Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Yom HaTax Day — Rules for Observance, Bloch by Bloch

How Jewish is tax time? It’s not like there’s a special feast or fast to commemorate it. Yet, there is a principle in the Talmud that discuses your obligation to pay.

Considering the coast to coast presence of H & R Block, America’s approach to tax time is pretty Jewish. Ponder this as you shlep your box of receipts to one of their over 10,000 offices. H & R Block is the brainchild of Henry and Richard Bloch, two nice Jewish boys from Kansas City who in 1955 had some innovative ideas about filling out tax forms.

Up until that time, the IRS had provided free assistance with your taxes. Henry Bloch, who had attended the Harvard Business School, realized that, as the free program was phased out city by city, there would be an opening for a new tax preparation business especially for “the little guy.” Soon joined in the business by his brother Richard, a Wharton Business school graduate, the two Blochs had opened over 200 offices by 1962.

According to the company website, “They named the company “Block” because their family name, “Bloch,” had always been difficult for people to pronounce and spell. “Block” was simpler and could be spelled phonetically.”

Regardless of spelling, what does Jewish law say about our obligation to p-a-y? Save yourself a trip to a different Jewish professional — the tax attorney. If you consult the Talmud you will find there is no way out, “The law of the land is law.”

In an article (forthcoming in Journal of Accounting, Ethics and Public Policy) “The Ethics of Tax Evasion: A Jewish Perspective,” Gordon Cohn says the Talmudic principle behind our obligation to pay is “dina damalchusa dina,” which means literally “that one is required to keep the laws which the king has established” and which principle has entered western civilization as “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

The fact that we have an “Uncle” (Sam) and not a “King” (Herod or George III) does not get us off the hook. According to Cohn, “From Maimonides and similar writings, commentaries claim that whenever a populace elects a government and they agree to its laws dina damalchusa dina applies.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.