Parshas Ki Seitzei: Business and Ethics: N/ever the twain shall meet

“A perfect and honest stone shall you have, a perfect and honest measure shall you have, so that your days shall be lengthened.” –Deuteronomy 25:15

“A PERFECT AND HONEST STONE SHALL YOU HAVE: If you did so, you shall have much.” –Rashi ibid

Is business ethics an oxymoron? Judaism emphatically states that there is no business without ethics. Indeed, a ritual slaughterer in Vilna, Lithuania came to the Chief Rabbi to hang up his coat and go into business. The Rabbi asked him why he wanted to cease slaughtering. The shochet replied that since the laws of kosher are so detailed, he was worried that he will err in the laws. He figured that business wouldn’t be so fraught with these intricate laws. The Rabbi replied that there are less than thirty chapters in the code of Jewish law on the laws of slaughtering (aside from the laws rendering an animal non-kosher), whilst the laws of business are spread over 428 chapters! The rabbi advised him to stay put in his position!

The Rabbis inform us (Talmud Shabbos 31a) that the first question asked to us after death by the heavenly tribunal is “were you honest in your dealings?” The Talmud states that the prophet Habakkuk summed up the entire Torah with the verse “A Tzaddik lives by his righteousness.” The author of the book “Reishis Chachma” takes it a step further. He explains that according to this Talmudic passage, somebody who is honest in business is considered as having fulfilled the entire Torah.

Many Jews have taken up the call of Tikun Olam - repairing the world. The belief goes that being a light unto the nations requires us to take up every cause of social justice in the world. That aspect notwithstanding, the greatest sanctification of G-d’s name in the world is by being honest in business. We are G-d’s ambassadors; let’s not disappoint!

The firm of Beer, Sondheimer and Company is reported to have owed its tremendous expansion to the following fact. On a Friday in 1870, just before the Franco-German War broke out, Mr. Beer left his office for the Sabbath rest. He had large holdings in copper and other metals necessary for the waging of war. The porter received a number of telegrams, which he presented on Sunday morning to his employer. They came from the War Ministry and offered to buy all metals in the possession of Mr. Beer; each successive wire increased the price. When Mr. Beer, on Sunday, went through these messages, he informed the War Department that he would have accepted the first offer and that he had failed to answer it because it was the Sabbath. He was, therefore, prepared to let the government have all his merchandise at the rate originally suggested to him. The War Ministry was so impressed by this example of living Judaism that they made the firm its main supplier and thus established its global significance.

The story of Mr. Beer is obviously unique. Yet each one of us can strive for a higher ethic in this regard. The former proprietor of Kova Hats in Brooklyn, Mr. Erman of blessed memory, suddenly began asking his customers if they purchased a straw hat in the month of May that year. Anybody who replied in the affirmative was immediately refunded five dollars. He explained that he makes an exact calculation of his price markup, and he over-calculated it by five dollars. He therefore felt that a refund was owed.

Mr Beer and Mr. Erman were business people just like all of us. What made them exceptional is that they lived with the reality that G-d provides us with a livelihood. No matter how much we try to make an extra dollar, we can’t outsmart G-d. We are promised a lengthy life for honesty in business. Perhaps the reason is, because honest business people give a good name to G-d, so G-d wants to keep such people around.

And so we ask each other, is business ethics truly an oxymoron? To many people the answer is yes, but no believing Jew can ever reply that way!