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Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
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Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 18, 2008 / 17 Menachem-Av 5768

Business with Friends

By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Q: A friend suggested I join him in a business deal. When I suggested a contract, he explained that we're good friends and a hand-shake is enough. Should I be suspicious?


A: You don't have to be suspicious of your friend, but you should certainly be prudent.


It's true that our sages tell us, "Always consider others as bandits, yet respect the, as Rabban Gamliel did." A stranger once sought hospitality at the house of the leading sage Rabban Gamliel; Rabban Gamliel took him in and treated him with honor, but also took away the ladder to the guest's attic room to prevent him from burgling the house. But as the passage goes on to explain, this applies mainly to a stranger. (1) Regarding a friend, it is more appropriate to judge him favorably, as we learn from the verse, "Judge your fellow with righteousness." (Leviticus 19:15.) While the plain meaning is an admonition to the judge to adjudicate righteously, our sages also learned from this verse that we should judge others favorably. (2)


However, our everyday enemies of carelessness, forgetfulness, and misunderstanding are enemies at least as great as deliberate fraud, and perhaps greater. In a few months, you will remember that he intended one investment, and he will remember another. You will recall that you were to get fifty percent, but he will be sure he promised you only forty. If you take your case to court, or even if you decide to make it non-adversarial and go to an arbitrator or mediator, the person will have nothing to go on.


The insight that even honest people are in need of carefully documented agreements is emphasized in the following Talmudic passage:


Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Anyone who has spare money and lends it without witnesses, transgresses the prohibition "Don't put a stumbling block before the blind". Reish Lakish said, he brings misfortune on himself, as it is written (Psalms 31:18?) "Silence befall lips that speak untruth, who speak against the righteous". The rabbis said to Rav Ashi, "[The sage] Ravina fulfills all the rabbis commanded. [Rav Ashi] sent him a message just before Sabbath came in, "Send me ten zuz [a sum of money], for I just found an opportunity to buy a piece of land. [Ravina] sent back, bring witnesses and write a deed. He sent to him, even me?! He sent back, you above all, for one who is absorbed in study comes to forget and brings misfortune on himself.


Rashi explains that the "stumbling block before the blind" is that the borrower may be tempted to deny the loan; "misfortune on himself" is that people will suspect him, the lender, of making a false claim when he tries to recover the loan in court. (3)


Ravina certainly did not suspect Rav Ashi of trying to cheat him. Even so, he points out that even the most righteous people can sometimes be absent minded, and insisted that even among the most trustworthy friends, all agreements should be clearly elaborated and carefully documented.

SOURCES: (1) Kallah Rababi 7:1 (2) Babylonian Talmud, Shevuos 30a (3) Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 75b

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JWR contributor Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, formerly of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration, is Research Director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem College of Technology. To comment or pose a question, please click here.

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