21 October 2026
You booked an electrician for a full day's work: $1,200. He shows up on time, ready to go. But the equipment he came to install never arrived. He says you owe him for the full day anyway. Do you?
The Talmud (Bava Metzia 76b) has a clear answer, and it comes down to one question: who had the information? If you knew - or should have known - that the job couldn't go ahead and you didn't warn him, his lost day is your loss. But if he could easily have found other work that morning, you don't owe him a cent. You owe him something else: an apology. In Jewish law a "grievance" is a real claim. Not in dollars, but in how you treat people.
A class on the Talmud's rules of hiring and cancelling workers (Bava Metzia, chapter 6) with Rabbi Aron Moss of Nefesh, Bondi Beach.