Allowing Others to Take Advantage of You Is No Mitzvah https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/religion-holidays/2016/09/allowing-others-to-take-advantage-of-you-is-no-mitzvah/

September 8, 2016 | Gil Student
About the author: Gil Student is an Orthodox rabbi, the editor of TorahMusings.com, and the book editor of the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Action magazine.

Analyzing a contemporary halakhic ruling by Rabbi Asher Weiss, Gil Student argues that, while the Torah demands scrupulous honesty—especially in business dealings—it does not demand making oneself a victim of exploitation. His conclusion, based primarily on medieval rabbinic works, is perhaps best illustrated by a midrashic tale about the biblical Jacob:

[The Talmud] asks why Jacob, on meeting Rachel, said that he was her father Laban’s brother (Genesis 29:12). Jacob was [in fact] Rachel’s cousin, not her uncle. The [Talmud then] explains that the following conversation ensued between the two. Jacob asked Rachel to marry him. She replied that he cannot marry her because her father is a master of trickery. Jacob replied that he was Laban’s brother, i.e. peer, in trickery.

Is it proper for Jacob to try to trick someone who is going to trick him? The Talmud defends the practice with a passage that appears twice in the Bible: “With the merciful You show Yourself to be merciful; with the upright You show Yourself to be upright; with the pure You show Yourself to be pure and with the crooked You show Yourself to be shrewd” (2 Samuel 22:26-27; Psalms 18:27-28). . . .

[Ancient and modern rabbis are not] permitting dishonesty. They are permitting leveling the playing field: realistic behavior that does not automatically disadvantage those who are honest. The Torah does not require you to be a sucker.

Read more on Torah Musings: http://www.torahmusings.com/2016/09/there-is-no-mitzvah-to-be-a-freier/