[Avodah] Seforno's Work Ethic

[Zev Sero]

Yitzchok Levine wrote:
>   From http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2008/12/sefornos-work-ethic.html
> 
> The Seforno commenting on (Gen. 29:18) says
> 
> There is no doubt that this righteous man (Ya'akov) would not marry and 
> have children if he did not have a way to support them, particularly 
> with food and clothes.

Presumably they were fed and clothed by Lavan, just as he was.  If you
have someone working for you full time, and you're not paying him, then
you have to provide his basic needs, and those of his dependants, or
else you'll get no useful work out of him.

Even a slave owner has to look after his slaves for this reason.
When Yosef enslaved the Mitzrim he determined that 80% of their produce
was necessary to maintain them and their families, and to replant the
fields, and only 20% was excess that he could take for Par'oh.

I've read that in the antebellum South it was common to send a slave to
the city and have him find lodging, take a job, pay for all his expenses
out of his wages, and send the rest home to his master; and that the
expected return on such a slave was about 20% of his wages.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas