YEVAMOS - 063a – הבא על יבמתו – פרק ששי – יבמות, סג ע”א

And one who lends a sela to a poor man in his time of distress — about him the verse says (Yeshayahu 58:9): Then you shall call and Hashem will answer; you shall cry and He will say, Here I am.^[1]

אז תקרא - above it is written: When you see the naked, cover him — that is, the one who presses money on the poor; and do not hide yourself from your own flesh — that is, the one who loves his neighbors, who are like his relatives, and draws close his relatives, and marries his sister's daughter.

Mnemonic: Wife, Land, Helper, This, Two, Blessings, Merchants, Lowest.^[2]

Rabbi Elazar said: Any man who has no wife is not a man, as it says (Bereishis 5:2): Male and female He created them... and He called their name Adam.

And Rabbi Elazar said: Any man who has no land is not a man, as it says (Tehillim 115:16): The heavens are the heavens of Hashem, but the earth He gave to the children of man.

And Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of what is written (Bereishis 2:18): I will make him a helper against him?

If he merits — she helps him; if he does not merit — she is against him.

כנגדו - opposed to him, contradicting his words.

Some say: Rabbi Elazar pointed out a contradiction: it is written k'negdo and we read k'nigdo; if he merits — she is a match for him; if he does not merit — she lashes him.

מנגדתו - since the yud is not written, it is a term of lashing, as in striking with a rod.

Rabbi Yosi found Eliyahu and said to him: It is written: I will make him a helper — in what way does a woman help a man?

He said to him: A man brings wheat — does he chew wheat? Flax — does he wear flax? Is she not found to light up his eyes and stand him on his feet!

חטים כוסס - said in astonishment.

And Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of what is written (Bereishis 2:23): This time, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh?

זאת הפעם - implying that the other times he had relations, and they did not satisfy his mind.

This teaches that Adam came upon every animal and beast, and his mind was not satisfied^[3] until he came upon Chavah.

And Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of what is written (Bereishis 12:3): And all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you?

HaKadosh Baruch Hu said to Avraham: I have two good shoots to graft onto you: Rus the Moavite and Naamah the Amonite.

שתי ברכות - as in one who layers the vine (Kilayim 7:1) — i.e., to graft them on to you.

רות המואביה ונעמה העמונית - kings and prophets came out of them: Naamah was the mother of Rechavam, and from her came Chizkiyahu, Asa and Yehoshafat, who were completely righteous, and Yeshayahu the prophet, for the master said: Amotz and Amatzyah were brothers (Megillah 10b).

All the families of the earth — even the families who dwell on the land are blessed only because of Yisrael.

(Bereishis 18:18) All the nations of the earth — even the ships that come from Gallia to Aspamia^[4] are blessed only because of Yisrael.

And Rabbi Elazar said: In the future, all craftsmen will stand on the land, as it says (Yechezkel 27:29): And all who handle the oar, the sailors, all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand upon the land.

שיעמדו על הקרקע - they will leave their crafts to engage in plowing and harvesting.

וירדו מאניותיהם כל תופשי משוט - to the land they will stand.

And Rabbi Elazar said: You have no craft lower than working the land, as it says: And they shall come down.

וירדו - a term of descent into poverty.

Rabbi Elazar saw a certain field in which they had plowed cabbage across its width.

דשדי בה כרבא - sowing cabbage; another version: karba means plowing, like the term karuv v'tani (Bava Basra 12a), and like a fox coming up from a plowed field (Niddah 65b).

לפותיא - across the width of the bed.

He said to it: Even if you turn it over lengthwise, turning over coins in business is better than you.

אי תשדייה לאורכיך - that is: even if you plow it again, it will not be worth anything compared to business.

דהפוכי בעסקא טוב - to profit more.

Rav entered among stalks of grain and saw them waving.

דקא נייפן - the wind blows them against one another.

He said to them: If you wave, wave away — turning over coins in business is better than you.

אי תניפנו - wave as much as you like — they are of no use compared to commerce; tanifenu is a term like wave the fan for me (Bava Metzia 86a).

Rava said: A hundred zuz in business — meat and wine every day; a hundred zuz in land — salt and greens.

חפורה - straw, whose profit is small, and he eats grass and greens with salt.

חפורה - greens from the grain before it has reached a third of its growth.

And not only that, but it lays him down on the ground and casts quarrels upon him.

מגניא ליה אארעא - it lays him down on the ground, to guard it all night.

[ומרמיא ליה תיגרי - because of it he quarrels with people.

Rav Papa said: Sow and do not buy; even though they are equal, these are blessed.

זרע - grain to feed your household.

ולא תזבון - do not acquire grain from the market.

ואע"ג דכי הדדי נינהו - even if wheat is cheap and your land is not worth much and you have no profit at the moment — even so, these are blessed with blessing that is found in a thing that is not bought with money and does not run out quickly.

ברכה - abundance, in the vernacular.

Sell and do not become poor.

זבן ולא תיזול - sell your household utensils and use the money in trade before you come to poverty.

This applies to carpets, but a cloak — he may not come across one.

ביסתרקי - household items, carpets, in the vernacular.

אבל גלימא - which is worn for dignity — he should not sell it, for perhaps when he wants it again he will not come across a fitting one like it.

Seal and do not plaster;

טום - Aramaic for seal up, as in the Pelishtim sealed them (Bereishis 26:15), rendered tuminun Pelishtai. Seal and do not plaster: if you have a small hole in a shaky wall, seal it at once, and do not widen the hole to plaster it with much clay and bricks to beautify it.

plaster and do not build, for whoever engages in building becomes poor.

שפוץ - to plaster, in the vernacular. And if you are a man of means who wishes to enjoy your buildings, widen the hole and plaster it to make it beautiful.

ולא תיבני - do not knock down the whole wall and rebuild it.

Hurry and buy land;

be slow and marry a wife;

מתון נסיב איתתא - wait until you check her deeds, that she is not bad and quarrelsome.

go down a step and marry a wife;

נחית דרגא ונסיב איתתא - do not take a wife more important than you, lest you not be accepted by her.

go up a step and choose a friend.

שושבינא - a good friend — choose for yourself an important person to cling to.

Rabbi Elazar bar Avina said: Punishment comes to the world only because of Yisrael,^[5] as it says (Tzefanyah 3:6): I have cut off nations, their towers are desolate; I have destroyed their streets, and it is written (Tzefanyah 3:7): I said, Surely you will fear Me, you will accept instruction.

בשביל ישראל - to make them fear, so that they will return in teshuvah.

Rav was taking leave of Rabbi Chiya. He said to him: May the Merciful One save you from something harder than death.

But is there anything harder than death?

He went out, examined and found (Koheles 7:26): And I find more bitter than death the woman, etc.

Rav's wife used to torment him: when he told her, Make me lentils,^[6] she would make him chickpeas; chickpeas — she would make him lentils.

חימצי - a kind of legume.

When Chiya his son grew up, he reversed it for her.

אפיך לה - the father would tell his son: tell your mother to make lentils, and he would tell her: make chickpeas, and she would make lentils.

He said to him: Your mother has improved for you!

He said to him: It is I who reverse it for her.

He said to him: This is what people say: The one who comes from you teaches you sense;

טעמא מלפך - sometimes the son makes his father wiser — I should have done so.

but you, do not do so, as it says (Yirmiyahu 9:4): They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood; they weary themselves to commit iniquity, etc.

אבל אתה - it is a falsehood, and it is written: They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood.

Rabbi Chiya's wife used to torment him; when he would find something, he would wrap it in his scarf and bring it to her.

כי הוה משכח מידי - something fitting for her.

Rav said to him: But she torments the master!

He said to him: It is enough for us that they raise our children and save us^[7]

Tosafos

המלוה סלע לעני בשעת דחקו - Rabbeinu Tam asks: in the first perek of Chagigah (5a) it says: And many evils and troubles shall befall him — this is one who presses money on a poor man in his time of distress. And Rabbeinu Tam says that there it speaks of when the ruler demands a tax from him, and he must sell his house or his field for it, and this one supplies him with money — whereas had he found no way to sell, they would have eased it off him. That is the many troubles: he must sell cheaply and loses everything. And it concludes there: this is what people say: A zuz for produce is not to be found — that is, to buy grain they do not supply him with money; for the hanging it is found — when they press him to sell, as in they hung him and he sold (Bava Basra 47b). And Rashi explained it there differently.

אפילו ספינות הבאות מגליא לאספמיא - From the word kol he expounds that it comes to include even those that stay on land only a little.

שאין לך אומנות פחותה כו' - Even though Rabbi Elazar himself said above: Any man who has no land is not a man — one must say that means land on which to build a home to live in, and also for his food, as Rav Papa says below: Sow and do not buy; and here it speaks of a man whose main occupation is working the land.

זבין ולא תיזול - The Kuntres explained it as a term of poverty — that is, sell your household utensils before you become poor. And this is difficult: why does he mention carpets more than other things? And it seems to Rabbeinu Tam like the explanation of Rabbeinu Chananel, that tizul is a matter of weaving, as in he would sit in the market and unravel cloth (Chullin 60a) — that is, buy garments and do not weave, for you will profit more by buying than by weaving; but a cloak it is good to weave, for perhaps he will not come across one as he wishes.

Notes

1. 1. Continues from [Yevamos 62b].
2. 2. A memory aid for the order of Rabbi Elazar's teachings that follow.
3. 3. [Rashi on Bereishis 2:23]
4. 4. Gallia is France; Aspamia is Spain. According to Tosafos: even ships that stay on land only a little.
5. 5. [Rashi on Shemos 7:3]
6. 6. Teluphchi — lentils.
7. 7. The passage continues on [Yevamos 63b].