""41141111111.1.441411.111111161010. ,
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
For More Than 35 Years
I Have Been A Member of B'nai B'rith Because .. .
B'nai B'rith believes our children must be given the
opportunity to achieve their fullest potential, that our
young adults be imbued with civic, cultural and spiritual
values to prepare them for leadership roles in their com-
munities, that a commitment to our elders is a commit-
ment to ourselves, that the fate of the Jewish people is linked
to the fate of Israel, that building a better world starts at
home.
JUDGE AVERN COHN
And . . . I support B'nai B'rith because of these strong beliefs.
Time spent at the Hillel House on my college cam-
pus holds many fond memories for me of B'nai B'rith.
After college and serving my country in the Air Force,
I became a charter member of Centennial Lodge of B'nai
B'rith, and later served as president. At that time
membership offered me a way to meet my own contem-
poraries. Soon I grew to realize just how much good the
organization was doing for our youth through its ex-
cellent programs . . . BBYO and Hillel. Until this very
DOUGLAS SCHUBOT day, I am proud to be a member of Centennial Lodge,
to be associated with B'nai B'rith, and to lend my
support to its fine programs and projects.
WE ARE B'NAI B'RITH
A MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION
A SERVICE ORGANIZATION
AN OUTSPOKEN ADVOCATE FOR JEWS EVERYWHERE
- MEMBERSHIP, WORKING WITH OTHERS FOR OTHERS WHO HAVE
SIMILAR CONCERNS AND INTERESTS, AFFORDS A STRONGER SENSE
OF IDENTITY, A GREATER AWARENESS OF OUR HERITAGE AND
HISTORY. SERVICE, GIVING A HELPING HAND TO THOSE LESS FOR-
TUNATE BY PROVIDING OUTREACH SERVICES TO THE JEWISH COM-
MUNITY, FULFILLS MORAL OBLIGATIONS, GIVES A FEELING OF
TOGETHERNESS. OUR B'NAI B'RITH INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT
SPEAKS FOR JEWS EVERYWHERE ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBERSHIP.
THE LARGER OUR MEMBERSHIP, THE LOUDER HIS VOICE!
WHY NOT ADD YOUR NAME TO THE IMPORTANT WORK OF B'NAI B'RITH?
dom.
For further information regarding membership, please contact:
B'NAI B'RITH MICHIGAN REGIONAL COUNCIL (313) 5524177
TWO WONDERFUL WEEKS
November 12th-25th
Tour Guides,
Tour Israel with exp
Rabbi & Barbara Kirshner of Shaarey Zedek B'nai
Israel. The entire community is invited to join with
them in this Unified At-One-Ness Experience.
• Tax and Porterage
Round Trip Air from Detroit
• Bus and Guide
Deluxe 5-Star Hotels
• Meet Israeli Officials
Breakfast Daily
• $1795 All Inclusive
8 Days of Touring
%4S1
•
•
•
•
CONTACT RABBI SHERMAN KIRSHNER 681-5353 or 851-1938
Congratulations! Congratulations!
DOD RUI3Y
SECOND HOLE-IN-ONE
SHENANDOAH #17
First
Second
May 28, 1986
July 24, 1991
JERRY U • JERRY A • MIKE R
48
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1991
VALERIE TAYLOR
FASHION RESALE
Exclusively Women's Clothing
and Accessories
Current Fashions Sizes 2-14
eill161844 S. Woodward
Birmingham
1 block North of 14 Mile Rd
540-9548
"We Pay Cash for Fine
Clothing and
Accessories"
Mon-Fri 12 noon-6 pm
Set 11 am-6 pm
Closed Sunday
Business, Religion
Demand Decency
RABBI WILLIAM GERSHON
Special to The Jewish News
M
any people may take
offense at the notion
that religion should
regulate how they do
business. They believe that
business is business and not
religion. No faithful Jew
could understand such a
statement. It is a major prin-
ciple of Judaism that no area
of life and human relations
can be said to fall outside the
purview of the Torah.
Furthermore, Judaism
teaches that no religion can
undo or pardon what a
human being has done if he
has offended or injured his
fellow. Yom Kippur, it is well
known, effects complete ex-
piation for the Jew if he has
sincerely repented, for as
Scripture teaches:"For on this
day shall atonement be made
for you to cleanse you; from
all your sins shall you be
clean before the Lord."
To this Rabbi Eleazar ben
Azarya added his famous
comment: "The Day of Atone-
ment is effective with repen-
tance only with respect to
those sins committed against
the Lord; but for transgres-
sions committed against one's
fellow, the Day of Atonement
is effective only if he has
previously conciliated his
fellow"
Since the Ten Command-
ments teach "Thou shalt not
steal," and since the Torah
labels any false-dealing with
one's neighbor a sin against
God, the laws of the market-
place are given the same in-
tensity in Judaism as those
governing ritual infractions.
What does Judaism require
from us? In this week's Torah
reading we find: "And now, 0
Israel, what does the Lord
your God demand of you? On-
ly this: to revere the Lord
your God . . ." On this verse
the Talmud teaches: God asks
only yirah — only "reverence,
only the fear of God!' Some of
the sages interpreted yirat
shamayim, fear of God, to
mean treating one's neighbor
fairly.
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Ber-
ditchev was once in a big
marketplace where he saw a
crowd of men, each possessed
with the greed of making a
profit. He climbed on the roof
of a house and called down in
a loud voice: "You people, you
yirat
are forgetting
Rabbi Gershon is associate
rabbi of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek.
shamayim; you are forgetting
to fear God." To Rabbi Levi
Yitzhak of Berditchev, the
fear of God meant being sen-
sitive to making ethically cor-
rect choices in one's business
dealings; by rushing to make
a sale or to consummate a
deal one might be tempted to
stretch the rules of the
market or deceive someone.
Knowing how easy it is for
a person to balance the scales
in his own favor when it
comes to other people's
money, the sages of the
Talmud made it clear that
theft is theft, no matter how
small the amount; and theft
of any kind is unforgivable
unless it is first restored.
They warned that theft was
related to murder. Why? To
the sages, theft was destruc-
Shabbat Ekev
Deuteronomy
7:12-11:25
Isaiah 49:14-51:13
tive of the thief, his victim
and of the society as a whole.
But the function of the
Torah is to have us live not
only by the letter of the law,
but faithfully with one
another — so faithfully that it
meets the requirements of
what is "good and fair in the
sight of God?' (Deuteronomy
6:18). Put into theological
terms, the Torah instructs us
to live a life of sanctity,
kedoshim t'hiyu — "you shall
be holy; for I the Lord your
God am holy!' A person can
observe the law to the fullest
but still be what the rabbis
term a naval birshut hatorah,
"a scoundrel within the boun-
daries of the law!' People who
take advantage of another's
ignorance or naivete may not
be guilty of any legal offense,
but they are probably moral-
ly deficient.
Such practices as unspoken
deception which are unen-
forceable — especially decep-
tion found in advertising — is
termed by the rabbis as "rob-
bing a person's eye or mind."
Thus, Jewish law forbids the
embellishment of any goods
by artificial means or mixing
together less desirable goods
with ones that are fresher or
newer, for they attract the eye
unfairly. The sages hold the
assumption that techniques
for advancing sales must be
fair no less than the act of
sale itself.
Economic deception is not
restricted to merchants alone.
The consumer is no less
bound by the laws of honesty