THE JERUSALEM INSTITUTE OF JEWISH LAW
Rabbi Emanuel Quint, Dean

Lesson # 366 - Taxing Members of the community
External Taxes
Much of what is said in this lesson and in some of the coming lessons describes the Jewish community when they lived in ghettos and had restrictive rights, but had the right to more or less govern as they pleased as long as they paid the secular rulers of the country or state exorbitant taxes. Every inhabitant of the community is obligated to pay the external taxes imposed on the inhabitants of the community, whether or not the inhabitant is a permanent resident or has some other exemption from internal taxes. The reason for this is that the ruler, in imposing such taxes, looks to see how many people there are in the Jewish community and does not take into account that many of the persons who are in the community are merely visitors. He deems all of the persons he finds present to be part of the tax base. If the ruler imposes a head tax, everyone must pay such taxes, including Torah scholars. Because of the special role that the Torah scholars play in Jewish life, they are exempt from some taxes, the theory being that it is because of their scholarship that the city is safe. Rabbi Isserles in his glosses to chapter 163 of Choshen Mishpat writes the following law: A community loaned money to the ruler, who told the community to repay itself from taxes collected for this purpose.

Thereafter, the ruler changed his mind and insisted that the loan be cancelled and that taxes paid be sent to him without the offset for the money, which the ruler had in essence expropriated for himself. The community reconciled itself to the fact that the money raised by these taxes was lost and the taxes would have to be paid, and the townspeople did actually pay the taxes. The ruler died and his son ascended the throne and agreed to the arrangement made by his father, that is, that the citizens would not have to pay twice. It was held that under such circumstances, the money recovered by the town council from the ruler be held by them and need not be refunded to compensate the taxpayers. The reason is when the ruler stated that he would not repay the loan there was a universal acceptance that the Jews had given up any hope of recovering the moneys. Once hope has been given up, the moneys are deemed abandoned.

This is not similar other situations described in chapter 262 of Choshen Mishpat, where abandonment of hope of recovering a loan is not sufficient to be deemed a legal abandonment. In the latter situation there is still some hope that the loan will be repaid. In the case of the ruler there is actually no hope that the loan will be recovered after the ruler has stated that he will not repay. There is also an opinion that even in the case of a ruler, there is not really a complete abandonment of hope of the community being repaid the loan to the ruler and thus when the king’s son repaid the money, it is to be paid to the inhabitants of the community who gave the money for the loan; there is also the opinion that there is never an abandonment of the repayment of the debt. The commentators say that even according to this last opinion there is an abandonment of hope of recovering the repayment because the ruler may say he is repaying the debt and then declare that the repayment is to be paid as an additional tax. The community is collectively liable for impositions made against the community. There is no collective responsibility if the ruler levies a special assessment or fine on an individual of the community.

Internal Matters for which Taxes may be Levied
The council or government has jurisdiction over those types of matters that any government has. For example, it has jurisdiction to provide police protection to the inhabitants. In the codes this is designated as having the community responsible for the building of a wall around the Jewish area and building a guardhouse and proper doors and bolts to keep marauders out of the community. The constant fear of pogroms resulting in high fatalities, injuries, and plundering of property by the surrounding non-Jewish people is so well known that little has to be said here. Generally the community at its own cost and expense had to provide: fire extinguishing facilities, firemen, sanitary and street cleaning facilities, water and sewage systems, to provide the members of the community with shuls together with Torah scrolls, prayer books, printed copies of the Bible, house of study. (Many of the Jewish ghettos were constructed of wood and small fires spread into large conflagrations.) Every Jewish community requires as many shuls as are necessary for the number of worshippers in the community, No Jewish community can exist without houses of study of the Torah, well stocked libraries, hospital clinics and a mikveh. And to appoint rabbis, judges of the Beit Din, teachers of Torah, shul functionaries, cantors, charity collectors and charity dispensers, free loan dispensers and such other functionaries and institutions as the community and the council deem necessary. These are besides the schools for the children of the community.

The prime responsibility of every Jew is to study the Torah including the commentaries and the Oral Torah, namely the Mishna and Talmud. Throughout all of Jewish history, no Jew thought himself free of the responsibility of studying Torah. No matter how tired and hungry a person might be from his back-breaking labor to eke out a living, he knew that at the end of the day he would go to the house of study to study Torah and to say his prayers. This attitude of the Jew towards the study of the Torah, especially the study of the Talmud, is what has sustained the Jewish people throughout the ages.

Who may vote in the election of the council
In small communities, the matters dealing with community can be decided upon by a vote of all the members of the community. In larger communities and even in some small communities the decision making process is left to a council elected by the community. In the codes, the participation in the making of decisions or in voting for council members is usually limited to male taxpayers. There is usually weighted voting giving greater weight to the votes of those who pay higher taxes. This is done so that the poor with their greater numbers cannot foist all of the obligations of the community upon the rich. On the other hand, the weighing is not so great that a small minority of rich taxpayers would have the complete weighted say in the voting. There should also be view given to the poorer people of the community. The halacha advises the poorer members and the richer member to try to work out their differences in a fair manner. (The continuation of this lesson will appear IYH in the next lesson.)

The subject matter of this lesson is more fully discussed In Volume 5, Chapter 163 of A Restatement of Rabbinic Civil Law by Emanuel Quint. Copies of all volumes can be purchased at local Judaica bookstores. Questions to quint@inter.net.il

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