This Shabbos we discussed Parsha Veyeishev. Efroni offered up very interesting commentary on the parsha. This Shabbos was also a special “graduation” Shabbos for David Schlesinger who has just completed his MBA! David gave a very interesting shiur related to his studies. We also discussed the upcoming holiday of hanakuh, and possible vacation spots in Florida with growing jewish communities.
In this week’s parsha, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. Efroni commented that there is a lot of repetition in the parsha. Some of this repetition, includes the use of the word “davar”, that appears more than once in the parsha. Efroni gave us a very interesting dvar Torah related to this. He spoke on how this word is used twice, once when interpreting dreams and once when Joseph goes off to check on his brothers. The word would appear to have 2 different meanings, but Efroni suggested that maybe it really doesn’t. We discussed how maybe Jacob told Joseph to go off and actualize his dream, rather than to go off and simply check on his brothers. After all, it wasn’t until 22 years later when Joseph’s dream had become true, that Joseph reunited with his father.
David gave a very interesting shiur related to his MBA studies. We started off discussing how it is a mitzvah to help those in need, sometimes by giving them loans. If we have a choice, it is best to help those who are poor, and to help those in our own community before helping those from out of the area.
David discussed from his coursework how financing is done in the business world. There are basically 2 types of financing, equity and bonds. There are pros and cons to each of these which depend on whether it is from the perspective of the borrower, or from the perspective of the lender. The borrower calculates his cost of capital based on how his financing is allocated between stocks and bonds. His goal is then to invest in projects that will provide a return that exceeds this cost. For example, if the borrower’s WACC (weighted average cost of capital) is 5%, the goal would be to invest in projects that return more than 5%. Of course it is usually not possible to predict with certainty how successful a project will be, which is why there are risks associated with borrowing money. Equity financing would seem to come with less risk because less needs to be "paid" to the lender if things do not go well, however there is the risk of losing out on a lot of "upside" when projects do well, that would not have been lost with straight loans achieved by issuing bonds.
We then discussed what type of financing would be best if we want to help someone who is in need. Some of the points we discussed included that first, in Judaism it is important that we love and care for one another by actually putting ourselves in their shoes and feeling what they are going through. Secondly, Judaism is a religion where we all should rise and fall together, rather than some benefiting at the expense of others. These factors have led to our current halakuh that it is desirable to loan money to those in need, but it is prohibited to charge interest. When we charge interest, we are taking advantage of others and not truly feeling their pain. The laws against interest apply to both the borrower and the lender.
This brought up a discussion that was raised by a gentleman as to what we should do to encourage lending, when there may be no one interested in loaning out money at zero percent interest. Just as corporations can finance by issuing equity, we can loan money to an individual with special agreements in which our return on this investment depends on how the individual makes out. We call this "heter iskal", and we can put this provision in our agreements.
This brought up a discussion that was raised by a gentleman as to what we should do to encourage lending, when there may be no one interested in loaning out money at zero percent interest. Just as corporations can finance by issuing equity, we can loan money to an individual with special agreements in which our return on this investment depends on how the individual makes out. We call this "heter iskal", and we can put this provision in our agreements.
We discussed that there is a possible leniency with organizations such as banks, in that we may be able to accept interest from a bank, as a bank is a separate entity and it would not make sense to not accept interest so we could feel the bank's "suffering". However it is desirable to put in the heter iskal provisions even in agreements involving organizations. With this type of arrangement, if an individual we loan money does not do well, we will feel his pain with him as he is not required to pay back the investment. On the other hand if the individual does well, we can feel his success with him as we realize some of this upside.
We discussed some more how it is a mitzvah to feel someone else’s suffering, the same way Hashem feels our suffering. When we go to a shiva we should feel the pain of the mourners, but also what is going on with the souls that are now being judged. One of the interesting discussions we had is how do we feel hashem’s suffering? The way we do this is by trying to be a Kiddush hashem, to honor hashem and Judaism by doing mitzvah and representing hashem in the best possible way here on earth.
This Shabbos we also had a discussion of the upcoming holiday of chanakuh. We discussed what exactly was the miracle. Did we divide the oil up into 8 equal amounts expecting to just get 3 hours a day, and then were miraculously given a full day from each amount? Or did we start off using all the oil, expecting to only get one day out of it? We concluded that on each day we actually used all the oil that was available, not expecting any miracle at all. On each day the oil was consumed at 1/8th of its normal rate, which resulted in the oil lasting 8 full days. This was the miracle, and why we celebrate a miracle on each of 8 days. This is all an inspiration to all of us, that just like the oil, we all have a miraculous potential to do more than we expect.
Yaki shared about how the biggest miracle is that we were able to preserver over the Greek. Yaki shared that the light of the candles illuminates the darkness, which symbolizes what our spirituality means to the world. Yaki commented that the three things the greeks tried to take away from us, were brit milah, Shabbos, and Rosh Chodesh. These are the three ways in that we shine light. It is a great miracle that we preservered, and we should realize that miracles are possible in our own lives.
Dave W talked about the growing Jewish community in Destin, Florida, and how this is a great place that hashem created for us to take a possible vacation during the winter. There is a synagogue there called Achdut Israel, that follows the Sephardic tradition. I have not been to the beach in a long time and may check it out.
Finally, I want to say that my father’s name is Joseph ben Abraham, and his yeirzeit is this week, and mozel tov again to David on his accomplishment of achieving his MBA.
We discussed some more how it is a mitzvah to feel someone else’s suffering, the same way Hashem feels our suffering. When we go to a shiva we should feel the pain of the mourners, but also what is going on with the souls that are now being judged. One of the interesting discussions we had is how do we feel hashem’s suffering? The way we do this is by trying to be a Kiddush hashem, to honor hashem and Judaism by doing mitzvah and representing hashem in the best possible way here on earth.
This Shabbos we also had a discussion of the upcoming holiday of chanakuh. We discussed what exactly was the miracle. Did we divide the oil up into 8 equal amounts expecting to just get 3 hours a day, and then were miraculously given a full day from each amount? Or did we start off using all the oil, expecting to only get one day out of it? We concluded that on each day we actually used all the oil that was available, not expecting any miracle at all. On each day the oil was consumed at 1/8th of its normal rate, which resulted in the oil lasting 8 full days. This was the miracle, and why we celebrate a miracle on each of 8 days. This is all an inspiration to all of us, that just like the oil, we all have a miraculous potential to do more than we expect.
Yaki shared about how the biggest miracle is that we were able to preserver over the Greek. Yaki shared that the light of the candles illuminates the darkness, which symbolizes what our spirituality means to the world. Yaki commented that the three things the greeks tried to take away from us, were brit milah, Shabbos, and Rosh Chodesh. These are the three ways in that we shine light. It is a great miracle that we preservered, and we should realize that miracles are possible in our own lives.
Dave W talked about the growing Jewish community in Destin, Florida, and how this is a great place that hashem created for us to take a possible vacation during the winter. There is a synagogue there called Achdut Israel, that follows the Sephardic tradition. I have not been to the beach in a long time and may check it out.
Finally, I want to say that my father’s name is Joseph ben Abraham, and his yeirzeit is this week, and mozel tov again to David on his accomplishment of achieving his MBA.
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