YeshivaThe torah world Gateway
Beit Midrash
- Family and Society
- Financial Laws and Tzedaka
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.
P'ninat Mishpat P'ninat Mishpat: Realtor Fee Despite the Buyer’s Refusal?
based on ruling 83117 of the Eretz Hemdah-Gazit Rabbinical Courts
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 9 - "Seeing is Believing" (parag. 21-30)
These paragraphs elaborate on the theme that seeing and knowing is better than any attempt to prove logically, and begins explaining the difference between Israel and gentiles.
Ein Aya Various Universal Stages of the Geula Process
Rav Kook examines the various stages of redemption, explaining how (in addition to the obvious oft-mentioned stages of ingathering the exiles, reviving the Hebrew language, army, state etc.) the messianic dream of world prosperity, the State of Israel and world unity can and are realistically and logically gradually coming true.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 8- "Answering Questions on the Kuzari's Proof from Mass Revelation
How do we know that the "claim" of mass revelation to 2,000,000 witnesses at Mt. Sinai is really true? This important class answers all of the questions skeptics ask about this claim of the Kuzari.
Ein Aya Armies Still Necessary for Balance & the War Against Wars
Rav Kook explains why the world was originally divided into the various seemingly contradicting ideologies and cultures, in order to develop each one respectively. Swords or armies symbolize how each respective ideology defends themselves, as well as deters their opposing ideologies and cultures. On the other hand, the messianic era will be one of peace, and Rav Kook explains the transition to that stage, which mankind is already undergoing.
The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
