Here’s another ethical issue and Jewish source response:

Case

It was a scam – but it was for a good purpose.  It happened at a synagogue meeting. Sara was the chairperson.  The purpose was to raise money for a new school building. The idea was to get everyone to fill out a pledge on a card.  To get the ball rolling, Dana, Sidney and Marcia, a few of the synagogue’s Leaders, stood up and announced their personal pledges.  They were large and impressive. Then the pledge cards and pencils were passed out. Later that night, when David, the synagogue treasurer, was going over the cards, he noticed that the actual pledges by Dana, Sidney and Marcia were less than half of what they had announced publicly.  He went to Sara and asked, “What should we do?” Sara said, “Nothing. That was the plan, to announce large pledges to ‘get the ball rolling’ – to encourage the others in the congregation to give freely.” David, said, “A false pledge is unethical – we should go to the congregation amd tell them the truth.”  Sara said, “Cool your jets – it was all in the name of Jewish education.”

Answer

Can you lie in order to raise more money for a good cause? 

[a] In the Talmud, Sukkot 29a, we find:  “God causes people to lose their wealth because of four acts: (1) keeping bills which have been paid (so they can be collected again): (2) lending money with interest; (3) having the power to protest [against wrongdoing] and remaining silent; and (4) people who publicly declare their intention to give a specified sum for charity and do not give that sum.”

The Talmud says that “God will punish such acts, even if they are done for a good purpose.”

[b] The Maharsha, Rabbi Shmuel ha-Levi Eidels (1555-1631), was the rabbi of Chelm (for real, as well as of Lublin and Ostraha).  He was also a Talmudic commentator. He explained that this ruling in Sukkot is not just about people who make large pledges so that they will look important, but also about active members of the community who make large pledges they have no intention of paying, but who do do to motivate others to give.

[c] Rabbi Yitzhak Yaacov Weiss, a twentieth-century rabbi who served as a Beit Din judge in Grosswardein, Romania, Manchester, England, and Jerusalem, solved a case almost like this one.  It is in his book Minhat Yitzchak (no. 3:97), where he says, “This has been a custom since time immemorial, and our sages have always frowned upon it, including making it among the four failings for which severe punishment is exacted.

Joel Grishaver, “You Be the Judge”, pgs. 35-36

Used with permission from Joel Grishaver