| Consider the Possibility that You Are a ThiefAnd these are the ordinances that you will place before them. (ibid. 21:1) A sizeable quantity of this week’s Torah portion deals with the laws of theft and damage. What significance is there in giving these laws immediately after the Ten Commandments and revelation at Sinai (last week’s Torah portion)? Here’s the message: Being Jewish isn’t just a spiritual experience; it’s a complete system with guidelines and instructions on how to live our lives with neighbors, conduct business, and create a fair society. Living in seclusion in the Himalayas or a monastery, has never been part of the Jewish tradition. The Almighty created the world to be inhabited and along with that go the challenges of creating a structure for villages and cities, and allow their inhabitants to be treated with dignity in a safe environment. One can study spirituality at a university or Ashram, but if you aren’t honest in business dealings you are not called spiritual by Jewish standards. Anyone can feel spiritual but to maintain it when it conflicts with one’s vested interests—where one stands to gain financially or emotionally at someone else’s expense (even if that person is much wealthier or more emotionally stable than you)—is one of life’s challenges. The Talmud (Bava Batra 165a) goes as far as saying that most people are guilty of theft. Although one might say, “I don’t; that would be wrong, but they might not have a moral barometer sensitive enough to detect when they commit this crime. Here are a few examples. · Years ago, relatives took us out to dinner. Someone asked, “why don’t you take some salad from the salad bar?” I said, “the salad bar isn’t included in my dinner.” Her response? “It comes with mine, and I just took a little so that really doesn’t count. You and the kids can take as much as you want because it comes with my dinner.” I felt uncomfortable but she persisted. I said the simple solution would be to ask the manager—and that ended the deliberation. She didn’t think taking from the salad bar as stealing but didn’t want to ask the restaurant’s permission. If you are uncomfortable asking, you have your answer. · Taking pens or a few office supplies from work is also called stealing (even if “nobody is going to miss them”). Once again, why not just ask? We once had a Shabbos guest who said that if you work at a government office, it’s permitted to take items around the office because it’s government property and we pay taxes. · Texting or being on social media while you are being paid to work is also a form of theft. This is the meaning of the Talmud’s axiom that most people are guilty of theft. Our own interests blind us from seeing the truth. But if one wants true spirituality, integrity in one’s monetary dealings is a crucial element in that quest. About 20 years ago, I gave a series of classes in Jerusalem to college students on summer break. We were delving into a section of the Talmud dealing with an employee’s obligations to an employer. We discussed (what I thought was) an obvious case of theft: the payroll department accidentally gave you two paychecks. One guy asked, “what if you are working for a company that pollutes the water with their factory waste?” I remarked, “Until now you didn’t see a moral problem with working for this company, why, then, would it be permitted to steal from them?” He might have thought his comment was motivated by a genuine concern for the environment but when it came to his vested interest—i.e., taking money from them—not only did his ethical barometer fail to detect stealing, it even convinced him that it was a good thing because of the company’s lack of morality with respect to destroying natural resources. Why is this week’s Parsha, in which stealing, bribery, deception and other monetary issues are discussed, juxtaposed with the Sinai experience and the giving of the Ten Commandments? The ultimate cause of theft is that we don’t really believe that G-d will give us what we need. It goes without saying that you have to be aggressive in finding a job and be as effective as you can, but ultimately when one understands that G-d is running the show and gives each individual what they need, they will realize that it doesn’t make sense to steal. If a company gives a free lunch every day, it wouldn’t make sense to break into the kitchen and steal lunch. The only reason for doing so is because you think you won’t get lunch—therefore, you need to take the matter into your own hands. Only a fool would risk everything to steal a lunch that can be obtained for free. So, too, with G-d. If one steals, what does that say about one’s trust in G-d’s ability to provide? Being mindful or spiritual are popular endeavors these days but Jewish wisdom says that being honest in your interpersonal dealings and relationships is the bedrock of all of the above. If you’re not having an honest relationship with the people in your world, you’re not having an honest relationship with yourself and concepts like mindfulness will remain mere concepts without practical application. Vested interests have the power to derail our moral and emotional barometer to the point that it loses the ability to render an accurate reading. How does yours read? When was the last time you checked its accuracy? Good Shabbos |
