Shalom, Mitspacha!
FOUNDATIONS OF RIGHTEOUS TRADE
“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.”
- Vayiqra 19:35
The Torah spends surprising detail on sales, measures, weights and honesty. YHVH cares deeply about how His people conduct business because trade shapes the integrity of a nation. When the marketplace becomes corrupt, the community becomes untrustworthy. When the marketplace is righteous, the community is stable, protected and blessed.
Today we begin a multi day walk through this mitzvah, because Maimonides expands it across many rulings. Each part reveals YHVH’s heart for fairness, transparency and compassion toward others. Righteous business is not only about money - it is worship.
“A perfect and just weight shalt thou have, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have.”
- Devarim 25:15
YHVH commands perfection in honesty because even tiny acts of deceit - a scale slightly off, a measure slightly reduced, a price hiding unfairness - are forms of theft. Torah views dishonest trade as violence against a neighbor. It steals trust, resources and dignity.
In our time, dishonesty can appear in subtle ways: withholding information that affects value, manipulating emotion for personal gain, or presenting something inaccurately to benefit ourselves. Every distortion of truth, even small, is measured by YHVH.
Today’s focus is simple but weighty: honesty must begin in the heart. Before justice reaches the scales, it begins in the motives. YHVH calls us to examine why we sell, how we speak and whether our intentions align with transparency and fairness. Righteous trade means offering others the same clarity and fairness we desire from them.
Abba YHVH, teach us to walk with integrity in all matters of value and exchange. Purify our intentions when we buy or sell and guard us from even the smallest form of deceit. Shape us into a people whose daily actions reflect Your righteousness so that our dealings honor Your Name in every place.
Baruch YHVH.
Shalom until tomorrow.