Kiddushin, Daf Lammed Gimmel, Part 1

 

Introduction

This week’s daf continues to discuss the obligation to stand up before a sage. The baraita had taught that one does not need to rise if it will cause a financial loss.

 

אמר מר יכול יהדרנו בממון ת"ל תקום והדרת מה קימה שאין בה חסרון כיס אף הידור שאין בו חסרון כיס

וקימה לית בה חסרון כיס מי לא עסקינן דקא נקיב מרגניתא אדהכי והכי קאים מקמיה ובטיל ממלאכתו

אלא אקיש קימה להידור מה הידור שאין בו ביטול אף קימה שאין בה ביטול

ואקיש נמי הידור לקימה מה קימה שאין בה חסרון כיס אף הידור שאין בו חסרון כיס מכאן אמרו אין בעלי אומניות רשאין לעמוד מפני תלמידי חכמים בשעה שעוסקין במלאכתם

 

I might have thought that one must honor him with money, Scripture says: You shall rise up,” and “You shall honor,” just as rising up does not involve a monetary loss, so honoring does not involve a monetary loss.

But is there no monetary loss involved in rising? Does it not refer [even] to him who is piercing pearls, and while he rises up before him he is disturbed from his work? 

Rather rising is compared to honoring: just as honoring does not involve stopping work, so too rising does not involve stopping work.

And honoring is compared to rising: just as rising does not involve monetary loss, so honoring does not involve a monetary loss.

From here it was said: Artisans may not rise before scholars while they are engaged in their work.

 

The Talmud clarifies a line in the baraita. We might have thought that while a person does not need to spend money to honor a sage, he should stand before a sage even if this involves a loss of money through cessation of work. The Talmud clarifies that it does not. A person should not stop working to stand before a sage.

The last line provides a context for this—an artisan. An artisan is working for someone else, but not on an hourly basis. For instance, a cobbler making a pair of shoes. We might have thought that he could stop working because he’ll just continue working later, and he is not cheating his employer of his paid time. The Talmud says that even this is not allowed because it takes up time in which he could be completing the project. I think there is an important message in this piece, one that is very hard to observe these days, with all of the distractions in our lives. When we are working, we are working for others and we owe them the best that we can do. It is a value and we need to take it seriously (I am not lecturing you, my readers, I am mostly confessing to my own sins).

 

ולא והתנן כל בעלי אומניות עומדים מפניהם ושואלים בשלומם ואומרים להם אחינו אנשי מקום פלוני בואכם לשלום א"ר יוחנן מפניהם עומדים מפני תלמידי חכמים אין עומדים

 

And they may not? But have we not learned: All artisans rise before them, give them greeting, and exclaim to them, “Our brethren, men of such and such a place, enter in peace.”  

R. Yohanan: Before them they must stand up, yet before scholars they may not.

 

The Talmud cites a source that refers to the farmers bringing their first fruits to Jerusalem. As they enter the city, artisans stand before them and greet them. This implies that artisans are allowed to stop working to stand up in honor of other people coming through.

The resolution is that artisans can stop working to greet the farmers going to the Temple, but they may not do so to greet sages. 

 

אמר רבי יוסי בר אבין בוא וראה כמה חביבה מצוה בשעתה שהרי מפניהם עומדים מפני תלמידי חכמים אין עומדים

ודלמא שאני התם דא"כ אתה מכשילן לעתיד לבא

 

R. Yose b. Abin said: Come and see how beloved a commandment is when fulfilled in its time;  for behold, they rose up before them, yet not before scholars.

But perhaps it is different there, for otherwise you may cause them to stumble in the future!

 

R. Yose b. Abin draws a lesson from the fact that artisans can stand before the farmers but not before the scholars—a mitzvah being performed in its proper time is a higher value, even then the respect due to scholars.

But the Talmud notes that this may not be the proper explanation of why artisans are allowed to stand before the farmers. It might be that if they are not greeted properly, they will not return the following year. In other words, it is not the value of what they are currently doing, it is the fact that they need encouragement, and maybe scholars do not need as much encouragement.