O pinion
Your Nanny Makes You an Employer. The Torah Makes You
Responsible for Their Well-Being
BY RABBI SHMULY YANKLOWITZ
IT IS EASY, in our politically
polarizing times, to look at
every moral issue through a
partisan lens.

But we need not look further
than Parshat Ki Teitzei to see
that defending the rights of
workers is a biblical mandate.

We learn of a worker’s right to
eat from their employers’ fields
(Deuteronomy 23: 25-26); of a
worker’s right to be free from
oppression (Deuteronomy
24:14); and of a worker’s right to
be paid on time (Deuteronomy
24:15, also taught earlier
in Leviticus 19:13). This, of
course, not only applies to
how businesses treat workers,
but also to how families treat
domestic workers.

This week’s portion is
particularly clear on delayed
payment, insisting that workers
be paid the same day, before
the sun goes down, “for he is
poor, and sets his heart upon
it” (Deuteronomy 24:15). The
medieval sage Nachmanides,
known as the Ramban,
explains, “For if you do not
pay him immediately when he
leaves work, he will starve and
die that night.”
The rabbis explained that
workers’ rights issues may not
seem like they are life and
death, but should be treated
as though they are: “All who
withhold an employee’s wages,
it is as if he has taken his life
from him” (Baba Metzia 112A).

It is precisely because of the
creation narrative that we learn
every human being was created
equally in the image of God;
we know that we are respon-
sible for them.

Rabbeinu Yonah (13th
century Spain) explains
how high the burden is if
one chooses to take on an
employee: “Be careful not to
afflict any living creature,
whether animal or bird, and
all the more so, one should not
afflict a person who is created
in the image of the Divine. If
you want to hire laborers and
you find that they are poor,
they should be [regarded as]
poor members of your house-
hold, and do not degrade them,
for you were commanded to
have a respectful manner with
them and to pay their wages”
(Sefer HaYirah).

If we choose to become an
employer, then we must take
responsibility to ensure our
workers do not live in poverty.

Have you ever stopped to
ask the woman washing dishes
on Shabbat in your neighbor’s
home what she’s being paid,
or the gentleman mowing
your friend’s lawn about his
vacation, or the nanny raising
the children down the block
whether she had time to sit
down for lunch today? If you
did, you may have discov-
ered an unpleasant situation
of inadequate pay, few or no
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AUGUST 19, 2021
breaks, no paid sick or vacation
days and perhaps even bullying
or verbal abuse.

But how can it be? Your
neighbors — their employers
— seem so nice, and their
domestic workers always seem
to be smiling and content.

In her 2004 article in The
Atlantic, “How Serfdom Saved
the Women’s Movement,”
Caitlin Flanagan poignantly
explained the
dynamic between a mother and a
nanny: “Standing bravely in
the crossfire are nannies, who
tend to be the first choice of
professional-class mothers
who work … and the guilty
luxury of a good number of
carry it out remain among the
most isolated and vulnerable
workforce in our society, and
they must be protected from
abuse and mistreatment.

How can we give the keys to
our homes — and entrust the
welfare of our aging parents
and young children — to our
domestic workers, and yet
not respect them enough to
secure their basic rights and
dignity? Our homes serve as a
pillar of our Jewish lives. They
are what we welcome guests
into for festive meals and hold
witness to our holy conduct
with children and loved ones.

Herein lies a tremendous
opportunity to engage in one
the battles our ancestors fought
and the long journey they had
to take, then in the end we lose
it (freedom) again.”
The minimum wage, in
its current state, is a collec-
tive violation of the biblical
prohibition of “oshek” (worker
oppression), as workers remain
poor while they work to their
full capacity (Leviticus 19:15).

The previous verse tells us that
we must not be enablers of
social wrongs (“lifnei iver”)
linking the two responsibili-
ties of fair wages and Jewish
activism. Now is the time for a
collective Jewish intervention
to ensure that those who work
can live.

The Jewish community can help turn the tide and become public
exemplars as just employers in the workplace and in the home.

Our obligation to fiscally and emotionally sustain the individuals we hire
to help run our households extends beyond law and into the realm of
moral imperative.

at-home mothers. And, as
many of us have learned, the
mother-nanny relationship
has the potential for being
the most morally, legally and
emotionally charged one that a
middle-class woman will ever
have.” Domestic workers include
housekeepers, nannies, care
providers for the elderly
and others who are hired to
maintain their employers’
homes and family needs.

The nature of the job and the
market stands in the way of
organizing. For too long, these
workers have gone without
the basic legal rights afforded
those in other industries
by the Wagner Act of 1935,
such as decent wages, a safe
and healthy workplace, and
workers’ compensation. Since
this unique work is done in
backyards and kitchens, out
of the public eye, those who
JEWISH EXPONENT
of the defining problems of our
time. The Jewish community can
help turn the tide and become
public exemplars as just
employers in the workplace
and in the home. Our obliga-
tion to fiscally and emotionally
sustain the individuals we hire
to help run our households
extends beyond law and into
the realm of moral impera-
tive. Learning to honor human
dignity must start in each of
our homes. There needs to
be Jewish community-wide
meetings discussing the work
standards we must all commit
to for the employees in our
homes that aren’t secured.

The late British Chief Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks wrote in his
Haggadah, “Collective freedom
— a society that honors the
equal dignity of all — depends
on constant vigilance … if we
forget where we came from,
This year, let us use our
loving embrace of our tradition
and narrative as a springboard
into the issues of domestic
workers’ rights. Let us welcome
freedom into our homes by
looking domestic workers in
the eyes and expressing our
gratitude. Let us exemplify the
proper treatment of domestic
workers for our children.

Consider acting on the courage
to see the reality of most
domestic workers’ situations.

Consider using the ability to
see the possibility for change
for the poorest right here in
our homes. And let us collec-
tively enact a vision that moves
the reality of domestic workers
to the possibility of better
treatment. l
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is
president and dean of the Valley
Beit Midrash and the founder and
president of Uri L’Tzedek.

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