A Jewish Lens on Taxes (Sh'ma Journal: Independent Thinking on Contemporary Judaism Book 43)

The pleasures of spring, the advent of tax season: a discordant time full of natural beauty and the drudgery of tax filings. Taxes are much in the air these days, not only because of the proximity of April’s deadline, but also, of course, because of a raging — and, as some see it, confounding — national debate about taxes. This issue of Sh’ma offers a guide to the perplexed. Rooting taxes in a Jewish language of obligation, this array of essays explain taxes historically, beginning with talmudic debates about who is responsible for the upkeep of the city’s walls, and how taxes must be collected to avoid corruption.