Business ethics and spirituality in the arena of competition and greed.

Charity & Righteousness By Lynn Wexler-Margolies

42 DAVID TAMMUZ / AV 5773

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J ews do not believe in charity. In fact, the notion is nearly �ctional. Despite their renown as humanitarians, meshulachs (Hebrew for those who raise funds for charity), for the invention of the pushka (a charity box) and the UJC (United Jewish Communities),

the Jew who contributes time, e�ort and money is not being muni�cent at all. He or she is simply following commandments guiding them to do the right or just thing by their fellow, whether the money is to help another or to transact business.

�e Hebrew word for charity is tzedaka, the root word of which is tzedek, meaning justice or righteousness, which lies at the core of Jewish business ethics. Judaism places supreme importance on the value of ethical behavior, especially in relation to business dealings.

So much so that Rabbi Shlomo Sherman, a lawyer, teacher and congregant at Chabad of Summerlin, explained that after a person’s death G-d asks them signi�cant questions about their life.

“�e very �rst question we are held accountable for after we die is … did you conduct your business a�airs with honesty and probity? In other words, were we ethical in the conduct of our business dealing with others? �is comes before questions concerning the study of Torah, observance of Shabbat, kashrut … It’s that important.”

�roughout the Torah (the Five Books of Moses and the source of the Ten Commandments and the 613 mitzvot), the ritual commands of Judaism and the ethical obligations between one human being and another are part of the same G-d-given basis of morality, Sherman says.

“�ough many have the mistaken idea that what they do from 9-to-5 lies outside the realm of scrutiny and is their own private a�air, separate and apart from the holidays and traditions they feel otherwise bound to,” he adds.

Business ethics is the marketplace, where holiness and spirituality confront the arena of competition and greed. One could speculate that it is the litmus test of whether religion is truly relevant or merely relegated to an esoteric sphere of human existence. �at there are commandments to guide one’s ethics in business is perhaps an indication that G-d co-exists with us in the world rather than remains removed and at a distance.

�e Shema is a prayer, declaring one’s faith in G-d, that Jews are commanded to recite each morning and each night. It reads: You shall love the Lord your G-d with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might. Rashi, a medieval Jewish scholar, comments that we can understand serving G-d with our heart and soul … but how do we do so with all of our might?

Rashi interprets might to mean that we should also love G-d with all of our money and possessions, speaking directly to the importance of our behavior in the course of commerce.

Noted Jewish scholar, and expert in halachot (Jewish laws), Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz suggests further that G-d does not want us to renounce material wealth but rather engage in amassing wealth with honor and integrity, and thus serving Him with our might.

Breitowitz adds that there are people who prefer their money to their lives, and if G-d simply required us to love Him with all our life, we would not necessarily get the message that we must include our behavior toward money in our service to Him.

�e late comedian Jack Benny, a master of the understated monotone, approached the concept with levity. According to his old bit, a mugger approaches and demands Benny’s money or his life. Benny pauses: “Hmmmm … let me think about it.”

Tzedakah box (Pushke), Charleston, 1820, silver

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Jews characteristically believe that wealth is not a crime but a blessing from G-d – an opportunity to do right by our fellow with the means our Creator entrusted to us.

According to Breitowitz, G-d created a dynamic world where the controls are shared with beings that have the power to choose to ful�ll their role or renege on it. �e individual thus has a proprietary interest in communal welfare through economic activity.

“It’s an opportunity, granted to every person, to be a partner with G-d,” Breitowitz says.Judaism is an action-oriented religion, as opposed to one that emphasizes faith. �e

Torah is rich in verses that govern ethical behavior in business. It prescribes in detail the constraints, obligations and responsibilities that a person is obligated to follow. �e legislative process to adjudicate this is ongoing. Rabbis often use their predecessors’ decisions to apply Jewish laws and ethics to determine the outcome of modern ethical dilemmas.

�e bulk of Jewish business ethics pertains to fair pricing, relations between employers and their employees and honest selling. �e laws not only dispense ethical and legal mandates, but also encourage people to go beyond the scope of the commands and embrace the spirit in which they are given. In Jewish law, money must be obtained honestly; wealth is to be used to help strangers, the needy and the poor.

Dr. David Weitzner, a program director at the Schulich School of Business, York University, says to authentically approach Jewish business ethics is to engage in business in a way that elevates all aspects of the transaction for the better; to transform the economic arena through seemingly simple acts of good-faith business practices.

“Business ethics in classic Judaism is not about charity and altruism – though both are absolutely moral and goods in themselves. �ey are about real business activities and the holiness and moral

goodness found in those particular acts. �e Chassidic masters taught that holiness can be found anywhere. Why then should we be surprised to �nd that engaging in the seemingly mundane activities of business is an authentic path to righteousness?” Weitzner asks.

A famous Midrash (ancient rabbinic stories to elucidate the Torah) speaks of Abraham, the Jewish forefather, wandering through foreign lands witnessing people eating, drinking and engaging in frivolity. While these people had lives of leisure and no su�ering, Abraham hoped that this land would not be his inheritance. Soon he passed through a land of toil, where the people engaged in the necessary tasks of life at the appropriate times. �is time Abraham hoped to have a stake in this hard-working community. G-d looked down and said, “�is is the land I will give your o�spring.”

�e Lubavitcher Rebbe suggests that Abraham saw the dignity of these people … dignity found in self-su�ciency. Business activity allows people to be partners with G-d in the world they live in. Loving G-d is one thing; working with G-d to provide for the world is another.

“So much time is spent in Talmudic discussions outlining the most improbable of scenarios because the more clarity there is in the economic arena the better the markets can function,” says Weitzner.

“�e Jewish approach to business ethics believes that businesses can do well while being good. Be mindful of your strategy, and be mindful of the greater narrative that you will one day have to relay. Are you creating more opportunities for business, and opening doors for more people to join the transactions? Are you playing your role as authentically as possible, whether you are a buyer or a seller, a lender or a borrower? �e moral good that comes from

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business activities done well is as real and meaningful as the moral good that may come from anywhere else,” Weitzner says.

�e eighth commandment, as interpreted by several of the classic Jewish commentators, speaks of prohibitions for every kind of dishonesty and deception, including guarding against being a partner or friend of unscrupulous individuals and deceptive advertisements and packaging. One must distance one’s self from a false matter.

Further, the Torah enjoins against putting an obstacle before the blind. �is includes o�ering bad advice to unsuspecting people, or causing others to sin through deceptive advertising and misleading labeling. Even the advertising agency that created the deceptive advertisement would be guilty of transgressing this law. Laws concerning fair pricing state that one must not overcharge, nor should a buyer allow a seller to mistakenly undercharge; individuals or �rms have an obligation to engage in fair pricing and not hoard products in order to make excessive pro�ts, especially for necessities and drugs.

�e Torah governs the import of keeping clear records and behaving in a way that does not cause the public to suspect one’s veracity. �e Talmud describes that those who entered the Temple chamber to collect money for the sacri�ces wore clothing with no pockets or other receptacles, so that people should not suspect them of stealing money. Organizations have the same obligation as individuals to act in a manner that does not arouse suspicion; and to use outside auditors, should the case arise, that are truly objective. �e tenets of the employer-employee relationship are learned from previous agrarian societies, where the laborers who worked in the �elds were usually slaves. �e Torah states that an owner must not rule over a slave with rigorous labor, meaning that the slave must not be ordered to engage in degrading work, perform work that has no purpose or carry out a task without a de�ned limit.

Employers are required to pay employees on time, as the Torah states that the wages of a worker shall not remain with the employer overnight.

�e concept of fringe bene�ts states that �eld workers have the right to eat the produce while they work. Regarding the slave, the Torah states that at the end of his servitude, the master is required to give the slave a severance gift from his �ocks, his threshing �oor and his wine cellar.

�e Torah is very concerned with the welfare of the stranger – an individual who can often be easily duped - commanding that: You shall strengthen him, whether he is a stranger or a native, so that he can live with you. Abusing, taunting, wronging or oppressing the stranger is forbidden.

Jerusalem was destroyed for wronging the poor, the needy and the stranger (Ezekiel 22:29); Sodom was annihilated for not using its wealth to help the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49). Individuals, organizations and governments must ensure that all ethnic and religious groups are treated equitably; and special e�orts are to be made to enable the poor and the handicapped to get jobs.

�e Torah proscribes wasteful consumption. Soldiers are forbidden to cut down fruit trees even when besieging an enemy’s city. Wanton destruction of any kind is a violation of Torah law.

Jewish sages teach that achieving the highest levels of ethical behavior in business, and practicing the social responsibility that must accompany success in business, are the hallmarks of the ‘way of the pious.’ �e intent of the laws that govern business ethics is to inspire people to walk in total integrity, deal righteously with others and speak the truth from the heart, ultimately paving the way for the coming of the Messiah.

Hillel o�ers perhaps the best summary for the purpose of business ethics: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I only care for myself, what am I?”

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