Workers

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Ethical Treatment of Workers

TANAKH

The Torah emphasizes the moral and religious obligation to ensure that workers are not abused and receive their due compensation promptly. Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, underscores the importance of ethical treatment and timely payment of wages to laborers, whether Israelites or strangers.

You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is needy and urgently depends on it; else a cry to יהוה will be issued against you and you will incur guilt.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Divine Favor for Temple Builders

MIDRASH

The workmen who built Solomon's Temple were granted divine favor, miraculous health, and perfect tools, and were ultimately rewarded in the afterlife. Louis Ginzberg’s early 20th-century compilation, Legends of the Jews, recounts these miraculous conditions and divine rewards.

According to the measure of the zeal displayed by Solomon were the help and favor shown him by God. During the seven years it took to build the Temple, not a single workman died who was employed about it, nor even did a single one fall sick. And as the workmen were sound and robust from first to last, so the perfection of their tools remained unimpaired until the building stood complete. Thus the work suffered no sort of interruption. After the dedication of the Temple, however, the workmen died off, lest they build similar structures for the heathen and their gods…

Legends of the Jews 4:5:98

Teachers and Labor Unions

HALAKHAH

The Rabbinical Administrative Board of Torah Umesorah prohibited teachers from joining national labor unions without halakhic analysis, contrasting with R. Moses Feinstein's previous sanctioning of strike action under certain circumstances. Rabbi J. David Bleich's analysis in Contemporary Halakhic Problems explores the complexities and differing opinions on the issue of labor unions within the Jewish educational system.

A decision of the Rabbinical Administrative Board of Torah Umesorah, the National Association of Yeshivot and Day Schools, prohibiting teachers from joining national labor unions has been disseminated widely. The statement, which is entirely declarative in nature and contains neither an analysis of halakhic issues nor citation of precedents, has evoked much comment. This pronouncement, dated 2 Kislev 5741, is particularly note-worthy since R. Moses Feinstein, honorary chairman of the Rabbinical Administrative Board, in his Iggerot Mosheh, Hoshen Mishpat, no…

Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Vol II, Part I, Chapter V Education 14

Craftsmen at Work During Festivals

TOSEFTA

Certain craftsmen are allowed to work during the intermediate days of a Festival, despite general prohibitions against labor. The Tosefta, a late 2nd-century compilation of Jewish oral law, outlines these exceptions for practical needs and religious obligations.

And the Sages say, even in a place where they said that labor may not be performed from Passover Eve until midday [on the fourteenth of Nissan], three craftsmen may [nonetheless perform their] work: tailors, hairdressers, and launderers. The tailors, for [even] an ordinary person may sew in his customary way on the intermediate days of a Festival. The hairdressers, for a Nazirite and a metzora and someone who suffered a wound to the his head may cut their hair on the intermediate days of a Festival…

Tosefta Pesachim 3:14

Work and Mourning

TALMUD

The regulations surrounding work for mourners are intricate and reflect the deep respect for the deceased and the mourning process. Tractate Semachot, a minor tractate from the Talmudic era, provides detailed guidelines on how to manage work and daily activities upon receiving news of a death.

If he is engaged in cutting a person’s hair and people come and tell him, ‘Your father is dead’, he should complete the work; this applies whether he is the hair-dresser or he is having his hair dressed. Workmen who have undertaken to do work for a mourner are forbidden to do it in his house but may do it in their own. R. Simeon b. Yoḥai said: A workman hired by the day is forbidden to do work in either [place]; a workman on a contract basis is forbidden [to do it in the mourner’s] house, but may do it in his own home…

Tractate Semachot 5:8

Professional Liability and Expertise

HALAKHAH

Professionals are liable for damages caused to others' property. In the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides outlines the legal principles and ethical guidelines regarding employment and liability.

When a person brings raw materials to a professional and he ruins them, the professional is liable to reimburse the owner for their value, for he is like a paid watchman. For example, a person gave wheat to a miller to grind and he did not soak it. Hence the flour came out as bran or coarse flour. A person gave flour to a baker and he made bread that crumbles, or a person brought an animal to a slaughterer and he slaughtered it unacceptably. They are all liable to make restitution.
Therefore, if an expert slaughterer slaughters an animal without charge and he caused it to be unacceptable…

Mishneh Torah, Hiring 10:5

Exemptions in Wage Payment

TALMUD

In cases where an employer hires workers through an intermediary, neither party is liable for delaying payment of wages. The Talmudic tractate Bava Metzia, part of the Order of Damages, addresses various civil laws, including the responsibilities of workers and employers.

The Sages taught: Concerning one who says to another: Go out and hire workers for me, both of them do not violate the prohibition of delaying payment of wages if they fail to pay immediately. This one, the employer, is exempt because he did not hire them himself, and strictly speaking they are not his hired workers.

Bava Metzia 110b:17

When to Eat

TALMUD

The Talmud provides insights into the daily routines of different groups, including workers and Torah scholars, and the health implications of their eating habits. The Babylonian Talmud in tractate Shabbat discusses the appropriate times for eating for various groups and the health effects of eating at different times.

The Gemara asks: Is that so? Didn’t Rav Pappa say that the fourth hour is mealtime for all people? Rather, emend the statement and say: The fourth hour is the time of eating for all people. The fifth hour is the time of eating for workers who do not have time to eat beforehand. The sixth hour is the time of eating for Torah scholars as, until then, court is in session. The Gemara adds: One who eats from then on is as if he is throwing a stone into a barrel, meaning that by then it does not contribute to the body’s health…

Shabbat 10a:8

The Ethics of Prompt Compensation

SECOND TEMPLE

Ensuring that workers receive their due immediately is crucial for their well-being and motivation, especially for those who live "from day-to-day". Philo of Alexandria, a first-century Jewish philosopher, emphasizes the importance of prompt compensation to laborers, reflecting the Torah's commandment in Deuteronomy 24:15.

[88] The following also is one of the commandments promoting humanity. The wages of the poor man are to be paid on the same day, not only because it was felt to be just that one who has rendered the service for which he was engaged should receive in full and without delay the reward for his employment, but also because the manual worker or load carrier, who toils painfully with his whole body like a beast of burden, “lives from day to day,” as the phrase goes, and his hopes rest upon his payment…

On the Virtues 15:1

Craftsmen and Community

TALMUD

The mutual support among workers of the same craft ensured that newcomers could find their peers and secure their livelihood. The Talmudic tractate Sukkah describes how craftsmen of different trades would sit together in groups according to their specific craft.

And the members of the various crafts would not sit mingled. Rather, the goldsmiths would sit among themselves, and the silversmiths among themselves, and the blacksmiths among themselves, and the coppersmiths among themselves, and the weavers among themselves. And when a poor stranger entered there, he would recognize people who plied his craft, and he would turn to join them there. And from there he would secure his livelihood as well as the livelihood of the members of his household…

Sukkah 51b:7

The Virtue of Diligent Work

CHASIDUT

Diligent work is not only a practical necessity but also a moral and spiritual imperative. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, in his early 20th-century work Chovat HaTalmidim, emphasizes the value of hard work and the consequences of idleness, drawing on examples from nature, animals, and the dedication of the Sages.

Please answer me, lazy young man, in what way are you better than the rest of the world? The sun and moon do their work without stop. Even the earth - [after] we plow it, arrange it and plant it - gives all of its strength and vigor to its work that God appointed it to do; to grow and develop [plants]. The ox, the horse and all the beasts of burden work with all of their strength. It is only harmful creatures and predatory animals that walk around idly and only desire to tear apart and trample each other…

Chovat HaTalmidim 4:3

The Urgency of the Task

MISHNAH

The urgency and importance of the work to be done is emphasized, highlighting the shortness of time, the abundance of tasks, the indolence of the laborers, the greatness of the reward, and the insistence of the master of the house. Pirkei Avot, a tractate of the Mishnah, offers ethical teachings and maxims from the rabbis, traditionally studied on Shabbat afternoons in the summer months between Passover and Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Tarfon said: the day is short, and the work is plentiful, and the laborers are indolent, and the reward is great, and the master of the house is insistent.

Pirkei Avot 2:15

Fair Wages in Ancient Times

TANAKH

The organized and systematic payment of workers involved in the construction of the Temple highlights the importance of fair labor practices even in ancient times. The biblical book of Kings II details how money was distributed to overseers who then paid the carpenters and laborers working on the maintenance and repair of the Temple.

Then they would deliver the money that was weighed out to the overseers of the work, who were in charge of the House of GOD. These, in turn, used to pay the carpenters and the laborers who worked on the House of GOD,

II Kings 12:12

Occupations of Talmudic Jews

REFERENCE

Discover the diverse range of trades and occupations that Jews were engaged in during the time of the Talmud. Gershom Bader’s work offers a detailed list of specific professions from the era of the Amoraim, as recorded in the Jerusalem Talmud.

The trades and occupations of the Jews of that time are a subject of endless interest. The Talmud is the best historical source on this subject and it lists the following occupations as being most widely engaged in: tailoring, shoemaking, building, quarrying, carpentry, hairdressing, metal working, weaving, dyeing, tapestry-weaving, bee raising, pottery, glass blowing, engraving, tanning, ink and arms manufacturing.

The Jewish Spiritual Heroes, Volume II; The Amoraim of Palestine and the Jerusalem Talmud, Life in Palestine During the Creation of the Jerusalem Talmud 15

50th anniversary of I.L.O (The International Labour Organization), Issued: 16/04/1969, Israeli postage stamp catalog, Catalog Number: 455. Designer: Adler, Oswald.

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