Yes, It Is a Big Deal

Having integrity is not part of the conventional self-definition of Orthodox Jews. That must change.

Last week on the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast, I spoke with Rabbi Jeremy Wieder about the obligation of religious Jews to act honorably and honestly in business.

This obligation should be obvious to everyone. One fourth of the Shulchan Aruch - the classic code of Jewish practice - is dedicated to laws that pertain to business. Acting with integrity should be a sine qua non of Torah Judaism.

Yet in fact, there are plenty of Orthodox Jews who regularly ignore these requirements, and find dubious justifications for engaging in financial improprieties that are unacceptable by any objective standard.

In the eleventh chapter of his classic work Mesilat Yesharim, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato writes:

We all see that even though most people do not steal publicly - meaning that they don’t literally reach into their friend’s money supply to put it into their own wallets - nonetheless, most people taste the taste of theft in their business dealings, in that they convince themselves that it’s permissible to profit through their friend’s loss, saying, ‘Business is different.’ However, there are many Torah prohibitions associated with stealing… All of these various laws regarding theft include many actions among those that are commonly done in business, and all of them include multiple prohibitions. For not only is the obvious and known action regarding oppression and theft forbidden, but anything that leads to it and causes it is also included in the prohibition… Truthfully, all of this is the result of the fact that instead of the intellect ruling a person’s eyes, where it will prevent a person from finding someone else’s possessions desirable, the eyes draw the intellect forward to find excuses regarding things that look nice and desirable.

Rabbi Wieder noted that we generally use three benchmarks to determine if a person is a religious Jew: whether he keeps Shabbat, kosher, and the laws of family purity. The laws of Shabbat appear in Orach Chaim, the first section of the Shulchan Aruch; kashrut represents Yoreh Deah, the second section; and family purity (though it technically appears in Yoreh Deah) is emblematic of the third section, Even HaEzer, which deals with the laws of marriage and divorce. Choshen Mishpat - the fourth section which addresses financial issues - is, sadly, not part of that basic definition.

It is time to redress this improper imbalance. It’s time to change the definition of what it means to be an Orthodox Jew.

I suggest that this can begin with two steps: one practical, and one attitudinal.

First, we need to start teaching the halachot of Choshen Mishpat in earnest. This involves more than learning the tractates of Baba Kamma, Baba Metzia, and Baba Batra; it means translating those theoretical concepts into practical actions that are relevant to Jewish people in the 21st century.

The second step, however, is even more important.

I have repeatedly heard about people who are described as having committed “victimless crimes” - tax evasion, insider trading, bank fraud. I have heard people who committed such crimes acknowledge that they violated the halachic principle of dina d’malchuta dina - that is, they failed to follow the laws of the country in which they live, which itself is a violation of Jewish law.

Admitting that they violated dina d’malchuta dina is, I believe, less a forthright admission than an excuse. For saying that they “broke the law” treats their offense as if it were like throwing a spitball in the Major Leagues: against the rules, but not really hurting anyone. Acknowledging that they did not follow the laws of the land ignores the actual pain that they caused - that the ill-gotten money in their bank accounts was acquired at someone else’s expense.

As if tax evasion and insider trading are merely severe forms of jaywalking.

The reality is that, in financial matters, it’s rare indeed to find a truly victimless crime.

Someone who was supposed to have that money does not have it - and it’s because you took it away from him.

Those who evade taxes put a greater onus on honest people who consequently need to pay a greater share - or on the local government, which lacks the funds to provide services for the citizens who have been defrauded. That is not a victimless crime.

Insider trading is, as Rabbi Wieder explained, a good example of the prohibition of ona’ah, where one party has greater knowledge than the other about the nature of the transaction. Engaging in insider trading means defrauding the person who sells or buys to you, and who has less knowledge about it than you do. That is not a victimless crime.

The list goes on and on. And because we too often think of those who violate these laws as engaging in victimless crimes, we downplay their misdeeds and keep their names on the walls of our synagogues and schools.

We need to stop using the term “victimless crimes” when it comes to financial impropriety. Someone always loses. I prefer the term “faceless crimes”: there’s a victim, and we justify his loss because we don’t know who it is and can pretend that no one is worse off… but that’s false.

The money inappropriately acquired did not appear ex nihilo. It belongs to someone else… even though you have it in your hands.

If we actually want to embody Torah ideals and values, we need to take these laws as seriously as the Torah requires.

And yes, it is a big deal.