabbi's detailed explanation of how to give maaser, see this page: http://rabbi.bendory.com/docs/maaser.php

And while it's a very informative page, please do remember that within "Orthodox Judaism" there are usually around 1000 opinions on every subject, so not all Orthodox Jews will precisely agree with everything in the above link, but it will give you a decent idea of how it works.

[Observer]

Looks like poor people cannot afford to be religious.

[Emily]

A note about having to live in a specific neighborhood: most Orthodox Jews don't drive on the sabbath, yet need to attend religious services during that time, which necessitates living in close proximity (walking distance) to the house of worship they attend. The purpose is not to separate themselves from others, but to enable them to practice their religous beliefs.

I can't say it surprises me to see such scathing remarks from some people, but it's always a little shocking to read them. If believing in something "silly" like religion helps you lead a fulfilling life, that's great. If you've found that religion does nothing for you, more power to you. To each his own, and as long as the choice remains, I'm content in keeping that belief.

[Kimberly]

I think that when you are trying to compare what religion is cheaper, you are scraping the bottom of the mud bucket. These stories only serve to cause inflammatory reactions among the less well-educated. Boo on posting this. :(

[Johhny]

I'm not sure why you consider it shocking that Orthodox Jews don't tithe the way a modern American fundamentalist would recognize the practice, though. You can't actually believe that readers from a vastly different culture who are reading, in translation, a small percentage of a religion's ancient sacred texts without any further study stand much of a chance of correctly understanding even that religion's ancient practices, much less how those practices have evolved over two millennia-plus to the present day?

[WG]

FMF, don't know if you'll see his comment, but I am the Jewish mom from the family interviewed. So, just a couple of things/answers.

1. These people claim to have a tough time making ends meet despite the fact that they have a great income (FYI, this is a theme you'll see with all three of these couples of faith.) It's mind-blowing that someone making $135k in Houston is having budget troubles.

Yes, it is. In fact, it's why we left Los Angeles, because we couldn't afford to live there. Houston is MUCH better, but our family's circumstances changed after we moved -- more on that in a moment.

2. That said, they have a decent net worth for their ages. I'm guessing they're ahead of the pack.

OK. Cool. :-)

3. The credit card debt seems strange to me. Why do they even have it?

That's where our circumstances changed. Our son was diagnosed with a rare genetic syndrome at age 2, and a few months later he graduated from the free early childhood intervention program, and we opted to go with private therapies. We ran up over $30k in debt in 8 months solely from paying for his therapies and other medical expenses. Hard work has brought that debt down to about $15k, and I continue to pay it off every month.

4. I was surprised that they didn't tithe. Even if they combined their synagogue dues and events dollars with their charitable giving, they aren't tithing. If Orthodox Jews don't tithe, who does?

We do. As many have stated, paying for Jewish education counts, and I did not actually pull every single receipt for the article. Trust me, we give as much as we can afford to give, and then we give some more.

5. Wow on the home costs. I never knew this was an issue, but that's a big, big faith-related expense.

Yep. But it has a lot of benefits. Being part of a community means that when I had my fifth baby 2 weeks ago, people brought us meals, took care of the other kids, made a huge celebration for our family, etc. And I didn't do a $30k kitchen renovation to help keep kosher. I did the renovation b/c we moved from L.A. with TONS of kosher restaurants, to Houston, with 3. I cook every night of the week, and I host families for Shabbat at least twice a month. And we made a nice profit on our home in L.A., and when we first bought the house in Houston, we didn't know we were going to be slammed with medical bills a few months down the line. So we treated ourselves to a great kitchen, but I don't regret it, because we use it every day. It's my favorite part of the house.

I was amused by many of the comments here, but I won't respond to all of them. Just wanted to answer your questions.

[FMF]

WG --

Thanks for shedding some additional light on this issue. Too bad they couldn't have given the detail you did, but I'm sure it was simply because they didn't have the room for it.

[jj]

I notice this discussion is long over so I may not get a response, but as a believer in Jesus but not a very typical Christian, I cannot seperate my faith from Israel and Torah because Jesus said if we don't understand Moses we cannot understand him. As a result I have been struggling with the tithing issue. It is difficult because our family wouldn't be accepted in the Christian churches because we find a good deal custom there unBiblical, and wouldn't be accepted in Jewish synagogues because we are not converts.

As I read scripture there seems to be three different "tithes" - one to support Levites, one to cover costs of feasts, and one to give to widows, orphans, poor, etc. (simplified, I know). Of course, with the type of land-based society and other practices the amount is likely higher but untranslatable to today. I have read some Jewish sites say to tithe now would be unscriptural because there is no longer a Levite to receive it. I have read others which say that giving to charity takes the place of the ceremonial and civil system.

As a believer in Jesus who gives to charity, volunteers, helps those in need when can, hosts a Bible study which tries to understand Torah as well as the New Testament, homeschools my children, tries to eat kosher as I understand it, and keeps the feasts, I honestly feel that when I add up what it costs just to do that month to month it comes to close to 25% of our income, which is closer to all the three tithes I read about in Torah.

The New Testament has to absolutely consistent with the Old to have any value, and it says to give cheerfully and generously to those in need, keep the feasts and abstain from "bloods" which I take to mean eating kosher. Wouldn't this be consistent? Any reason not to believe that just like the family in the article I am keeping the law regarding any financial obligations?