The answer
Since Judaism is a heavenly religion, we can't describe it as being materialistic. And since the doctrines of Judaism were inspired by God in the Bible, that is in the Torah, we cannot describe God's commandments as being materialistic, otherwise we would be making an accusation against God Himself, and not only against God but against the great prophet Moses, who was the first to give mankind a divine written law. Could we ever accuse Moses of leading the people towards materialism?
The exalted nature of the teachings of Judaism could provide scope for many books, and we might be able to produce something of this later on. We also ought not to forget that much of what is said in the Books of the Old Testament Cannot be correctly understood without a knowledge of its symbols.
Someof those who criticise Jewish teachings, have not yet understood them properly.
To describe the Judaism as it is practised by the Jews as being materialistic is one thing, but to describe the Jewish religion in those same terms is something else entirely which could have serious consequences. For the Jews, after all, are human beings, they can make mistakes and go astray like anyone else. But the Jewish religion is from God: anything that does it an injustice is doing an injustice towards God who created it and also towards the mighty Moses through whom it came to man from God. It would also be to wrong the Torah which is an integral part of Judaism, and which God revealed as guidance and a light for His people. It wouldn't make sense if God were to send a prophet with a religion that would lead the people to materialism, would it?
The commandment to pay tithes in Judaism is totally opposed to materialism.
Judaism instructs that a tenth of all one's possessions should be paid to the Lord, a tenth of everything, "whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, " and a tenth "of the herd and flock. " (Lev. 2 7:30,32) " You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year." (Deut. 14:22) And they also had to give their wheat. (Deut. 12:17)
In addition to the tithes, Judaism also enjoined the payment of the first fruits.
And what was meant by that, was the first of any form of produce, whether it was human offspring or a crop from the earth,
or produce from the trees or from the flocks of sheep or cattle.
The Lord said: " Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine. " (Ex. 13:2)
So the first of anything born from livestock, from the flocks and herds belonged to the Lord, and the firstborn males from among the people were to be presented to serve the Lord, until the Levite tribe replaced these firstborn males.
The Jewish law also said "The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk." (Ex. 23:19), and " bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest." (Lev.23:10). It also told the people to bring to the priests the first fruits of their grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of their sheep (Deut. 18:4). The people were also asked to present a cake from the first of their ground meal, as an offering from the threshing floor. (Num. 15:20). This day of the first fruits was held as a holy festival.
As far as fruit trees were concerned, for the first three years their fruit was to be considered forbidden, and the fourth year's fruit was all to be given to the Lord (Lev. 19:24). Its owner could only eat of its produce the following year.
Would this remarkable offering be characteristic of a materialistic religion?
There were also the vows and free will offerings which people gave. (Deut. 12:17).
One of the humanitarian aspects of the Jewish holy law is to be found in the Lord's instruction: " When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God. " (Lev. 23:22). So the poor would be able to gather something to sustain them from behind the harvester.
Another of the humanitarian points of the Jewish law which shows that it was anti-materialistic was the freeing of slaves.
In the time of Moses and before, there was slavery, but the Jewish law commanded that they release in the seventh year any slave whom they had bought with their own money, who had served them for six years. (Deut. 15:12)
Another anti-materialistic feature of Judaism was the presentation of sacrifices and burnt offerings.
These were all aimed to please the Lord and to obtain forgiveness, and to atone for one's sin. These are all described in detail in the Book of Leviticus.
In some of the sacrifices, like the burnt offerings and the various sin offerings, the person presenting them was not allowed to take anything from them at all. One could not call this a materialistic concept for in fact it was a very spiritual one, involving being sorry for one's sins and offering repentance for them and sacrificing something material in order to atone for them - and all these things that were offered had their spiritual symbols.
Yet another anti-materialistic aspect of Judaism were the many religious celebrations, both weekly and yearly, which were holy days, that is,. days regarded as holy to the Lord, upon which the people did not work.
The Ten Commandments included the command to keep the Sabbath holy: " the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,... " (Deut. 5:14)
Besides this there were more than twenty days of sacred holidays and festivals on which no activity was allowed unless it was spiritual, as we are told in Leviticus (chapter 23).
If Judaism were materialistic, it wouldn't have designated some 73 days a year as holy days, that is exactly a fifth of a year - on which no work was to be done.
As far as their rules of prayer, hymns and holy readings were concerned:
There were seven daily prayers (Ps. 119:164), apart from the night prayers and the approaching of the House of God, which was done with singing and psalms, referred to as the Songs or Psalms of Ascents. The Torah was divided into a regular system of readings in the synagogues, so that all the people could hear it. The spirituality contained in the teachings of Judaism, however, is a long subject which we do not have time to go into here.
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Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory