Beit Midrash

  • Family and Society
  • Financial Laws and Tzedaka
קטגוריה משנית
To dedicate this lesson
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The arrival of the recent tax filing and paying season points out to us the inevitably of this necessary but most unpleasant factor in our lives. As the inheritance tax teaches us even in the next world there is no escape from the consequences of taxes. In the Bible we are told of taxes levied by Jewish kings - Solomon, for instance - and non-Jewish kings - Achashveirosh and others Government and all of its services depend on taxes to function. The only issues that therefore remain to be decided are who to tax and how much to tax. There are direct taxes such as on income and more indirect methods of taxation such as the value added tax, customs fees and the like. The bottom line is that government always needs more money and taxes are the way that it can acquire it. In Talmudic times the Talmud records for us that there were head taxes, real estate taxes, forced billeting of soldiers and customs fees among other forms of government ordered revenue streams. The main method in the ancient world for collecting taxes was through tax farmers - people who paid the government a fixed discounted amount in advance and thus purchased the right to collect the proscribed amount from the individual taxpayers of the community. These people, the tax farmers, were held in low esteem by the rabbis and the Jewish communities as a whole, for many of them were guilty of extortion, strong arm methods and venal corruption of the worst sort. There is opinion in the Talmud that their testimony was not acceptable in a Jewish court of law and that they were to be socially shunned.

In medieval and even later times Jews in Europe were invested heavily in being tax farmers for the feudal lords that controlled the areas of population. Even then the rabbis of the communities had an ambivalent attitude towards them. Jews did not have many great options to earn a living so the tax farmer had to be tolerated but he certainly was not an object of communal honor or high regard. The Talmud records for us that the great scholar Rabi Elazar ben Shimon was a tax collector and enforcer for the Roman authorities for a certain period of time in his lifetime. He reported Jewish tax dodgers to the Roman authorities who dealt with them harshly. When he was reprimanded by his rabbinic colleagues for so doing he justified himself by saying: "I am removing the thorns from the vineyard of Israel!" The rabbis retorted and said: "Let the owner of the vineyard [God] remove the thorns by Himself!" Hearing the opinion of his colleagues, Rabi Elazar ben Shimon left his post and went into hiding from the Roman authorities until his death. Even after his death his body was hidden for years and not brought to proper burial out of fear of the Roman authorities whose command position he had abandoned. When finally being brought to burial, his body was found not have decayed and was whole except for a worm hole in his ear. This was due to his once having willingly heard a scandalous comment about another Jew.

In the long and painful exile of the Jews over all of its centuries, taxes were one of the means of persecution used against Jews by their bigoted non-Jewish rulers. There were many special decrees from kings and despots, including the Church, forcing Jews to pay onerous taxes that were special to them The Jewish law of dina d’malchuta dina - the laws of the government are to be obeyed scrupulously - did not apply in this area of discriminatory taxation. Of necessity and survival, Jews used many methods of tax avoidance in those circumstances. This was especially true in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the Russian empire of the anti-Jewish czars. The Czar’s decrees were so onerous that the Jews sullenly and sometimes creatively sought a way to avoid them. This created a mindset in Eastern European Jewish society of the moral legitimacy of cheating the hated government, especially in matters of taxation. This mindset accompanied many Jews to their new countries of residence even those new countries did not have laws that clearly discriminated against Jews in any way and certainly not in tax matters. It has taken a number of generations to uproot this mindset in the vast majority of the Jews of the world. Nevertheless, as recent scandals have shown us, it has not been completely removed from all communities in the Jewish world. No one enjoys paying taxes but the rule of dina d’malchuta dina applies completely in our world of today.
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Lessons
  • Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
    Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed
  • Rabbi Avraham Shapira Zt"l
    Rabbi Avraham Shapira Zt"l
  • Rabbi Haggai Lundin
    Rabbi Haggai Lundin
  • Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu
    Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu
  • Rabbi Dov Lior
    Rabbi Dov Lior
  • Rabbi Nachshon Rubinstein
    Rabbi Nachshon Rubinstein
  • Rabbi David Dudkevitz
    Rabbi David Dudkevitz
  • Rabbi Yehuda Melamed
    Rabbi Yehuda Melamed
  • Rabbi Sha'ar Yashuv Hacohen
    Rabbi Sha'ar Yashuv Hacohen
  • Rabbi Elyakim Levanon
    Rabbi Elyakim Levanon
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    Yitro

    Only Those Who Live In The Land Love G-d

    The Torah threatens punishment for idol-worshipers that is only 1/500th of the reward that the righteous will receive: "Concerning My enemies, I keep in mind the fathers' sins for their descendants, [only] to the 3rd and 4th generations. But for those who love Me and keep My commandments, I show love for [at least two] thousands of generations" (Sh'mot 20,5-6). The punishment is for four generations, and the reward for 2,000 generations. But the question we would like to address is: Why are the righteous termed both "those who love Me" and "those who keep My commandments?" Is not one enough?

    Rabbi Moshe Tzuriel | Shvat 19 5783
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    3 min
    Shlach Lecha

    For God's Sake Don't Go To Israel

    Israel National Torah

    Clarifying the spies' argument for not entering the Land of Israel...and then clarifying why it's so important to enter the Land anyway.

    Baruch Gordon | Sivan 19 5780
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    Bemare Habazak - Rabbis Questions

    Serving as Chazan on the Shabbat Before a Yahrtzeit

    How important is it for someone to be chazan on the Shabbat before a yahrtzeit? Is it is just for parents, or also grandparents/in laws? Some people in my [the rabbi] shul feel that people use it as an excuse to “grab the amud.”

    Rabbi Daniel Mann | Tevet 2 5777
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    Bemare Habazak - Rabbis Questions

    How Many Eggs Should be Boiled Together?

    When making hardboiled eggs, may one cook one or two eggs or must there be at least three? Also, does it make a difference if there is an even or odd number

    Rabbi Daniel Mann
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    P'ninat Mishpat

    Introduction and Biography of the Noda B’Yehuda

    After an extended period of presenting ideas of the Chatam Sofer on monetary disputes, we move on to a shorter series on the works of Rav Yechezkel Segal Landau, often called the Noda B’yehuda. (Although Rav Landau served as a dayan for many years, poskim do not usually publicize their rulings on cases in which they served as a dayan, but on questions asked by other rabbis. The Noda B’yehuda did not include many such cases in his reponsa.) Many view the Chatam Sofer and the Noda B’Yehuda as two of a kind. They were in the same basic time period (Rav Landau was around 50 years older), they were important rabbis of important communities at critical times, and the works of each are among the most respected and quoted by Acharonim.

    Various Rabbis | Tevet 8 5776
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    Bemare Habazak - Rabbis Questions

    Working in a Non-Kosher Establishment

    Rabbi Daniel Mann | Sivan 14 5775
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    Prayer

    Birkot HaShachar – The Morning Blessings

    Chapter nine-part one

    Chapter nine-part one

    Rabbi Eliezer Melamed | 5775
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    Jewish Holidays

    The Twentieth of Sivan

    "I noticed that the back of my siddur contains a large section devoted to selichos for the 20th of Sivan, yet I have never davened in a shul that observed this day. What does this date commemorate?"

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | Sivan 17 5780
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    Additional Lessons

    The Laws of Tumas Meis

    When the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt, bimheirah beyameinu, the laws of tumah will affect us all, since we will be required to be tahor in order to enter the Beis Hamikdash, to eat korbanos and maaser sheini, and in order to separate challah and terumah.

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | 5772
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    Basics of Financial Laws

    How Does a Heter Iska Work?

    What is the prohibition of "Ribbit"? who does it apply on? How does the "Heter Iska" bypass the prohibition? and more...

    Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff | 5770
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    Marriage and Relationships

    Relationships during the Time of Engagement

    A young engaged man and his fiancée naturally have very strong feelings for each other. It goes without saying that these will be expressed after the wedding, but what expression, if any, is permitted in the meantime? And while we're on the subject, is the attraction of men and women to each other really a good thing to begin with?

    Rabbi Elyakim Levanon | 5770
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    Other Great Leaders

    That a Cohen May Not Marry a Divorcee

    A few days later, a royal emissary of the Empress Maria Teresa appeared at the rabbi’s home. The surprised rabbi realized that the wealthy Jew had broken the convention by which Jews did not involve non-Jews in their inner disputes. He had no choice.

    Rabbi Shmuel Holshtein | 5769
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