What’s ahead is not an endorsement of any one candidate; rather it is an analysis of their positions on taxes and redistribution of wealth from a Jewish perspective.

Joe the Plumber

The presidential debate this week discussed the story of Joe the Plumber at length. Joe wanted to buy a business and saw that under Obama’s tax plan he would be forced to pay an additional three percent tax if he earned above two hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. Since the business he was buying made more than that amount, he was worried that his taxes would go up. Obama explained his plan to Joe and at the end said that, “if you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re going to be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you. Right now everybody is so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think that when you spread the wealth around it is good for everybody.”

Obama’s Cogent Point

To my unbiased and nonpartisan mind (I am a British citizen who cannot vote in this election, and I am a fierce independent) Obama was making a cogent point. Obama thinks that by giving the average person more money in their pockets through tax breaks, they will spend more of their money consuming, which in the end will be better for small businesses.

In contrast, John McCain feels that if you give tax breaks to the rich and to businesses, they will have more money to spend on innovation and hiring new people which in turn will grow the economy.

But Who is Right?

The question is who is right. Well I am not an economist; however, I do know a thing or two about religion, human nature and ethics. If given the opportunity, most entrepreneurs and business people will strive to earn more money and create jobs no matter how high they are taxed. There are no shortages of jobs or multi-millionaires in the UK (or Israel) where taxes on the rich and on businesses are considerably higher than they are in the United States. In fact, there are more jobs available in the UK which has a current unemployment rate of 5.7% than in the US that has a 6.1% current unemployment rate (Israel’s current unemployment rate is 7.3%). Conversely, when left to their own devices, most wealthy people—the exceptions always prove the rule—will not give significant amounts of their money to those less well off than themselves.

Redistribution of Wealth

This is why the Jewish religion mandates that the rich must share their wealth—sorry to use the phrase—with those less fortunate than themselves. Now, I have a natural and healthy distrust for government and I don’t really have confidence in them to American Dreamspread the wealth around competently.

In addition, I admit that the best type of wealth redistribution would be voluntary where people just gave charity out of the goodness of their hearts. And in my book, Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, I talk about what we call “spiritual entrepreneurship,” where the point of the entrepreneurial enterprise is to help others with the money made. Most people, however, are trying to make money to live the American dream of a large home, 2.5 kids, an expensive car, a dog and fancy vacations. On the whole, wanting “The American Dream” is a narcissistic quest rather than an altruistic one.

They Can Only See Themselves

Here a Hasidic tale is pertinent. A Hasidic master came to visit one of his followers who had become exceedingly wealthy. As he entered the wealthy man’s home, he saw poor people begging outside. And he watched how his wealthy follower walked by the beggers without noticing them.

The Hasid: A source of economic insightUpon entering his host’s palatial mansion, the Hasidic master took him over to the mirror and asked him what he saw.

“Myself of course,” he answered.

Then the master took him over to the window and asked him what he saw and he looked carefully.

“I see poor people begging,” he said.

The master asked him, “If this is glass and that is glass, then why do you see yourself in one but others through another?”

The rich man paused for a moment and then answered, “because the mirror has a silver backing on it and the window does not.”

Then the master made his point saying: “The moment you add silver all you see is yourself, and others become invisible.” The rich man understood the lesson and immediately scratched off some of the silver backing to his beautiful mirror so that every time he looked in it he would remember to think of the needs of others.

Prosperity naturally brings feelings of narcissism and self-centeredness in its wake. Even good people are prone to this pattern. Given that fact, it is unreasonable to expect a system where people voluntarily redistribute their wealth to work. This is why religion makes tithing obligatory.

So given this reality, Obama’s tax plan seems to be the better alternative—it seems to make the most moral, religious and economic sense.

Not your average get-rich-quick schemeRecession-busting Tip

This transitions beautifully into my final recession-busting tip for this week: The Torah says, “Asser te’asser [You shall surely tithe] the entire crop of your planting” (Deuteronomy 14:22). The Talmud plays on the doubling of the words and says, “Asser titasher [Tithe that you may become rich].” This means that by giving at least ten percent (asser means ten percent) of your income to charity you will become rich. In fact according to the Talmud this is the only thing one is actually allowed to test G-d with. And according to the Kabbalists, the Divine guarantee is that the donor will receive a return of three hundred percent.

So, if you want to prosper during the current recession, make sure to give to charity. That way, you will have partnered with G-d, who guarantees you a three hundred percent return on capital invested in charity.

Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, spent the last week guest-blogging on Jewcy with fellow co-author Sam Jaffe. This is his parting post. Want more? Get his book!

So now we know for sure that consumers are buying less and it seems clear that we are in a recession. Markets all around the world have reacted and massive amounts of wealth have been wiped out as a result. We have already had a bumpy ride this year and it looks like it is going to get much worse before it begins to get better. But where does that lead us, the average consumers on Main Street? Clearly we must all brace ourselves for difficult times ahead.

Here are two tips that come from my book Jewish Wisdom for Business Success that may be of particular help:

Dealing with failure

All of us are going to experience some setbacks over the next twelve months or so—some of us have already had setbacks. The test will be how we deal with these setbacks. Will we be able to see the silver lining inherent within them or will we begin to see ourselves as a failure instead?

The Israelites in the dessert sinned when they served the golden calf and because of that Moses dropped the two tablets and broke them. But according to Jewish tradition, the second set of tablets he received in their place came together with a much deeper understanding to the Divine will than the first set of tablets offered. In this way, the failure of the golden calf ended in a much greater success.

The lesson is clear. Whenever we experience a setback we must realize that it has a silver lining out of which a far greater success will likely flow. We must look around and find the opportunity inherent in all of the negativity that we see around us. Those who are able to see beyond the failure and into the opportunity will be the winners in all of this.

For each person the opportunity will be different. I was just recently reading how Warren Buffet's father, Howard Buffet, was able to prosper during the great depression by starting a stock brokerage that catered to those who still wanted to invest. He saw that all of the other brokerages had closed down and there was therefore an opportunity to make a buck. Just keep your eyes out for the opportunities amongst all the pain, then take advantage of them and you will be alright.

Positive thinking

In these troubled economic times it is easy to get despondent. Yes, it is true that many people will get badly hurt. But there will be some—a minority—who will prosper despite the difficult times. Why shouldn’t we—you and I—be amongst the minority who will prosper? We must not allow ourselves to become negative just because things are bad in the economy in general. Look out for new opportunities, work hard, don’t give up, and remain positive. The power of positive thinking should not be underestimated especially when so few people are practicing it today. As the great Jewish mystics said, “Think good and it will be good.”

Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, is guest-blogging on Jewcy with fellow co-author Sam Jaffe. He'll be here all week. Stay tuned.

The book trailer for "Jewish Wisdom for Business Success" takes the viewer across the United States where random people (all non-Jews) explain why they think Jews are disproportionally successful in business. Here is the video:

This is an unfair charge. A stereotype would be to say that all Jews are rich or even that most Jews are good at business. However, saying, as I do, that in comparison to other groups Jews are disproportionally successful in business is not adding to a stereotype. It is a fact backed by statistics.

I must, however, thank Rabbi Yonah for posting the video on Jewlicious. His post was picked up by others and, all in all, it helped get the word out about the book. Plus, a bit of controversy doesn’t hurt the book either.

Jewish Business Wisdom
As promised here's some Jewish business wisdom for our current difficult financial times:

Fear:
Do not let fear motivate your financial decisions. Fear causes us to make irrational decisions. There are in general four fear-based reactions: 1. Give up; 2. Return to what was comfortable; 3. Fight; 4. Rely on others to deal with the problem. Whilst any of these responses might be correct at any given moment, if they are motivated by fear they may well be wrong. Fear magnifies problems and makes us think they are unsolvable. So, in the current financial climate, realize that your fear may be magnifying the problem. Then face your fear and make a rational decision based on facts rather than on your fear. There's more about fear in chapter 1 of the book.

Involvement:
You need to balance between hands-on and hands-off approaches to your business and finances. You must review and assess your financial situation often. It is good to have a professional manager—who has the time to do all of the necessary research—to run your investments, but make sure that you still remain involved and have oversight. The same goes for your household expenses: keep an eye on them—have oversight but don’t be overly controlling. The same should apply to the way you manage your business. You must be able to delegate, but you must have oversight as well. More detailed insights and guidance for correct managerial balance in chapter 4 of the book.

Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success, is guest-blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week.  Stay tuned. 

The fact that Jews are disproportionately successful in many fields of endeavor is undeniable. The statistics simply speak for themselves. Jews make up less than half of one percent of the world’s population but they consistently have made up more than twenty percent of the Forbes 400 list of the world richest people.

Jews excell at more than making money. Thirty percent of Nobel Prize winners in science are Jewish, and major Hollywood studios, like Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios, are also run or owned by Jews. In virtually every industry successful Jews are disproportionally represented.

All that success often makes us uneasy. We therefore try to downplay Jewish success and we often consider those who talk about it as borderline anti-Semites. But is this really fair? Facts are facts and the statistics don’t lie. When it comes to success and achievement we Jews do punch higher than our weight. There is no way to deny this reality.

In fact in my opinion this is something we must embrace, analyze and ultimately share with others. While some people think that Jewish success has to do with genetics, and others surmise that it is related to our intense persecution, it is my contention that Jewish success has to do with Judaism itself. Inherent within Jewish religious teachings and Torah stories are ideas that relate directly to behaviors and attitudes that lead directly to successful outcomes.

Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success: Lesson from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts is a book I have written together my friend and business expert Sam Jaffe. The book, published this month, relates stories and ideas that are found within the Torah and then demonstrates how they relate directly to successful business practices.

It's all in the book...Divine blueprint for success

But what I found most amazing was that after the book was completed, I found that many of the most successful business advice books came to similar conclusions as we did.

For example, one of the main points made by Jim Collins in his bestseller, From Good to Great, was that all leaders of the greatest companies in the world are what he describes as Level Five Leaders. Remarkably, our analysis of Moses’ leadership in the Torah reached the exact same conclusion.

Obviously all those who studied the Torah properly had learned how to be a Level Five Leader thousands of years before the concept was “discovered” and then coined by Jim Collins and his team of researchers.

Another example of this is Seth Godin’s bestselling book, The Dip, where he explains that early on in any endeavor or enterprise a person will experience a dip where things become difficult and seem insurmountable. It is in this dip phase that most people give up.

But winners, says Godin, love the dip and they lean into it because they know that success lays waiting for them at the other end of it. Anyone who has studied the story of the Splitting of the Sea in the Torah knows this lesson intuitively and I outline it in my book. The list goes on with areas such as negotiations, positive thinking, will power, the approach to failure and reactions to fear. –the Torah has wisdom for all of it.

It is therefore little wonder that Jews who have studied the greatest book of wisdom ever written—the Torah—are disproportionally successful in every arena of endeavor. And even those who do not actively study the Torah still benefit from its wisdom in the form of attitudes and teachings that Jewish parents and communities teach and pass down, albeit mostly without being aware that they originate from the Torah.

If this divine blueprint for success exists and it has helped us as Jews become successful it is about time we both recognize where the wisdom comes from and share it with others. With this in mind I wrote Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success: Lesson from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts.

Cross-posted from LeviBrackman.com, personal blog of Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Buisness Success.  He's also guest-blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week.  Stay tuned.

There is no doubt that there is a major connection between Jews and money. Even as Jews seek to sweep it under the carpet, it is still the largest elephant in the room, especially in these bad economic times.

Here is an example of this. I contacted a famous young Jewish entrepreneur and asked him to endorse Jewish Wisdom for Business Success. The publisher sent him an advance copy of the book. He looked at it and then said he didn’t like the notion written in the book that Jews are associated with making money. Then he stopped replying to my email. After much persistence on my part, his assistant sent me a message saying he did not have time to read the book and therefore would not endorse it.

Now, whether this particular person likes the notion or not, the notion is out there. From my research talking to people across America, Jews are associated with money in everybody’s mind. And it is not a bad thing. The bad thing is if we allow others to believe that the reason why Jews are good at making money is because they cheat, or because there is some other conspiracy that Jews all share in.

The Israeli Daily Newspaper the Maariv, in an extensive article about Jewish Wisdom for Business Success and the anti-Semitic association between Jews and money, claimed that the book could not have come out at a worse time.

I respectfully and passionately disagree. This is the most important time for this book to come out. At a time when the disgusting anti-Semites are coming out and trying to take charge of the conversation about Jews and money, and as these vile creatures are spreading their hatred and idiotic conspiracy theories all over the internet it is about time that we Jews take charge of the conversation.

This is exactly what my book intends to do. Yes it is a fact that Jews are disproportionally successful in business. We Jews only make up 0.2 percent of the world population (yes less than half of one percent) but we make up more than ten percent of the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the world. Also forty six percent of Jews in the United States make over 100k a year while only fifteen percent of the rest of the population make that amount. These are facts not stereotypes.

So why are Jews disproportionately successful? Why are so many of them making more money when compared to the general population? This is a legitimate question and it deserves our attention. Just because the vile anti-Semites use these facts for their own nefarious means does not mean that we should avoid or try and ignore them. If we do they will certainly remind us of them and not in a way we enjoy.

Some have tried to answer this question by saying the Jewish success has to do with the fact that in Europe they were forced to only be involved in finance. But if this was the case then why are thirty percent of Noble Prize winners in the sciences Jewish? Some say it has to do with genetics. But I don’t buy that type of racist ideology either.

The real reason for Jewish success in all areas (not just finance) in my opinion has to do with the Torah. There are wisdom teachings found in the Torah that Jews have imbibed for thousands of years. These wisdom teachings feed directly into successful practices not just in finance, but in the sciences as well as in many other fields.

Now some Jews may not know that there outlook comes from the religion of Judaism. However, I have found that Jews who have never even opened a Jewish book still believe in intrinsically Jewish ideas that stem from the Torah. After probing, often they heard these ideas from a Jewish grandmother they were close with or from a great uncle. But in the end they can almost always be traced back to Jewish ideas that come from the Torah.

The beauty of this theory is that these ideas that feed into successful practices do not have to remain exclusively with the Jews. If we are magnanimous we can share them with others. This is what Sam Jaffe and I have done with our book Jewish Wisdom for Business Success. Now, by reading the book, anyone—even anti-Semites—can learn the secret of Jewish success.

Jewish Wisdom for the difficult economic times:

In the Torah we find Abraham negotiating with G-d. Here is an idea that can help you in the current financial times. Like Abraham don’t always just negotiate over the bottom line. Sometimes other things might be more important and you will win through them. For example keeping your current job may be more important than seeking a raise. If you hear that your company is going to cut jobs you may even suggest to your boss that you will be willing to take less money in order to keep your job in these troubled economic times. In all negotiations in these troubled times where capital is scarce look beyond the dollar signs and try and negotiate on other things (the terms and conditions) that are also very important to you. (Learn how to negotiate in Chapter 5 of the book).

Rabbi Levi Brackman, co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, is guest-blogging on Jewcy with fellow co-author Sam Jaffe. He'll be here all week. Stay tuned.