Professionals in San Francisco’s Financial District are seeking and finding relevant messages in ancient texts.
Twice a month, up to a dozen of them wake up extra early to study Torah together. They sit in the offices of the securities firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., overlooking the bay on the 43rd floor of the Bank of America building.
The Torah study, which started in the fall, is one of several programs offered through the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Business and Professionals Division.
“We can glean ways to act and not to act from Torah,” said Rabbi Sydney Mintz of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El, who leads the study sessions.
On the first Thursday of February, seven men and women studied Parashat Beshalah from Exodus. To tie the Torah portion to contemporary workplace issues, the theme was “Two sides of the Coin: How to Complain to Your Boss, How to Deal with Complaints from the People.”
In that Torah portion, the Israelites are venturing into the desert after escaping centuries of slavery in Egypt. And the newly freed slaves begin to kvetch at Moses.
“Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt?” they moan.
In a chain of command, Mintz noted, the Israelites complain to Moses and Moses then complains to God.
“Sometimes it takes a visionary to sustain the complaints,” she said. “The way people view you as a leader is directly related to how you deal with their complaints.”
According to traditional commentary, Moses prays “at great length” as the Israelites entered the Red Sea.
God then reprimands him. “My beloved are on the verge of drowning in the sea, and you spin out lengthy prayers before Me.”
Moses responds, “But Master of the universe, what else can I do?” And God says, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. And lift up thy rod.”
To Mintz, this means that sometimes God needs human beings to instigate action.
“Lengthy prayers are not always what’s needed.”
Steve Sattler, one of the organizers of the study sessions, finds the Torah study group inspiring and relevant.
“We’re always trying to connect it to what’s going on now. It’s been very stimulating and thought-provoking. It’s really a wonderful way to start out the day,” said Sattler, a board member at San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom and a former investment adviser at Bernstein & Co.
One of the stories that has stuck with him takes places in a Torah portion at the end of Genesis — the story of Joseph. “When Joseph was in Egypt, his brothers came to see him. They didn’t recognize him,” Sattler said.
“It’s a metaphor for an alienated people. It reminds us that it’s important to be mindful of the great depth of our tradition. Even as a successful assimilated person, you’re sort of a person without a country. That’s so relevant to how so many Jews are today.”
At the study session scheduled for yesterday, the group planned to dig into Parashat Mishpatim, also in Exodus.
“The Torah makes codes, laws and rules very clear. There should be nothing hidden,” Mintz said. From this, professionals can learn something about running a contemporary business. “You should be explicit in your behavior and how you run a business,” she said.
On March 3, they will discuss the concept of priestly garments found in Parashat Tetzaveh.
Mintz will make the topic relevant to modern professionals by examining the authority given to someone by what they wear.
Sattler and David Dossetter helped organize the downtown Torah study, along with Rebecca Friedman, director of the JCF’s Business and Professionals Division. Dossetter is the managing director at Bernstein & Co.
In many ways, it’s particularly relevant for a Torah study session to take place at the firm. Company founder Sanford “Zalman” Bernstein, a prominent Wall Street investor in New York, adopted Orthodoxy in the early 1980s and was committed to promoting Jewish observance. He died just last month at 72.
Sattler, too, sees the importance in Torah study. He considers it an exercise in mindfulness.
“It’s like putting a mezuzah on our door or putting on tefillin. The mere doing of Torah study connects you on a deeper level to the Jewish community as a whole and to its historical past and to its unknown future.”