Sermon: Rosh Hashanah 1^st Day

“What Did We Learn For Our Lives From Bernie Madoff?”

Metuchen 2009/5770

Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer 

You know how in an Italian barber shop the chit-chat is as important as the haircut? Well, I am sitting in the barber's chair overhearing a conversation between my barber, an Italian, and a customer, also Italian, who shared a recent experience. Each had recent hernia operations but with different doctors. My barber’s went well and he was back at work in three days. The customer's operation had complications. After two weeks he was still in pain and bent over. My barber, the Italian, says to the customer, the Italian: “I love Italy and Italians but when it comes to a doctor - (excuse me for saying this, Rabbi!) I go to a Jew.” The popular superiority of Jewish physicians is one label we apparently still enjoy in 2009.

The other bragging point, of course, is the dispropionate number of Jewish Nobel Prize winners relative to the population. You know the familiar stats. Only 2 ½ % of the population, but 35% of Nobel Prize winners in the arts and sciences. We have all basked in those numbers.

Along comes Bernie Madoff to upset the Jewish – Italian equation. Yes, we are so superior that the Jew Madoff replaced the Italian Ponzi as the shyster poster-boy of the pyramid academy. We can hope for some solace if the world also remembers Enron’s Kenneth Lay - Wasp, pillar of his Episcopal church. But who knows? Kenneth Lay is already old news. With reason, our sensitivity to the reaction of the non-Jewish world to the Madoff the Jew is born of historical reality. After all, we were portrayed as Greedy Shylocks. Steve Pearlsein of the Washington Post summarizes our instinctive fears: “Arthur Goldberg to the Supreme Court, that was good. The espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that was not so good. The Godfather films that was good – it put a spotlight on another ethnic group that had bad apples. Sandy Kaufax refusing to pitch a World Series game on Yom Kippur – that was bad – it could have encouraged anti-Semitism among Dodger fans.”

But beyond our instinctive reaction, “What will the Goyim think?” Did we learn anything about ourselves as Jews from the Madoff mess? More importantly did we learn anything about our own lives, from the Madoff mess? I think so. Let me tell you some lessons life I think we learned.

The paradigm statement regarding Jewish cohesiveness is (Ethics of the Fathers) “Kol Yisrael Erevim Zeh Lazeh” – “All Israel is responsible for one another.” Pre-Madoff we were accustomed to boast how we Jews took care of our own. Yes, there were Jews on welfare, but few numbers relative to other populations, because our outstanding Jewish social services stepped in. Some years ago, in Detroit, Michigan the United Fund studied both the fundraising method of the United Jewish Appeal and allocations to beneficiary agencies. They wanted to learn from our successful philanthropic method. Even the Madoff mess did not mute the Jewish impetus to tzedakah. Remarkably, on December 23, of last year, very soon after the first public knowledge of the scandal, representatives of the largest Jewish foundations met to discuss how they could compensate for the millions of dollars in loss to the non-profit Jewish institutions which been financially crippled.

Nevertheless, we did see here the ugly under belly of Jewish cohesiveness. Scholars call this the “affinity crime” – preying on those you know best. Did you know that our daily service warns of the affinity fraud? At the beginning of the service, before we pray anything else, we ask God to save us from predators, and then the Siddur adds “ Bein Shehu Ben Brit Bein Shehu Eino Ben Brit” – “even if they are of our own kind, children of the covenant.” So the first lesson we learned is that Jewish cohesiveness is double edged.

Back to lessons we learn from our lives in a moment, after a short detour.

If Bernie Madoff were sitting here this A.M., any Torah I would like to bring to his attention? You bet! How about? 1. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the LORD? (Leviticus 19:18) How about: 2. (Leviticus 19:11) - A person is forbidden to act in a smooth-tongued and luring manner.  He should not speak one thing outwardly and think otherwise in his heart.  Rather, his inner self should be like the self which he shows to the world.  Or how about: 3. Our rabbis taught: ‘Where money was given to an agent to buy wheat and he bought with it barley, or barley and he bought with it wheat,’ it was taught, there was a loss, he would sustain the loss but if there was a profit, the profit would be divided between them.’ How about from the Mishnah? It is forbidden to deceive people, even a non-Jew.  For example: one should not sell a Gentile the meat of an animal which has not been ritually slaughtered as if it were ritually slaughtered meat. One should not press his colleague to share a meal with him when he knows that his colleague will not accept the invitation, nor should he press presents upon him when he knows that his colleague will not accept them.  He should not open wine [supposedly] for his colleague which he must open anyway for sale, in order to deceive him into thinking that they have been opened in his honor. Or how about: 5. Rabbi Shimon said: “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship.  But the crown of a good name surpasses them all.”

Back to what we learn for our lives.

I think we learn something though from Madoff way beyond the particulars that we all know – something that relates to our own personal lives on this Rosh Hashanah. We read of the painful loss of some of the senior victims like those who had to put their homes up for sale and were forced to move in with their grown children. Lots of investors in New Jersey were particularly hard hit because of out state’s proximity to Wall Street. For example Loretta Weinberg, a state senator from Teaneck, who at the age of 73 lost her life’s savings. Another Jewish resident of New Jersey, Burt Ross, the former mayor of Fort Lee and a real estate firm owner, who also lost a large chunk – five million dollars of his net worth. How did they react and what did they say about Madoff? Loretta Weinberg from Teaneck said “I don’t believe I will have any recourse over this loss in my lifetime. But I am determined not to make this the centerpiece of my life. I have to budget myself very carefully over the next several years.” Last January, Mr. Ross from Ft. Lee said “I felt very little anger during this whole thing, until I started reading about those elderly people who have been affected. For me it is not the end of the world. You realize that most of what you do is more luxury than necessity. You cut back on vacations and eating out – that’s not a tragedy.” But by June, Mr. Ross from Ft. Lee was saying: “Bernard Madoff should suffer in the lowest depths of hell.”

Perhaps the most remarkable reaction was from Ian Theirman of Ben Lomand, California. The man ran a preservatory and pest control company and retired twenty-five years ago. He is ninety-years old. He lost all of his savings, $700,000.00, to Madoff, money he needs for home payments and his wife’s ailments. What did he do and what is his attitude? Thierman took a job for $10.00 an hour as a greeter at a local supermarket, where he greets customers and points them to their shopping needs. Is he bitter? He says “I have no time to feel sorry for myself or to dwell on Madoff. I have a job to do.” The owner of the supermarket told AP news that Thierman has been inspiring to others who have suffered serious setbacks in life.

We can take a perspective for our own lives from Ian Thierman and Loretta Weinberg that we don’t learn from Burt Ross, or even the actress Jane Fonda, who said “I want to shake Madoff until his teeth fall out.” Loretta Weinberg from Teaneck and Ian Thierman from California laments their bad fortune, but they will not wallow in their bad fortunes. They will move on and reconstitute their blessings. That echoes the epics of the father “Aizeh Hu Ashir- Ha sameach B’Chelko” – “Who is rich? The person who is content with his lot.”

Thankfully, I think there is no one in this sanctuary who was directly devastated by the Madoff mess. But having served you for so many years, I am painfully aware of other personal life devastations in this congregation – some of us with the economy, some of with family, some of us with spouse or children, some of us with ourselves. How does one take on the attitude of a Loretta Weinberg when met by the most challenging problems and defeats of our lives? That leads me to the second lesson for us derived from the Madoff affair. We are not entitled to anything in life. What we have both materially and spiritually and health is unearned life interest.

We just talked of how some older people responded healthily to the life blow of being wiped out by Madoff. Let me apply this theme to those of you who are younger. I want to frame my example with a report by Professor Marshall Grossman, an English Professor at the University of Maryland. He tells of students who engage him in grade disputes. He says “Many students come in with the conviction that they work hard and deserve a higher mark.” He attributes those complaints to a “student's sense of entitlement.” “I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, they will earn a C. That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.” Another professor, Ellen Greenberger, at the University of California, studied this sense of entitlement among the youth in college and found that much of it comes from increased parental pressure, competition among peers, and ultra-efficiency in test preparation. There is a mentality in students that “If I work hard, I deserve an excellent grade.”

But as with many of us who are older, young students may find that they may work harder, but still not receive the grade they want. Working hard is a good habit: working hard is not an entitlement for the perfect grade. By understanding that there are no entitlements in life we can react properly to the blows that life may hand us, whether they are of the Madoff kind or any other kind. Is that not what our Mahzor will say on Yom Kippur “Mah Hayenu…, Mah Tzedkenu…. Mah Kocheni…, Mah Gevuratenu, etc.” – “What is our life; our righteousness, our attainment, our might?” Notice the Mahzor does not say “We have no life; we have no righteousness; we have no attainment!” It just says that in spite of having a life, inspite of our righteousness; inspite of our attainment, a good ultimate outcome is not guaranteed. That is, we are not entitled.

There is yet one more lesson for us in our daily lives from the Madoff mess. It has to do with this time of days of awe and “Heshbon Hanefesh” – “taking spiritual stock.” Let’s each ask ourselves, would we have done what Madoff did if we had the chance? Would I have done what Madoff (or what the rabbis in Deal) did if I had a chance? Of course we are adamant: “We would never do it. Never. We would never deliberately inflict that kind of pain on another person. We would never take advantage of someone else and destroy them for our own financial gain.” Well, in recent years social psychologists have began to study what they call the “holier than thou effect”. What they have learned is our tendency to inflate our own sense of moral superiority especially when we see overt scoundrels like Madoff. We do feel moral indignation. We believe that we wouldn’t do it. But says one social psychologist, David Dunning, at Cornell University “The point is that many types of behavior are driven far more by the situation than by the personality.” In other words, it depends not on our moral principles, but on the situation. I’ll spare you all the studies that prove this point, but they do.

And more. Religion is double edged. On the one hand it can temper our feelings of moral superiority. That is why we are going through this ten day period of “Heshbon Hanefesh” – “spiritual stock taking” – because we will end up at Al Chet – confessing on Yom Kippur our pathetic inability to live up to our moral principles. But on the other hand, the studies found that religion sometimes amplifies the instinct to feel morally superior to feel “holier than thou,” or in this case, “holier than Madoff.” Like the words of a bumper sticker by our co-religionists Christians “Jesus loves you, but I’m his favorite.” So the final lesson we learn from the Madoff affair is that inspite of our heartfelt moral indignation under the right circumstances, because of our human frailty, we cannot say absolutely that we would not do the same. “ Al Chet Shechatanu Lefanecha B’Masa Uvmatan “For the sin that we have sinned against you in business.”

So we have learned much from Uncle Bernie Madoff, about the Jewish community; about our reaction to big bumps in our lives; our own feeling of self-righteousness, and our sense of moral superiority.

But let me finish on an up note. That is after all the way of the Jewish religion. Did you know that in selecting the Haftorot that we chant on every Shabbat and holiday after the Torah readings, if a typical Haftorah from a prophet ends on a down note, the tradition will tack onto that haftarah a passage from another unrelated prophet which includes an upbeat message. In that spirit, let me not dwell on the possibility of human malice, even between Jews, but on human nobility, as extended to Jews. Two examples – the first cited by President Obama in a speech last spring in marking Yom Hashoah at the Capital.

“We also remember the number five thousand – the number of Jews rescued by the villagers of Le Chambon, France – one Jewish life saved by each of those five thousand residents. Not a single Jew who came there was turned away or turned in. But it was not until decades later that the villagers spoke of what they had done and even then, only reluctantly. The author of a book on the rescue found that those interviewed were baffled by his interest. “How could you call us “good”, they said. “We were doing what had to be done.”

And for the second example of human nobility, acknowledging an anti-Madoff. He is Salem, Massachusetts businessman and philanthropist Robert Lappin, 87, who personally lost up to 90 million dollars to Madoff. In addition, all the 5 million dollars the employees of his company had contributed to their retirement funds were wiped out. What did Robert Lappin do? He took from his remaining personal funds and made whole the 5 million that his employees had lost. He told the Boston Globe “I wanted to do the right thing. And that, to me, is my reward.”

If the scoundrels do what they do to advance their own interests in spite of anyone else, then the righteous do what they do not to advance their own interests, but because it is what should be done.” I pray that in 5770 you, I, derive from the Madoff mess lessons from your own life. I pray that whatever our shocks and blows, each of us does really what should be done.