Schachter, rosh yeshiva of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan In introducing a new metaphor — that Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva citizens of a modern democracy are more University. “It is important to note that today like partners than subjects — into formalized the basis for taxation is totally different from Jewish legal thinking, Schachter has taken what it was in talmudic times.” According to a a first important step in opening up an en- contemporary understanding of Jewish law, we tirely new vista from which to think about ought to ground the obligation to pay taxes not the legitimacy of taxes and the responsibility SHMA.COM in the anachronistic notion of dina d’malchuta of partners to participate in public policy dis- dina; rather, we should invoke the talmudic cussions. In this alternative view, it is not us concept of shutfim or partnership. Schachter versus them, but rather “we the people” who concludes, “All people who live in the same must formulate fair tax rules and just public city, state, and country are considered ‘shut- policies. It follows directly from Schachter’s fim’ with respect to the services provided by new formulation that as Jewish partners in that city, state, and country. The purpose be- this process, we have a unique right and obli- hind the taxes is no longer ‘to enrich the king’ gation to bring to our fellow citizens the best in the slightest.” (Torahweb.org) of Jewish legal and ethical thinking. Fooling the Tax Collector: Why the Rabbis Once Approved DAVID BRODSKY abbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Spinka Luke 3:12, 5:27–30, 7:29, 7:34, 15:1, and 18:9– Rebbe of Boro Park, and the great-great- 14), just as the Mishnah associates them with Rgrandson of R. Joseph Meir Weisz, au- murderers and highway robbers. (Nedarim 3:4 thor of the Imrei Yosef, was convicted recently and Bava Qamma 10:2) of an elaborate tax evasion scheme that de- During the Greek and Roman Empires, frauded the U.S. government of millions of dol- taxes were imposed without representation lars.1 Similar charges have been brought against and were at times collected by warlords in a several rabbis of the Syrian Jewish community manner quite similar to highway robbery, with in Brooklyn and New Jersey and also against armed individuals or troops going from town a number of rabbis in Israel.2 One might be to town and taking from people whatever they tempted to try to explain the circumstances, or could seize. While the methods of tax col- to point out that even supposedly “holy men” lection changed over the centuries and were are human and fallible, or to argue that their reformed under Augustus in the first century religious convictions have nothing to do with BCE, the perceived injustice of these systems David Brodsky is a visiting their actions, or that they assumed they were runs through rabbinic literature; the Mishnah, scholar at New York University. exempt from paying taxes to the secular state. for example, describes the hypothetical case of He previously served as an In fact, our own tradition offers sources a tax collector seizing someone’s donkey and assistant professor and co- that could be interpreted to support this replacing it with someone else’s donkey. (Bava chair of the department of rabbinic civilization at the fraudulent activity. For example, the Mishnah Qamma 10:2) Such cases were likely common- Reconstructionist Rabbinical (Nedarim 3:4) states that while it is normally place as the Romans reserved the right to seize College, and as the Perlow forbidden to make a false vow, an exception animals or people for labor, returning them Lecturer in Classical Judaism to this rule is made when it is in the service of as they saw fit. For this reason, the Mishnah in the religious studies fooling tax collectors! As damning as this may considers property possessed by tax collectors department at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author seem, a proper understanding of tax collection to have the status of stolen property, group- of A Bride Without a Blessing: in its historic context reveals that the rabbis of ing these tax collectors together with highway A Study in the Redaction and the Mishnaic period advocated some evasion robbers. (Bava Qamma 10:2) Most egregious Content of Massekhet Kallah of taxes, which they considered part of a hor- to the rabbis must have been the use to which and its Gemara (Tübingen: rifically unjust tax system. Indeed, they were this money was put: the maintenance of the Mohr Siebeck, 2006). not alone in speaking out against the evils of imperialistic governments and their domina- 1 New York Post, Aug. 4, 2009; the tax collectors of their day. The gospels, for tion of the region. The Romans used the taxes Los Angeles Times, Dec. 22, 2009; example, consistently associate tax collectors they collected to support the military opera- The Jewish Week, May 4, 2010; 2 The Star Ledger, June 2, 2011; with sinners and prostitutes (Matthew 9:9–11, tions that put down Jewish rebellions (three The Seattle Times, July 13, 2012 11:19, 18:17, 21:31–32; and Mark 2:14–16; and in the span of 70 years — from 66 to 135 C.E. [6] MARCH 2013 | NISSAN 5773 — the general time period from which the In the Medieval period, particularly in the Mishnah’s statements derive), bringing a great twelfth and thirteenth centuries, sages such as deal of death and destruction to the Jewish Rabbi Solomon b. Abraham Adret (known as communities throughout the empire. It was the Rashba) instituted a complex scheme of these taxes and this system of tax collection taxation modeled loosely on the more rudi- with which the rabbis took umbrage. mentary system delineated in the Babylonian On the other hand, especially in the tal- Talmud. The new system, which held Jews mudic and medieval periods, the rabbis were liable if they evaded paying taxes, went well SHMA.COM clear that taxes that would benefit the people beyond the Talmud’s more basic provisions (as opposed to supporting a foreign military oc- for maintaining the city’s walls and gates and cupation) were just and obligatory. Thus, the feeding the poverty stricken. It included “any- rabbis mandated that Jews pay taxes for infra- thing that is for the need of the city.” (Rosh, structural maintenance of the city — specifi- Responsa, 6:22, cf. Mordekhai, Bava Batra 478 cally, for the upkeep of the walls and gates of [on Bava Batra 7b]) In a responsum, Adret the city (Mishnah Bava Batra 1:5 and BT Bava asserts that tax laws are a civil matter based Batra 7b–11a) — and for the maintenance of on local customs, and, in matters of taxes, the poor. (Bava Batra 7b–11a) While some have “custom nullifies the halakhah.” (Responsa, viewed such taxes as intended for Jews alone, 4:260) His point is that the system of taxation the upkeep of the town is clearly beneficial to instituted by the Babylonian Talmud is meant all residents, and not all towns were comprised as a historical example of the kind of obligation of a single ethnic group. And while charity for owed by citizens, rather than a declaration that the poor was particularly geared toward poor defines or limits the purposes for which taxes people within the Jewish community, poor gen- may be levied. tiles seem not to have been excluded. (Mishnah Today, we must recognize that our tax Gittin 5:8) Moreover, when it came to taxes owed system no longer operates in ways or for the to the Persian Empire, the Babylonian Talmud purposes that attracted the ire of the rabbis of undermined (and, one might even argue, coun- the Mishnah. On the contrary, our taxes pay termanded) the Mishnah’s apparently permissive for the very essentials for which the rabbis stance toward tax evasion, with the prominent advocated. Therefore, unless a person is with- third-century Babylonian Rabbi Shmuel declar- holding taxes as an act of civil disobedience ing, “dina d’malchuta dina,” “the law of the (as did Henry David Thoreau) to protest the land is binding.” (BT Nedarim 28a, Gittin 10b, militaristic and imperialistic uses to which one Bava Qamma 113a–b, and Bava Batra 54b–55a) could argue a percentage of U.S. taxes are used, When it came to governments that were not tax evasion today seems not to be in keeping putting down Jewish rebellions, killing tens of with rabbinic ethics and is a gross misapplica- thousands of inhabitants, or collecting taxes in tion of the Mishnaic tenet. The involvement of a manner the rabbis associated with highway rabbis with tax evasion is a dirty secret, and it robbery, it would seem that the rabbis of this is time we denounced it. It has no valid basis in period were less lenient toward tax evasion. Jewish law or ethics. Wolves and Sheep: Jewish Tax Collectors in Yiddish Literature JULIAN LEVINSON ne of the very first sounds heard in this word would evoke a compelling dramatic sit- Julian Levinson, a Sh’ma Advisory Board member, is an modern Yiddish literature was a cry of uation: Readers knew that taxes typically meant associate professor of Jewish Oanguish over the injustice of arbitrary exploitation, providing a way for wealthy Jews literature at the University of taxation. The year was 1869, and the pioneer- to prey upon their hapless, poorer brethren. A Michigan. He is the author ing Yiddish and Hebrew writer Sholem Yankev recurring image in Abramovitsh’s play is that of of Exiles on Main Street: Abramovitsh (aka Mendele Mocher Seforim) wolves devouring sheep.