Bestechungsgelder annehmen: Ist es eine Sünde im Judentum?

Jewish law contains the world's strictest bribery rule. Deuteronomy 16:19 forbids the bribe outright, but the Talmud went further: Ketubot 105a recounts that Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yose, refusing a shepherd's gift, was warned by his father's colleague — accept nothing, because 'one who takes a bribe blinds his own eyes,' and even a ruling made correctly after a gift is disqualified. The gemara then supplies the anatomy of the blindness: a judge who received a favor cannot see the fault in the giver's argument; the tradition even tells of sages disqualifying themselves for a courtesy as small as a hand-towel. The Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch extend the prohibition beyond judges to anyone in a position of trust over others' money or interests — officials, purchasers, even charity treasurers, for whom gifts from interested parties are forbidden. The modern applications by poskam and by Israel's rabbinate run to procurement officers and community gabbaim. The tradition's insight is the deepest of the three: the bribe's first victim is the taker's perception — which is why Jewish law does not ask 'was the decision fair?' but 'was the decider free?'