From two New York Times articles on the Bernard Madoff fraud:<\/p>\n
As it does each day<\/a>, the Yeshiva [University] community has turned to religion for strength, and to help shepherd it through a crisis<\/p>\n
Rabbi Shalom Carmy, chairman of the Bible and Jewish Philosophy Department, flipped through Genesis the other day looking for a passage, a sliver of spiritual truth, to guide students in a time of introspection. He stopped on the story of Jacob and his willingness to risk his life to ensure the integrity of his earnings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe righteous guard their money more than their body,\u201d he said in explaining the lesson he extracted. \u201cIf you make money honestly and if you\u2019re holding it in a trust for people, you have to be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Blech, for his part, turned to the Ten Commandments, noting that some focus on a person\u2019s relationship with God, others on relationships with fellow human beings. He said that \u201cboth tablets are equally important.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And:<\/p>\n
In addition to theft<\/a>, the Torah discusses another kind of stealing, geneivat da\u2019at, the Hebrew term for deception or stealing someone\u2019s mind. \u201cIn the rabbinic mind-set, he\u2019s guilty of two sins: one is theft, and the other is deception,\u201d said Burton L. Visotzky, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that he stole from Jewish charities puts him in a special circle of hell,\u201d Rabbi Visotzky added. \u201cHe really undermined the fabric of the Jewish community, because it\u2019s built on trust. There is a wonderful rabbinic saying \u2014 often misapplied \u2014 that all Jews are sureties for one another, which means, for instance, that if a Jew takes a loan out, in some ways the whole Jewish community guarantees it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several rabbis said they were reminded of Esau, a figure of mistrust in the Bible. According to a rabbinic interpretation, Esau, upon embracing his brother Jacob after 20 years apart, was actually frisking him to see what he could steal. \u201cThe saying goes that, when Esau kisses you,\u201d Rabbi Visotzky said, \u201ccheck to make sure your teeth are still there.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From two New York Times articles on the Bernard Madoff fraud: As it does each day, the Yeshiva [University] community has turned to religion for strength, and to help shepherd it through a crisis Rabbi Shalom Carmy, chairman of the … Continue reading