We tend to think wrongly that there is a science of trade and markets where rational actors

maximize their self-interest, and that this science is totally distinct from the world of

restraint and sacrifice and moral conduct

and ethical behavior. In that division between markets and morals, we assume that the Hebrew

Bible speaks to our capacity to be good and not our capacity to be prosperous. But the Israeli

investor and author Michael Eisenberg rejects this whole distinction,

and he reads the Book of Genesis as a text that can shape, channel, and propel the natural

desire that we have to create wealth, not for the sake of being self-satisfied and avaricious and

decadent, but to establish a society of opportunity that recognizes the human dignity of our

neighbors. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. Today, with Michael Eisenberg,

the co-founder of Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund with over $500 million under management

and the father of eight. That's right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight children,

and the author of the newly translated book, The Tree of Life and Prosperity. We discuss how his

investment experience and long study of Hebrew scripture has helped him to think

theologically about labor, wealth, credit, debt, and the ability to experience market failure

and come back to try again.

And moreover, how these theological ideas have in turn helped him think practically in his work.

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