Introduction
Have you ever heard of a person who invested a fortune in opening a store, complete with the best possible interior design and the best quality merchandise on the market, and then simply failed to open in order to sell his wares? In all likelihood, this has never happened. At the same time, sometimes we must take a long, hard look in the mirror and realize that we ourselves are very similar to that hypothetical fool.
G-d provides each of us with our income, but He wants us to make some sort of “vessel” into which He can “pour” our sustenance under the guise of nature. He does not want human beings to simply be idle and wait to receive His blessing; rather, He wants us to invest effort into earning a living, while at the same time remembering that our work is nothing but a pipeline through which G-d sends us the money we use to live. We do not create our livelihoods by working; we simply provide the opening through which G-d will send them to us.
The only way we can obtain G-d’s blessing, then, is by conducting ourselves properly, correctly, and honestly, in keeping with all of the Torah’s instructions. Dealing dishonestly with others or using underhanded means to turn a profit will not help a person in the least; in fact, it can only cause harm. A person who fails to adhere to the Torah’s rules in his business dealings is like that man who worked hard putting the finishing touches on a store and never tried to make any sales; he has put the pipeline for his income in place, but he has failed to “open the tap” and access the source of his revenue.
This idea does not apply exclusively to businessmen; it is relevant to each and every one of us. Nowadays, in the Internet age, every person sometimes finds himself involved in trade, sometimes as the buyer and sometimes as the seller. In either case, it is important to keep the Torah’s rules in mind.
Honesty and Integrity
One of the most basic rules for success in business is to always act with integrity. After all, who would want to enter into a business deal with a person who will cheat him?
The Torah admonishes us to “stay far away from falsehood.” We must shun anything that has the slightest appearance of, or association with, a lie. This means refraining not only from lying outright, but even from telling a “white lie.”
Jewish history is filled with stories of heroic Jews, people who displayed tremendous strength not in the physical sense, per se, but rather in their interpersonal reactions. There are stories, for example, about simple Jews who traveled great distances in search of a Gentile who had sold them a particular item, in order to return a few pennies of extra change that the seller had given them by mistake. Even if such an action is not required by Jewish law (for instance, in a situation in which the seller had already given up hope of recovering the money he had lost), it still can be the source of a major benefit. It can uplift a person, making him more refined and improving his sense of ethics and his character. Ideally, a Jewish person should take his financial responsibility toward others beyond the letter of the law.
The first question that a person is asked when he is judged by the Heavenly Court after his death is: “Were you honest in your business dealings?” Every person is judged on whether he displayed integrity, honesty, and proper behavior in his monetary dealings in this world.
There is a wide array of laws in the Torah that apply to business dealings. The following are a few of them:
Issues for a Business Owner
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- As badly as a seller desires to sell his product, he may never make any false statements in an advertisement, or even any statements that may give off a false impression. There may be plenty of space on a web site for descriptions of the items offered for sale, but we are not under any obligation to fill all of the space. Something that is not true simply should not be written.
- Are you selling your old car? You can certainly shine it before you sell it, in order to make a favorable impression on a potential buyer, but it is forbidden to present it as a new car.
- If two people agree on a deal—such as an apartment rental, the sale of a car, and so forth—and settle on a price (not in a public auction or the like), no one else may attempt to convince the owner to sell or rent the item to him instead, even by offering a higher price.
- An employer is obligated to pay his workers on the day on which they agreed in advance. A worker who is paid by the day must be paid by the end of the workday, and a worker who receives a weekly salary must be paid at the end of the week. (This rule applies not only to employees in a business, but even to household help such as a babysitter or cleaning help.)
- Attention business owners: There is much more information on this topic that would be worthwhile for you to learn. For further details, see Your Jewish Guide: Money and Business.
Issues for a Worker or Customer
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- An employee should refrain from taking advantage of the time when he is supposed to be working. Once you swipe your card or punch the clock in the morning, it is as if you have told your employer, “I am at your service now, and I will do whatever you ask of me.” If an employee wants to take a walk outside, he should take an official break from work. If he wants to surf the web, let him wait until he goes home. (Of course, there are some situations in which the rules of the office are different, and each situation must be evaluated on its own.)
- Even as simple customers in a store, we must still make sure to retain our integrity. Sometimes, a person may come home and discover that he was given too much change by the cashier. In such a situation, one should make every effort to return the extra money to the store.
- One should never buy or sell merchandise that may have been stolen or otherwise improperly obtained, even if there is only a slight suspicion that this is the case. Therefore, one should not buy any items from a person who seems suspicious, either because of his shady appearance or because of the particularly low price he is charging.
- One should not inquire about the price of an item for sale or a rental, or about the pay at a particular job, unless one is truly interested in it. It is permissible to ask this question, however, if one tells the seller (or potential employer) that he is merely asking out of curiosity. It is also permissible to ask about a price if the purpose of asking the question is for the purpose of comparing prices, so that one can decide whether or not to purchase the item at this store.
- What should you do if you are shopping in a supermarket and you feel hungry, and someone suddenly offers you a free sample of a new pudding that just came on the market? Should you accept it? If you are actually interested in the food, you may sample it (provided, of course, that it is kosher), but if your intent is merely to satisfy your own hunger, and you have no intention of purchasing it, then you should not accept it. The company offering the free samples is doing so only in order to promote its product, not as a favor to the customers in the supermarket.
Our Sages teach us, “Let the property of others be as precious to you as your own” (Ethics of the Fathers).
You certainly love your own money very much. You protect it from loss, and you do anything possible in order to cause it to grow. You should have the same attitude with regard to another person’s money, and you should not do anything with his property that you would not do with your own.
Charging Interest
Interest is profit that we accumulate from our own money without the need for us to do anything–for instance, when a person extends a loan to his friend of 1000 $ for one month, and at the end of the month he receives 1100 $ in return.
The Torah forbids us to lend or borrow money from other Jews with interest. It is forbidden even to be a guarantor for such a loan, or to participate in an interest-based loan in any other way. The Torah has some very harsh things to say about people who lend money with interest.
In certain situations, it is possible to circumvent the prohibition of taking interest by using a heter iska. A heter iska is a special type of arrangement that redefines the loan as a type of deal in which it is permissible for more money to be returned than the amount borrowed. In a case of necessity, a rabbi should be consulted to determine whether a heter iska may be used and how it should be done.
This area of Jewish law is subject to many varied and complex laws, and it is impossible for us to relate to all of them here.
Whenever a borrower returns to a lender any amount more than he borrowed, or even if he simply performs a favor for the lender, he should consult with a rabbi who is familiar with the laws of charging interest.
