Dear Matzav Inbox,

A single, throwaway line from Elon Musk managed to expose a truth many people spend their lives running from.

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness really knew what they were talking about.”

Cue the sarcasm, the mockery, the eye-rolling. “Cry me a river.” “Try being poor.” “I’d rather be miserable and rich than miserable and broke.” Very clever. Very predictable.

But beneath the snark was something raw and uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why people rushed to drown it out.

Here is a man who has more money than kings ever dreamed of, more access than entire countries, more power than most governments, openly admitting that it didn’t deliver what it promised. Not in a philosophical essay. Not in a self-help book. In one blunt sentence and a sad emoji.

And instead of pausing to listen, the world laughed.

Because if he isn’t happy, the fantasy collapses. If money doesn’t fix the emptiness at the very top, then maybe the problem isn’t “not enough.” Maybe the problem is thinking that having more will finally quiet the noise inside.

We’ve trained ourselves to believe that unhappiness is a budgeting issue. That anxiety is a temporary stage before the next raise. That fulfillment is one deal, one upgrade, one win away. And so when someone who has already crossed every imaginable finish line says, “This isn’t it,” we feel threatened. His honesty interferes with our coping mechanism.

So we mock him. We minimize it. We tell ourselves we’d handle the money better. We’d enjoy it more. We’d be grateful. We’d finally be calm.

But deep down, we know that’s not true.

Money solves problems. Real ones. Painful ones. No one is romanticizing poverty. But meaning, contentment, menuchas hanefesh — those don’t scale with net worth. If anything, they’re often buried under pressure, isolation, and expectations that never stop growing.

The saddest part isn’t that a billionaire admitted he isn’t happy. The saddest part is how desperate we are to pretend he’s wrong.

Because if he’s right, then we may have to confront a far harder question than how to make more money. We may have to ask what we’re actually living for.

And that’s a conversation far more uncomfortable than any sad emoji.

Sincerely,
An observer who thinks the joke is on us

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