Spiritual and
Ethical Issues For the next number of weeks, Dr. Tamari's column will focus on an important and sadly neglected area of Torah Life. We hope that Dr. Tamari's words will not only be of academic value, but will also impact on a "Tachlis level" to help improve our behavior as individual Jews and as Klal Yisrael. Religious and Ethical Challenges of Money [3] by Dr. Meir Tamari Amos echoes all the prophetic books when predicting national destruction, as he proclaims: "for three sins of Israel and for four I will not forgive them. In that they sold the righteous for silver [bribery which leads the judges to discriminate against the innocent] and the poor for a pair of shoes [even for the slight gain of a pair of shoes or defrauding even of their shoes. Rashi sees this as the rich buying up the fields of the poor and thereby preventing the entry of others; legal perhaps but immoral]. They pant after the dust of the poor [oppressing and humiliating them until the dust covers their heads] and distort the way of the humble [forcing them into corrupt ways as an escape from oppression] " (Amos 2:7-8). The Temple was destroyed by Titus and the long Jewish galut began, inter alia because: "they loved money" (Yerushalmi Yoma 1:1), which in turn caused social turmoil, economic suffering and oppression; "they insisted on their full legal rights" (Bava Metzia 30b), refusing to go "lifnim mi shurat hadin". Not only does punishment flow from immoral business and economic actions but so does salvation as well. The order of the Mishna that contains the earliest codification of Jewish business, civil, constitutional and criminal law is called Nezikin; Pirkei Avot, the only moral and ethical portion of the Mishna is cited in this section. It is instructive that Nezikin was also named by the sages (Shabbat 31a), the Book of Redemption. Redemption through financial righteousness and business behavior occurs both at the individual and at the national and cosmic levels. "Zion will be redeemed by Justice and her returnees (Isaiah 1:28). This is a constant theme of the Tanach, Jewish homelitical writings and even rabbinic literature, even that of a halakhic nature. Despite the punishments for economic and monetary actions, Hashem in His great mercy gave man the opportunity to repent of them and to achieve atonement for them. There are clearly defined steps to this process; recognition of the wrong, acceptance of the responsibility for that wrong, verbal viduy - confession, and an undertaking not to repeat it. While these apply to all spheres of our lives, there are a number of important different nuances, procedures and stresses regarding those wrongs and sins that are done in the pursuit, accumulation and uses of our money. Teshuva and Yom Kippur bring atonement, however, for sins between people, there is are additional requirements. First, the damage either to their bodies, their property and money, and their honor has to be rectified. In addition to repairing the material damage or compensating for them, the injured party has also to be placated and to forgive the wrong done. "He who steals anything worth more than a shaveh pruta [the smallest unit of value] has to return it to the owner even if he has to go to Medea [the farthest point from Eretz Yisrael to do so] (Bava Kama 9:5). It should be noted that even though that shaveh pruta is the smallest value justifying litigation, theft of anything less is punishable by G-d and requires T'shuva in order to be forgiven. "The punishment for false weights and measures is very severe [more severe than for sexual immorality since that is between only between man and G-d, whereas the former is between man and his fellow (Rambam, Hilkhot Geneiva 7:12) since it is impossible for the person measuring false weights to return in full teshuva [because of the number of victims] and therefore he is like one who denies the Exodus [by thinking that Hashem's power is limited]" (Choshen Mishpat, Ona'a Umekach Ta'ut 231:19). This seems similar to the large numbers of victims affected by shareholder fraud, tax evasion, confidence schemes or over-charging customers, where the perpetrators cannot do real T'shuva. Our viduy on Yom Kippur is couched in the plural form. One would expect it to be rather in the singular since each person is obligated to consider and confess their own individual sins. However, the plural form is specifically inherent in the earning and spending of money because of the social nature intrinsic to the inter-play of market forces, the determination of patterns of consumption, and the role of growth of wealth. We have responsibility for the welfare of others and this often means the use of our money for this purpose; avoidance of this responsibility and injury to others, require confession and T'shuva. Yet, in addition, there is a further need for the plural form. All acts of individuals flow from the surrounding ethical culture so that when individuals do not repudiate fraudulent business practices by members of their communities, when they do not hold the perpetrators accountable, or use social and religious pressure to punish them, then all become partners in the perpetrator's crimes. "One who has the ability to protest but does not do so, the sin is ascribed to him" (Rama, Yoreh De'ah 334:48). This echoes the Yalkut Shimoni on 'pilegesh b'giv'a' in Shoftim; "Pinchas killed [as it were] all those who died in the war of the Tribes against the tribe of Binyamin. He had the power as the kohein to protest but he did not. The members of the Sanhedrin, as the leading national authority, should have tied even ropes around their waists and gone throughout all the cities of Israel to teach them proper behavior". [The
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