Judaism requires goshmiyus

One of the manipulative lines of aliyah pushers is to say that Americans won't move to Israel because they won't give up their luxuries. I have heard this dozens of times. It's the same line that kollelniks use against people who try to earn a parnassah instead of living off of the community against the ruling of the Rambam who says not to. 

As for the aliyah pushers, they are usually hypocrites. Most come with money, some with millions. Others get all sorts of support from chutz. Parents buy them cars, groceries, apartments. Not that aliyah pushers are hospitable. Most are quite selfish. But the times I have managed to enter their homes I have been amazed by how well many of them live.

Aside from that, people in chutz hardly are all rich. How many thousands live in apartments in Brooklyn, Monroe, and Lakewood. Many are on Medicaid and food stamps. Many live in HUD housing. A person who tells you that everyone in chutz is rich is a person without ahavas Yisroel, a person who has no idea what people's lives are like. 

But that aside. Goshmiyus is part of life. The halacha makes it so. You can't be a celibate monk in Judaism. The halacha, at least as it is taught to people today, forces you to have four sets of dishes, to have big Shabbos meals, big families with children with big appetites. And food costs today over through the roof. I realize there's halacha and there's how it is employed today. So I really mean the latter. You need expensive matzah, and esrogim. Judaism has many mitzvos involving physical things. Tefellin. They cost money. You need money in Judaism. You don't need a chandelier - well maybe you do to get married - but you certainly can't be a pauper. You need yeshiva tuition. You need medical care. You need tutors. You might need therapists. You have to keep your children on the derech. That's the mandate. You need money for all of that. Shul dues. Tzedukah campaigns. Money, money, money.

There's no monks in Judaism. So all this guilt to push you to be in kollel or to live in Israel is contrary to Judaism because you need a solid income to be a Jew and for most people that is not possible in kollel or Israel.