The halakhic foundation of all business-related law is the bedrock concept of absolute and scrupulous honesty in all commercial dealings.

Behind the system of specific laws and legal precedents codified by halakhic authorities stands the biblical insistence on absolute integrity in commercial affairs, as exemplified in the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17).

While some commentators, such as Rashi and Rashbam, actually feel that the eighth commandment prohibits kidnapping and that it is the tenth commandment (“You shall not covet … anything that is your neighbor’s”) that prohibits theft of property, all agree that stealing property is absolutely forbidden by Scripture, and it is this concept that serves as the basis for the halakhah of commerce. 

The prohibition of theft presumes the principle of private property (since, absent private ownership of goods, how could anyone steal anything from anyone else?), the Torah may be understood to see as theft any kind of effort or willful misrepresentation that results in an unfair transfer of ownership.

The goal of the laws that govern commerce is to prevent the unjust, unwarranted, or unwilling transfer of property or money from its rightful possessor to another person.

Looking at the Biblical Sources

At Leviticus 19:11, the Torah makes this connection explicit, beginning the verse with the language of the eighth commandment (“You shall not steal”) and then defining the concept clearly: “And you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another.”

Such ethical behavior is linked directly in the text to the attainment of holiness, which Scripture presents as one of the great goals of the spiritual endeavor: “You shall be holy, for I, the Eternal, your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).

As the Etz Hayim Torah commentary notes in its commentary on this passage, we do not create holiness only within the realm of religious ritual; rather, “everything we do has the potential of being holy,” including our daily conduct of business affairs. 

Moreover, the story of the creation of the world that opens the Torah makes it clear that, while we may hold temporary title to possessions, God is the ultimate owner of everything.

We are, in this sense, simply stewards of God’s property (i.e., the world and everything in it), and our mission is to use it righteously, honestly, justly, and for holy purposes.

Rabbinic Sources Around Honesty

The rabbis reinforced and expanded upon these biblical demands.

At BT Shabbat 31a, for example, the Talmud presents the great teacher Rava’s lesson about what happens when a person leaves this world and approaches the heavenly court for judgment:

“At the time a person is brought to judgment they ask: ‘Did you conduct your business affairs faithfully? Did you set time for study of Torah? Did you look after your obligation to procreate? Did you conduct yourself so as to bring salvation to the world? Did you argue [i.e., respectfully and in an intellectually productive way] about the law? Did you bring logic and common sense to bear in your studies?’

And even if all the answers are correct, a favorable evaluation will only be granted to those who consider as a true treasure the fear of heaven that they have [successfully] inculcated in themselves over the course of their lifetimes.”

Note that business conduct is at the top of Rava’s list!

Although the other questions have a far more overtly religious or spiritual feel to them—and even the question about having children is couched, in the original text, in language that resonates with the sense of religious obligation, not merely as a way to produce heirs—it is Rava’s opinion that the conduct of mundane trade and transactions will be the first test of one’s worth on the ultimate day of judgment.

Nor was Rava’s view a mere minority opinion.

On Yom Kippur itself, which the sages of ancient times understood to constitute the Jewish people’s annual rehearsal for their day of final judgment, the liturgical stress is clearly on ethical conduct.

Indeed, the same Hebrew phrase used by Rava to denote business affairs, massa u-mattan, is mentioned specifically in the long confessional prayer (Al Ḥeit) recited on Yom Kippur, along with a variety of other acts related to everyday commerce.

At the core of both Rava’s remark and its liturgical amplification is the understanding that behaving dishonorably in commerce is as much a sin against God as it is a sin against other people.

As a result, business affairs are always to be conducted with the sense that there is a Third Party witnessing the transaction.

For example, although a sale is not generally considered complete in Jewish law until the purchaser has actively taken possession of the purchased item or commodity, at a certain point in negotiations one is considered morally, if not fully legally, committed to follow through.

Indeed, the Mishnah ( M Bava Metzia 4:2 )  specifically declares that “the One who punished the generation of the flood [in the time of Noah] and the generation of the dispersion [after the incident concerning the construction of the Tower of Babel] will punish those who do not stand by their word.”

The theological idea behind this warning is that the ever-vigilant God of history demands that every commercial transaction be carried out with the purest of intentions.

Integrity is thus not only a savvy way to ensure repeat business, but should, and far more importantly, also be a manifestation of the yirat shamayim—the fear of heaven—that characterizes the God-fearing individuals involved.

Judaism, always a religion of realists, recognizes that general exhortations to be honest will not suffice, and thus Jewish texts require scrupulous behavior in many specific settings and under many specific circumstances.

For example, the Torah prescribes the honest use of weights and measures at Deuteronomy 25:13–15: “You shall not have in your pouch alternate weights, a larger and a smaller. You shall not have in your house alternate measures, a larger and a smaller. You must have completely honest weights and completely honest measures if you are to endure long on the soil that the Eternal, your God, is giving you.”

In his commentary to this passage, Samson Raphael Hirsch notes that the reference to one’s “house” implies that not only may one not use inaccurate measures to trick one’s customers, but that even possessing such tools is forbidden—lest a person be tempted to use them, or others use them inadvertently.

The Torah wishes not only to punish fraud, but to prevent it as well.

Moreover, the Talmud gives specific examples of how this should be practiced in the marketplace.

For example, at BT Bava Batra 89a, the Talmud describes a system of agardamin (inspectors, from the Greek agoranomos) to scrutinize the marketplace and ensure that certain types of measures are accurate.

While other aspects of honest behavior are left to individual conscience, here the Talmud (and the later codes as well) emphasize society’s obligation to ensure honesty in commerce and not merely to hope for the integrity of merchants.

Adapted with permission from The Observant Life.