THE JEWISH BSERVER in this issue "Did You Conduct Your Business With Faith?" Rabbi Avrohom Pam ............................................................................. 3 Bombing Auschwitz - a footnote to Jewish history Lewis Brenner ........................................................................................ 8 A Letter of Guidance for These Troubled Times Rabbi Eliezer Schach ............................................................................12 Reb Reuvain Grozovsky l"!:i,:i7 i'',l.' ,:ii - 20 Years After His Passing, Nisson Wolpin ............................... 15 Teaching The Fourth Son, Helene Ribowsky ......................................... 23 "The Stone Rejected By The Builders", Hanoch Te/ler ....................... 25 THE JEWISH OBSERVER is published monthly, except July Books In Review, Aryeh Kaplan and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman Street, The Jews of Rhodes ........................................................................... 31 New York, N.Y. 10038. 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O Enclosed: $ ......... al ArtScroll Studios, Ltd. 11 _______________ Rabbi A vrohom Pam Did You Conduct Your Business Affairs With Faith? taken for granted. It is interest­ The Questions An eminent Rosh Yeshiva ing to note, however, that the After a person has lived his examines the implications Gemora uses the term ";iJ1?JKJ." years on earth, he must appear - "Did you conduct your af­ before the Beis Din Shel Ma' alo of the question fairs with emuna-with faith?" (Heavenly Tribunal) and an­ - instead of "tzeddek," or swer, among other questions: that every man "mishpat," or "din" - Were "ilJHJK:J nnJ1 nxtvJil - Did you you righteous, or just in your conduct your business affairs must ultimately answer. business affairs? The reason with faith? (usually taken to might be because Emuna has a mean "with integrity"), ":i-nn7 O'nll nll~P - Did you two-fold meaning - integrity, and faith in G-d. Comp­ establish set times for studying Torah? ... cl711l1'7 n'nY lete trust in G-d would prompt one to act even - Did you anticipate the Redemption?" (Shabbos 31a). r;:i ff11llll'.l 0'lD7 - beyond the letter of the law, and Interestingly, another source in the Talmud (Kiddu­ imbue him with a higher sense of ethics; his faith dis­ shin 40b, Sanhedrin 7a) says that a person is first pells any apprehensions about loss of income resulting judged in regard to Torah, which as Tosfos points out, from ethical conduct. is an apparent contradiction. Tosfos then explains that tvhile in judgment, business conduct takes precedence The Chofetz Chaim declared that a G-d-fearing man over Torah study, retribution is in a different sequence: entering the field of commerce is obliged to study punishment for neglecting Torah study comes first. carefully the second section of Choshen Mishpat (the The reason? The cause of a person's misconduct in section of the Codes dealing with monetary matters), business is a lack of proper knowledge of Torah and a especially those halachos dealing with cheating, and the lack of loyalty to its teachings. All else is built upon possibility of an error in sale (# 227-238). Just as a that foundation .... The questioning starts with a man's shochet is obligated to learn the laws of ritual slaughter, integrity in personal relationships with others - but and a safer must be an expert in the field of Torah punishment begins at the source - laxity in Torah script, so, too, must a merchant be equally proficient in study. the halachos pertinent to his profession. It would be wonderful if just as ordination is granted to Rabbis to Why This Topic permit them to enter the rabbinate, so, too, would some At first glance, a discussion of honesty and correct form of semicha in i~r.im npr.i m~7;i (laws of Com­ business practices may appear to be out of order, since merce) be instituted for people entering the business such fundamental principles of Torah could well be field. A shochet once told Reh Yisroel Salanter, "I'm RABBI PAM, a Rosh Yeshiva in Mesifta Torah Vodaath, Brooklyn, giving up my position because I find the respon­ delivered these re1narks at a gathering of Torah Vodaath alumni. This essay was originally published in f{ebreu1 in HAMEST\!TA,a journal sibility of slaughtering properly too much for my of Torah thought and novellae. MATTIS BLUM, a student in the Beis conscience to bear. If I make but one mistake, Hamid rash of Mesifta Torah Vodaath, prepared for publication both imagine how many people would be eating un­ the 1-febrew and English versions of this essay. kosher meat because of me!" The Jewish Observer I May, 1978 3 Asked Reh Yisroel: "What will you do for a purchase a lulav, and they examine it for defects, such living?" as a split down the spine, they may well cause the split Ref;lied the man, ''I'll open up a small busi­ by examing it carelessly; and then say: "I don't want ness this one. Let me see another one, please." This is a com­ To which Reb Yisroel said: "Do you really mon occurrence, and one should be exceptionally think that that's preferable? As a shochet you careful about it. have one responsibility - people should not The Chofetz Chaim's son, Reb Leib, wrote that when transgress 'You shall not eat any rneat improperly the Sefer Chafetz Chaim was being printed, his father slaughtered' (Devarim 14:2} and that makes you spent weeks on end in the printshop in Warsaw to tremble. If you'd be involved in business, do you 1nake certain that there should be no -error in the know hozv many positive and negative commands printing or the binding; he was truly frightened that you'd be dealing with, how careful you'd have to perhaps someone would purchase a faulty copy which be not to violate any of them?" might constitute gezel (unintentionally defrauding the purchaser). * * * l>z 1906, when the Chafetz Chaim was publishing The Chafetz Chaim cites a few examples of halachos his Mishna Brura, he asked Reb Leib, who had that are of extreme import to those engaged in business. moved to Warsaw, to supervise the production of the sefer. Later, somebody purchased a set of SOME COMMON EXAMPLES Mishna Brura with one section printed incorrect­ Defects in Sales ly. The man sent a complaint to the Chafetz When selling an item, a person must be very careful Chain1, who immediately wrote to his son, that it does not have any flaw in it, or that it be lacking protesting: "What have you done to me, my son? in any way. And shoold it be flawed, he must notify the All my days I was concerned that I be spared from would-be purchaser in advance, for if he does not, the even the remotest likeness to gezel. Never did I sale may be invalid. If it is a defect that would cause a think I 'd be caught up in outright gezel! And person to reconsider the purchase, not informing the now, because of you, I fell into the trap of full­ purchaser would be deemed deception. This considera­ fledged gezel." He commanded his son to print a tion applies whether the purchaser is a Jew or a Gentile, number of extra copies of this section without the for one may not take their money under a false pretext inuersion in it, for fear that others were similarly - gezel akum is forbidden. (The Chofetz Chaim cites "defrauded," and put a notice in the newspaper to various sources; the Rambam - Hilchos Geneiva 7:8, the effect that: "Whoever purchased the Sefer among others). Should a person have made this kind of Mishna Brura containing a misplaced section "invalid sale, he must return the money. should please write me, and I'll send you a cor­ rected section." Which he did. Similarly, a person is not permitted to cheat anybody - Jew and non-Jew alike - in any manner, in keeping