Dear Friends,
Most of us who work or who have worked wait till payday to receive our compensation. It may be every other Friday, or on the 15th and 30th of the month, or even the last day of the month. And we learn to make do during the period between paychecks. Sometimes we may have to dip into savings to pay off a bill; sometimes we have plenty and we relax. Yet, we know the rhythm of working and being paid. It is fair, and it is consistent.
And, it is a concern of the Torah. Way before there were unions, minimum wages, or living-wage campaigns, Torah was asserting the rights of the worker. Note the verse in our portion this week: "The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning." (Leviticus 19:13)
Torah was adamant and clear: the employer was not allowed to withhold the wages of a worker, not even one day. Why?
In antiquity, and certainly true in so many places today, the laborer may be living hand-to-mouth. He or she may only have what they wear and may only eat when they are paid. Hence, they are not in a position to make do during the period between paychecks. Rather, they need their compensation immediately, and for the employer to hold those wages for a stated period is essentially, in the Torah’s perspective, tantamount to stealing the benefit which the worker is entitled to receive. The employer, after all, has already received the benefit of the laborer’s efforts; his ditch has been dug or his bricks have been laid, and his value has been improved. He is not the vulnerable party in this transaction.
Torah adds another, perhaps overlooked, element to the discussion: the value of work itself. For any given individual, work may be onerous or joyful, difficult or commonplace. But it is a means to earning a living. Yes, there are those who earn livings from passive incomes—rents, dividends, and royalties—but for most, the wherewithal upon one depends is derived from regular daily effort. Work—in Hebrew, it is understood as making a difference—is the regular gift which a person can offer to another in exchange for recompense. Unless one is unable to work, this is the very skill and possibility which God and Torah implanted in humankind when Adam left the Garden of Eden and was charged with faring for himself. Thus, work itself is a blessing imbedded in our lives and thus worth the respect which compensation renders it.
This week, Torah has its say. "The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning."
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Most of us who work or who have worked wait till payday to receive our compensation. It may be every other Friday, or on the 15th and 30th of the month, or even the last day of the month. And we learn to make do during the period between paychecks. Sometimes we may have to dip into savings to pay off a bill; sometimes we have plenty and we relax. Yet, we know the rhythm of working and being paid. It is fair, and it is consistent.
And, it is a concern of the Torah. Way before there were unions, minimum wages, or living-wage campaigns, Torah was asserting the rights of the worker. Note the verse in our portion this week: "The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning." (Leviticus 19:13)
Torah was adamant and clear: the employer was not allowed to withhold the wages of a worker, not even one day. Why?
In antiquity, and certainly true in so many places today, the laborer may be living hand-to-mouth. He or she may only have what they wear and may only eat when they are paid. Hence, they are not in a position to make do during the period between paychecks. Rather, they need their compensation immediately, and for the employer to hold those wages for a stated period is essentially, in the Torah’s perspective, tantamount to stealing the benefit which the worker is entitled to receive. The employer, after all, has already received the benefit of the laborer’s efforts; his ditch has been dug or his bricks have been laid, and his value has been improved. He is not the vulnerable party in this transaction.
Torah adds another, perhaps overlooked, element to the discussion: the value of work itself. For any given individual, work may be onerous or joyful, difficult or commonplace. But it is a means to earning a living. Yes, there are those who earn livings from passive incomes—rents, dividends, and royalties—but for most, the wherewithal upon one depends is derived from regular daily effort. Work—in Hebrew, it is understood as making a difference—is the regular gift which a person can offer to another in exchange for recompense. Unless one is unable to work, this is the very skill and possibility which God and Torah implanted in humankind when Adam left the Garden of Eden and was charged with faring for himself. Thus, work itself is a blessing imbedded in our lives and thus worth the respect which compensation renders it.
This week, Torah has its say. "The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning."
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
