Julian Ungar-Sargon

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Daf Ditty

A wide-ranging commentary on the daily page of Talmud.

Bava Metzia 111: בְּיוֹמוֹ תִתֵּן שְׂכָרוֹ

jyungar June 18, 2024

For the source text click/tap here: Bava Metzia 111

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Mishna on our daf continues teaching laws about the biblical requirement to pay a worker on time. According to the Mishna, this rule applies not only to cases of an employee, but also to situations where a person has rented an animal or an object; the renter must offer payment on time – assuming that the person who was to get paid requested payment. If he did not ask to get paid, the employer (or the renter) has not violated the law.

The passage upon which this law is based (Devarim 24:14) delineates who is included in the obligation. The Torah mentions specifically me-ahekha (from your brothers) o mi-gerkha (or from a convert) asher be-artzekha (who is in your land). This is understood to require prompt payment not only to a Jewish worker, but also to a ger tzedek (a righteous convert to Judaism) and a ger toshav (someone who lives in Israel without accepting the commandments).

We explore worker exploitation with reference to the workload of Eric Fromm on Marx.

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Julian Ungar-Sargon

This is Julian Ungar-Sargon's personal website. It contains poems, essays, and podcasts for the spiritual seeker and interdisciplinary aficionado.​