The Working Poor 85

eat.” But to help the employer not suffer a loss by having their workers waste any of their working time, the rabbis enacted[a takkanah] that after a worker has finished working on one row he may eat of his employer’s produce while he is on his way to begin the next. This[fakkanah was enacted] for the benefit of the employer lest they suffer a loss. Hoshen Mishpat 337.11

By permitting the harvesters to eat while they walk from row to row, less time is wasted and the farmer’s financial interests are protected. Indeed, the tension between the competing interests of the farmer and the workers is evidenced throughout rabbinic literature. For example, while the privilege of the worker to eat as he worked was a valuable asset, the exercise of that right might affect on his wages. Some workers were tempted to forego the right to eat for higher wages or to transfer the eating privileges to members of their family. In some cases these special arrangements were approved, and some arrangements were forbidden. In all the cases, we find Jewish religious leadership trying to provide both flexibility and safe-guards to prevent the workers from harming their own self-interest.”

In yet another example of trying to maintain the interests of the workers and the employers, rabbinic interpretation and legislation modified the mitzvot of timely payment to a considerable extent. As we reviewed above, Leviticus 19:13 and Deuteronomy 24:14-15 demand that a worker is to be paid at the end of his shift. But economic and social changes made such daily payments difficult if not impossible. For example, the merchants of Sura were unable to pay their workers until they sold their goods on market day.” On the one hand, the rabbis of the fannaitic period extended the injunction against delay of payment to include workers hired for longer periods of a week, month, or more. They also included craftsmen and artisans