Jewish Business Ethics

The Torah (Scroll of the Law from the Old Testament) instructs Jews not to steal or deal dishonestly. A man, Rabbi Yohanan who lived around 240AD, said, that when a person robs his fellow, even to the value of a mere ‘perutah’ (a penny), it is just as if he had taken his life away from him, as it is said, 'So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain, which takes away the life of the owners thereof' (Proverbs 1:19)

It is noted in the Torah (the Scroll of the Law of the Old Testament), that there are over 100 commandments concerning the Kosher (fitness) state of one's money. There are, in fact, many more laws than those that concern the Kosher state of food. The seriousness with which business ethics are treated is demonstrated by the widely quoted biblical tradition of being judged for the 'next world'. The first question you will be asked is, "Were you honest during your time in business?"

While Jewish people seem to be more successful, this is more so because of their ‘lack of numbers’ in relation to their success rate amongst their own communities – the Jewish population of the world numbers less than 0.2%, some 13,854,800 people out of a world population of 7.154 billion. It is recognised that Jewish parents sacrifice a lot personally for their children, educational achievement is valued extremely highly and taken very seriously, and members of Jewish communities help each other out with no expectancy of return. However, Europeans of Chinese, Indian and Asian extraction are seen to be equally as successful as Jewish business people. Similar to the economic migrants from Eastern Europe today, the Jewish migrants 100 or more years ago were attracted by the prospect of an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, and during the intervening decades, converted this hard work ethic from working for others to working for themselves with equal vigour

The Bible places ethical duties on all employers, which has translated into the modern Jewish workplace as valuing all employees regardless of how menial the task they are paid to carry out may be. According to the Torah, "he must be equal to you in food and drink. You should not eat refined bread and he eat coarse bread, you drink old wine and he drink new wine, you sleep on a mattress and he on straw". Furthermore, the Torah states “his (interpreted in today’s society as the employee’s) family has to be provided and his master is not permitted to make him perform debasing tasks”

This is a complex and typically metaphorical and profound interpretation of a biblical phrase. While Jews are renown for taking good care of the handicapped, this particular metaphor, while ‘raising the profile’ of the need for care of the handicapped, this refers to any person or group that is unaware, unsuspecting, ignorant, or ‘morally blind’, and as such, other Jewish individuals are strictly prohibited from taking advantage of them or tempting them to do wrong

In biblical times, this was referred to as not to "paint animals or utensils in order to improve their appearance or cover up their defects" or "sifting the beans at the top of the bushel because it is “deceiving the eye” by making the customer think that the entire bushel has been sifted". The modern day version would be placing a designer label on a very inferior shirt in an attempt to pass it off as a designer shirt

The traditional Oral Jewish Law teaches that wealth derives from happiness and it is not the other way around. Furthermore, this portion of the Oral Jewish Law leads to the interpretation that if you can’t be happy with what you have, then further material possessions will not necessarily increase your level of happiness

Philo generalised “Do not covet” as including all of them (and more) to include greed for money, hunger to be honoured (the OBE-chasing of its day!), sexual lust, hedonism and gluttony. It was through this that he highlighted the emotional side of greedy desires and the importance of spiritual work

This is not a Jewish ethic but is one of the Ten Commandments

While a very observant Orthodox Jew would frown upon hearing of a fellow Jew working on a Saturday, The Torah and Talmud (the Jewish Laws developed from the Old Testament and the Five Books of Moses) encourages the granting of loans providing they do not involve the charging of interest. The charging of interest is classed in the Book of Ezekiel as being among the worst sins. However, the Jewish law regarding free loans apply only to loans made to other Jews. Although nevertheless frowned upon, it is permissible to make loans with interest to non-Jewish people