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Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 6, 2005 / 3 Tishrei, 5766

What the world of business can teach us about our annual process of repentance and renewal

By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir


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New Year: Time for Spiritual Accounting


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Usually this column is devoted on taking messages from the world of Jewish tradition and applying them to the world of economic life. This new year I want to go in the opposite direction, and see what the world of business can teach us about our annual process of repentance and renewal.


I can point to ancient precedents for this application. For example, the Zohar exhorts us to be accountants, mari dechushbana, and make a periodic accounting of our acts. Like accountants, we should make an ongoing accounting of our "credits and debits", our good and bad deeds. But accountants go beyond making ongoing ledger entries; once a year they "close the books", making a final accounting and summary of the year's activity.


Likewise, with the new year, we should all make a careful evaluation of our deeds during the year 5765, and at what spiritual level they leave us.


Another business practice universal among serious firms is the formulation of an annual budget. A person, like a business, has limited resources; our energy and attention may be great but they are not inexhaustible. Each of us can benefit from a clear definition of our "business objectives", what we are trying to achieve personally in the coming year, and from translating these objectives into a more detailed plan of how we could use our energies more productively.


Although virtually every firm makes an annual budget, there are two different approaches. Many firms build each year's budget on the basis of the previous year's; the old budget is the benchmark, but modifications are made for changing circumstances. But every so often there is a need to build the budget from the ground up, to re-evaluate each expenditure item and completely reorient the business.


This too is a useful metaphor for our annual process of taking stock of the past and applying its lessons to the future during the High Holy Days. It's only natural that we can't reinvent ourselves each year, and so typically our resolutions involve token adjustments to the autopilot: perhaps to do more to control our anger, perhaps to devote a bit more time to helping others, and so on.


But every so often it's desirable to rebuild our future from the ground up — to reflect on what we really want to achieve with our lives and how we should go about pursuing our goals. This doesn't necessarily imply a revolution in our way of life; businesses and government which re-budget seldom completely transform their practices. Most of us have good reasons for our habits and way of life, and a thorough examination wouldn't cause any disruptive changes.


But such an examination is still of immense value. A few people will decide that they have reached a critical juncture and need a thorough renewal of their way of life. Most of us will conclude that on the whole our conduct conforms to our values, but that there are still significant aspects of our lives which need reevaluation and change. We may discover that much of our conduct is never really subject to careful scrutiny, and plenty of our precious resources are squandered in activities of questionable value.


Even if we decide to continue just as we were, we will do so with renewed energy and motivation, armed with the awareness that our daily routine is not imposed on us by others or by habit, but rather is the outcome of a process of conscious choice.


Let's make this the year we get ourselves off of ethical autopilot and take control of our lives, trying to make sure that every expenditure really conforms with our goals and values.


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JWR contributor Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, formerly of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration, is Research Director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem College of Technology. To comment or pose a question, please click here.


Previously:

Are religious leaders subject to criticism?
Vindictive Vendor: How can I punish an abusive competitor?
Blogging Ethics: Is the blogger responsible for defamatory posts?







© 2005, The Jewish Ethicist is produced by the JCT Center for Business Ethics