"And if you should sell merchandise to your neighbor, or if you should purchase from your neighbors hand, you shall not wrong one another." [Vayikrah 25.14]

Our sages learned crucial lessons in interpersonal relations from the commandments concerning business transactions. That which we sell, we may someday purchase. In a similar vein, we learn from the Midrash (Vayikrah Rabbah): "Death and life are at the hands of the tongue" and Onkelos writes: "The spoon and the knife, can be used as instruments of life or death. What determines their effects is man's intent and his use of these instruments - either to build or to destroy."

This great yet dangerous power can be manifest in the most subtle of ways. Our spoken words can compliment and encourage, or humiliate and debase both ourselves and our fellow man.

Similar pieces of metal can be used to feed and nourish or to main and destroy. Goods and merchandise can be bought or sold. The critical factor is that all of our actions and roles must be fulfilled with a sense of fairness and belief, as we read, "...and you shall not wrong one another."

We buy and sell every day - not only material goods, but knowledge, ideas and beliefs - and in so doing we must take care never to wrong or mislead another. In this way, we contribute to the building of a world based on truth - truth that leads to peace and happiness.