How unclean were tax-collectors?

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2001 by Hyam Maccoby

Marcus Borg has sought to confirm the picture of the isolation of whole classes of society by quoting certain rabbinic passages which show disapproval of certain trades or professions. For example, the following seven trades are described as "despised," and their practitioners as "outcasts," with the proviso that "the status of `sinner' or `outcast' was not inherited, and thus did not have the rigidity found in some caste systems" (Borg: 98; see also Jeremias: 310-12): "Gamblers with dice, usurers, organisers of games of chance, dealers in produce of the sabbatical year, shepherds, tax-collectors and revenue farmers." (b. Sanh. 25b). These people, however, did not form any "identifiable social group," as Borg suggests. They were individuals whose activities disqualified them from performing certain functions. The first four categories are people excluded from being witnesses or judges (M. Sanh. 3:3), because they were regarded as having withdrawn from the "settlement of the world" (i.e. the duty of contributing to the building of a just society). Nothing is said about such people being outcasts or being affected by ritual impurity. Shepherds, on the other hand, were regarded as robbers, since they allowed their animals to graze on crops. Again, no ritual impurity was involved. This denigration of shepherds was strictly confined to social conditions of the time, when bitter conflict existed between farmers and shepherds. If a blanket condemnation of shepherds were intended, this would have to include the Patriarchs and Moses.

Tax-collectors and revenue-farmers were also regarded as robbers, because they collected more than was due, using violence. Again, no ritual impurity was involved.

Borg quotes (p. 99, n. 42) M. Toh. 7:6, with the usual misunderstanding that tax-collectors were unusually defiling. This error is discussed above.

Borg also quotes a passage citing members of trades suspected of immorality: workers in the transport trades, herdsmen, shopkeepers, physicians, butchers, goldsmiths, fiaxcombers, handmill cleaners, peddlers, weavers, barbers, launderers, bloodletters, bath attendants, and tanners. See b. Kidd. 82a, M. Kidd. 4:14 (cf. j. Kidd 4:11, 66b; and Jeremias: 303-09). In context, Borg appears to be saying that all these categories were relegated to a state of ritual impurity.

The passage quoted is a comment on the unsatisfactoriness of all methods of making a living, compared with the blessedness of freedom from toil and contemplation of the Torah: this is an exaggerated expression of idealism comparable with Jesus' protest against making a living when he said, "Behold the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin." If someone were to conclude from this that Jesus regarded all toilers and spinners as sinners, he would be making the same error as Borg and Jeremias in relation to this passage in the Mishnah. Other passages in the rabbinic writings could be quoted to prove the exact opposite: that self-absolution from toil is sinful, and that all trades and professions, however loathsome, are preferable to idleness or dependence on others. "Better a man should skin animals in the street for a living, rather than say, `I am a great man, this work does not befit me'" (b. BB 110a, b. Pes. 113a).