The Working Poor 77
This paper will review the ethical ideals and sacred principles that Judaism has developed in response to the problems of the working poor. My goal is to provide the relevant background material for rabbis, lay leaders, and students engaged in Progressive Halakhah. Progressive Jews ? appreciating the dynamic nature of evolving halakhah, take up the challenge of determining if the received principles and observances need to be further modified to order to meet our modern understanding of God ’s commandment to strive for the compassionate, ethical, and moral ideal. Insofar as the issue of the working poor is concerned, halakhic literature records a noble effort by rabbis and sages to address the fundamental needs of the poor laborer while protecting the livelihood of the employer. As we review key passages in Torah , Talmud , rabbinic commentary, and Halakhic codes, it will become evident that Jewish teachings concerning the issues of the working poor are remarkably balanced and sensitive.
The economy during the time of the writing of the Mishnah and Gemara was overwhelmingly agrarian. Therefore, when the rabbis of those generations expounded on the mitzvot and ethical ideals concerning the working poor, their examples focused primarily on the relation between land owning farmers and the poor farm laborers.”
The Torah established the ethical foundation for how we are to compassionately treat the poor worker. Prominent are two mitzvot commanding employers to pay the working poor in a timely fashion;®
You shall not abuse the working poor(sakhir ani) and
the needy, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger
in one of the communities of your land. You must pay
him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for
he is poor(ani) and urgently depends on it; else he will