In Honor of Labor and Torah

This week’s reading coincides with Labor Day in the United States, a time when we should all remember that it is because of laboring men and women in general, and the labor movement in particular, that we live in a society where ideas like minimum wages, health, safety and child labor laws are assumed to be there because they are the “right thing.” These, along with Social Security, the 40 hour work week, Medicare and (in great part) Civil Rights for all are the legacy of the labor movement.

Whether one maintains that labor unions are “no longer needed” or (as I maintain) essential for the economic security of all working people, one cannot reasonably deny the incredibly beneficial impact that the unions have had on American society.

As a segue, this week’s reading has something to say on the importance of protecting the rights of the powerless and unprotected.


Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8

Précis: The parasha continues, from the last reading, numerous religious concerns regarding the formation of a civil and moral community (including tithes of first fruits, and tithes to support the Levites). The People are promised that if they follow God’s instructions, they will be transformed into a holy people. They are further instructed that they have a choice in their own destiny: there are blessings and curses (The Admonition), and they must to choose between them, and bear the consequences. The parasha ends with Moses reminding the People about all that Adonai had done for them in bringing them from Egypt, providing sustenance, defeating their foes, and giving them the Land.


Deuteronomy 27:18-19 “Cursed be he who misdirects a blind man on his way, and the People shall say Amen. Cursed be he who subverts the right of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and the People shall say Amen.”

The scene is set: the 12 tribes are to arrive in the Promised Land, and set themselves on two facing mountains: Gezeirim and Ebal. Then, the Levitical Priests pronounce a series of curses to which the People respond “Amen.”
As noted in Etz Hayim, the 11 specific sins listed among the curses are commonly committed in secret, or they are difficult for the victim to publicize the sin. The People say “Amen” as each sin is recited, as a way of saying, in effect “we agree” and also as a way of promising not to commit the error themselves.
In Biblical literature, the phrase “the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow” is often shorthand for those within society who lack a protector. In a nomadic society, or even in the early urban society of our ancestors, an individual without a protector was subject to attack and to harm from all comers (see, for example, Lot’s protection of the “travelers” in his home in Sodom before its destruction). It is our responsibility to avoid harming the powerless and the unprotected. Neither are we permitted to stand idly by when they suffer.
On Labor Day Weekend, we should remember that with union membership at historically low levels (because of the power of anti-union management to prevent organizing under existing labor laws, in my humble opinion) many employees in America are powerless and unprotected. The right to "protected activity" - the right of individual employees to join together to fight for security and improvements of their wages, hours, and conditions of employment – is exactly the kind of “protection” that our ancestors were urged to provide when they stood on Gezeirim and Ebal.
And the People shall say “Amen.”

Shabbat Shalom, and happy Labor Day