Is this the halakha? You betcha TB Baba Metzia 83

 Today we finish the sixth chapter of our masekhet with daf TB Baba Metzia 83. It concludes with a very famous story which teaches an important lesson. Albeit the law is the law, sometimes one has to go beyond the letter law to do what is right and good.

“The Gemara relates an incident involving Rabba bar Ḥanan: Certain porters broke his barrel of wine after he had hired them to transport the barrels. He took their cloaks as payment for the lost wine. They came and told Rav. Rav said to Rabba bar Ḥanan: Give them their cloaks. Rabba bar Ḥanan said to him: Is this the halakha? Rav said to him: Yes, as it is written: “That you may walk in the way of good men” (Proverbs 2:20). Rabba bar Ḥanan gave them their cloaks. The porters said to Rav: We are poor people and we toiled all day and we are hungry and we have nothing. Rav said to Rabba bar Ḥanan: Go and give them their wages. Rabba bar Ḥanan said to him: Is this the halakha? Rav said to him: Yes, as it is written: “And keep the paths of the righteous” (Proverbs 2:20).” (Sefaria.org translation)

Rabbi Elliott Dorff writes:

                         Thus, while the Torah and the rabbinic tradition help make justice a

                        reality by giving it concrete expression in law, Jewish law itself recognizes

                        that justice sometimes demands more than the law does, the moral duties

                        go beyond the letter of the law. Moreover, such moral duties sometimes

                        require reshaping the law itself so that in each new age it can continue

                        to be the best approximation of justice.

 

                        The underlying conviction that pushes Jewish law not to stop with defining

                        justice in his procedural and substantive aspects but to insist instead that we

go beyond the letter of the law, if necessary, to achieve justice is the belief that God requires us to aspire to a moral and theological ideal. All Israelites are obligated to aspire to a life of holiness: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord

your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) In the verse that follows this divine

demand, the Torah specifies that holiness requires providing for the poor

and the stranger; issuing theft and fraud; rendering fair and impartial decisions

in court; treating the blind, the deaf, and the stranger fairly; and ensuring

honest weights and measures. These are all components of the society that has both procedural and substantive justice and even more-namely, generosity

and caring. We are to treat each other as members of one extended family.

To the decree that we can and at least in some areas, then, holiness requires that we go beyond insisting on or do look instead it was seems to be good results

for everyone concerned. (To Do the Right and the Good: a Jewish Approach to Modern Social Ethics, page 118)

 

Many commentators explain that paying the workers is an attribute of piety (midat hasidut-מידת חסידות) that goes above and beyond the law. There those who say that for an important person like Rabba bar Ḥanan the attribute of piety is not optional response, but what the law requires of him.

I think that were all important people since each individual is created in God’s image. Consequently, we should go above the letter of the law when necessary.