Making Deals with God

Introduction

Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked??What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,?what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

?Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

?Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

Genesis

It seems like Jews have been negotiating ever since Abraham made a deal with God. First it was setting rules of observance and relations between the Almighty and the people chosen to receive his commandments. Then it was settling a contract for the possession of the Promised Land. Then it was negotiating the division of that land among the tribes that settled there. Once it was determined that a kingdom was the only way to maintain order and ensure prosperity, a series of prophets intervened to determine who should rightfully be king.

When the Jews were conquered and taken into captivity by the Babylonians, a tradition of negotiating from a “position of weakness” came into being, one that was to be repeated and perfected under the Greeks, the Romans, and later among the princes and rulers of Europe and Asia. The advantage of dealing from a position of ‘weakness’ is that you learn not to depend on local values or beliefs that offer you no protection, which means that your negotiation must be built on the basis of mutual value – period. If this is the case you can deal with anyone in the world, from your closest friends to your deadliest enemies. Xerxes had total control over Esther but he obviously felt that she had something of value worth negotiating for.

The status of Jews in the Diaspora was forever changing, sometimes exiled, sometimes tolerated, but after a brief period during the eastern Roman Empire never recognized as citizens with the rights and privileges granted to others. To survive they created their own political and social infrastructure that enabled communication between different groups in different kingdoms, the first truly global organization. This facilitated the development of international banking and trade that bypassed the edicts of disparate rulers and became the source of wealth for many. It also encouraged the development of a business sense, a way of trading with others one did not know, others who might even be hostile. Again it meant that a great part of the business process for Jews was taking into account these differences, potentially dangerous, and constructing means and mechanisms to overcome them, even incorporate and neutralize them.

Yet it was precisely this ex patriot status that became a source of power for the Jews. They became the people protected by the power of the ruler – ‘cameram nostrum attineant.’ In return the King could levy taxes and borrow heavily, a practice subscribed to by both Christian and Moslem rulers for more than a thousand years. When kingdoms became large enough to require management it was the Jews to whom these rulers turned because they were the only people around whose religion required them to be literate. In many kingdoms they literally became the educated class of bureaucrats that allowed the King to rule.

***

This two-thousand-year old tradition, experiences gathered from all around the world, is the basis of the skills presented here. It is a realization that business means dealing with people different from you, people who might not share the same beliefs or practices but nonetheless desire the goods and services that you are capable of providing.

Making deals with God comes first of all from respect – respect for a power stronger and wiser, respect for a power that has the capacity to punish if crossed (remember the flood). The approach is one of appeal and persuasion rather than force and threat. The appeal means to present oneself or one’s assets in a way that is advantageous to the other, and the persuasion is to convince the other that having this connection or possessing this asset will have value for him or her.

But making deals with God also means not being afraid, that the greatest power still may sometimes not see all or may understand things in a way that runs contrary to best interests or contradicts precedents or principles. It means to find the courage to engage with potentially lethal forcers in order to gain. It is a fact of life that you have more to gain from dealing with the strong than you do from the weak.

It is important to note that in Jewish tradition the call to business is not just a reflection of dealing with other people, but a call from above – part of God’s plan. It calls for the development of qualities and character traits. Business in good faith (your ticket to heaven) indicates that there is something very special about this activity. The Jewish way to do business is to behave in a way that makes the person ‘better,’ or in religious terms 'righteous.' ?- Do the results of our business change the world in a fundamentally good manner? If so, then we are righteous, and if we are righteous we enter heaven.

No matter how far even the most secular Jews travel from their religious roots they cannot distance themselves from this idea. In a mystical sense if you negotiate in a way that creates true value you are doing the work that God put you here to do – a very powerful message. So Abraham, when he negotiated with God to save Sodom, was actually acting as an agent of the entity he was negotiating with (if you like, he was giving a gentle reminder). In this sense when a Jew makes a good deal he doesn’t credit ‘luck’ but rather says it is part of ‘God’s will.’ And this is not just a saying but rather recognition that we were put here for a purpose and this is part of it.

When I was doing research for this book I came across a blog written in China that attempted to explain the Jewish style of negotiation:

·??????Put great emphasis in getting up to date information

·??????Look at the big picture, never just the deal on the table

·??????Speak softly but carry a big stick (I wonder if Teddy Roosevelt was Jewish?)

·??????Don’t involve your personality

I have no idea how the blogger arrived at these conclusions, but to be honest much of this does indeed characterize a Jewish approach to negotiations. Take for the example the point about not involving your personality. The Haavara agreement was signed in 1933 between the new Nazi government in Germany and the Zionist federation in Palestine. Its goal was to facilitate the transfer of Jews from Germany to Palestine. In spite of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis the agreement remained in effect for almost a decade, even after the extermination camps had begun their horrendous operations.?Further negotiations with the Nazis concerning Jews in Slovakia and Hungary were carried on until as late as 1944. Dealing with people determined to obliterate you from the face of the earth was not a deal-breaker.

The German relief worker Joel Brand was approached in April 1944 by Adolf Eichmann , the German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in charge of the deportations of Jews to the extermination camps. Eichmann proposed that Brand broker a deal between the SS and the United States or Britain, in which the Nazis would exchange one million Jews for 10,000 trucks for the Eastern front and large quantities of tea and other goods. It was the most ambitious of a series of such deals between Nazi and Jewish leaders; Eichmann called it "Blut gegen Waren" ("blood for goods"). Nothing ever came of this deal because the British arrested Brand before it could go through. Yet Rudolf Kastner in Hungary had considerably more success with Eichmann, exchanging gold and jewels for more than 1600 Jews who were extricated to Switzerland.

The basic tenet here – that when there is mutual gain to be had even the worst situations can be tolerated – is central to this ideology. We would all prefer to do business with people we like but sometimes they do not possess the assets we need or want. The ability to work with people we may even despise has been a feature (for lack of choice) of Jewish negotiations throughout the ages.

In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock refers to this separation between business and personal life thusly: "I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.”?

A second feature – look at the big picture – is also worth emphasizing here at the start. A negotiation is a repetitive process that occurs in business dealings between parties that recognize mutual gain from the maintenance of an on-going relationship. Particularly in commercial negotiations, where the range of possible partners can be vast, it is prudent to find the best partners and develop broad relationships rather than trading partners every time you do business, which is costly, uncertain and time consuming. That means that partners that can provide an answer for a large number of needs over the course of time are a key. Toyota is famous for dealing generously with their suppliers for this reason.

A variety of needs provides the opportunity to bundle deals and distribute financial obligations in a creative way. When you are dealing with this kind of partner then obviously the long term relationship becomes as important as the immediate deal, and what you negotiate now becomes the precedent or template for future deals.

***

Once someone asked what a good symbol for the Jewish self-image is. After a bit of digging a well-known academic came up with the idea of the shepherd boy David (who would later be king) at the valley of Ella, where he faced the philistine giant Goliath. There stood David, all alone in a loincloth, his only weapon a sling made out of goat hide, and opposite him Goliath, 7 feet tall and covered from head to toe with armor, protected by a shield, holding a number of spears as well as a sword by his side, and backed by an army one thousand strong. Yet somehow David bends down, finds a small stone that will fit his sling and hurls that stone directly at the only place on the giant’s body not protected by armor – his forehead. The stone finds its target (with the help of God), the giant falls, and David races forward and grabbing the Philistine’s sword cuts off his head.

This metaphor became the symbol of Jewish aspiration. There is no such thing as weakness – it is all about how you manage the process. At a range of 10 feet a boy with a sling has a better chance than a giant with a spear. In the middle of a valley on a hot day, you will be cooler and quicker without armor than with it, especially if you are facing only one opponent. Do your homework, scout the terrain, see the whole picture, keep your cool, put your personal feelings aside, and you have a fighting chance. And, by the way, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help from above.

Like any art, the development of this tradition has been painful. The idea of eradicating the ego, postponing immediate gratification, and submitting to the cruelties of a world in which you do not call the shots is not an achievement to be taken lightly. Yet the end result, the survival of a small group of people for more than 5000 years, is testimony to the skill of the people who practice that art.

?To read the entire book go to [email protected] and ask for the text Making Deals with God

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