Igros Moshe (YD IV #36.11) Question: Doesn’t the Talmud and Rishonim indicate that working at a job is required? Answer I don’t understand why you cite the gemora in Kiddushin (29a) that a father is obligated to teach his son a trade and if not it is consider the son was taught to steal. Or the statement at the end of Kiddushin that a father most teach his son a trade which seems to be the view of the Rashba. This seems to indicate that this is the halacha. In fact all it shows is an obligation to teach a trade . It simply means he should ensure the son gets a good Torah education so that he can teach others or be a rabbi of a community and thus have parnossa.
So what does teaching him to swim mean?
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very flawed argument.
ReplyDeleteIf he is saying that the talmud doesn't permit or in fact encourage Jews to work in a secular job, how is a rabbi going to make a parnassah? Because all the congregants are also rabbis, so do they all pay each other? In which case nobody earns anything.