Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Ethics and Halacha
I would like to share with you an ethical dilemma I had last year. I received a parking ticket (unfairly I might add, but that's another story). Parking fines in England are very expensive. The fine was £80 (around $150) but would be reduced to £40, if I paid within fourteen days.
As I picked up the phone to pay, I noticed that the parking attendant erred in my car's license number. The only identifying feature about the car was the license number. It meant that I was off the hook. Or was I? I checked online to see if another car with the license number on my ticket existed. I saw that there did.
I faced a dilemma: should I pay the ticket or not? On the one hand, I could not get caught, but on the other hand, another person would be sent a large fine in the mail. While this person would presumably be able to prove that they were not guilty of the fine, they would nevertheless have to waste precious time and presumably some expenses, proving it,
I posed this dilemma to a number of friends. All my orthodox friends told me not to pay the fine; their argument being that I have no legal obligation to pay it and that the unknown person would get out of it. On the other hand, all my secular friends told me to pay the fine because the person would face much stress and after all, I was guilty of parking illegally.
The response of my secular friends was more ethical than that of my orthodox friends. I believe that it was because my orthodox friends tackled the dilemma from a halachik, legal angle, while my other friends, who did not have this halachik training, dealt with it from a moral, right vs. wrong angle.
If this is the case, what does it tell us about our halachik and ethical education? Is there an ethical dimension missing in the way we teach halacha?
As I picked up the phone to pay, I noticed that the parking attendant erred in my car's license number. The only identifying feature about the car was the license number. It meant that I was off the hook. Or was I? I checked online to see if another car with the license number on my ticket existed. I saw that there did.
I faced a dilemma: should I pay the ticket or not? On the one hand, I could not get caught, but on the other hand, another person would be sent a large fine in the mail. While this person would presumably be able to prove that they were not guilty of the fine, they would nevertheless have to waste precious time and presumably some expenses, proving it,
I posed this dilemma to a number of friends. All my orthodox friends told me not to pay the fine; their argument being that I have no legal obligation to pay it and that the unknown person would get out of it. On the other hand, all my secular friends told me to pay the fine because the person would face much stress and after all, I was guilty of parking illegally.
The response of my secular friends was more ethical than that of my orthodox friends. I believe that it was because my orthodox friends tackled the dilemma from a halachik, legal angle, while my other friends, who did not have this halachik training, dealt with it from a moral, right vs. wrong angle.
If this is the case, what does it tell us about our halachik and ethical education? Is there an ethical dimension missing in the way we teach halacha?
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ethics in Jewish schooling?
Sitting at my Shabbat table recently was a young man studying in what is considered a very fine Israeli post-high school (Hesder) Yeshiva. He was proudly describing his exploits of the previous weekend, in which he was satisfying his quest to meet various Torah luminaries living in Bnei Brak. Armed with their addresses (culled from the title pages of their books) he set out on Friday afternoon. He knocked on the door of one and asked if he could come for a Shabbat meal. The Rabbi's wife responded that she was sorry, as she had only cooked enough for those she was expecting.
Not to be deterred, he appeared at their door Shabbat morning (as they were sitting down to eat) and again asked if he could join. (He had been told that this was "the move" to get in.) Not prepared to turn someone away who apparently had no meal, the Rabbi's wife allowed them to enter.
Although the young man insisted that he just wanted to be in the Rabbi's company and did not want to eat, the Rabbi's wife insisted that he should eat, and brought out what was apparently her portion of fish. The same was true of the rest of the meal.
When I asked the young man why he didn't just ask initially to be present at the meal and not eat, he replied: "The Rosh Yeshiva doesn't like to be bothered during his meal."
I think I missed something here. The Rosh Yeshiva wanted a private Shabbat meal. So in order to spend time with this Torah scholar, for whom the Yeshiva student presumably has great admiration, the student harasses him and his family, to the extent that his wife gave up her meal? Even more disturbing was that this was not an isolated incident. It is something the Yeshiva guys (in certain circles) share and plan. When I asked him how his father would react to the story, he responded that his father would be very happy that he was "hanging out with Gedolim" and would be delighted to send a check to the Rosh Yeshiva for the meal.
In the discussion about who determines the agendas for schools, parents or educators, I used to think that the two moderate the extremes of the other, and establish some sort of balance in the dynamic process. But when the parents and the Yeshiva are in collusion, so that a student - and his friends - could get the idea that such exploits/exploitations are considered "cool" and laudatory, I shudder at the implications. To whom can we turn to restore a sense of decency and ethics?
Not to be deterred, he appeared at their door Shabbat morning (as they were sitting down to eat) and again asked if he could join. (He had been told that this was "the move" to get in.) Not prepared to turn someone away who apparently had no meal, the Rabbi's wife allowed them to enter.
Although the young man insisted that he just wanted to be in the Rabbi's company and did not want to eat, the Rabbi's wife insisted that he should eat, and brought out what was apparently her portion of fish. The same was true of the rest of the meal.
When I asked the young man why he didn't just ask initially to be present at the meal and not eat, he replied: "The Rosh Yeshiva doesn't like to be bothered during his meal."
I think I missed something here. The Rosh Yeshiva wanted a private Shabbat meal. So in order to spend time with this Torah scholar, for whom the Yeshiva student presumably has great admiration, the student harasses him and his family, to the extent that his wife gave up her meal? Even more disturbing was that this was not an isolated incident. It is something the Yeshiva guys (in certain circles) share and plan. When I asked him how his father would react to the story, he responded that his father would be very happy that he was "hanging out with Gedolim" and would be delighted to send a check to the Rosh Yeshiva for the meal.
In the discussion about who determines the agendas for schools, parents or educators, I used to think that the two moderate the extremes of the other, and establish some sort of balance in the dynamic process. But when the parents and the Yeshiva are in collusion, so that a student - and his friends - could get the idea that such exploits/exploitations are considered "cool" and laudatory, I shudder at the implications. To whom can we turn to restore a sense of decency and ethics?
Labels: ethics
