The Daily Daf: Why Steal a Lulav?

«Despite the (very limited) success of Jewish outreach[1] many times more Jews leave observance every year than join in. And while the reasons for such are varied the financial scandals that plague our community do little to help and much to hurt. Being an Orthodox Jew should be synonymous with the highest levels of honesty, trust, integrity, straight talk and the like. Whether Jews who are not shomer Shabbat  are in fact any less honest than others is irrelevant[2]. Until we are seen as paragons of virtue in this area we will have little chance of influencing more than a handful of Jews. 
 
While simple in theory we know how difficult this is in practice. Our sages recognized long ago that the lust for money runs deep and wide; the same person who would never dream of having a glass of milk at the conclusion of a meat meal - something that is a "mere" custom" - may find fifty ways to justify violating the Torah's laws on theft. Our sages were dead serious when they taught that the first question we will be asked when we meet our Maker i.e. the most basic definition of a religious Jew, is "Were your business dealings conducted faithfully?" (Shabbat 31a).»

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Kol Tuv,
RRW