Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Daily Business ethics Halacha #1

We are learning from Case Studies in Business Ethics by the late Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine z"l professor of economics at Yeshiva University.

His first chapter is on moral education.  Rabbi Levine points out when people are schooled at a young age to take veiled misconduct in stride, and even to regard its practice as a challenging game of sorts,, by the time they enter the workforce their morals are so shaky that are set up to be dihonest in business.

The gemara mentions moral education of children in massechet Sukkah on page 46b.  The gemara says:
Rabbi Zeira ruled that one should not promise to give a child something and then not give it to him because one will thereby teach him lying, as it says in scripture They have taught their tongues to speak lies (Jeremiah 9:4)

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