Moses L Pava Busines Ethics a Jewish Perspective Wurzberger Review

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Book Reviews ..':.-, 143 In conclusion, we detect the results of an immense sweep of investigation, well documented and clearly written. Lloyd Bailey Visiting Professor ofReligion Methodist College, Fayetteville, NC Business organization Ethics: A Jewish Perspective, past, Moses 50. Pavao New York: Ktav Publishing House and Yeshiva Academy Press, 1997. 206 pp. $25.00. Professor Pava's Concern Ethics: A Jewish Perspective is a welcome improver to the unfortunately sparse literature on the subject. The author, a highly respected authority on business ethics, plumbs the resources ofthe Jewish tradition to show how its insights could be harnessed for practical guidance on contemporary bug, for both Jews and non-Jews, in spite ofthe fact that they were formulated nether altogether unlike socioeconomic conditions from those prevailing nowadays. He offers an "integrative approach," which attempts to "integrate the best of the growing academic business literature with authoritative Jewish sources" (p. iv), with the aim ofaddressing the realities ofa modern, pluralistic order. His first objective is to establish that the rationality ofbusiness decisipns cannot be evaluated only in terms ofmaximal self-involvement (maximization ofprofit) but must also take account ofethical considerations. In"stressing the role ofJewish ethical teachings, he correctly points out that Jewish ethics transcends sheer legal norms and provides models of aspiration besides. He argues that although one cannot impose the legal norms of Halakhah in a pluralistic society, Jewish ethical models of aspiration continue to be relevant und~r modern conditions. It seems to this reader, withal, that there is no justification for such a dichotomy between legal norms and models ofaspiration, the components ofJewish ethics. A case could exist made that adoption ofa number ofspecific provisions of Jewish religious law could better the ethical climate of our society considerably. For example, the application of the Jewish legal prohibition ofgeneivat da 'ati (deception) would adjourn the dissemination ofdisinformation and prevent many other forms ofmisrepresentation. One might fifty-fifty suggest that many questionable bookkeeping practices relating to disclosure would fall under this rubric. From the biblical narrative, describing the consequences of Joseph's taking advantage of knowledge about a forthcoming famine equally well as his handling of his brothers who did not recognize him, the author extracts ethical lessons well-nigh the venial of the utilization of "inside information." He cites these events as 144 SHOFAR Wintertime 1999 Vol. 17, No.2 demonstration of "the need of a religious ethics to move beyond purely legalistic approaches" (p. 9). Pava'southward general thesis that there is such a need is correct. Simply his evidence for the need to utilize non-Halakhic resources for ethical guidance is weak, fifty-fifty if one were to accept his rather controversial interpretation ofthe Joseph narrative. To condemn unethical use of "inside data," we need not rely on extra-legal cloth, since ample Halakhic sources are available for this objective. Perhaps Pava resorts to the Joseph narrative for what could be extrapolated from Jewish law, because he is reluctant to employ Jewish legal norms for guidance in the pluralistic setting ofmodem business operations. He states that "at the institutional level ... religiously derived legal norms accept no condition" (p. 181). This is why in his stance but "models of aspiration [which] unlike legal norms, are non coercive" (p. 182) can be invoked in a pluralistic world. But it is difficult to run into why Jewish legal norms which reverberate ethical insights could non also provide modern pluralistic society with highly important upstanding guidance. Pava himselfseems to agree with this, considering he endorses Aaron Levine's questioning, on the basis of Halakhic sources, "the legitimacy of the tobacco manufacture and the manufacture and auction of state of war toys" (p. 72). 1 may as well question some other aspect of the radical dichotomy between legalistic norms and models of aspiration made by the author. He contends that "the explicit motivation for accepting them [the old] is fright ofGod rather than the honey of God or faux ofHis ways" (p. 58). Simply this contrast is wrong, since both legal norms and models of aspiration may exist followed either out of honey or out of fear. Especially fascinating is Professor Pava's advocacy ofcorporate social responsibility . Resorting to the notion oflifnim mishurat hadin (going across the strict limits of the...

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Source: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/472579

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