Ep 21What To Do When You Get Into Money Trouble with the Law
He settled and moved on. Why his family took it harder than he did
Avi Schick
What To Do When You Get Into Money Trouble with the Law
with Avi Schick
If kashrus and yashrus were on the same equal plane, I think we'd be in a lot better place.
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Quotes
“If I step on a landmine, it's your leg that gets blown off, not mine.”
“Live your life in a way that Netflix won't have to write a documentary about you one day.”
“If the person says don't worry so often, probably you should worry.”
“People should be as careful with other people's money as they are with their own.”
“Almost every fruit is kosher and perhaps almost every dollar is tainted.”
“No one ever tells good stories about the person who took every last bit of advantage because they can.”
“You can be operating fully within the law and everybody thinks you're a jerk.”
Takeaways
- 1 Avi Schick, a partner at a large law firm and a former New York Deputy Attorney General, represents clients investigated by the government and has led religious-rights lawsuits for the Orthodox community.
- 2 Most people who get into legal trouble are driven by greed and total focus on an end goal. Truly innocent mistakes happen but are less common.
- 3 A frequent pattern is imitation: 'look at that guy, he got away with it,' especially when the person is prominent.
- 4 The high cost of frum life pushes people to earn a lot, and after paying for the basics many want rewards for themselves. That pressure can lead some to bend rules.
- 5 Children learn values from whom their parents admire. The everyday mensch who works hard, davens and treats people well is the real hero.
- 6 Rav Hutner told a former student that adding a room to your house is a broader life, but renting a hotel room nearby is a double life. Torah values must apply at work too.
- 7 Kashrus gets great attention in our community. Honesty in business deserves the same.
- 8 Safety-net programs are fine for those entitled to them, but 'it's a waste not to take it' is an unhealthy attitude.
- 9 The Sodom attitude of 'what's mine is mine' is legalism without regard for others. Being within the law doesn't make conduct right.
- 10 Consequences of a conviction reach beyond money and business. They damage trust in the whole Orthodox community.
- 11 Officials at state events assumed Schick, with his beard and yarmulke, was a rabbi. To many outsiders, you are the Orthodox Jew they know.
- 12 Sincere teshuva works: people who truly regret wrongdoing and change are widely accepted and given second chances.
- 13 As a Deputy Attorney General he saw a businessman who paid a huge settlement greet him warmly years later, while the man's wife turned her back. His boss explained: he knows what he did; she needs to believe he's wonderful. Spouses are often in the dark.