Abstract
Abraham’s “leadership by example” provides a template for business leaders to implement a tone at the top based on a balance of tzedek (righteousness) and mishpat (legal judgement). The former expresses the generosity of spirit required of leaders, while the latter expresses the sound judgement in conformity with both ethics and enacted law. We relate the two constructs to several contemporary theories of justice and jurisprudence. We also relate the development of Abrahamic Justice in the Jewish tradition from antiquity through Maimonides in the middle ages. We draw insight from this tradition to answer a contemporary business ethics question: Do corporate managers violate their fiduciary duty to shareholders if they refuse to engage in legal tax avoidance?
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Notes
Twelfth century rabbi and physician; Spain, Morocco and Egypt; Systematized and re-codified Jewish law.
The integrated reporting framework is one of three popular sustainability frameworks. The other two frameworks are the Global Reporting Initiative and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Calace (2016) views the integrated reporting framework as especially effective in balancing investor and non-investor constituencies and perspectives. This balanced orientation is one reason we choose integrated reporting as a contemporary context for the Abrahamic Justice constructs of tzedek and mishpat. Kraten (2016) finds that millennial accountants instinctively relate to integrated reporting.
As to who ultimately bears the burden of corporate income taxes is a matter of controversy. Early studies argued that it is borne entirely by shareholders, but recent studies suggest that workers carry some of the corporate income tax burden (Bartlett 2013).
Following Hasseldine and Morris (2013), we use the term “tax avoidance” to refer to practices that are technically legal, whereas “tax evasion” refers to illegal tax activities.
For a real-world example, see Rindels (2016).
Fig. 2 is adapted from Gorski and modified for our purposes.
Luther offers what is perhaps the most insightful definitions. He translates mishpat as gericht (the law) and tzedek as Gerechtigkeit (the essence of the law). See our discussion of Cover (1983) below.
In the Bible, however, tzedakah and tzedek are used interchangeably and refer to the ideal quality of justice, rather than charity. A later section will discuss charitable giving. It has been noted that the obligation to give charity in the form of money is not explicitly given in the Old Testament Pentateuch or Torah (Porat 2011). In Biblical times, there was less of an emphasis on monetary charitable contributions since the economy was not as money-centered as it became in the late antiquity of the Mishnah and Talmud. As the post-Biblical society of late antiquity became more money-centered, the Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud imposed a requirement to give charity in the form of money, which they termed tzedakah.
In an earlier draft, we associated the Latin caritas with the Hebrew tzedek. A reviewer corrected us: In the Christian tradition, Caritas (Agape, άγάπη in Greek) is the mystical love from God to man. The Hebrew translation of Caritas is therefore Chesed
.Miller (2006, 25) observes that modern observers often misunderstand how retributive justice functioned in ancient societies. “An eye for an eye” seems barbaric to our sensibilities, as it should be. When practiced today, retributive justice (e.g., the death penalty) is often meant to stigmatize the criminal and a large extended population of criminals. In previous eras, however, retributive justice was educative and compensatory as well. By late antiquity, “an eye for an eye” was interpreted as a monetary measure of compensation rather than the literal gouging out of eyes. The offender himself, or his memory, was ultimately restored to society after paying his penalty.
Pirke Aboth (1945) “Ethics of the Fathers” or Avot is part of the Mishnah, which contains 63 volumes of oral traditions from 300 BCE to 200 CE. The Mishnah explains the written law of the Hebrew Bible and is the basis for the Talmud. Avot contains various attributed and anonymous sayings of Jewish sages who lived from 300 BCE to 200 CE. Friedman & Fischer (2014) identify numerous lessons of leadership, trust and benevolence from Avot. The word Mishnah in Hebrew means repetition or recitation. Deuteronomy is sometimes called Mishnah Torah, and Maimonides called his magnum opus Mishnah Torah as well.
Simeon the Just lived during the twilight of the Persian Achaemenid empire and the emergence of Alexander the Great. The Persian emperors supported the resettlement of Judea after the destruction of the first temple, and Alexander the Great was similarly sympathetic. Both adopted a hand off policy toward the religion of their subjects. The later Hellenistic Seleucid Empire, who succeeded Alexander in Syria, and the Romans who succeeded them, micromanaged their subjects and at times viciously persecuted the Jewish people and their religion. The survival of the Jewish religion during the Seleucid era is today celebrated by the holiday of Hanukkah.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Michael Kraten for sharing his insights on Integrated Reporting. We also thank Dan Tinkelman, Alan Reinstein, Satina Williams, Father Patrick Flanagan, Ed Freeman (the editor), three anonymous reviewers, and participants at the 2015 International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference at St. John’s University and participants at the 2017 American Accounting Association mid-Atlantic Region Meeting in Artlington, Virginia. Support for this project was provided by a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by The Professional Staff Congress and The City University of New York. Author Dov Fischer thanks his wife Ronit for her support.
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Fischer, D., Friedman, H.H. Tone-at-the-Top Lessons from Abrahamic Justice. J Bus Ethics 156, 209–225 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3581-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3581-8