Question: May individuals working in the educational system go on strike in order to improve their working conditions?
Answer: We have explained in the previous Halacha that it is permissible for workers in a certain trade to establish enactments and go on strike in order to have their wages raised and the like. We have brought sources for this law from the words of the Gemara and the Poskim.
We must now discuss the law regarding those who work in the education system, namely teachers. May they go on strike for the same reasons or not?
The distinction between workers in other professions and those who work in education is quite clear, since in schools and yeshivas, children are taught Torah and Mitzvot. It would seem that in today’s reality, halting Torah education by striking in order to receive higher wages is forbidden according to Halacha.
Maran Harav Ovadia Yosef Zt”l quotes (in his Responsa Yechave Da’at, Volume 4, page 247) a related Gemara (Baba Batra, 21a): “Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: This man, named Yehoshua ben Gamla, should be remembered for good, for without him the Torah would have been forgotten from the Jewish nation. Originally, whoever had a father would be taught Torah by his father and whoever did not have a father would not be taught Torah at all, as the verse states, ‘And you shall teach them to your sons to speak in them.’ The Sages enacted that teachers should be installed in Jerusalem, as the verse states, ‘For Torah shall come forth from Zion and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.’ Still, however, whoever had a father would be brought to Jerusalem to learn Torah but whoever did not have a father would not come and would not learn. This was until Yehoshua ben Gamla came along and instituted that teachers were to be installed in every province and every city.” The Rambam (Chapter 2 of Hilchot Talmud Torah, Halacha 1) and all other Poskim rule likewise. The basis for this is also based on the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat (119b) which states: “Rav Hamnuna said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because they interrupted the Torah learning of young children. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda Nessiah: The world exists only in the merit of the breath of young children, for this breath contains no sins. Young children’s Torah learning is not even interrupted for the building of the Bet Hamikdash.”
Based on this, when school-teachers go on strike, this interrupts the Torah learning of the children and this is indeed a great sin. Even if the teachers are correct in their claim that their wages do not represent the amount of toil and effort they invest in their work, at the end of the day, they are not striking because they, G-d-forbid, lack bread to eat; there is therefore no justification for them to allow Jewish children to wander in the streets or rot at home by interrupting their Torah study in order to receive a raise or better working conditions.
Maran Zt”l adds that it is well-known that even when such a strike ends and the children return to school, they will not be able to focus on their studies like they used to after having being disconnected from Torah study for a while, as our Sages teach us in Talmud Yerushalmi Masechet Berachot (Chapter 8, Halacha 5), “If you leave me for one day, I shall leave you for two.” This is especially true since strikes of this nature do not last only a day or two; rather, they tend to last for a much longer period of time. Interrupting students’ Torah study for a prolonged amount of time will certainly lead to an ethical deterioration in countless Jewish children, especially nowadays when there is a poisonous atmosphere on the streets. A child can quite easily be persuaded to stray and, G-d-forbid, sin.
Indeed, Hagaon Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l rules likewise in his Responsa Igrot Moshe (Choshen Mishpat, Chapter 59) where he writes that “Sources for striking can be found throughout the Talmud and Poskim, teachers going on strike and interrupting Torah study is a great sin, for the world only exists due to the merit of the breath of children’s Torah learning. It is therefore halachically forbidden to strike in order to receive higher salaries, for a person may not sin in order to earn money or improve his livelihood. Only if the teacher truly lacks basic sustenance and cannot teach the children with peace of mind and he sees that going on strike for a day or two will certainly cause his employers to raise his wages is there possibly room to allow him to strike because of the verse, “A time to do for Hashem, they have abolished your Torah,” meaning that by doing this he will be able to teach Jewish children in the future with peace of mind without having to worry about an additional source of income. Even this, however, requires careful scrutiny in order to ascertain all of the variables involved in one’s personal situation. One should stay as far away from this as much as possible.”
Based on these words and today’s reality, there is no room for teachers or rabbis to strike and interrupt the Torah study of Jewish children. Although the primary Mitzvah of teaching Torah rests on the fathers of the students, nevertheless, the teachers who know how to teach Jewish children Torah and have become experts in this field are also obligated to teach Torah to the children of the Jewish nation, as the Rambam states (Chapter 1 of Hilchot Talmud Torah): “It is a Mitzvah upon every Jewish scholar to teach all of the students Torah, even if they are not his children, as the verse states, ‘And you shall teach your sons’- about which the Oral Torah has expounded refers to one’s students who are likewise called ‘sons,’ as the verse states, ‘And the sons of the prophets went out.’”
It is quite clear that if the teachers strike, the students will not study Torah as is usually the case during the vacation months when the children are idle from Torah study and their fathers do not push them to learn since they are occupied with their jobs besides for a small handful of children who actually do learn some Torah for several hours a day. There is thus no doubt that the teachers striking will cause the sin of interruption of Torah study.
Therefore, all teachers and rabbis who fear Hashem and are loyal to his Torah must come together in agreement and ban striking against the educational system, for this is in opposition of our holy Torah and the guidelines of Halacha. They should find alternate means and tactics by which to negotiate higher wages and improved working conditions. If a strike occurs in any case, G-d-forbid, the teachers must exert superhuman effort in order to gather all of the students in synagogues and Houses of Study or even in their own houses in order to teach them Torah until the conclusion of the strike.
In the biography of Maran Zt”l’s earlier years, “Abir Ha’Ro’im” (Part I), the author quotes Maran Zt”l who recounts that the rabbi who taught him in his younger years, Rabbi Shlomo Abu zt”l, would gather the children to synagogues and Houses of Study even on Shabbatot and holidays and would teach them Torah in a pleasant and sweet manner and would shower his beloved students with prizes and gifts which he had purchased with his own money for every correct answer they would offer. There was not one of his students who did not continue his higher studies in the yeshiva system due to their intense love for their Rebbe who would teach them Torah lovingly and for sake of Heaven.
