Q&A: Prohibition on Signing a Career-Service Contract
Prohibition on Signing a Career-Service Contract
Question
Is there a prohibition on signing on for career service in the IDF for more than 3 years, based on the rule “They are My servants and not servants to servants”?
Answer
Before you ask about the IDF, ask about every salaried employee. There is no prohibition in either case. First, because the original prohibition is an invention with no real basis, and second, because a hired worker nowadays, with all the rights and protections and the ability to resign, is not included in this.
Discussion on Answer
It is a prohibition without any real basis, even if it appears in Tosafot. The Vilna Gaon there suggests something questionable.
As far as I know, even in career service one can resign (breach the contract).
Also, one should distinguish between a day laborer and a specific job.
What do you mean, a prohibition with no basis?
Tosafot on Bava Metzia 10a say that the reason a person may hire himself out is that he can resign, and this is ruled in the Rema (except that he permitted obligating oneself for up to 3 years). I asked about career service because there it is a commitment without the possibility of resigning.