Study With Rabbi Perlin (5/14/2020)
The Values and Responsibilities of Workers and Employers in Jewish Tradition
A TBS Class with Rabbi Amy R. Perlin, D.D. on Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 1 PM
The Work – Study Balance
If a person learns two paragraphs of the Torah in the morning and two in the evening, and is occupied with his work the rest of the day, it is as though he had fulfilled the entire Torah.
Tanhuma, on Exodus, Beshallach, paragraph 20
Splendid is the study of Torah when combined with some worldly occupation, for toil in them both puts sin out of mind.
But, study [of Torah] that is not combined with work falls into neglect in the end, and becomes the cause of sin.
Rabban Gamliel in Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 2:2
The Work Ethic in Jewish Thought
A man should love work and not hate work. For just as the Torah was given as a covenant, so work was given as a covenant, as it is said, “Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:9)
Avot de Rebbe Natan, Chapter 11
Even the rich must love work, that is to say, must engage in some worthwhile occupation and not remain idle – for idleness is the cause of terrible things.
Menachem ben Solomon ha-Meiri (1249-1316, France) in his commentary on Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 10:1
The Responsibility of Workers to their Employers
Just as the employer is enjoined not to deprive the poor worker of his wages or withhold from him when it is due, so is the worker enjoined not to deprive the employer of the benefit of his work by idling away his time, a little here and a little there, thus wasting the whole day deceitfully…Indeed, the worker must be very punctual in the matter of time.
Maimonides, Code, “Laws Concerning Hiring,” Chapter 13, section 7
Someone once asked the rabbis, “How was the earth created?”
“No one has the exact answer,” they said, “but go ask Joseph the Builder, because there is no one more knowledgeable about these matters.”
The questioner looked for Rabbi Joseph and found him standing on some scaffolding, in the midst of work. “I have a question to ask you,” the man called to the rabbi.
“I cannot come down to answer,” the rabbi said. “I was hired for the day, and my time belongs to my employer.”
Exodus Rabbah, Chapter 13, Section 1
The Responsibility of Employers to their Workers
You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a non-citizen in your communities. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it; else he will cry to the Lord against you, and you will incur guilt.
Deuteronomy 24:14-15
Whoever withholds an employee’s wages, it is as though he has taken the person’s life from him.
Babylonian Talmud, tractate Baba Metzia, page 112a
In eighteenth-century Turkey, Rabbi Chaim Pallache was asked to rule concerning the claim of a worker for medical expenses and wages lost as a result of illness. This worker was hired to accompany his employer on his rounds through the villages to sell articles of glass and such. In his responsum, Rabbi Chaim answered that
…even if the worker became ill, it is the custom to pay him the full salary agreed upon. It is also customary for the employer to pay the full medical costs involved. The reasoning behind the custom is that the probability of the worker becoming ill is increased by the job, which required him to travel away from his city and wander from place to place.*
*Ruach Chaim, Section 333:4 as quoted in With All Your Possessions: Jewish Ethics and Economic Life by Meir Tamari, 1987
The halakhic attitude toward these employer responsibilities may be summed up by the ruling of the late Chief Rabbi of Israel, HaRav Uzziel.
Both employer and worker require each other. The worker labors more for his own self-interest than for the benefit of his employer. The law, therefore, does not place any special responsibility on the latter for the worker’s welfare or make him liable for injuries suffered [excepting the responsibility place upon him by custom]. At the same time, however, the Torah obligates him to make every effort to protect his workers from injury; failure to do so makes him liable to the moral crime of “Thou shalt not spill blood in thy house.” (Deut. 25:6)
Mishpatei Uzziel, part 3, commentary on Shulkhan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat, section 4
–as quoted in Tamari book above.
A helpful resource in preparation of this study text was Voices of Wisdom, by Francine Klagsbrun, 1980 , pp.293 f.