Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Rabbinical salaries are a relatively late innovation.

From the year 50 CE, to the early medieval period, rabbis did not receive financial remuneration for their Torah study or teaching. However, elementary teachers were paid. As a whole, the working class people literally combined Torah study with a worldly occupation and the Mishnaic literature makes numerous hints about this arrangement.

Here are some examples:

Rabban Yohanan b. Zakkai said, “Do not take credit for the amount of Torah study you have studied, for that is the purpose you were created” (Avoth 2:8). R. Eleazar b. Azariah says, “If there is no study of Torah, there is no derech erertz (job). If there is no derech eretz, there can be no study in Torah” (Avoth 3:17); Rabbi Zadok said, “Every one that makes a profit from words of Torah removes his life from the world.” R. Ishmael, his son, says, “He who learns so as to teach —they give him a chance to learn and to teach. He who learns so as to carry out his teachings— they give him a chance to learn, to teach, to keep, and to do.” R. Sadoq says, “Do not make [Torah teachings] a crown with which to glorify yourself or a spade with which to dig. (So did Hillel say [M. 1:13], “He who uses the crown perishes.”) Thus have you learned, “Whoever derives worldly benefit from teachings of Torah takes his life out of this world”’ (Avoth 4:6).

In his youth, Abaye was a farmer and watered his fields at night so he could study in the day time (BT Gittin 60b). If someone asked a question while he was working, he told the questioner: “Work on this irrigation canal for me, while I ponder your question.” Later he became a wine merchant (BT Berachoth 56b). He was not the only sage to work at a worldly occupation; there were many others rabbis who engaged in ordinary livelihoods to survive.

Maimonides takes a pretty strong position on this question and argues:

• Anyone thinking that he should involve himself in Torah study and not engage work (thus deriving his livelihood from charity), desecrates God’s name, dishonors the Torah, extinguishes the light of faith. He also brings evil upon himself, and forfeits his chance to enter Paradise. It is forbidden to derive pecuniary benefit from the words of Torah in this world. Our Sages declare: “Whoever who makes profit from the words of Torah forfeits his life in the world.” Also, the Sages further added, “Do not make them a crown to magnify oneself, nor an axe to chop with.” The Sages also prescribed, “Love work and despise the rabbinate.” All Torah that is not accompanied by work will eventually be negated and lead to sin. Ultimately, such a person will steal from others (MT Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:10).

If Maimonides were observing the Haredi parties in Israel today receiving State welfare while everyone else is working, what do you think he would say?

Of course, one might also ask, “What would he say about professional rabbis receiving a salary?” This is a fair question, but the job of the rabbinate is much more nuanced than it was in Maimonides’ time. Today, the modern rabbi functions in a variety of capacities. Sometimes (s)he works as a counselor, social worker, works in crisis intervention, public relations, and so forth.

It is safe to presume Maimonides would have been horrified about the Haredim remaining in their yeshivas studying, while the rest of the Israeli youth serve in the army and defend their country from enemies poised to destroy her.

⁶ But Moses said to the Gadites and to the Reubenites, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? ⁷ Why will you discourage the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? ⁸ Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. ⁹ When they went up to the Wadi Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land that the Lord had given them. ¹⁰ The Lord’s anger was kindled on that day and he swore, saying, ¹¹ ‘Surely none of the people who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not unreservedly followed me— (Num 32:6-11).

In all likelihood, Maimonides probably would regard the Haredi rabbis as thieves who are robbing the public—a view that is shared by most Israelis across the religious divide. Maimonides most likely would be among those condemning the Haredi welfare state in Israel.

In addition, Maimonides’ disdain of the Kabbalah and its anthropomorphic theology was something that troubled him mightily; the idea of a Rebbe standing as an intermediary between God and man probably would have seemed a lot like idolatry. Today’s legions of Kabbalistic psychics and hucksters probably would get an earful from Maimonides, who hated all forms of superstition.

Maimonides would certainly find the internecine battles between Jews very troubling. I think Maimonides would have been very proud to see Jews reclaim and resettle their homeland after nearly 2000 years; he would have heralded 1948 as a great miraculous event in the history of our nation-perhaps on par with King Cyrus’s momentous decision to let the Jews of Persia return to their ancestral and spiritual homeland.

In summary, he would tell them, “Stop desecrating God’s Name! Do not disgrace the Jewish people by identifying with its enemies who are poised to destroy her. Treat your neighbors with respect and love. Lastly, stop living like parasites and thieves and get a life!”