Do you scream when you're on a roller coaster?
Do you scream when you watch a scary movie?
Do you scream when someone startles you?
Do you scream when empathize or sympathize with another?
Today's value is all about feeling things. We should feel things. We should express how we feel. We should recognize that everyone in the world is feeling something, and some of what they feel might be suffering.
"If boiling water is poured on the head of a Moroccan Jew, the prim and proper Jew in Paris or London must scream. And, by feeling the pain, he is loyal to the nation" (172).
Day 122: Paying a Laborer's Wages Promptly
The Torah really looks out for those who might be needy. The Torah notices that those who are handymen or domestic workers may be more desperately in need of the money they've earned than people who work in more well-regarded jobs. [NOTE: I don't mean for any of the terminology used in this post to be offensive but I'm not sure what would offend some people or others, so please take no offense at the way in which I've phrased things].
What we should take away from today's value is that handymen and domestic workers need to be paid as soon as they've finished their jobs. They must be paid the same day in which their service was completed.
Day 123: What a Worker Owes His Employer
When I call my parents, I call them at work. It's more convenient to talk to them when I know I have a long walk across campus ahead of me and I have at least fifteen minutes. It never occurred to me before that the time I spend talking to them is time they are being paid for at work. I personally don't feel that this makes us dishonest people, probably because I view respecting my parents by calling them when I can at a higher level than them taking time out of their paid work time to talk to me.
So, what do workers owe their employers? Honesty. Not to call in sick when you're perfectly healthy; not to play video games when you're at your desk; things of that nature.
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