“I was raised with the ever-present Blue Box in my parents’ home—Jewish National Fund and Israel were a constant in our lives. Today, JNF is part of the lives of my entire family—my three children included—as Jewish National Fund is all Israel, all the time. There is no other agenda. Our work benefits the land and people of Israel on many levels, at all times, and our involvement gives us a great sense of satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy.” National Board Past President, Jeffrey E. Levine
How do we retain the traditional Jewish characteristics of kindness, compassion, tzedakah and chesed, generosity of spirit, heart—and pocket?
Winston Churchill once said, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent vice of communism is the equal sharing of miseries.” In Judaism, it is an an open market system, where the sharing of blessings was not left to chance or wishful thinking, but was made mandatory. Our Parshah gives us a classic example.
Shemittah (the Sabbatical year) was designed to allow the land to rest and regenerate. For six years the land would be worked, but in the seventh year it would rest and lie fallow. The agricultural cycle in the Holy Land imposed strict rules and regulations on the owner of the land. No planting, no pruning, no agricultural work whatsoever in the seventh year—and whatever grew by itself would be “ownerless” and there for the taking for all. The owner could take some, but so could his workers, friends and neighbors. The landowner, in his own land, would have no more right than the stranger. For six years, you own the property, but in the seventh you enjoy no special claims.
This is but one of many examples of Judaism’s “capitalism with a conscience.” There are many other legislated obligations to the poor—not optional extras, not even pious recommendations, but clear mandatory contributions to the less fortunate. The ten percent tithes, as well as the obligation to leave to the poor the unharvested corners of one’s field, the gleanings, and the forgotten sheaves are all part of the system of compassionate capitalism.
Judaism thus presents an economic system which boasts the best of both worlds—the advantages of an unfettered free market, allowing personal expression and success relative to hard work, without the drawbacks of corporate greed. If the land belongs to G‑d, then we have no exclusive ownership over it. G‑d bestows His blessings upon us, but clearly, the deal is that we must share. Without Torah law, capitalism fails. Unbridled ambition and the lust for money and power lead to monopolies and conglomerates that leave no room for the next guy and widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. The Sabbatical year is one of many checks and balances that keep our capitalism kosher and kind.
May you be successful and encourage G‑d to keep showering you with His blessings by sharing it generously with others.
Shabbat Shalom,
Yossi
