Land Concentration, Efficiency, Slavery, and the Jubilee

The Jubilee, as laid out in the Bible, is generally viewed as a time for celebration—a time during which horns are blown, families reunited, and heirlooms reclaimed. This article focuses on the need for reconsideration of the goals of jubilee. It is a time of freedom, with the release of slaves and the resulting return of their civil liberties, and of social justice, with land sold during the previous fifty years returning to its original owners. Thus, the Jubilee seems to be partially a sociological precept, with its main goal seemingly to achieve a certain degree of equality among people. However, a careful study of the precise decrees raises a number of questions that are difficult to understand when this view of the Jubilee is taken. This article explains the two main goals of Jubilee Laws, the role of slavery, and the clean slate proclamations.

Babylonian Jews at the Intersection of the Iranian Economy and Sasanian Law

This article discusses the position of the Babylonian Jews at the intersection of the Iranian economy and Sasanian Jews. The article begins with a detailed analysis of the cultural background. The Babylonian Talmud with its detailed description of religious, lifestyle, economic, and social issues presents us with a portrait of the integration of Babylonian Jews within the economic life of the middle classes of the Sasanian Empire. The article states that unlike the Jews of Roman Palestine the Babylonian Jews were a significant minority in a vital province. This is followed by an analysis of the status of the Jewish community under the Sasanian regime. The Sasanian regime encouraged private initiative in both commercial and agricultural activities, and the rabbis did their best to enable the Babylonian Jewish community to take advantage of these opportunities. The article concludes by saying that the rabbinical Jews excelled in contemporary business practice.

The Jewish Prohibition of Interest: Themes, Scopes, and Contemporary Applications

The prohibitions of taking and paying interest are the essence of this article. The prohibition of taking interest, also known as ribbit, is one of the most complex areas of Jewish law. The complexity of this realm is multileveled. At first glance, ribbit and its basic intent seems simple to comprehend. It appears to address the widely condemned practice of usury, also known as predatory lending, where a lender exploits a borrower's desperate need for assistance by lending at rates of interest that are excessive and often unfeasible. However, a close look at the details of the prohibition will reveal that concern for predatory lending is insufficient to explain the Torah's ban against interest. This article also discusses the challenge of categorizing ribbit. This article further elaborates upon the effects of prohibition on monetary regulation. Other applications and extensions of the prohibition are explained and the prohibition is also compared to receive and return interest.

The Right to Return: The Biblical Law of Theft

This article focuses on the law surrounding the biblical law of theft. According to Jewish Law, a thief who is caught and found guilty must return the stolen article and, in addition, pay the owner a fine equal to the value of the article. The thief can avoid this fine by admitting to the theft on his own initiative in a court and returning the stolen article to its owner. This article refers to such canceling of a fine as a pardon. The pardon is explained in the Talmud by the legal dictum “Mode BeKnass Patur,” that is “he who confesses in a fine is exempt”. This article carefully explains economic model with the help of various graphs. This article also explains two issues which require consideration in assessing whether Eliezer acted properly as an agent according to Jewish law. A detailed analysis of concepts of duty in Judaism concludes this article.

The Employee Free Choice Act, Unions, and Unionizing in Jewish Law

Employees, their free choice act, and unions and unionizing in Jewish law are the essence of this article. The law equalizes the imbalance by allowing employees to unionize, putting the negotiating power of employees on par with their employers. By banding together, organized workers gain the ability to strike, neutralizing management's ability to withhold employment. The approach of the Jewish law towards the employer–employee relationship is explained in detail. It says employer–employee relationships are no exception. Each side has rights and obligations, ensuring that the worker receives equitable treatment and the employer receives the full value of the employee's labor. The Talmud clarifies that one who withholds a worker's pay actually transgresses five negative commandments and one positive commandment. This article also traces various sources found in Jewish laws relating to labor unions and the power of the citizens and tradesmen. An explanation of the regularization of Jewish law winds up this article.

The Global Recession of 2007–2009: The Moral Factor and Jewish Law

This article focuses on the recent global recession that raged the world and in particular the United States with special reference to Jewish law. In December 2007, the United States economy plunged into the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression. The driving force behind the recession was the widespread failure of the subprime mortgage market, the segment of the home mortgage market extending loans to households with impaired credit histories and with little or no documentation of income. The collapse of that sector occurred in a rapid succession of events beginning with the fall of Countrywide Financial in January 2008. This article further moves to explain the moral factor pervading the recession and analyses the situation as per Jewish law. The central relevant moral dictum of Jewish law is the Imitatio Dei principle, which says that, in our interpersonal conduct, we should emulate the various attributes of mercy.

Risk and Incentives in the Iska Contract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the conceptual treatment of the Iska by the Talmud and medieval post-Talmudic scholars (Rishonim), especially as it relates to risk and incentives. What follows is a discussion on the Talmudic concepts of Biblical and rabbinic interest, known as ribbit and avak ribbit, respectively, since these are central to the Talmudic formulation of the Iska. Modern economics and finance scholars view interest on a loan as being composed of three components: a component that reflects the real time value of money and a component that reflects the credit risk of the loan. This article also explains the biblically proscribed interest known as ribbit. Risk and incentives in the Iska is explained in detail. The Talmud still saw a potential interest problem with the fifty/fifty allocation, since the active partner would be working for the silent partner's equity portion in addition to the work undertaken for his own capital input. A discussion on incentive contracts concludes this article.

The Economic Progress of American Jewry: From Eighteenth-Century Merchants to Twenty-First-Century Professionals

This article focuses on the economic progress of American Jewry. The American Jewish community has experienced a remarkable economic advancement from the nineteenth century to the present, both in absolute terms and relative to the non-Jewish population of the United States. It is an achievement that is unprecedented in terms of the various racial, ethnic, and religious groups that compromise the American population. The article examines the economic progress of American Jews with the help of quantitative data. It then traces the condition of the Jews in the colonial period to position of the Jews in Eastern Europe including Germany. The article further traces the occupation of Jewish people before and after the Second World War. With the end of World War II there was a change in attitudes toward anti-Semitic employment practices. One of the sectors was in higher education. A discussion on wealth acquired by Jewish people concludes this article.

Economics and Law as Reflected in Hebrew Contracts

This article discusses economic theories in Jewish law as reflected in contracts written in Hebrew, in most cases deriving from Ashkenazic communities. The contracts originated from followers of R. Solomon b. Isaac, his students and their students, dating back to the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Most of the contracts discussed are in manuscript form and have never been published. The theories are examined and the contracts compared with corresponding Sephardic contracts. The article carefully discusses economics and law as explained in Hebrew Contracts. The study of Jewish legal sources yields a fascinating picture of the struggle between vision and action, theory and practice. The article further elaborates upon the Iska partnership which is of special interest. Jewish legal literature discusses two main types of partnership. The first is a regular partnership in which both partners invest and work in the business. An analysis of guardianship and power of attorney concludes this article.

Economic Substance and The Laws of Interest: A Comparison of Jewish and U.S. Federal Tax Law

Both Jewish law and U.S. Federal tax law define interest broadly as a payment for the use of money. Nonetheless, the two systems diverge widely when determining whether particular transactions involve interest. This article compares the different approaches to the laws of interest found in these two systems, in an effort to reveal how underlying goals, practical constraints, and the structure of the legal system affects the development of the law. This article explains the laws of interest. The Torah mentions ribbit three times. The first occurs in Exodus the second mention is found in Leviticus and the final occurs in Deuteronomy. Moving forward this article explains the federal taxation of interest which says that interest is not banned under the federal tax laws, but it is often treated differently from other types of payments. A detailed analysis comparing the Jewish and the US approaches to interest concludes this article.