In these “awesome days” of Elul and Tishrei it is usual for us Jews to examine closely our situation both individually and vis-a-vis our friends and the Creator. Therefore, we pray a great deal, repent, and forgive one another, and increase our good deeds prior to the Day of Judgment which falls on Rosh Hashana, the New Year, and reaches its climax on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on which, according to tradition, the judgment for the new year is sealed. These actions are called “Heshbon Nefesh” – or “accounting of the soul,” and the idea behind it is the assumption that, just as a person is unable to manage his material affairs in an intelligent manner, such as his household or business economies, without keeping an orderly calculation of profit and loss and weighing the balance in its separate parts, the soul accounting comes in order to ascertain whether his situation has improved or, Heaven forbid, has worsened. These calculations will be presented before the Supreme Judge as material for reaching the verdict for the new year for all His creatures. Moreover, it must be stressed that the accounting of the soul also serves the person as a tool to keep track of his general situation, whether he is regressing or progressing towards his goals, or whether the situation is ideal in his eyes.
The accounting of the soul has a moral, ethical, spiritual as well as an economic-worldly content. We exploit this opportunity in order to request for the entire Jewish People and for each one of us that the Creator will improve our economic situation, as we recite in the Avinu Malkenu prayer: “Our Father, Our King inscribe us in the book of maintenance and sustenance.” and in the special Unetaneh Tokef prayer during the Days of Awe: “Who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.”
Hence, in these days there is a need for an economic accounting of the soul, to weigh the balance-sheet of our personal and national economic condition, particularly in light of the problematic economic situation prevailing in the world since the year 2008 when there erupted the crisis from which the world has not yet recovered. In order to prevent a major global blow (such as the 1929 Great Depression), the United States is mortgaging the coming generations by debts, and despite this there it still no light in its economy. The European countries are following in its wake, and despite this their economy has remained static. This economic behavior of the West is causing the awakening countries in Eastern Asia to reduce their economic rate of growth.
The countries of the world pin their hopes on major institutions like the Common Market, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, but they don’t know how to act in the future, because in the course of the crisis they lost their monetary and fiscal work tools. The monetary tool which they possessed was the ability to set the interest rate. Today the rate is zero, and recently it has even dropped to a negative rate (that is to say, the lender receives in return less than what he loaned at the outset). The captains of the economy are at a loss to
know how to act, and continue with the classic conditioning stipulation to lower the interest rate increasingly. The fiscal tools have also lost their efficacy, and massive injections of capital into the market (contrary to the economic ideology) have not essentially changed the situation of the markets. Undoubtedly, such a difficult global situation calls for a profound and extensive economic accounting of the soul.
Are we, here in Israel, also a part of this global accounting of the soul? Israel is a minor player in the Western market, and is dependent on it for the export of its products, but our economic situation, as compared with the rest of the world, is fine. The standard of living of the citizens of the State is continually rising, unemployment is falling- an all-time record, the national debt is increasingly diminishing, and the natural resources such as gas – granted to us and for generations to come – promise an even better future. It can be said that, by comparison with the rest of the countries of the world, the economy of Israel is healthier. Nevertheless, an economic accounting of the soul is required. On the macro side we have not yet achieved fulfillment. Considerable improvement is required in the following areas of the economy: the housing market is too volatile due to the failure of the system; failure of management of the natural resources; failure of investment in pensions; monopolization in many branches – and this is just a partial list of the governmental economic problems of our young State of Israel.
Do we have adequate tools to deal with the reality? Our Holy Torah supplies us with many tools, and their exploitation depends on us. Instead of appealing to the powers that have proved their worthlessness, the Torah gives the individual Mitzvot which can transform the economic reality. Two Mitzvot, which as a rule we have trouble understanding how to observe, and which are a part of the mutual responsibility, will enable us to improve the economy. One Mitzvah is between a person and his fellow-man: “And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee” (Leviticus 25, 39), and the second, “Thou shalt surely rebuke they neighbor, and not bear sin because of him” (Leviticus 19, 17). The first is micro in nature, and the second mainly macro.
In order to observe the first Mitzvah there is no need to wait until your brother is forced to sell his clothes, his home and afterwards himself, but one may help him while he is still at the initial stage of his decline. It is advisable to keep an eye on him, and already in the initial stages of his fall, in order to offer him assistance. Charity is one of the forms of help to the needy, and based on our action in this regard, the Holy One Blessed Be He has chosen us, and He said: “For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis, 18,19).
The power of the observance of the Mitzvah is very great, as it is said at the end of Tractate Shabbat: “Charity saves from death,” and therefore charity is also one of the three things –repentance, prayer and tzedaka – which can “avert the evil decree” (in the Unetanah Tokef prayer).
The second Mitzvah is more general, and the form of its observance is less clear but connected with every economic activity. We can observe it
when we know that a certain policy does not correspond with the principles of the Torah, as for example “Tisporet”(debt-cutting) and even investing money in places which do not promise suitable returns, or taking money disproportionately, as recently practiced in the Israeli economy.
Lack of room does not allow us to enlarge on the essence of these Mitzvot, and so we shall be brief and say here that we wish that each and every Jew will be granted to observe these Mitzvot together with all the people of Israel, and that, thanks to them and the new accounting of the soul, that our actions shall redound to the benefit of the Jewish People as a whole.
{Translated from the Hebrew by David Herman}
