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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 6, 2006 / 6 Adar, 5766

Long hours

By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir


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How many hours of work is too many?


http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Q: My hours of work at my law firm seem to be endless. How much work is too much, leaving too little time for serving G-d?


A: The need for a fair and transparent work hour policy was evident already in the time of the sages of the Mishnah, two thousand years ago. The Mishnah in tractate Bava Metzia states: "One who hires workers and told them to arrive early or stay late, if it is a place where it is not customary to arrive early or stay late, he cannot compel them." (1)


What then is a "standard" work day in a place where there is no custom to extend it? The Talmud tells us that it begins at daybreak, and continues until some time before nightfall, in order to allow the workers to arrive home before dark. (On Sabbath eve the worker needs time to make minimal Sabbath preparations before sundown, so he must leave earlier.) (2)


It's clear that this is quite a long workday nearly twelve hours on average. Certainly this is not customary today, though in some professions, including yours, seventy hour work weeks are not too unusual. On the other hand, it is a workday that is clearly delineated. While the worker is admonished to be prompt and hard working, his obligations are clearly defined, and the employer is not allowed to exceed them to compel the worker to work longer if custom or agreement doesn't stipulate this.


It is this aspect that is most often a problem today. Average work hours are much less than in the time of the Mishnah, but probably more workers today find that their workday seems to be "endless", as you state, because they feel that they are on call even when the workday is done. Many workplaces don't provide any clear guidelines for fair working hours for professionals and managers; some have this problem for shift workers as well.


The Shulchan Aruch (authoritative code of Jewish law) states: "After you leave the synagogue [following morning prayers], go to the house of study, and establish a time for learning. And this time must be fixed, not to be missed even if there is an opportunity to earn much". In the next chapter, it tells us that a person should then go to work, but must remember that work is of secondary importance to Torah (Bible). (3)


This is the same Shulchan Aruch which later on tells us the standard workday of the Mishnah. (4) We see that making work of secondary importance to Torah doesn't require us to devote many hours to activities which are devoted solely to G-d's service, like prayer and Torah study. But it does require a commitment, having certain times that are sacrosanct and to which workday concerns cannot intrude.


Of course the main refuge we have from our work lives is the Sabbath. But even on weekdays, which are appropriately devoted to work and livelihood, we need certain times free from the burden of employment.


The ideal working situation is one that leaves ample time for other aspects of life: family life, helping others, prayer and study, social life, and constructive recreation. But everyone has to make a living, and it is a fact of life that some kinds of work require long hours on the job. In these cases, the most important thing is to ensure that the obligations of the worker are as clearly defined as possible. A workday with no clear end is exploitative to the worker, and often backfires as workers engage in unproductive competition to put in hours without productivity as well as "undertime" activities meant to camouflage leisure or errands as work.


We wrote in a previous column that keeping a worker later than necessary turns often into gratuitous "busy work", which Jewish law forbids as a kind of unseemly domination of the employee.


The ideal working situation is a job which in itself contributes to mankind, and also leaves adequate time for other dimensions of G-d's service, religious and otherwise. But even those whose livelihood requires a long work day can keep their personal commitments, as long as their work obligations are clearly defined and make their non-working hours truly their own.


SOURCES: (1) Mishnah, Bava Metzia 7:1. (2) Babylonian Talmud Bava Metzia 83b. (3) Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 155 and 156. (4) Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 331:1

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JWR contributor Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir, formerly of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration, is Research Director of the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem, Jerusalem College of Technology. To comment or pose a question, please click here.


Previously:

Can I promote my product by having it unobtrusively written into a story?
He's not heavy he's my brother
All's fair in war?, II
All's fair in war?
Girth vs. worth
Is it proper to tax bequests?
Ethics of Being Overweight
Penalized for working swiftly
When is it a bluff?
'Rate and switch'
My paycheck is late!
Should schools cater to an elite?
All's fair in love?
Comfort and Competition
Do I need the caller's permission to put a call on the speakerphone?
Overtime for lost time
Is it unethical to play suppliers against each other to get the lowest bid possible?
Do family members have precedence in charity allotments?
What the world of business can teach us about our annual process of repentance and renewal
Are religious leaders subject to criticism?
Vindictive Vendor: How can I punish an abusive competitor?
Blogging Ethics: Is the blogger responsible for defamatory posts?







© 2005, The Jewish Ethicist is produced by the JCT Center for Business Ethics