The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Is it allowed to print a painting for a child? New Book Religious Work Guide | Israel today

2019-12-15T09:34:59.016Z


Jewish culture


What happens if there is a meeting at a seafood restaurant and what to do with a handshake for women? • New religious guide book in the workplace according to Halacha

  • Illustrative image (The photographers have no connection to the article) // Photo: Lior Mizrahi

The employment rate of ultra-Orthodox men has been declining in recent years, and currently stands at about 50% of working-age men, but at the same time the percentage of ultra-Orthodox women in the labor market is on the rise. Demographic changes in the Israeli labor market create new challenges that secular and ultra-Orthodox workers and employers have not encountered - and this space has come to fill a new book called "Working Well" written by Ari Wasserman (49), a lawyer in the business area who lives in Jerusalem.

"I started writing the book about ten years ago," says Wasserman, originally from the United States, "almost twenty years after I entered the world of work and was exposed to the many challenges this world presents to the religious person. When I saw that there was no book dealing with this in a realistic way, because whoever wrote books did not work and those who went to work did not write books, I began to study these issues and teach them to others and in the end I wrote the book. I think that until then everyone was sure that the only challenges at work were a prohibition of interest and a special ban (the stay of an unmarried man and woman together in a closed place. EG) and did not realize that there was another whole world of questions from other halakhic areas at all. "

The comprehensive book, translated by Shaul Lilov, deals with questions such as the degree of honesty required by a religious person in business meetings and job interviews, attending a restaurant serving seafood, utilizing time at work, using office resources such as a printer and telephone for personal needs, submitting an inflated expense account, and disclosing corruption incidentally. For prohibiting 'ethics' and workplace risk, negatively assessing other employees and the duty to pay taxes. Among other things, the book also addresses questions as unique to the ultra-Orthodox society as that of a child worker to a child-afflicted family, who is therefore forced to leave his job for many family events each month, which is a friction point with his current boss, debating whether he is obligated to tell this in a company interview A new one to which he is asked to apply.

The book is clearly not about whether to go to work at all. Why?

"I believe going to work is a subjective question, and everyone should consult about it with his or her rabbi and his wife. On the one hand, there are those who do not study and should go out to work, and on the other, there are those who go out to work and the world of study has lost them because they were stars in learning. In any case, the book begins only after the decision to go to work has been made and offers the same religious person the tools to succeed in doing it properly. "

The hidden danger that lurks for the religious worker

A complete cover of the book is devoted to the topic of work in the place of mixed men and women, and includes addressing issues of inappropriate relationships between women and men, prohibiting uniqueness, setting boundaries to prevent deterioration, talking to women and addressing them by first name, handshake for women and more. "I found that in Israel the issue of working in a mixed place is a more sensitive issue in the ultra-Orthodox public," explains Wasserman, "but also in the country there is more understanding on the part of the secular employer who understands that he has to be more careful and respect the needs of the ultra-Orthodox worker."

What are the dangers to the religious person in the secular workplace?

"Many observant young people who leave the safe and familiar environment and enter a secular workplace are exposed to a foreign atmosphere and culture that does not fit and do not conform to the Torah view. In addition, there is the danger of blasphemy. Yossi Haber, the former director of the giant food corporations Kraft and Danone, once said that a non-Jewish employee was seen by the employer in one of three ways - either they loved him, or hated him, or something in the middle But a religious Jewish worker has no such privilege: or his surroundings will respect him when he is. Religious Indian will cause the sanctification of the name, or its surroundings will worship it and then the exact opposite will happen. There is no middle way. "

So maybe it is even better for religious people to work only in religious workplaces, to avoid all this?

"It is best for a man to work with men and in a religious place, but it is not always practical because there is not always work in the sector itself and usually higher salaries outside. In addition, I found that, for ultra-Orthodox women, working in a religious place with men is actually worse, because there are no boundaries. When you work with a person from different backgrounds, you see that there is a difference and it is known that there is a difference and be more careful, but when you work with the guys, they do not have those boundaries and may sin. It is human nature. "

Not only for the ultra-Orthodox. Attorney Wasserman

The book is not only for the ultra-Orthodox, but for any religious person who wants to know how to behave properly in the workplace, but despite his name, the book is not decisive in practice how to act. Adv. Wasserman explains: "I want people to be exposed to the issues and to teach them in full order and with that they come to ask their rabbi that human beings are different and also the situations in which they are different, so it is impossible to give a uniform verdict to everyone. In the end, the person has to go to the rabbi who knows him and his condition. "

"We have to understand that every secular person looks at religion and sees it as a rabbi," Wasserman concludes. "He does not differentiate between religious and ultra-Orthodox, for him we all represent God and Torah, and we need to know this beforehand and prepare for it. Going to work without preparation is a disaster. "

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2019-12-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-17T05:46:21.610Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.