[Avodah] Torah and Slavery

[saul mashbaum]

Although it seems obvious to us that being a salaried employee is a straightforward and sensible way to make a living, it is regarded with some suspicion in classical Jewish sources. This is because of the shibud the worker has to his employer, which borders on slavery (no jokes please). The longer the worker contracted for, the more the practice was frowned upon.  

An example of this principle (even for a short period of employment) is the din that a poor person must take fairly desperate measures to  ensure that he has enough money for 4 kosot for leil haseder, if the gabbaei tzedaka improperly did not provide him with such funds. Three measures are mentioned (see SA OC 472:13): selling one's garment, taking a loan, or hiring oneself out. In this context, becoming a salaried worker is an unusual measure, required in this case (and seeming not in order to do other mitzvot) because of the great obligation of pisumei nissa. Interestingly, regarding ner chanuka OC 671:1, the first two measures alone are mentioned. The MB there says, based on the Maggid Mishna, that becoming a salaried employee is required in this case as well ( for pirsumei nissa), but other poskim hold that this extreme measure is not required for ner chanuka.

As an aside which connects to another thread on areivim, I will point that although the gabbaei tzedaka are required to provide everyone with the wherewithal to perform the mitzva of ner chanuka, the MB limits this one candle per night, which is ikkar hadin. Apparently, the fact that everyone else lights many more candles does not "entitle" the poor man to more money to "keep up with the Cohen's" 

Saul Mashbaum