VIGNETTE:
On the wall of the Fish Grill in Los Angeles is a sign, Do not speak lashon hara. Lashon hara is slander, unkind words or gossip. The Torah forbids lashon hara. How did that sign get on that kosher restaurants wall?
Certain leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community have made a concerted effort over the last decade or so to emphasize the severity of speaking ill of people.
At the West Coast convention of the Orthodox Union last weekend, the topic was ethics, or the violation thereof, in the Orthodox community. And a suggestion was made: Let signs in kosher restaurants read: Is the money youre paying with kosher?
Another vignette:
An Orthodox Jew was sentenced to prison for six years for financial crimes. His wife was asked whether she intended to file for divorce. She said no. That would be bad for the childrens marriage prospects. But isnt a husband in prison also bad for marriage prospects (shidduchim)? She said: In our subcommunity, divorce is more shameful than prison.
IT was a painful set of exchanges at the convention. Painful, but honest, and even hopeful. One convention will not turn around a certain mentality of dishonesty that, to be sure, does not infect the vast majority of Orthodox Jews, as Rabbi Steven Pruzansky pointed out. However, this dishonesty has reared its ugly head with alarming frequency in recent years.
What can be done?
Among the suggestions by the various speakers, including Rabbis Hershel Schachter (New York), Reuven Bulka (Ottawa), Steven Pruzansky (Teaneck), Shaul Robinson (New York), and myself:
Emphasize the study of Hoshen Mishpat, the largest section of the Code of Jewish Law, on ethics in business. Rabbi Steven Weil, new professional head of the OU, announced that 70 lectures in Jewish business law will be posted on the OU website.
Resuscitate the values embedded in Jewish burial law, in which the rich and the poor alike are buried in a simple shroud, so as not to embarrass the poor.
Put another way: Reduce the emphasis on materialism in the Orthodox Jewish community.
Incorporate stories with an ethical point in the growing story literature that is popular in the Orthodox Jewish community.
No sooner had that suggestion been made by Rabbi Reuven Bulka and myself than Rabbi Schachter, a Talmudist of prodigious recall, expertise and fluency, offered two such stories in his own presentation, on the halachic requirement not to cheat on taxes.
I AM accustomed to emotional or moving stories about coincidences (small miracles), unexpected rescues and unusual dedication. I am used to stories that move one to tears. But I am not used to that happening in the context of a story that makes an ethical point. Ethics are drier than spirituality and Divine providence.
Which made Rabbi Schachter’s difficulty in controlling his own emotions in telling this ethical story all the more impressive.
The man who became a towering halachic authority, Hatam Sofer, was sent as a young man by his teacher to study in a certain, out-of-the-way town. Hatam Sofer did not find the study there congenial. He was very uncomfortable there, and felt that he was wasting his time. He could not figure out why he had been sent there, and left after a month.
Decades later he was arrested for issuing a ruling in a financial dispute. Unknown to Hatam Sofer, the litigant whom he decided in favor of had acquired his merchandise illegally. Hatam Sofer was brought to trial as one who aided and abetted the trade in contraband.
It looked like an open-and-shut case with a long jail term in store for Hatam Sofer.
Surprisingly, one of the bailiffs in the court asked to speak. This was a bit unusual, but the judge let him speak. He turned to Hatam Sofer and asked him:
Did you ever study in Rechnitz? The Hatam Sofer answered, yes. (That is the uncongenial place his teacher had sent him to.)
The bailiff turned to the court: I cannot believe the rabbi is lying.
Decades ago, I was a policeman in Rechnitz. All of the students poked fun at me. Only one student greeted me with respect, each day. That was this rabbi. Good morning, officer, he would say.
I cant believe that a person who, even as a young man, had such respect for a government official would be part of a scheme to defraud the government.
That, concluded Rabbi Schachter, was why Hatam Sofer had spent time in Rechnitz. Later, it saved his life.
RABBI Schachter cited another story in the name of the late Rabbi Jacob Kaminetsky, who was the community rabbi in Tzetivian, Poland, in the 1930s.
One of the townspeople told Rabbi Kaminetsky that he had bought stamps at the post office and was handed too much change. Was he required to return it? Yes, said Rabbi Kaminetsky.
This happened again, and again each time Rabbi Kaminetskys reply was the same.
It was eventually revealed that the postman was testing the Jews to see whether Hitlers propaganda about them was correct. The postman was so impressed by Tzetivians Jews ethical behavior that during the Holocaust he saved many Jewish lives.
And what if Rabbi Kaminetskys answer had been different?
Rabbi Kaminetsky then and Rabbi Schachter in Los Angeles last week were presented with various rationales as to why the recipient of too much change might not need to return it. Speaking in Rabbi Kaminetskys name, and for himself, Rabbi Schachter said: Simple. The money does not belong to you. So you return it.
BESIDES his flowing teachings of Torah, Rabbi Schachter is known for his sense of humor. He told this story.
He was once at a wedding, called to be one of the witnesses (eidim) under the chuppah when the groom gives the ring to the bride. After Rabbi Schachter was called up, the second witness, who had also been called, failed to appear.
Time passed.
A lot of time.
So much time that the officiant, the late Rabbi Shneur Kotler, was able to tell Rabbi Schachter an entire piece of Torah right there under the chuppah.
People were waiting and waiting.
It was strange.
The second witness did not appear.
Later, two things happened.
First, Rabbi Schachter printed the fine Torah analysis in the name of Rabbi Kotler.
Second, an alternative, second witness was found. Why hadnt the first one stepped up?
He knew he was going to be indicted for fraud in two days, Rabbi Schachter said of what he learned later. He knew he was no longer a kosher witness. But he couldnt tell anybody then. So he didnt step up because . . . he was an honest thief, an erlicher ganiff.
ANOTHER story, this one about a chasidic Jew who bragged that he didnt pay taxes. He didnt even hide it. He wrote down $65,000 in gross income on his tax return each year. He was a very wealthy man.
While stuck in a bomb shelter in 1991 during the first Gulf War, Rabbi Schachter remembers a certain radio broadcast. A certain national airline was entering bankruptcy. Who was the prospective buyer? This man!
He makes $65,000 a year and is bidding for an airline! He thinks he can do that and wont be investigated.
Which he was and had to pay up all of his back taxes.
He was not even embarrassed, said Rabbi Schachter.
The burden of Rabbi Schachters halachic analysis was this: A Jew living in a country whose government does not assess taxes unequally on Jews is obligated to follow the law of the land.
Seems like a simple point, doesnt it? For a glaring few, its not so simple, which is why Rabbis Allen Kalinsky and Daniel Korobkin chose ethics as the convention theme.
RABBI Shaul Robinson of Lincoln Square Synagogue is from England, and wants to import the Jewish business ethics association that was popular in England.
Robinson wants to change the paradigm from preaching to Jews to be honest from preventing scandal (hillul Hashem) to actively enhancing the name of the Jewish community, to kiddush Hashem.
He says that business ethics in the Jewish community in England has become such a major preoccupation in adult education that Jews have had ample opportunity to shine a positive light on the Jewish people via exemplary ethical actions.
On the Robinson initiative, stay tuned.
My own suggestion, besides importing ethics into Jewish stories and asking pulpit rabbis to address ethics much more often, is to stress ethics in the curricula of Jewish schools, including day schools.
The suggestions of OU President Stephen Savitsky:
Take down the sign If the name of the person on the building is someone who spent time in jail, the kids will never respect the values theyre being taught in school.
Dont leave people in charge for too long They come to think its their own organization. In the management of Jewish organizations, you need new people. You need rotation. You need to publish a budget. Transparency. A finance committee. An audit committee. Checks and balances. And an organization with a surplus needs to lend it to an organization in trouble.
Keep talking about it If we see honesty as an important issue, we will find a way to accomplish it.
This column is meant to be a modest beginning.
