The Torah teaches in rapid succession that if you see someone’s sheep or ox astray, you should return it. If you see someone trying to raise their fallen ox, you should help them. Don’t take the eggs of a bird in front of its mother. And when you build a house, put a railing on the roof so no one falls (Deut. Ch. 22).
TIn other words, empathy. Imagine how your neighbor feels having lost his sheep. Or how he feels trying to raise an ox by himself. Or how a mother bird might feel watching her young taken. Or what you will feel like endangering another in your own home.
We don’t usually think of empathy in laws of home building or commerce. But actually in a deep way capitalism depends on empathy too. You cannot create a successful product without understanding the consumer. You cannot market it without speaking the same language as the people you sell it to. And you will not build a corporation without inculcating the values you hold dear. The Torah reminds us that ethics and empathy are all of a piece. What we practice at home we should carry to the marketplace.
