Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud

This insightful book offers business advice that has endured for thousands of years. While business fads come and go, the ancient lessons of the Talmud are timeless, profound, ethical, and practical–and they’re for everyone. Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud is a concise guide to this proven philosophy of business. Beyond basic money-related matters, it includes the Talmud’s advice on complex issues of employer/employee relationships, partnerships, competition, and much more. Here, you will learn how to run a successful business, negotiate with style, earn the loyalty of your employees, sell products successfully, advertise effectively, and make higher profits, all within an ethical and moral framework.

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Preface.

Acknowledgments.

LESSON ONE: The Spirituality of Money.

LESSON TWO: Work as a Holy Act.

LESSON THREE: Treating Workers Well Pays Dividends.

LESSON FOUR: Giving and Getting a Fair Day’s Work.

LESSON FIVE: The Bonding of Corporate Profits and Ethics.

LESSON SIX: Balancing the Environment and Profits.

LESSON SEVEN: The Rules of Partnerships, Deals, and Debt.

LESSON EIGHT: Competition Is for True Competitors Only.

LESSON NINE: Education Is a Lifelong Process.

LESSON TEN: Charity Means More Than Just Giving.

The Ultimate Business Secret of the Rabbis: Reputation.

A Note on Translation and Commentators.

A Short History of the Talmud.

Unlocking the Talmud’s Structure.

A Who’s Who of Talmudic Rabbis.

Bibliography.

Index.

The Talmud, says Kahaner, is a "handbook for today's business world": a reminder of balance in a workaholic culture, a treatise on personal responsibility and a call to charity in a society that seems driven by greed. In this book, Kahaner mines the ancient wisdom of the Talmud for advice on how to prosper ? but to do so ethically. He begins with discussions of the "spirituality of money," claiming that wealth can be a positive force if it is used wisely, and then argues that work is a holy act. Other chapters take up various topical issues: treating workers fairly so that they will in turn do their work more productively; being scrupulously honest in business dealings; recognizing that education is a lifelong process; and giving to charity. Kahaner draws on contemporary business examples as well as ancient wisdom to demonstrate that "doing good" and "making good" often go hand in hand. (August. 8) (Publishers Weekly, June 30, 2003)

Help is available from just about everyone. Scan Amazon.com and you can find investment and business guides that purport to tell you how to win big, according to the principles of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Napoleon, Julius Caesar and probably Br'er Rabbit. You can also invest according to Jesus Christ and, now, take business lessons from ancient rabbis. Here you get the Talmud's take on employee-employer relationships, partnerships, negotiations and more, all with the aim of turning an ethical profit. (Barron's, October 6, 2003)

LARRY KAHANER is an award-winning journalist, lecturer, and consultant, and the author of nine books that have been translated into a dozen languages. He is a former Washington staff correspondent for BusinessWeek, reporter for Knight-Ridder newspapers and a founding editor of Communications Daily. He currently is Washington Editor of Fleet Owner magazine. He has written for InformationWeek, the Christian Science Monitor, the International Herald Tribune, the European, and Management Technology. He has been a guest on many shows including Larry King Live!, CNBC’s Management Today, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the Motley Fool Radio Show.
For more information go to www.talmudbook.com or contact the author at info@talmudbook.com. "Pound for pound, Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud: Business Lessons from the Ancient Rabbis delivers more wisdom and practical knowledge than a decade of working experience. Every corporate board should adopt the principles of this bible into an ethics pledge to be signed by their chief executives."
–Stephen McMenamin
Chairman, The Greenwich Roundtable

Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud: Business Lessons From the Ancient Rabbis offers business advice that has endured for thousands of years. While business fads come and go, the ancient lessons of the Talmud are timeless, profound, ethical, and practical–and they’re for everyone.

Classics such as Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Machiavelli’s The Prince are now standard reading in business schools, but the Talmud (which means ‘study’) has been overlooked, mainly because of its massive size–2.5 million words–and the mistaken belief that it is a religious, mystical, or sacred work. Written in 500, but based on oral works centuries older, the Talmud is a comprehensive manual for living that covers almost every aspect of life–medicine, childrearing, astrology, law, food, religion, business, real estate, education, marriage, philosophy, and mathematics–and has been passed down from generation to generation. It emphasizes business matters because commerce, more than any other human activity, tests our moral mettle and reveals our true character, and because business offers us some of the best opportunities to do good deeds such as giving to charity, providing employment, and building prosperity in our communities and the world. Rather than demonizing wealth and trade, the Talmud teaches us to treat commerce as a wonderful opportunity for improvement, challenging us to think of work and money outside the narrow focus of self-interest.

Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud is a concise guide to this proven philosophy of business. Beyond basic money-related matters, it includes the Talmud’s advice on complex issues of employer/employee relationships, partnerships, competition, and much more. Here, you will learn how to run a successful business, negotiate with style, earn the loyalty of your employees, sell products successfully, advertise effectively, and make higher profits, all within an ethical and moral framework.

Larry Kahaner highlights the Talmud’s most important contribution to modern businesspeople: a time-tested, value-based system that happily blends our business, personal, and spiritual lives. In Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud, he shows how profit and prosperity can go hand in hand with honesty, kindness, and community service.

Practical rather than dogmatic, the Talmud’s guidance is helpful to people of any religion or no religion at all. Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud offers all of us a chance to get back to basics and do business in a way that affects positive changes in our communities–and in ourselves.

Praise for VALUES, PROSPERITY, AND THE TALMUD

"The ancient wisdom of the Talmud is as relevant today as it was 1,500 years ago, and its advice about business?both tactical and ethical?is as applicable to our high-tech world as it was to their world of trading mules and buying olives."
??Alan M. Dershowitz
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

"For too long we?ve separated business from religion and in so doing we?ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. Can religion be both relevant and use the accumulated wealth of its wisdom to be of service to business? Yes! There is a gold mine in religion for business. Come savor some of the wonderful nuggets in this book."
??Martin Rutte
Coauthor, Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work
President, Livelihood

"Gaining perspective is essential to learning. Larry Kahaner provides the reader perspective from an ancient tradition that has a surprisingly modern relevance. This well-written and cogently organized book gives the reader access to the ethical foundations of the Judeo-Christian tradition, reminding us that business ethics is not the result of Enron, but a continuing concern about society and the human condition."
??Stuart C. Gilman
President, The Ethics Resource Center

"At a time of ethical crises and global uncertainty we need leaders who blend the best of business, psychology, and spirituality. Learn the lessons of values-based management from the ancient rabbis in this thoughtful, wise guidebook. Good is good, and evil is evil; the principles still apply today."
??Bob Rosen
CEO, Healthy Companies International and bestselling author of Global Literacies

"An interesting and useful prescription for modern behavior??personal and corporate??from a very old and, for many, unfamiliar source. The wisdom and ethical guidance of those early rabbis is as relevant today as it was fifteen centuries ago."
??Mike Birck
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tellabs