¿Quién Manda, Cómo y Por Qué?
Introducción a la Estructura Política de Israel
Lic. Sara Lazar
The Jewish sources for labor laws
Introduction This exhibition presents the Jewish sources that, in large part, inspired modern
labor legislation as formulated in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions. The
Jewish sources are very ancient – the first Biblical precepts were given more than three thousand
years ago, on the eve of the Israelites’ entry into the Land of Israel. These precepts related to a
tribal, agricultural society, in which slavery was an accepted norm. It is therefore not surprising
that there is no mention in the ancient sources of concepts that we are familiar with in the context
of modern labor laws: representative organizations of workers and employers; collective
bargaining; the nation state and central government; welfare policy and protective legislation. And
yet, as the exhibition clearly illustrates, the foundations were already laid in ancient times for the
values guaranteed by the ILO Conventions and by modern legislation. The exhibition also shows
the contribution of Jewish sages – Talmudic scholars and experts in Halacha (Jewish law) –
throughout history to the development and refinement of these values. The story of the Exodus
from Egypt partly explains this unique phenomenon. The Bible sees in this historic event not only
the ethos of national liberation, but also – and perhaps mainly – the seminal experience of a
people whose liberation from slavery and exile placed upon it a moral responsibility to protect and
ensure the rights of every worker, including the weak and the indigent, to a dignified existence.
Labor and Vocational Training
Human beings have to work hard to provide a living for their families. According to the Bible, this
is because of the sin of Adam, the first man: “By the sweat of your brow, you shall eat bread”
(Genesis 3:19). The Jewish tradition, however, does not view labor as a curse. Quite the opposite
– work is a mark of honor for a man, a sign that he has the power and the ability to influence
nature, to turn wheat into bread and grapes into wine. As the Jewish sages said: “Great is labor,
for it brings honor to the workman” (Babylonian Talmud). They also said: “One who takes pleasure
in his labors is greater than one who fears Heaven” (ibid.). These sayings did not remain in the
realm of lofty expressions – they were translated into law. For example, one of the parents’ main
educational duties is to ensure that their children are trained in a vocation. As it states in the
Talmud: “A man is obligated to teach his son a trade...Whoever does not teach his son a trade, it
is as if he taught him robbery.”
Prohibition Against Forced Labor, and Work Conditions
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The Biblical attitude towards slavery and the laws dealing with the employer’s obligations vis-à-vis
the worker can be found in the Book of Leviticus: “If your brother becomes impoverished with
regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. He must
be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of
Jubilee...Since they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be
sold as slaves. You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your G-d” (Lev. 25:39-40,
42-43). The Talmudic sages expanded on this verse, deriving from it the prohibition against forced
labor, even in the framework of a contract, stating: “A worker may change his mind even in the
middle of the day... ‘they are My servants’ and not servants of servants.” What constitutes “harsh
labor”? Obviously, work performed under threat of whips and beatings, beyond the limits of the
laborer’s physical strength, and under inhuman conditions – all of these would come under the
heading of “harsh labor”. However, work under much less appalling conditions may also be
considered “harsh labor” as, for example, when the length of the task is not limited and defined in
advance, or the work is given for no other purpose than to keep the worker busy. Thus we find in
the writings of Maimonides, one of the great Jewish authorities of the 12th century: “And what is
harsh labor? This is labor that has no defined length, and labor for which the employer has no
need but is only interested in making the servant work so that he will not be idle. Accordingly, the
sages said that the employer must not say: ‘hoe under the grape vines until I return,” for he did
not give him a time limit; rather, he should say: ‘hoe until a certain hour, or up to a certain place.’
Similarly, he must not say to him: ‘dig up this place’ when he does not need it. It is even
prohibited to have him prepare a hot or cold drink if he does not need it; if he does so, he is
violating a negative precept, according to the verse: ‘You must not rule over him harshly.’” Even
during the period when owning slaves was common practice in Israel, the duties of a master
towards his slave were so strict that the sages coined the saying: ‘whoever acquires a slave is as if
he has acquired a master.” Maimonides describes these duties: “Every master must give his
slaves/servants the same level of food, drink, clothes and living quarters as he himself enjoys, as it
says: ‘for he is happy [lit. ‘it is good for him’] with you’ – you should not eat refined bread and give
him coarse bread, or drink old wine and give him new wine to drink....” Weekly Rest
One of the most revolutionary and important contributions of Judaism to world culture is the
concept of the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest. On this day everyone, employers and workers
1 The Hebrew word “eved” can mean slave or servant. Even when a person is sold, he is not a
slave in the normal sense – the servitude is for a limited period of time, and the slaves/servants
have certain rights, as the text explains.
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alike, must cease from all creative labor. Six days of work, of feverish economic activity, make way
for a day when mankind is free from the yoke of labor: “You must not do any labor, neither you
nor your son and daughter, your servant and maidservant, your ox and donkey and beast, nor the
resident foreigner within your gates – so that your servant and maidservant shall rest as you do.”
In this context, Maimonides wrote, “A Jew is commanded concerning the cessation of labor of his
servants; even though they are intelligent and act of their own volition, he [their master] is
obligated to watch over them and prevent them from doing labor on the Sabbath.” A weekly day
of rest was not the only innovation to come from the Jewish sources. The sages also concluded,
from their interpretation of a verse in Psalms, that the number of hours in a workday should have
a limit: “People go out to do their work, and labor away until evening” (Ps.104:23).
Safety and Hygiene in the Workplace The employer’s responsibility for his employees’ safety is
anchored in Jewish law, according to which every person is obligated to ensure the safety of
anyone found on his property, whether or not they are working for him. The Bible states: “If you
build a new house, you must construct a guard rail around your roof to avoid bringing culpability
to yourself in the event someone should fall from it” (Deut.22:8). From this principle, the law
generalizes to anything that poses a threat to another human being, as Maimonides explains: “As
for a roof, so it is with anything that is dangerous and could result in a person’s death...Similarly,
there is a positive commandment to remove any obstacle that could cause bodily injury, and to
guard oneself from it and to be extremely careful.” The sages in ancient times, in their expounding
of Jewish law, required employers to take cautionary measures in order to ensure that no harm
come to their workers. For example, the sages set a limit to the maximum weight that a porter
should have to carry. If extra weight is placed on his back and he suffers injury as a result, the
employer bears the responsibility and must compensate the worker for his injury. There are cases
in which the worker is aware of the dangers involved in the offered job, but agrees to do it
nonetheless, because he desperately needs the income. The Talmudic sages viewed this with great
severity, supported by the Biblical verse prohibiting delay in paying a day laborer: “You must pay
his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it [lit: ‘upon it
he carries his soul’] (Deut. 24:14).” The sages explained the latter phrase as the willingness to
take grave risks for the sake of much-needed income: “ ‘and his life depends on it’ – why did he
climb up a ramp and onto a tree, risking death, if not for his wages?!” This, of course, in no way
exempts the employer from the obligation to ensure the safety of his worker. On the contrary, an
employer who takes advantage of the financial distress of a
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worker in order to employ him under dangerous conditions is violating a serious prohibition,
namely: “You must not ... put a stumbling block in front of a blind person...You must fear your
God; I am the Lord” (Lev.19:14). The worker is compared to a blind person and the dangerous
work to a stumbling block: just as it is forbidden to place an obstacle in the path of a blind person
who is unable to avoid stumbling over it, it is forbidden to employ someone under dangerous
conditions, even if he agrees, because he is so anxious to earn the income that he does not notice
or accurately estimate the danger he is taking upon himself and therefore is unable to take proper
precautions.
Protection of Wages When the time comes to pay a worker his wages, it is absolutely forbidden
to delay payment. The basis of this prohibition, which appears in most labor law codifications, can
be found in the Bible: “You must not oppress your neighbor or commit robbery against him. You
must not hold back the wages of the hired laborer overnight until morning” (Lev.19:13).
The severity of the prohibition may be explained by the fact that the worker is “poor”, his situation
is inferior to that of his powerful employer, and his life is dependent upon the wages that he
receives from the employer. The protection of the worker’s wages and their timely payment is the
basis for many labor laws. The employer, for example, is not allowed to pay the worker the
“monetary value” of his work, but must pay in cash, so that the worker may enjoy the fruits of his
labor and be able to supply his family’s needs immediately, and not be forced to go to the trouble
of first selling whatever he received from his employer in order to buy what he needs for his
sustenance.
Severance Allowance Biblical law states that when a servant goes free, his master must pay him
a sum of money: “If your brother or sister Hebrew is sold to you and serves you for six years, then
in the seventh year you must let that servant go free. If you set them free, you must not send
them away empty-handed. You must supply them generously from your flock, your threshing floor,
and your winepress—as the Lord your God has blessed you, you must give to them” (Deut.15:1214). The Talmud expands on this, and determines that a servant is entitled to a “grant” not only
when he has completed his term of labor but even if the work is stopped before the end of that
period, as long as the stoppage is not the fault of the servant. Numerous provisions were added
for the protection of the worker’s right to compensation. For example, severance allowance was
considered to be part of the worker’s wages and thus passed on to his heirs; it could not be seized
by the worker’s creditors.
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Foreign Workers The Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt was a seminal historical event
marking the birth of the concept of human freedom and dignity. This central event was the source
of the
moral obligations towards foreigners and the weak, and the demand to recognize their dignity and
their freedom. Indeed, the Bible warns repeatedly against taking advantage of foreigners, who are
considered, together with orphans and widows, to be among the weaker segments of society. This
is due to their isolation and uprooting from their natural surroundings: “You must not wrong a
foreigner nor crush him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt” (Ex.22:21). It is incumbent
upon the people of Israel not only to help the foreigner and to give him a feeling of equality, but
to actually love him: “You, therefore, love the foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of
Egypt” (Deut.10:19). This special attitude towards the resident foreigner finds expression also in
the latter’s legal status in general and vis-à-vis labor laws in particular. The Bible demands the
equality of the foreigner before the law: “One statute must apply to you of the congregation, and
also to the resident foreigner who is living among you” (Numbers 15:15). It notes that the
foreigner is also entitled to enjoy a weekly day off: “For six days you may do your work, but on the
seventh day you must cease, so your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your
maidservant and the foreigner may refresh themselves” (Ex.23:12). There is a special
warning not to delay a foreigner’s wages or take economic advantage of him: “You must not
oppress a lowly and poor servant, whether one from among your fellow Israelites or from the
resident foreigners who are in your land and villages” (Deut.24:14).
Child Labor One of the more exalted and deeply ingrained duties demanded of parents and
society, according to Jewish tradition, is the obligation to teach the children the spiritual values
contained in the Torah. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes this duty: ... “and you must teach them
to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the way, as you lie
down, and as you get up” Deut.6:7). Already in ancient Israel, laws were established guaranteeing
access to education for every child. The Talmud describes the sequence of events that led to this
interesting historical development: “Rabbi Yehuda said, in the name of Rav: ... credit should be
given to Yehoshua Ben-Gamla, for without him, the Jewish people would have forgotten the Torah.
For, the original practice was that whoever had a father, his father would teach him Torah;
whoever had no father did not learn. It was decided to appoint teachers for children in Jerusalem,
on the basis of the verse, ‘for out of Zion will go instruction, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 2:3). Still, whoever had a father, his father took him to Jerusalem to learn;
whoever did not have a father did not get to Jerusalem and did not learn. Then it was decided to
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appoint teachers in every region; the children would start learning at age 15-16. If the teacher
became angry with one of the pupils, that pupil would be expelled. Until Yehoshua Ben-Gamla
came and decreed that teachers for children would be appointed in every state and in
every city, and the children would start learning at age 6-7.” Education, the importance of
which is paramount, was actually made compulsory in order to prevent child labor, which
necessarily comes at the expense of the child’s education. In periods of severe economic distress,
however, parents sometimes had no choice but to send their children out to work at an early age,
usually as apprentices. The Jewish sages strongly condemned this practice, as shown by the harsh
language of a communiqué issued by the spiritual leaders of Morocco in the 16th century: “Among
the Jews I have seen the scandalous practice that, because of current hardship, people are taking
their six and seven-year-old children out of school and binding them over to a craftsman to teach
them a craft when they do not yet know how to read or pray. Therefore, since we have become
aware of this, we have issued a ruling that no craftsman is to accept children or youth to teach
them their craft, whether for wages or for free, until they have been trained in the basic precepts.”
Similar rulings have been found from other communities of the same period. These rulings
demonstrate that the Jewish sages not only set standards concerning child labor, but also
established punitive sanctions in order to enforce these standards.
Social Security and Charity Jewish tradition preceded the modern Jewish state and the concept
of a welfare state. Hence, the obligation to take care of the needy and to give charity is, according
to Jewish tradition, the duty of each individual who has been graced with the means to do so. “For
there will never cease to be some poor people in the land; therefore, I am instructing you to make
sure you open your hand to your fellow Israelites who are needy and poor in your land”
(Deut.15:11). In order to fulfill this divine directive, the Bible commands the owners of fields not to
take all of the produce of the land for themselves, but to leave a part for the needy: “When you
gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and
you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must not pick your vineyard bare, and
you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and
the foreigner. I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:9-10). The duty to help the needy is not only
incumbent upon the individual, but has always been one of the central obligations of the society
and the community. Maimonides wrote in this connection, “We have never seen or heard of a
Jewish community that does not have a charity fund.” In order to finance the public charity fund,
the sages decreed, “A person may be coerced into giving charity.” This fund was for the benefit of
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non-Jews as well as Jews, as Maimonides stated: “The poor of the gentiles are supported together
with the poor of Israel.”
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