Chapter One
Week 1, Day 1
Sunday
On Hearing a Siren
What is your reaction when you are talking with a friend and your conversation is
suddenly interrupted by the piercing wail of an ambulance siren? Is it pure sympathy
for the person inside - or about to be picked up by - the ambulance, or do you feel
some measure of annoyance? Similarly, how do you react when you are awakened
from a deep sleep by a series of clanging fire trucks or the wail of a police car?
I am embarrassed to admit that, along with many others, my initial reaction to such
noises is often impatience and annoyance rather than empathy. My friend Rabbi
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, known throughout the Jewish world as "Reb Zalman,"
suggests that whenever we hear the sound of a passing ambulance we offer a prayer
that the ambulance arrive in time. Similarly, whenever our sense of calm is interrupted
by fire trucks, we should pray to God that the trucks arrive in time to save the
endangered people and home. We should also pray that no firefighter be injured. And
when we hear police sirens, we should implore God that the police respond in time to
the emergency.
Reb Zalman's suggestion is profound. By accustoming ourselves to uttering a prayer at
the very moment we feel unjustly annoyed, we become better, more loving people.
The very act of praying motivates us to empathize with those who are suffering and
in need of our prayers. Furthermore, imagine how encouraging it would be for those
being rushed to a hospital to know that hundreds of people who hear the ambulance
sirens are praying for their recovery.
Speaking to a Jewish group once in Baltimore, I shared Reb Zalman's suggestion. After
my talk, several people commented on how moved they were by this idea, but one
woman seemed particularly emotional when she spoke of this suggestion. When she
was ten, she told me, she had been awakened from a deep sleep by passing fire
trucks. It was almost one in the morning, and now, twenty-five years later, she still
remembered her first response: it was so unfair that her sleep had been ruined.
The next morning she learned that her closest friend, a girl who lived only a few
blocks away, had died in the fire. Ever since, she told me, whenever she hears fire
trucks go by, she prays that they arrive at their destination in time.
Loving one's neighbor is usually carried out through tangible acts, by giving money or
food to those in need, by stepping in and offering assistance to a neighbor who is ill,
or by bringing guests into one's home. But sometimes loving is expressed through a
prayer that connects us to our neighbor, even when we have no way of knowing just
who our neighbor is.
Weeki 1, Day 3
Tuesday
The Purchase That Is Always ForbiddenOne may not buy wool, milk, or kids from shepherds. Nor may one buy wood or fruit
from the watchmen of orchards [Even in instances where it is permitted to buy
something], in all cases in which the seller asks that the goods be hidden, it is
forbidden [to make such a purchase]
- Mishna, Bava Kamma 10:9
Common sense lies behind this ancient ruling. There is no way you can know for
certain that the shepherds or watchmen have stolen the items from their employers,
but common sense suggests that if they are offering for sale precisely those items
they are paid to guard, they have probably acquired them illegally.
In modern terms, imagine that the checkout man at your local supermarket meets you
on the street and tells you he can deliver dairy goods to your house at half the price
you pay at the supermarket that employs him. You can't be certain that he is
acquiring the products illegally, but nonetheless, Jewish law says that in such a case
you should regard the person as guilty until proven innocent, and refuse to purchase
food from him.
Similarly, one sees on the streets of many American cities people selling videos of
recently released movies for a fraction of what they cost in stores. Since reason
suggests that such films have been "pirated" (illegally copied) or stolen - how else
can one account for the cheap price at which they are being sold? - Jewish law
would prohibit purchasing them.
As a rule, otherwise honest people who buy stolen merchandise continue to regard
themselves as honest, and certainly see themselves as being on a higher moral rung
than the people from whom they have purchased their goods. Maimonides makes it
clear that Jewish law does not share this view: "It is prohibited to buy from a thief
any property he has stolen, such buying being a great sin, since it encourages
criminals and causes the thief to steal other property. For if a thief finds no buyer, he
will not steal" (Mishneh Torah, "The Laws of Theft" 5:1).
An actual, if less obvious, instance of dealing in stolen goods, the insider stock-trading
scandal, occurred in the late 1980s in the New York financial markets; in that
case, a financier paid employees of law firms and financial institutions to inform him
when companies with which they dealt were going to be bought out. Knowing that
the stock prices in those companies would rise substantially, the man bought shares
and, over a number of years, made tens of millions of dollars in profit. When his
scheme eventually was exposed, he, along with the people who supplied him with the
information, was sent to prison. From my understanding of Judaism's perspective,
purchasing information that the seller has no right to market is yet another way in
which a person traffics in stolen goods.
Very simply, if someone is trying to sell you something that is not his to sell
- whether goods or information - you have no right to buy. As it is written in Proverbs
(29:24), "He who shares with a thief is the enemy of his own soul."
(Continues.)
