Investing in a company that desecrates Shabbat
Hello, Your Honor,
Is there a prohibition on investing in an Israeli company that desecrates the Sabbath?
Assuming I don't influence decision-making and many of the profits from Shabbat are not made by desecrating Shabbat, but society does desecrate Shabbat.
Another assumption is that the company's interest is not desecration of the Sabbath, for example, a pharmaceutical company that manufactures some of its medicines on the Sabbath.
There is definitely room for leniency, at least when you don't have controlling shares.
Thank you Rabbi for the answer.
Is it also true that most of the employees and owners are Jewish?
What if the Jewish company pays interest but I don't have the company's bonds?
Is it permissible to hold the company's bonds if it pays interest?
Yes. I didn't understand the last two questions.
Thanks for the previous response. Now I would like to clarify the first two questions with a few additional points:
Previously I asked from the perspective of desecrating the Sabbath, now I'm asking from the perspective of interest.
1) A shareholder in a company that pays interest
If I hold shares in an Israeli company that issues bonds and pays interest, is there a halachic problem with actually holding the stock, even though I do not hold the bonds?
2) Purchasing bonds without a transaction permit
Is it permissible to purchase bonds of an Israeli company that does not have a transaction permit, assuming it is a limited liability company?
Another question:
3) Investing in an index/ETF of internet companies (over 50% of internet profits)
Let's say a fund that tracks an index invests in companies that have over 50% of their profits coming from Internet operations; most of the companies have beneficial operations, but one of the components is a pornographic website:
• Is it permissible to purchase the fund when the prohibited component is a negligible minority?
• Should the investor check the full list of companies in the index (which changes frequently) with each purchase/holding? If so, what is the duty to check?
I don't understand this enough to answer. Ask someone who knows more.
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