The Jewish Ethicist: Is Business Ethical?

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Isn't the Biblical ideal to engage in productive activity, not in trade where each person tries to take advantage of the other?

Q. Is business really ethical at all? It seems to me that the Biblical
ideal is "each man under his vine and under his fig tree" (I Kings
5:5) -- each person engaging in productive activity, SC

A. It's true that the blessings of the Torah are usually directed to the
individual farmer or herder, not to the trader. Indeed, the first time we
encounter the word "trader" in the Torah it refers to the slave traders who
sold Yosef into Egypt. (Genesis 37:28.)

Yet we also find that our tradition immensely esteems the role of commerce.
When Yaakov arrived in Shechem, the Torah tells us that he "graced" the
city (Genesis 33:18). How did he do this? Our Sages explain that he
established the foundations of commerce by establishing coinage or a
marketplace.

In order to understand this approach, we have to understand the role of
commerce in human society. Why is commerce necessary to get goods and services to people in the first place? After all, the Creator could easily have arranged the world so that all our needs are fulfilled without commerce or even without effort, as in the Garden of Eden.

One aspect of the importance of commerce is that it gives people a
motivation for cooperation. When each person or each nation is
self-sufficient economically, then there is a tendency for each to be
isolated or even hostile. However, when they see that there is an
opportunity for mutual gain through trade, then people learn to accommodate
each other and get along.

So we see that the wicked Lavan learns to get along with Yaakov since he
needs his help as a hired hand (Genesis 29:14-15); and when Yaakov made his
gesture of friendship through commerce with the residents of Shechem, they
responded by offering to let Yaakov's family "live and trade" there.
(Genesis 34:10.)

Of course there is still a special importance to agriculture. Rabbi Yair
Bachrach explains agriculture's special status as follows: even though all
of our earnings are only through the blessing of God, the miraculous, Divine contribution is particularly evident in agriculture. This is because it
seems that we are getting something from nothing, as crops grow from
rotting seeds buried in the ground.

However, ultimately we have to recognize that earnings from business are
also a Divine blessing, and not just the fruits of luck or of our own
cleverness.

According to this approach, we can understand the special importance of
business ethics. Jewish tradition is very strict about this aspect of our
law, stating, "the punishment for cheating in measures is even greater
than the punishment for sexual immorality." If the true purpose of business
was to create prosperity, then we could excuse some laxity in business
ethics if business was more profitable that way. But if the entire purpose
of commerce is to create brotherhood and mutual trust, then anything which
contradicts that is not only inexcusable in itself, it frustrates the very
purpose of commerce in the first place.

Business is not only ethical, it is one of the most important ways that God
gave us to foster coexistence and understanding among human beings. But
this is dependent on business being conducted in an ethical way, in a
manner based on cooperation and not on exploitation.

SOURCES: Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 33b, Yevamot 21a; Shulchan Arukh Choshen Mishpat 331:19; Responsa Chavot Yair 224.

Send your queries about ethics in the workplace to jewishethicist@aish.com

The Jewish Ethicist presents some general principles of Jewish law. For specific questions and direct application, please consult a qualified Rabbi.

The Jewish Ethicist is a joint project of Aish.com and the Center for Business Ethics, Jerusalem College of Technology. To find out more about business ethics and Jewish values for the workplace, visit the JCT Center for Business Ethics website at www.besr.org.

JCT Center For Business Ethics

Copyright © JCT Center for Business Ethics.

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