THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF THE RABBINATE

involved. It is certainly in order that a scholar should be equal to a respected layman.

The Torah has exempted Torah scholars from special tributes as well as individual taxes. The community will exempt them from“head-taxes,” and they[scholars] are relieved of building[fortification] walls and the like. Even if the Torah scholar happens to be a well-to-do man, he is free from any of the aforementioned obligations....This is a law of the Torah . Just as Torah freed the Temple priests from paying the half-shekel[so, too, are the rabbis exempt], as we have explained."”

In the same commentary, Maimonides also confirmed the legitimacy of compensation for loss and trouble(sekhar batalah and tirha):

"Karna was a judge. He would say,‘Give me someone to draw water in my place, or compensate me for my actual loss (“batalti”), and I will judge your case.”

Still, Rambam was explicit in his disdain for those scholars who relied on public assistance. He wrote:

"One should strive not to be dependent on other people and not to be a public charge. So, too, the sages have enjoined us, saying:‘Rather make your Sabbath a weekday than be dependent on men’® If reduced to poverty, even a distinguished scholar must not disdain manual labor, no matter how repulsive it is to him, in order to avoid dependence on others. One should preferably flay animal carcasses instead of telling the people:‘I am a great scholar, 1 am a priest, provide for me.” The sages have indeed commanded us to act like this. Some of the great sages derived their livelihood from chopping wood, carrying lumber, watering gardens, working in iron or making charcoal, and asked no help of the community; neither would they have accepted

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