The Moral Limits of the Free Market Economy

B’Har

Leviticus 25:1 - 26:2

Précis: The parasha begins with a description of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee (Yovel) Year. In the 50th (Jubilee) Year, we are to “proclaim liberty throughout the land” and property is restored to its ancestral owners. The parasha continues with the prohibition against unlimited slavery, as well as the rules for the treatment of those who are slaves.

Lev. 25:35-39: “If your kinsman is in straits and has to sell part of his land, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what the kinsman has sold…If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your sway as though he was a resident alien, let him live by your side…If your kinsman under you continues in dire straits and must give himself over to you, do not subject him to the treatment of a slave.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has written on  the moral limits of the free market  (Covenant and Conversation, 5/14/12), noting that in much of western society, the rich seem to be getting richer as wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. He suggests that the thrust of Leviticus 25 is to “correct the tendency toward radical and ever-increasing inequality that results from the unfettered play of free market economics.”

                Rabbi Sacks notes various factors to support his thesis: a Sabbatical year in which debts were released, slaves are freed, the land laid fallow, and land ownership was restored to the ancestral owners.  In the particular verses cited here, we see an additional requirement to help those in need.

               Sacks admits that the Torah’s laws were originally designed for an agricultural civilization which acknowledged God’s sovereignty (His ownership of the land) more than 3,000 years ago. These laws were not designed for a complex global economy with multinational corporate entities. At the same time, there are certain principles to be derived from our inherited tradition as expressed through Torah: Work has dignity, and while we have a Shabbat of rest, we are commanded to work on the other six days. Study without work is not satisfactory (Avot 2.2). Laborers are to be paid promptly and treated fairly. Contracts are to be honored. Courts are to be established to adjudicate disputes impartially, without regard to the wealth of the parties. This part of our tradition suggests a role for government (at least a judiciary), and compassion and fairness for the poorer among us.

               On the other hand, there is at the same time a deep distrust of government in our tradition. The Prophet Samuel warns that a king “will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants ... He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves" (1 Sam. 8). As a people whose formation is found in the Exodus from slavery, it is no surprise that the Prophet Micah suggests a perfect society is one in which each person is able to sit “underneath his own vine and fig tree” (Micah 4:4).

               As Rabbi Sacks acknowledges, the market economy is the greatest system for ending poverty which humanity has devised. Nevertheless, as he states, “the market economy is better at producing wealth than at distributing it equitably. The concentration of wealth in a few hands gives disproportion power to some at the cost of others.” 

               Judaism demands that an economic system be based on a moral system. None can be deprived of human dignity, none should be made the slave of another, and none should be imprisoned by debt forever. We all share in a commonwealth.  A moral system does not mandate the dismantling of the market economy, but as Rabbi Sacks suggests, “it may require periodic redistribution.” In our tradition, tzedakah is not a matter of “charity” but rather a matter of “justice.” Those with the means to help others are required to do so.