Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky There is a folk saying quoted in the
Talmud and Midrash, which some sources even ascribe to Rabbi
Akiba, "Poverty is as fitting to the Jews as a red bridle on a
white horse." It's sweet, if a little fatalistic. Do we really
think that poor Jews are so attractive? These days, it is not a
small question, as greater and greater numbers of Jews find
themselves jobless. That great alphabet soup of Jewish
organizations has tightened its collective belt a notch or two,
so even our Jewish professionals find themselves scrambling to
make a living. And our philanthropists, those who made their
millions in real estate or on Wall Street, well, they also are
suffering. What's a Jew to do? We console ourselves with pithy
folk wisdom about how beautifully we Jews wear our poverty.
There's even a midrash on Leviticus from the fifth-century
Galilee, which imagines a Jew, perhaps having heard one hard-
luck story too many, say to a fellow Jew, "Why don't you just
get a job? Look at those thighs, those k