The Working Poor 105

50. Maimonides , Sefer ha-Mitzvot, positive commandment 196, negative 233; Semag, positive 178 and negative 84.

51. Sefer haHinukh 481 and 482. Volume IV(New York : Feldheim Publishers, 1988).

52. The authorship is unclear, but the text dates to 13" century Spain . Halevi of Barcelona . See the translator’s preface to Feldheim edition, Vol. 1, pp. vii ff.

Sefer haHinukh 482, Volume IV, p. 481, Feldheim edition. 54. Elon , Jewish Law, ibid, p. 925.

55. Elon , ibid, note 115,“A person who sells himself as a slave transgresses the injunction in the Torah ,‘For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants ’(Lev. 25:55). From this verse the Sages deduced,“ and not servants to servants,” i.e., a Jew should not be a bondman of another person, since everyone is God ’s servant, and one should not be a servant of a servant.”

56. Ibid. Also, see the explanations for the passage of Israel ’s Severance Pay Law, 1963 in Elon ’s Jewish Law, Vol. IV, pp. 1633 ff.

57. B. Baba Metzia 83a.; Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat 187:1-3;304:1-2, 4124.

58. This moral imperative is based on Prov. 2:20 and is fully explained in Elon ’s Jewish Law, Vol. 1, pp.155 ff. See also, Aaron Levine, Economics& Jewish Law,

pp.26 ff. Cf. B. Baba Metzia 30b.

59. Responsum of B.Z. Uziel, quoted in Elon ’s Jewish Law, Vol. I, pp. 925 ff.

60. For my own attempt, see“Asu Seyag La Torah,” in W. Jacob and M. Zemer (ed.), Re-examining Progressive Halakhah, p.92.

61. Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat 304:2-4. 62. Rashi to Baba Metzia 83a, s.v. Bederekh tovim.

63. See Nachmanides ’ commentary to Deut. 24:15.