[Avodah] not working on chol hamoed

[Chana Luntz]

RET writes:
> A cousin of mine works in an Israeli hospital dealing with 
> insurance companies. She was told that if she doesnt come in 
> on chol hamoed she would be greatly penalized. They asked a 
> posek who said she should show up for work but not do 
> anything (unless it was pikuach nefesh). I was greatly 
> disturbed by this psak. It seems the posek is more worried 
> about possible work on chol hamoed then choshen mishpat 
> issues of getting paid but refusing to work.
> 

Hold on a minute, let us step back a bit.

Let us say that the discussion was not about chol hamoed but about
shabbas.  Ie that the cousin was told that if she did not come in on
shabbas she would be greatly penalized.  And let us say that the cousin
could come in to work without doing any melacha  even on a d'rabbanan
level (eg she could walk etc etc).  Could you understand a psak that
said in that case, the cousin could go into work (even though it was not
very shabbasdik) - yes there might be uvda d'chol issues, but depending
on the level of penalty one could understand some leniency.  That said,
however, obviously when at work she could not do anything that amounted
to a melacha, even d'rabbanan, and hence she would be most likely
sitting around and not working.  And that since the employer should
never have put her in the position he put her in, and certainly should
not be entitled to any hana'ah from her work, there is no issue of
choshen mishpat involved in her getting paid and refusing to work.

I think you can see where I am going.  If you hold that it is assur to
work on chol hamoed, and the employer (a Jew noch) is improperly trying
to get her to be over on an issur - why is there a choshen mishpat
problem about her failing to give him a proper day's work.  He is not
entitled to her work on that day, and ought to be giving her a holiday,
in the same way as an employer is required to allow a Jew to observe
shabbas (despite losing a seventh of the possible working week to
shabbas) and should not be penalizing the Jew for observing shabbas.  I
agree there might issues about the way it looks, especially considering
we are presumably dealing with the non observant population who may not
understand the niceties of halacha, but m'ikar hadin?

Of course this presupposes a strong view on the issur of working on chol
hamoed.  But if there was no real necessity for her to do any work that
day due to some sort of davar ha'aved, it is hard to see on what basis,
halachically, her employer should be requiring her to come in.  Now that
he is by threatening a penalty, it becomes a davar ha'aved for her not
to come in, so she can, but why further than that?  Why should he make a
financial profit from his issur?

> -- 
> Eli Turkel
 

Shabbat Shalom

Chana