WEEKLY DAFootnotes #33
Bava Metzia 107-113; Issue #33
25 Adar - 2 Nisan 5762 / 9-15 March 2002
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WATCH YOUR STEPS
What is a greater blessing - having a synagogue near your home to provide you with spiritual convenience, or sanitary facilities near your dining area for your physical well being?
In Talmudic times this was a particularly pertinent question, because synagogues were generally outside the city and sanitary facilities were not located in homes.
An interesting difference of opinion is found in our gemara on this subject. The Torah (Devarim 28:3) promises the Jew who will heed the voice of Hashem and observe His mitzvot that "You will be blessed in the city."
The Sage Rav interprets this as a blessing that you will have a synagogue near your home and will not have to bother with traveling a distance in order to pray. Rabbi Yochanan, on the other hand, understands this as a blessing that you will have the convenience of sanitary facilities near your home so that you can gain the relief you need before or after meals without having to go out into the fields.
Why does Rabbi Yochanan reject the interpretation of Rav regarding the proximity of a synagogue?
The answer to this lies in a statement of Rabbi Yochanan (Mesechta Sotah 22a) that he learned from a widow how to appreciate the value of walking a distance to a synagogue. When he observed a widow coming to his synagogue from a considerable distance, he asked her why she didn't attend one of the synagogues closer to her home. Her response was that she was interested in earning the "reward for the extra steps" she had to take to come this far.
Since Rabbi Yochanan learned this lesson of a positive value in having a synagogue far from your home, he could hardly interpret the promise of "You will be blessed in the city" as a situation denying the opportunity to gain the "reward for extra steps" and was compelled to find an alternative interpretation.
Bava Metzia 107a
PAYING ON TIME
"Say not to your fellow man 'Go now and come back tomorrow and I will give you,' when in fact you now have what to give." (Mishlei 3:28)
The simple application of this counsel of King Solomon is in regard to procrastination in giving charity to a poor man or doing a favor for someone who needs it.
Rabbi Yossef, in our gemara, applies it as well to an unnecessary delay in paying wages to an employee.
The Torah forcefully insists on paying wages to a worker on time, pointing out the extreme effort often made by him to earn his pay. In the case of a day worker the wages must be paid before the following morning, and in the case of a night worker before sunset of the next day. (Vayikra 19:13 and Devarim 24:15)
If he delays payment of wages past these points (the Torah gave the employer the space of a night or a day respectively following the end of the work period in order to arrange for money to pay the wages), he has violated a Torah command. What is he guilty of, asks the gemara, if he delays beyond these times? The Sage Rav says he is guilty of delaying. But what source do we have for the wrongdoing? To this Rabbi Yossef responds by citing the above passage from Mishlei. Don't tell your worker to leave now and come back tomorrow for payment, urges Solomon, when you have the ability to pay him now.
Since this is the sort of situation which almost any Jew can face when hiring repairmen or other workers if one is not certain of paying on time, he must be careful to avoid transgressing Torah Law by making up in advance with whoever works for him that he waives his claim to immediate payment.
Bava Metzia 110b
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