Paying One’s Employees on Time

 

R. Yaakov Bieler

Parashat Ki Tetze, 5766

 

One of the 20 Mitzvot of Parashat Ki Tetze that appears previously in the Tora but is reformulated in Devarim,[1] is the Commandment to pay in a timely fashion wages earned by someone who has worked for you. The table below compares the elements of the earlier and later presentations of this Mitzva:

 

VaYikra 19:13	Devarim 24:14-15
1) “Lo Ta’ashok” (you shall not wrong/withhold [wages] from)	4) “Lo Ta’ashok” (you shall not wrong/withhold [wages] from)
“Et Re’acha” (your neighbor)	“Sachir Awni VeEvyon” (a poor and needy day-laborer)
	“MeiAchecha O MiGercha Asher B’Artzecha BiShe’arecha” (whether he is from among your brothers or your sojourners who are in your land within your gates).
2) “VeLo Tigzol” (and you will not steal)
3) “Lo Talin Peulat Sachir Itcha Ad Boker” (you will not hold overnight the [wages for the] work of the day-laborer with you until the morning).	5) “BeYomo Titein Secharo VeLo Tavo Alav HaShemesh” (on his day you will give him his wage and do not let the sun set upon it)
	“Ki Awni Huh VeEilav Huh Nosei Et Nafsho” (because he is poor and set his heart upon it [the wage])
	“VeLo Yikra Alecha El HaShem VeHaya Becha Chet” (let him not call unto God regarding you, and a sin would be upon you).

 

Had the Tora presented only the verse in Parashat Kedoshim with regard to the importance of paying the wages that one’s workers have dutifully earned, we would know that withholding compensation from a worker for longer than a 12 hour period following the completion of his service results in the violation of three separate Toraitic “Lo Ta’aseh”’s (prohibitions): 1) “Withholding”; 2) “Stealing”; and 3) “Holding overnight”. Parashat Ki Tetze’s repetition of the Commandment invokes for a second time the prohibition of 4) “Withholding” and goes even further by adding the “Aseh” (positive admonition) of 5) “Giving his wage”.

 

Recognizing that the Tora does not engage in repetition lightly,[2] the reader comes away from the combination of the renderings in VaYikra and Devarim of this Mitzva to pay wages on time with the impression that properly compensating those who work for you is considered of utmost importance. This is so not only in terms of advancing the general social contract governing society—if workers cannot depend upon being paid relatively soon after their work is completed, they will have no incentive to take on or efficiently complete work assignments on behalf of others, which in turn will result in the society’s economic growth and vitality grinding to a halt, as well as a possible increase in crime as the poor resort to illegal means to accumulate the resources necessary to survive—but also from a religious perspective. According to Devarim 24:15, what God “Thinks” of the hirer who has effectively demonstrated indifference to God’s Law by withholding his worker’s wages despite so many Tora injunctions and demands to the contrary, particularly if the exploited worker ends up registering a verbal complaint on High, should give any observant Jew considerable pause.

 

Paradoxically, by defining the worker as specifically someone who is poor, Parashat Ki Tetze is offering a psychological rationale for why the hirer, who already enjoys a “power” advantage over those who work for him independent of their specific economic status, might be tempted even more than usual to overlook his employee’s legitimate demands to collect his earnings, causing the Tora to “insistently” attempt to quell such a temptation by means of formulating multiple transgressions and positive Commandments. Consider the following two analogies regarding the obligation to respect aged individuals and treating converts properly:

 

VaYikra 19:32

Before someone who is white-haired, stand; and honor the face of the elderly. And you will fear your God, I am HaShem.

 

R. David Tzvi Hoffmann (Sefer VaYikra, Vol. 2, p. 47.)

…Because it is the natural tendency for the young to disparage the elderly, and those who are advanced in years are too weak to demand satisfaction from those who have insulted them. For this reason the Tora places particular emphasis on this prohibition (by the addition of a phrase stressing how in this case, one is to fear God).[3]

 

          Tosafot Kiddushin 70b-71a, d.h. “Kashim Geirim”

…And there are those who explain that converts pose a difficult a challenge to the rest of the Jewish people comparable to “Sapachat”[4] (a form of the spiritual malady “Tzora’at”) because the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Warns in 24[5] separate places in the Tora not to oppress/exploit them (converts), and it is impossible not to cause them pain…[6]

 

HaShem Himself, so to speak, establishes early on in human history, following the apocalyptic Flood, that even among the descendents of the righteous Noach, immediately after he offers sacrifices pleasing to HaShem,

 

Beraishit 8:21

…the inclination of the heart of man is evil from his youth…

 

It appears that even the most morally distinguished among men was created with the potential to be tempted and even act upon evil thoughts in order to allow for them to exercise free will in choosing between good and evil. Hopefully, if man allows himself to be influenced by the examples of individuals like Avraham[7] and those of his descendents who opt to adhere to their ancestor’s teachings and values, as well as by means of adherence to the many Commandments which according to RaMBaM are primarily intended to improve and refine man’s nature, [8] man will eventually succeed in consistently giving his “good inclination” the upper hand in his decision-making. Consequently, if a particular Mitzva needs to be presented in multiple forms and with numerous iterations, as in the case of paying wages and respecting converts, it is apparent that the area of human behavior being addressed is particularly difficult to reign in and fundamentally alter, at least for some.[9]

 

Furthermore, Parashat Ki Tetze’s version of the Commandment to pay wages on time not only adds to the prohibitions and positive Commandments already established in Parashat Kedoshim, but it also emphasizes the considerable human insensitivity reflected in the failure to live up to the arrangement between hirer and worker when the verses in Devarim state that those who typically become “Sechirim” (day-workers) are poor[10] and need whatever wages they earn in order to even minimally support themselves and their families. Consequently, the individuals for whom the workers toil are particularly heartless if they hold out on those who in good faith have completed their tasks and legally deserve, as well as so desperately need, their rightful earnings to be made available to them as soon as possible.

 

One commentator suggests that since the book of Devarim contains Moshe’s instructions to the people prior to their entering Israel,

 

Da’at Mikra on Devarim 24:14 (p. 353)

“He (Moshe) organized for them the laws that they would have to fulfill in the land, how they were to conduct themselves with the poor and the sojourners in their midst, in accordance with their future ways of life when they will reside on their land.”[11]

 

In light of Da’at Mikra’s comment, it is interesting to realize that until the Jews entered Israel, throughout their 40 years of wandering, there were no “have’s” and “have nots”.[12] Everyone depended upon exactly the same food[13] and water[14] supply. There were no differences in terms of land distribution[15] or income. While there might have been distinctions in the amounts of spoils that were collected in Egypt just before they left[16] and at the Sea of Reeds,[17] nevertheless once the Tabernacle was constructed,[18] these possessions were fairly useless and therefore irrelevant in terms of establishing social distinctions. It is only once the people separate and differentiate in the land of Israel[19] by virtue of their different locations and abilities, when they become land holders, farmers, entrepreneurs, warriors, scholars, priests, slave owners and slaves,[20] etc., that wealth and poverty begin to make a difference and measures have to be devised in order to address these inequalities that have the potential to undermine the spiritual and just society that God Intended for Israel to be. While the Tora states that there will always be people in Israel who will clearly be “poor”,[21] rather than depending upon the forces of Social Darwinism to sort out the various classes, it would seem that the Jewish religious system was determined to address and legislate regarding these economic issues, at least to some extent.[22]

 

It therefore can be argued that the 40 years in the desert, in addition to serving as a punishment to the members of the generation that left Egypt for their lack of faith in HaShem in successfully bringing them into Israel, also served as an idyllic interlude of unity and lack of class conflict due to economic concerns.[23] However, a nation that is entirely supported and protected by God, rather than striving to be both personally independent materially as well as spiritual, moral and ethical, is certainly not living a “natural” existence, one that can serve as a “light unto the nations of the world”.[24] The workplace of employers and employees becomes one of the many laboratories in the “post- wandering-in-the-desert” epoch where one is challenged to treat those who work for him in a dignified and respectful manner and thereby have the opportunity to demonstrate his values and beliefs, in contrast to those who opt to lead more cloistered existences which virtually never bring them into professional and business relationships with others.

 

However, the “real world” is often not subject to “black-and-white” analyses regarding whether our interpersonal relationships are being carried out properly. Sometimes an individual can think that he is doing the right thing, when in fact he is deeply offending and even traumatizing those with whom he comes into contact and who lack the self-confidence and/or economic security that would enable them to confront their “oppressor” and rebuke him for untoward conduct, either informally or in a court of law. Parashat Ki Tetze delineates a relatively objective criterion for determining when an individual has clearly gone too far in bringing pressure to bear on another, particularly when the latter is poor and vulnerable:

 

Devarim 24:15

…“VeLo Yikra Alecha El HaShem VeHaya Becha Chet” (let him not call unto God regarding you, and a sin would be upon you).

 

Since the “injured party” feels that he has no human being to turn to, particularly his employer, for redress of the wrong that he thinks has been done to him, he seeks out His Creator to lodge a complaint. Appeals to the Divine appear in Shemot when describing the oppression of the poor and helpless in contexts parallel to the verses in Devarim dealing with workers who are not paid on time:

 

Shemot 22:21-26

You shall not afflict any widow or orphan.

If you at all afflict them “Ki Im Tzo’ok Yitzak Eilai” (and they cry to Me), I will surely Hear their cry.

And My Anger shall be Inflamed, and I will Kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows and your children orphans.

If you lend money to any of My People that is poor among you, you shall not be to him a creditor; neither shall you charge him interest.

If you at all take your neighbor’s garment for a pledge, you shall return it to him (each day) by sundown.

For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. In what shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass, “Ki Yitzak Eilai” (when he will cry out to Me) that I will Hear, because I am Gracious.

 

One commentator suggests how the individual who is being singled out in the impoverished individual’s complaint rationalizes even this development and therefore continues to feel no compunctions regarding his regrettable actions:

 

Rabbeinu Bachaya on Shemot 22:26

RaMBaN has explained: One should not say that the poor individual who is feeling upset is unworthy and undeserving and therefore nothing that I have done to him can possibly be considered a sin…because his cries God will not Hear.

For this reason it is written, “…Because I am Gracious”, i.e., I am Gracious and Accept the supplications of every person, whether or not he is “worthy”. “Chanun” (Gracious) comes from the same root as “Chinam” (lit. nothing; i.e., grace is given when it is totally undeserved). And as the Rabbis have interpreted, (Shemot 33:19) “VeChanoti Et Asher Achon” (And I will be Gracious to whom I will be Gracious)—even if the individual is unworthy and inappropriate. The matter is that He Hears the cries of all that call out to him for Grace.

 

Apparently the poor individual’s creditor not only disrespect’s him by means of the ill-treatment to which he subjects him, but also manages to insulate his conscience and deflect all criticism, even calls to HaShem, by rendering them inconsequential by virtue of the lowliness of their source of origin. Just as HaShem has categorically stated, (Tehillim 91:15) “He will call Me and I will Answer; I am with him in trouble. I will Extract him and will Honor him”, employers and creditors who interact with those suffering economic difficulties would do well to try to empathize and ultimately respect those with whom they have business dealings in order to be true to both the letter and spirit of the Tora.

 

Shabbat Shalom.