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The Limmud Sugia Social Beit Midrash

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Moderator
14.12.2015 13:57

As Ben promised here is the link to our new sugia: Who is the Boss

You are invited to check out the questions and the sources

and enter the discussion page and be the first to voice your opinion.

see you there.

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Benjamin Crowne
14.12.2015 10:42

Hey Judith – just a final point on this to let R’Shimon “off the hook” a little – he doesn’t say that’s why he did it; rather it’s another Rabbi (Yehudah HaNasi) who attributes that reason to him.

As Udi noted in the other version of the story he found; the non-Jew spontaneously said “Praised be the God of Shimon ben Shetach” – so there too we are silent on R’Shimon’s actual intentions!

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Benjamin Crowne
14.12.2015 10:39
Thanks everyone for your contributions– it was great to have so many different people involved and commenting on this Sugia!

I just want to write a quick summary of our discussion:

We looked at three main sources – Rava’s comment that people are asked at their judgement “Did you deal faithfully in business”; the Mekhilta that says doing what’s right in business is equivalent to the whole Torah; and the story of R’Shimon ben Shetach and the diamond.

In our discussion, Jo & Ana and Abi all made suggestions and asked questions about what it really means “to be faithful in business” (Levi – I still owe you an answer for your question!) – whether it means to be trustworthy, or to act imbued with a sense of your religious responsibilities, or the prospect of a final judgement.

Rotem and Didi talked about the “mundane” or ordinary aspects of our working lives, and why that might be important and meaningful (thanks Rotem in particular for the article he found, which was very interesting & gave a different perspective on this).

Finally, Judith and Ana  and Udi talked about the Shimon ben Shetach story and how it related to the other sources – does it complement them? Does it contradict them?

We’re going to move on tonight to the next topic in this Sugia – about the relationship between a boss and his employees – but the sources we discussed here are still relevant & I hope you’ll bring them into the next discussion.

Thanks again everyone!

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Ana Perlov
13.12.2015 14:39

I think that the Idea behind the Mekhilta  is similar to what I understood in Rava’s position , and that is because dealing faithfully in business- is something that no one else can know beside yourself and the eyes of God .

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Udi Lion
13.12.2015 9:27

Your criticism is very interesting as there is another version of the story that seems to agree with it.

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