We recently received the following she’eilah, which we answered in a timely fashion, and we now present our full response and rationale to the public:
Q.
I work as a manager in the catering industry, and I offered to arrange a sheva brachos for my friend free of charge.
On the morning of the simchah, we went shopping for supplies, and we agreed to meet later in the day to cook and set everything up.
Before that time came, someone else called to ask me to do a catering job during the same hours as my friend’s simchah, for a significant sum of money. If I accept the offer, I obviously won’t be able to keep my word to help my friend. May I retract my offer to my friend if it means that he will have to hire other people to help him?
A.
Based on a gezeiras hakasuv (Biblical decree), a laborer is permitted to quit during his term of agreed-upon employment. But if his departure will cause a financial loss to his employer, he may not quit in the middle (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 333:3&5).
It would seem, then, that since your withdrawal from your offer to help your friend will mean that he will have to pay someone else to help him — causing him a financial loss — you would not be permitted to withdraw, despite your losing money because of it.
But the Rema (ibid. 5) writes that if a laborer is working for free, then he may withdraw even if it does cause a financial loss to the employer.
There are two approaches to explain the Rema’s ruling, with halachic consequences that will affect your case.
Some poskim write that the Rema’s ruling is limited to cases in which the laborer only withdrew his offer to work for free but is willing to continue working for pay. If the employer refuses to pay, then the laborer may leave.
If, however, he does agree to pay, then even the Rema would require the laborer to continue working if withdrawing would cause a financial loss to the person he’s working for, due to dina d’garmi — indirect causation of damage (see Shach ibid. 31).
Other poskim rule that even if the employer is willing to pay from this point on, the laborer may still withdraw, because the employer should never have expected that someone who is working for free will continue doing so indefinitely, considering that he is entitled to withdraw at any point (see Nesivos ibid. 12).
Some contemporary poskim rule according to the first opinion (see Chazon Ish, Bava Kamma 22:12). Therefore, if your friend commits to pay you the standard rate if you follow through on your offer to cater his simchah, you may not withdraw even if it will cause you a financial loss (because the other job will pay more than the standard rate).
But this applies only if your friend would actually be taking a financial loss because of your withdrawal, such as if he has to pay someone else to help him extra because it’s the last minute. But if he can still hire workers for the same price he would have paid had you never offered to help him [gratis], then you may withdraw and he has no claim against you (see Shach ibid. 28).
Furthermore, although a person who reneges on his word is considered mechusar amanah (lacking trustworthiness) — because every Jew is expected to keep his word, as the passuk says: “The community of Yisrael do not inflict injustice and do not speak lies (Tzefaniah 3:13)” and the chachamim disapprove of someone who reneges on his word (Choshen Mishpat 204:7) -- if his reason for reneging could not have been foreseen (such as a steep rate change), many poskim write that there is no issue of mechusar amanah (ibid. 11); (Taz, Yoreh Dei’ah 264:5; see Shu”t Chasam Sofer, Choshen Mishpat 102).
