DEUT1303 (Continued from [[LEV520]] Leviticus 19:16 talebearer BLOCH 76) Modern law recognizes the principle of confidentiality in relationships between clergymen and parishioners and attorneys and their clients. The law occasionally imposes secrecy and individuals who have access too sensitive information. Secrecy may also be self-imposed by contractual commitment. However, in most instances a breach of confidence constitutes an ethical rather than a legal violation. Judaism condemns breaches of confidence on several grounds. A person who agrees to a request for secrecy but never intends to honor his agreement brands himself a liar as soon as he proceeds to make a disclosure. According to the Bible: "Lying lips are an abomination of the Lord" (Proverbs 12:22). A person who was originally sincere in his acceptance of a pledge of secrecy but later changes his mind may not be a liar in the strict sense of the word, but he is guilty of unethical conduct. A breach of promise is a violation of the spirit of the biblical injunction: "That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe and do" [this verse]. The Talmud holds that a breach of promise is as serious an offense as idolatry (Sanhedrin 92a).

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DEUT1304 This tells me only of what he uttered with his lips. Whence do I derive [the same halachah] for what he resolved in his heart? From (Exodus 35:5): "All who pledge in their heart" (Shevuoth 26b)

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DEUT1305 Keep your word, as you vowed. See [[DEUT557]] Deuteronomy 12:5 vow CHINUCH 290-1

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DEUT1311 The Torah shows compassion for animals in a manner similar to the compassion it shows for human beings. As a matter of fact, there are a number of mitzvot that seem to apply equally to animals and to man. For example, a worker who works in the field collecting food may not be deprived of food as he or she works and may eat (as long as he or she does not put away any to eat later). The Torah understood that a person cannot be asked to be around food all day and then deprive him or her from partaking of that food. (Continued at [[DEUT1429]] Deuteronomy 25:4 muzzle AMEMEI 9].

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DEUT1310 The Satmar Rebbe compares the Jew accumulating wealth in this world to the worker in the field that produces fruits (Quoted in "Priorities in Tzedaka," Rabbi Moshe Goldberger, 2007, pp. 41-42). The Torah permits the worker to eat from those fruits that he is picking, as long as the worker is working and remains in the field [this verse]. Maimonides requires as part of Jewish law that the owner gives food to his worker while performing this task (Maimonides, Hilchot Sechirut 12:1). But this Jewish law does not apply to a worker performing any other task in the field (such as fence building) or after a particular task is complete. The Jew in the physical world, says the Satmar Rebbe, is similarly, working for God in "His field" (the world) to accumulate funds in order to give some of them to Tzedaka. As long as the Jew is engaged in this work, he too is permitted to use these Tzedaka funds for his own benefit--i.e., he can receive something for giving them away, just as the worker can use what he is picking for his benefit. Thus, a Jew can "control" these earned charity funds by making conditions for how they are spent.

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DEUT1309 See [[DEUT1318]] Deuteronomy 23:26 pluck CCCBM 81

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DEUT1308 Let workers eat of what they are handling. Allow hired laborers working with your produce to eat of it while on the job. The mitzvah applies to workers who pick the produce and to those who work with the picked produce, as long as the picked produce is not ready to be tithed. When working with already picked produce, the laborers may eat it only while they actually are working with it. As for harvesters, they are allowed to eat only after having completed a portion of the work, such as after they fill a basket. The Rabbis instituted that harvesters may eat also after finishing one row, while they walk to the next row, so as to avoid eating when they should be working. Key concept: To teach our nation goodwill and positive character traits, so that we will be worthy of Hashem’s blessings. When someone hires workers to attend to picked produce but forbids them to eat of the produce, he is being cruel and insensitive. All the more so if his workers are picking the produce, for when one sees the Creator’s blessing ripe for picking, one's heart is gladdened, and to then deprive a worker the pleasure of eating the produce shows great cruelty and an evil nature.

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DEUT1307 In The Golden Rule, Professor Jeffrey Wattles concludes that "golden rule thinking may ... be characterized as recognizing moral implications in the fact that others are like oneself" (page 42). Obviously, this is a basis for applying the Golden Rule in our interactions with other human beings. But while biblical ethics presupposes a deep chasm in intelligence and free will between human beings and animals, there are also significant similarities (particularly in the physical sphere), and the Golden Rule should apply in those areas as well. Thus, animals hate pain, and therefore, as we have seen, the Torah prohibits unnecessary pain, such as that brought about by yoking a weaker animal to a stronger one. And animals, like humans, crave food, hence it is forbidden, as noted, to muzzle an animal working in the field, just as it is prohibited to prevent a laborer working in the field from eating [this and next verse].

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DEUT1306 "you may eat" -- but not suck [out the wine and discard the rest, for this would result in his eating a greater number of grapes] (Bava Metzia 87b)

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DEUT1312 See [[GEN406]] Genesis 3:16 urge OXFORD 386-7

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