Jewish Studies Economic Justice in the Talmud
by
Aryeh Cohen
  • LAST MODIFIED: 25 July 2023
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0236

Introduction

“Economic justice” is a relatively modern term which is not internal to Talmud. This does not mean that the ideas and concepts that are usually categorized under economic justice—labor relations, fairness in wages, homelessness, markets—are not found in Talmud. The opposite is true. One implication of this is that there are broadly two approaches to economic justice in Talmud. The first is analytical, or a history of ideas approach, which answers the question: What did the sages represented in Talmud, or the anonymous editor(s) of the Talmud, think about (for example) poverty and poverty relief? This approach is descriptive and not prescriptive, which is at odds with the phrase “economic justice,” which implies that there are more and less just economic arrangements. On the other hand, there is the prescriptive approach, which, at its best, analyzes the Talmudic texts using the available scholarly tools and then draws ethical conclusions to contemporary problems from the Talmudic texts. Oftentimes these works start with the Talmud and then incorporate medieval and modern Jewish and non-Jewish sources in their discussions. A classic of the first type is Urbach 1969 (cited under Overviews and Introductions), which is an overview of the conceptual and religious world of the sages. Urbach discusses justice issues within this broader context. A classic of the latter type is Dorff 2002 (cited under Overviews and Introductions), whose goal is to articulate a Jewish approach to social ethics using, amongst other sources, the Talmud. I have also included two traditional legal responses (“responsa”) about labor issues since they cover much of the same ground in terms of Talmudic texts, but have a distinct normative goal (Uzziel 1938; Jacobs 2008, both cited under Labor). Many of the contemporary works cited here also cite responsa as primary texts when discussing issues of economic justice.

Overviews and Introductions

In this section, there are several theoretical or methodological essays that engage with the problem of using a classical text to discuss modern or contemporary issues. The challenges of using classical texts in contemporary discussions center on the hermeneutic methodology that needs be employed to be fair to the sources and not translate willy-nilly from the Sassanid Empire to contemporary North America, while at the same time addressing a problem that the sources could not necessarily conceive of. On the most general level, Urbach 1969 is an introduction to rabbinic Judaism. Focusing on the whole on questions of theology, Urbach 1969 presents one model for asking contemporary questions of these ancient texts. Reines 1979 presents a different model. It sits on the border of traditional and academic scholarship and uses the modern categories of egoism and altruism to investigate Biblical and rabbinic ethics. The Novick 2019 chapter is a good survey both of the current state of methodological approaches to the issue of social justice and of the substantive question of support for the poor and abuse of the vulnerable. Dorff 2002 is an important Jewish ethicist’s analysis of social ethics. Cohen 2012 and Jacobs 2009 both have introductions where they wrestle with the question of how to bring rabbinic texts into the discussion of contemporary ethics. Blidstein 2009 approaches the same question from a different angle. Saiman 2016 introduces a novel approach to this question, importing the traditional Lithuanian Yeshivah approach to Talmud study to discuss wage-payment issues. A special issue of the Journal of Textual Reasoning, Halberstam, et al. 2018, lays out four different approaches to utilizing rabbinic texts in discussions of contemporary ethical issues. Another issue which comes up in discussions of Jewish social justice is the use of the term tikkun olam. Blidstein 1995, appearing in a Modern Orthodox journal, offers one approach. Seidenberg 2021 traces the development of tikkun olam through an exhaustive compendium of texts and an analysis of those.

  • Blidstein, Gerald S. “Tikkun Olam.” Tradition 29.2 (Winter 1995): 5–43.

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    Blidstein discusses, within the parameters of the Modern Orthodox world, the scope of responsibility of the contemporary Jewish community under the banner of tikkun olam, and how that has changed in light of the contemporary political and national realities of Jewish communities in the United States and Israel.

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  • Blidstein, Gerald S. “Talmudic Ethics and Contemporary Problematics.” Review of Rabbinic Judaism 12.2 (2009): 204–217.

    DOI: 10.1163/157007009789926947Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Blidstein discusses a problem articulated by the philosopher Amartya Sen that has a parallel formulation in Talmud in order to show the similarities and differences between the two approaches.

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  • Cohen, Aryeh. Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2012.

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    Cohen’s introductory chapter argues for an approach which uses a philosophical framing (drawn from the 20th-century philosopher Emmanuel Levinas) for Talmudic discussions of contemporary issues such as homelessness and poverty.

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  • Dorff, Elliot N. To Do the Right and the Good: A Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics. 1st ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2002.

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    Dorff’s approach to a range of social ethics issues utilizes Talmudic (and other rabbinic) texts as the foundation for philosophical work. His reading of the Talmudic texts is somewhat hermeneutically naïve. His ethical discussion is sophisticated.

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  • Halberstam, Chaya, Randi Rashkover, and Elizabeth Shanks Alexander, eds. Special Issue: Rabbinic Texts, and Contemporary Ethics. Journal of Textual Reasoning 10.1 (December 2018).

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    Four essays by four different scholars and a response by the editors wrestle with the issues spelled out in the title from different angles: analyzing the ethics of the texts; reading ethics out of texts that are, on their face, foreign and ethically problematic; attempting to redeem problematic texts; using rabbinic stories as moral exemplars.

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  • Jacobs, Jill. There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition. Hardcover ed. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2009.

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    In chapter 1, “A Vision of Economic Justice,” Jacobs argues for a redistributive vision of economic justice based in her reading of Biblical and rabbinic texts. Jacobs also argues for the centrality of social justice in Judaism.

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  • Novick, Tzvi. “Social Justice in Rabbinic Judaism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law. Edited by Pamela Barmash, 537–552. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

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    This is a survey of social justice in rabbinic Judaism. The first section concerns financial support for the poor, and the second, protections against abuse of the vulnerable. The volume’s center of interest lies in law in the Biblical period, and the discussion in this chapter focuses on early (Tannaitic) interpretation of Scripture, and especially questions of law and legal theory that arise in this context. Novick prefaces the discussion with some reflections on methodology and the existing scholarship.

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  • Reines, Chaim W. Ethics and Life: Studies in Biblical and Rabbinic Ethics. Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1979.

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    Sitting on the border of traditional and academic scholarship, Reines’ book is an introduction to ethics (and economic justice) grounded in the notions of egotism and altruism. In Hebrew.

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  • Saiman, Chaim N. “Talmud Study, Ethics and Social Policy: A Case Study in the Laws of Wage-Payment as an Argument for Neo-Lamdanut.” Villanova University School of Law, Public Law and Legal Theory, Working Paper No. 2016-1024.

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    Saiman’s monograph uses the case of wage-payment to discuss an approach to reading Talmud which he calls “Neo-Lamdanut,” based as it is, in part, on theories developed in the great Lithuanian Yeshivahs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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  • Seidenberg, David Mevorach. “History and Evolution of Tikkun Olam, According to the Textual Sources.” Journal of Jewish Ethics 7.1–2 (2021): 129–163.

    DOI: 10.5325/jjewiethi.7.1-2.0129Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This relatively exhaustive compendium of texts traces the development of several different interpretations of tikkun olam through Jewish intellectual history. The author aims to demonstrate conclusively through these texts that the roots of the social justice interpretation of tikkun olam are older than those of the Kabbalistic interpretation, going back to the 10th-century expression of religious humanism. Furthermore, liberal Judaism’s understanding of tikkun olam is shown to be sourced in Eastern European religious humanism going back to the seventeenth century, and transmitted in large part via Zionist thought in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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  • Urbach, Efraim Elimelech. The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1969.

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    Urbach’s classic provides one very important frame for how to engage with rabbinic texts and ask contemporary theological and ethical questions.

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Poverty and Wealth

The difference between poverty and economic justice is at the heart of the articles and monographs in this section. Late Antiquity saw the recognition of the poor as a separate class of people worthy of support. The ethical question was “whose support?” Peter Brown’s scholarship, while not uncontested, created the field of study of poverty in Late Antiquity. Brown 2002 limns the rise and recognition of “the poor” as a distinct class of persons. Brown 2005 connects this with the rise of Christianity and the image of the city. The author of Hamel 1990 provides a look at the material reality of poverty. She then discusses the vocabulary of poverty and charity. Wilfand 2014 and Gray 2019 trace the developmental arc of the discussions of poverty and almsgiving. Wilfand 2014 focuses on Palestinian texts, both Tannaitic and Amoraic, while Gray 2019 continues the story with Babylonian texts, along with medieval and even modern understandings. Porat 2019b covers some of the same ground. Porat is interested in the theoretical conceptions which emerge from the Biblical and rabbinic welfare laws. Loewenberg 2001 traces the emergence of communal institutions of poverty relief, making the case for how the rabbis moved away from agricultural gifts to the poor from individual donors to community-based assessments or taxes to support the poor. Greenspoon 2015 contains a number of essays which impact this discussion. Bar Ilan 2015 and Gray 2015 discuss the way the rabbis spoke about wealth and a certain critique of the wealthy. Gardner 2015a and Gardner 2015b argue that “charity” influenced by Greco-Roman forms of giving addresses poverty in urban areas. Cohen 2015 argues that the rabbis conceived of poverty as a violent actor. Finally, Jacobs 2009 and Helinger 2012 argue for the obligation of poverty relief in contemporary societies out of these texts.

  • Bar Ilan, Meir. “Wealth in the World of the Sages: Why Were Korach and Moses Rich People?” In Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 1–12. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2015.

    DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv15wxngr.6Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Discussing the way that the rabbis construct wealth and a certain critique of the wealthy, using their description and analysis of two central Biblical figures.

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  • Brown, Peter. Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire. Hanover, NH, and London: University Press of New England, 2002.

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    Brown’s essential scholarship describes the evolution of the understanding of the poor, poverty, and poverty relief in Late Antiquity, which is a relevant context for understanding Talmudic texts.

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  • Brown, Peter. “Remembering the Poor and the Aesthetic of Society.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35.3 (2005): 513–522.

    DOI: 10.1162/0022195052564289Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The emergence of the poor as a separate category and object of concern within the general population involved a slow and hesitant revolution in the entire “aesthetic” of ancient society, which was connected primarily with the rise of Christianity in the Roman world. But it also coincided with profound modifications in the image of the city itself. The self-image of a classical, citybound society had to change before the “poor” became visible as a separate group within it.

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  • Cohen, Aryeh. “The Violence of Poverty.” In Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 33–52. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2015.

    DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv15wxngr.8Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Argues that the rabbis both confronted poverty head-on as a violent actor and deployed poverty as a weapon that could result in horrible consequences. Whether in and of itself violent or as wielded in direct action (refusing someone hunger relief, for example, or cursing someone with impoverishment), the rabbis have no illusion about the insidious and violent impacts of poverty.

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  • Gardner, Gregg E. “Care for the Poor and the Origins of Charity in Early Rabbinic Judaism.” In Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 13–32. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2015a.

    DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv15wxngr.7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Shows how harvest gifts benefit mainly those in rural areas, while charity, based in Hellenistic Jewish writings influenced by Greco-Roman forms of giving, addresses poverty in urban areas.

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  • Gardner, Gregg E. “Pursuing Justice: Support for the Poor in Early Rabbinic Judaism.” Hebrew Union College Annual 86 (2015b): 37–62.

    DOI: 10.15650/hebruniocollannu.86.2015.0037Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Gardner argues that the Tannaim develop a set of rights for the poor, granting them exclusive claims to portions of the harvest. These rights represent marked innovations on Biblical laws and are also unattested in Second Temple era texts. Thus, these texts do not envision a system whereby the householder redistributes his assets to the poor. Rather, they constitute a single distribution from God to the poor.

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  • Gray, Alyssa. “Wealth and Rabbinic Self-Fashioning in Late Antiquity.” In Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition. Edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 53–82. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2015.

    DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv15wxngr.9Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A wide-ranging survey of classic rabbinic texts demonstrates the ways that the concept “wealth” was an idea through which the sages in Palestine and Babylonian constructed themselves.

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  • Gray, Alyssa M. Charity in Rabbinic Judaism: Atonement, Rewards, and Righteousness. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2019.

    DOI: 10.4324/9780429471162Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Gray’s book follows the story of tzedaqah ideas and laws through to post-Talmudic developments into the Middle Ages and even touching on contemporary understandings. The question of the purpose of almsgiving is central to the story that is told in this study. Redemptive almsgiving plays a prominent though not exclusive role in Tannaitic texts and Palestinian texts but seems to lose its centrality around the time of the central Babylonian sage Rava (third century). At that time, there is a shift away from the idea that tzedaqah is gift to God. This move to center tzedaqah on the mechanics of poverty relief rather than gaining favor with God is emphasized by Maimonides in his codification. Tzedaqah, according to Maimonides (following Rava), does not have the power of gathering righteousness but rather it is a good in and of itself and its point is providing the poor with what they need. 214 pp.

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  • Greenspoon, Leonard, ed. Wealth and Poverty in Jewish Tradition. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2015.

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    This volume collects in one place essays on the issues of poverty and wealth and the rabbinic understanding of them in Late Antiquity. Especially of note are the essays Cohen 2015, Gardner 2015a, Gardner 2015b, Bar Ilan 2015, and Gray 2015 (all cited in this section).

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  • Hamel, Gilda. Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine, First Three Centuries CE. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

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    This historical study looks at the material reality of poverty—food, clothing, taxes, and rents—the causes of poverty—agricultural yields, droughts, population. Then, Hamel discusses the vocabulary of poverty (the terms used to describe the poor) and finally discourses on charity and poverty.

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  • Helinger, Michael. “Poverty and Policies for Its Limitation as Reflected in Rabbinic Literature.” Social Security 89 (2012): 121–140.

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    Descriptive analysis of rabbinic poverty policies, claiming that the rabbis created a poverty line and used that to make decisions about who was entitled to poverty relief despite other markers of hardship. In Hebrew.

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  • Jacobs, Jill. There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition. Hardcover ed. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2009.

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    Chapters 3 and 4 of Jacobs’ book make the argument for the obligation to support the poor in a manner that respects their dignity.

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  • Loewenberg, Frank M. From Charity to Social Justice: The Emergence of Communal Institutions for the Support of the Poor in Ancient Judaism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2001.

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    This monograph traces the emergence of the communally based institutions of poverty relief (quppah and tamhuy) in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Loewenberg makes the case for a serious revolution in thinking in terms of charity in the move away from agriculture-based gifts to the poor toward community-based assessments on individual (taxes) to support the poor.

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  • Novick, Tzvi. “Poverty and Halakhic Agency: Gleanings from the Literature of Rabbinic Palestine.” Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 22.1 (2014): 25–43.

    DOI: 10.1163/1477285x-12341250Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The dynamic of charity works to figure the poor as outsider, both to the circle of donors, and, more fundamentally, to the sphere of agency. Novick examines ways in which the halakhic system, as constructed in rabbinic Palestine of the classical period, mitigates this dynamic, both by highlighting aspects of agency at work in the very act of receiving and consuming charity, and, at greater length, by collecting and analyzing cases in which the halakhic system enables the poor, through charity and other means, not only to survive, but to act as halakhic agents themselves.

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  • Porat, Benjamin. “Justice for the Poor.” Ancient Jew Review, 6 November 2019a.

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    This is an English precis of Porat 2019b which is devoted to an examination of the theoretical conceptions that emerge from the welfare laws in the Bible and from the laws of charity that developed later in the rabbinic literature.

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  • Porat, Benjamin. Justice for the Poor: The Principles of Welfare Regulations from Biblical Law to Rabbinic Literature. Srigim Li-On, Israel: Nevo, 2019b.

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    This book is devoted to an examination of the theoretical conceptions that emerge from the welfare laws in the Bible and from the laws of charity that developed later in the rabbinic literature, i.e., by the Mishnaic and Talmudic sages. In Hebrew.

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  • Wilfand, Yael. Poverty, Charity and the Image of the Poor in Rabbinic Texts from the Land of Israel. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014.

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    Wilfand argues that while in the Babylonian Talmud poverty is associated with filth, death, and arrogance, Palestinian texts make no such link. The difference in attitudes toward poverty and wealth communicated in literature from these two rabbinic centers are consistent, at least in Amoraic texts. Amoraic texts on the whole, according to Wilfand, blame impoverishment on the sin of not giving alms. Additionally, there is a view that everyone can and will become poor. Those who are poor can become wealthy and those who are wealthy can become poor based on the giving of alms. The poor in Palestinian texts are presented as part of the community, and as people who themselves might be willing to donate to communal charitable institutions. 311 pp.

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  • Wilfand, Yael. “Supporting Non-Jewish Poor: ‘Goyim’ (Gentiles), ‘Others’, and ‘Those Who Do Not Belong to the Covenant.’” Sidra: A Journal for the Study of Rabbinic Literature 30 (2015): 35–46.

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    Surveying the textual evidence, Wilfand comes to the conclusion that there are two voices in the literature: one that is in favor of supporting non-Jewish poor, and another voice that is opposed. In Hebrew.

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Labor

The following essays, book chapters, and monographs make the case for workers’ rights. Some of these works frame labor in a positive light, while others analyze labor law in the classical texts in the context of Late Antiquity, and still others in the modern context use the Talmudic texts to argue for workers’ rights. Meir Ayali is a pioneer in the study of labor in rabbinic texts. Ayali 1987 and Ayali 2001 deliver, respectively, a categorical collection of the types of labor performed by people mentioned in rabbinic literature, and a review of the rabbinic vocabulary for labor and laborers in that literature. Ayali 1982 argues that the Palestinian rabbis and Jews more generally had a positive attitude toward labor. This is all tied into Ayali’s labor Zionist background. Reines 1935 is another groundbreaking book. It is an extensive review of the laws of workers in the Talmud. Its methodological approach is a cross between traditional study and academic analysis. That and the fact that the book is not translated into English mark this book as more important for the history of the study of labor. The author of Cohen 2012 argues, from out of the Talmudic and philosophical framework that he set out, that the city must uphold the dignity of workers and afford them a living wage and access to a union. The author of Saiman 2016 uses his methodology to address an issue in the obligation to pay workers on time. In addition to academic studies of labor issues, rabbis have also addressed these issues out of the same sources. Brown 2006 and Brown 2016 analyze the way that various rabbis interpreted, analyzed, and used this literature to address labor issues. Uzziel 1938 (in Hebrew) is a responsa on the subject of workers’ rights by the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Palestine. Jacobs 2008 is a responsa on the same topic written for and accepted by the American Conservative Movement.

  • Ayali, Me’ir. “Labor as a Value in the Talmudic and Midrashic Literature.” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 1.4 (1982): 7–59.

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    Ayali is a groundbreaking author in the field of labor and economic justice. Here he argues the case for a positive public attitude toward labor among Palestinian rabbis and Jews, which differentiated that culture from Greek and Roman culture.

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  • Ayali, Me’ir. Po’alim Ve-Omanim: Melakhtam U-Ma’amadam Be-Sifrut HaZa”L. Giv’atayim, Israel, and Ramat-Gan, Israel: Yad la-Talmud, 1987.

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    This book is a general overview of the various types of labor performed by those mentioned in rabbinic literature. In Hebrew.

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  • Ayali, Me’ir. Otsar Kinuye ‘Ovdim Be-Sifrut Ha-Talmud Veha-Midrash. 2d exp. ed. Tel Aviv: “Sifriyat Hilel Hayim,” hotsa’at ha-Kibuts ha-me’uhad, 2001.

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    A review of the vocabulary for labor and laborers in Talmud and midrash.

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  • Brown, Benjamin. “Withholding Wages in the Rulings of the Hafetz Hayyim: Towards the Modernization of Halakhic Labor Laws.” Tarbiz 75 (2006): 501–538.

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    While this article and Brown 2016 arguably deal with the modern period to a greater extent than the rabbinic period, the articles analyze the way that modern rabbis interpreted, analyzed, and used Talmudic literature in wrestling with various labor issues. In Hebrew.

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  • Brown, Benjamin. “Trade Unions, Strikes, and the Renewal of Halakhic Labor Law: Ideologies in the Rulings of Rabbis Kook, Uziel, and Feinstein.” In Contention, Controversy, and Change: Evolutions and Revolutions in the Jewish Experience. Vol. 2. Edited by Eric Levine and Simcha Fishbane, 82–118. New York: Touro College Press, 2016.

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    This article and Brown 2006 analyze the way that modern religious leaders use the classical texts in discussions of labor and economic justice.

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  • Cohen, Aryeh. Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2012.

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    Within the philosophical and Talmudic framework set out in the introduction, Cohen makes an argument that the city as a community of obligation must deal with labor issues, uphold the dignity of workers, and afford them a living wage and access to a union.

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  • Jacobs, Jill. “Work, Workers, and the Jewish Owner.” A responsa approved by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly on 28 May 2008.

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    This responsa by Jill Jacobs was accepted as binding by Conservative Movement’s rabbinic body. The major findings are that it is a Jewish legal obligation to pay workers a living wage and that in most cases unions offer the most effective means of ensuring that workers are treated with dignity and paid sufficiently. Therefore, Jewish employers should strive to hire unionized workers when possible.

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  • Reines, Chaim Zev. Hapoel baMikra u-vaTalmud. New York: Moinester, 1935.

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    In this, his first book, Reines extensively reviews the laws of workers in the Talmud. He argues for the uniqueness and moral superiority of the worker in the Talmud as opposed to the status of a worker in the surrounding cultures. His methodology is again a cross between traditional study and academic methods of his time. In Hebrew.

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  • Saiman, Chaim N. “Talmud Study, Ethics and Social Policy: A Case Study in the Laws of Wage-Payment as an Argument for Neo-Lamdanut.” Villanova University School of Law, Public Law and Legal Theory, Working Paper No. 2016-1024.

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    Using the methodology that he developed (“Neo-Lamdanut”), Saiman tackles the problem of a classic legal loophole in the obligation to pay workers on time.

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  • Uzziel, Ben-Zion Meir Chai. Mishpetei Uziel. Vol. 4., Hoshen Mishpat 42.4 Tevet 5698 (1938).

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    This is a traditional responsa written by the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Palestine. It is important in that it makes use of the Talmudic texts that are used by Brown 2016, Cohen 2012, Reines 1935, in order to make a Jewish legal argument for workers’ rights with Jewish law. Available in the Bar Ilan Responsa Project database. In Hebrew.

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Homelessness

Homelessness as a legal and ethical concept did not exist independently of poverty until the thirteenth century or so in Jewish texts. However, once rabbinic authors began talking of housing as one of the “needs of the poor,” it almost immediately was read back into many of the classic poverty discussions.

  • Cohen, Aryeh. Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2012.

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    Cohen argues from the Talmudic texts that a community has an obligation to house its homeless.

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  • Jacobs, Jill. There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition. Hardcover ed. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2009.

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    While the legal term for housing (mador) did not come into use until the twelfth century, this work (along with Cohen 2012) argues, from Talmudic texts that forbid eviction in certain times and do not count a house against assets to be eligible to collect from the community chest, that housing was understood as a right (Jacobs) or an obligation on the community (Cohen) from Mishnaic times.

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Access to Health Care

Another issue which is debated in the literature with the use of rabbinic texts is access to health care. Mackler 1991 argues that society is responsible for the securing of access to all health care needed by an individual. Zohar 1998 directly engages with Mackler 1991 and argues that society’s obligations and commitments must be tempered by the reality of finite resources. Novak 2003 splits the baby and argues that traditional Jewish texts supports neither a maximalist nor a minimalist approach to access to health care.

  • Mackler, Aaron L. “Judaism, Justice, and Access to Health Care.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1 (1991): 143–161.

    DOI: 10.1353/ken.0.0034Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Mackler develops what he calls the traditional Jewish understanding of justice and support for the needy, especially as related to the provision of medical care. He argues that a Jewish view of justice in access to health care is developed on the basis of the general standard of societal responsibility to provide for the basic needs of all. Society is responsible for the securing of access to all health care needed by any individual.

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  • Novak, David. “A Jewish Argument for Socialized Medicine.” Kennedy Institute for Ethics Journal 13 (2003): 313–328.

    DOI: 10.1353/ken.2004.0009Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Novak argues that an analysis of traditional Jewish texts yields neither the capitalist notion of medicine nor the socialist one. Neither alternative is sufficient to ground the respect for the sanctity of the human person as a being created in the image of God that is so rationally appealing. That is why the Jewish ethical tradition, which is based on this respect for the sanctity of human personhood, both individual and collective, is so attractive—if only for its insights, rather than its authority; its guidance, rather than its governance.

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  • Zohar, Noam J. “A Jewish Perspective on Access to Health Care.” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 7 (1998): 260–265.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0963180198703068Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Zohar argues against Mackler 1991 that the necessity of occasionally denying life-saving resources must not be coupled with passive resignation to high prices. Rabbinic traditions reflect a policy for holding the prices of essential items in check. Societal commitment to protect the vulnerable is tempered by the reality of finite communal resources.

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