קידושין דף פב ע"ב

— an embroiderer's needle.^[1]

מחטא דתלמיותא - a furrowing needle, brosder (embroidery) in the vernacular, for its stitches are made in furrow upon furrow, row upon row, like the furrows of a plough.

It was taught in a beraisa: Rebbi^[2] says: There is no trade that passes away from the world.

שעוברת מן העולם - that it falls idle in the world. Whether a trade is a clean one or a repulsive one, there is need of it, and if this man does not learn it, another will.

Fortunate is he who sees his parents in a superior trade; woe to him who sees his parents in a defective trade.

אשרי מי שרואה את הוריו - those who bore him, and his children as well, in a clean trade.

The world cannot manage without a perfumer and without a tanner.^[3] Fortunate is he whose trade is perfumery, and woe to him whose trade is tanning.

בשם - a seller of spices.

The world cannot manage without males and without females. Fortunate is he whose children are males, and woe to him whose children are females.

Rabbi Meir says: A man should always teach his son a clean and light trade, and should ask mercy of Him to whom wealth and possessions belong^[4] — for poverty does not come from one's trade and wealth does not come from one's trade, but from Him to whom wealth belongs,

as it says (Chagai 2:8): The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, says Hashem, Lord of Hosts.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: Have you ever seen in your life…

It was taught in a beraisa: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: Never in my life have I seen a deer drying figs, or a lion carrying loads, or a fox keeping a shop^[5] —

צבי קייץ - drying figs out in the field.

סבל - carrying burdens.

and yet they are sustained without distress. And they were created only to serve me, while I was created to serve my Maker.

If these, which were created only to serve me, are sustained without distress, then I, who was created to serve my Maker — is it not right that I should be sustained without distress?

It is only that I have acted wickedly and so ruined my livelihood,

as it says (Yirmiyahu 5:25): Your iniquities have turned these away…

Rabbi Nehorai says: I set aside every trade in the world, etc.

It was taught in a beraisa: Rabbi Nehorai says: I set aside every trade in the world and teach my son nothing but Torah,

for every trade in the world stands by a man only in the days of his youth, but in the days of his old age he lies in hunger.

כל אומניות - they carry no reward paid at a later time, only the wage to be had at the time itself; but Torah — its reward comes of itself over length of days, and even a sick man or an old man who can no longer occupy himself with it eats from what he gathered before.

But Torah is not so: it stands by a man in the time of his youth, and gives him a future and a hope in the time of his old age.

In the time of his youth, what does it say? (Yeshayahu 40:31): They that hope in Hashem shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.

In his old age, what does it say? (Tehillim 92:15): They shall still be fruitful in old age; they shall be full of sap and freshness.^[6]

שנאמר עוד ינובון בשיבה - they will put forth growth, and their reward is set apart for them for the time of their old age — they shall be full of sap and freshness, and so on.

Notes

1. 1. The amud opens in the middle of an answer that begins at the foot of the previous amud: bar Kappara taught that a man should always teach his son a clean and light trade, the Gemara asked which trade that is, and Rav Yehudah answers here [קידושין פב, א]. Rashi identifies the work as embroidery, whose stitches are laid in rows like the furrows of a plough — work that is clean, and light enough for a man to keep at it.
2. 2. The name רבי with nothing attached to it is Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishnah. A teaching of his that was not included in the Mishnah reaches the Gemara as a beraisa, introduced here by the word תניא.
3. 3. A בורסקי cures hides, and the stench of the tannery made it the standing example of a repulsive trade. The beraisa is not calling the work dispensable — it has just said the world cannot manage without it — only that no man is fortunate to be in it. Rashi's dibbur hamaschil reads בשם with a shin where the Gemara reads בסם with a samech; it is one word either way, a dealer in spices.
4. 4. The Mishnah on the previous amud carries Rabbi Meir's ruling in slightly different words — ויתפלל למי שהעושר והנכסים שלו, and שאין אומנות שאין בה עניות ועשירות [קידושין פב, א]. The beraisa here is the version taught outside the Mishnah.
5. 5. The three are named because none of them works for its food at all: a deer does not sit drying figs, a lion carries nothing, a fox keeps no shop — and they are fed nonetheless. The trades chosen are the ordinary ones a man would take up.
6. 6. The two verses are brought as a pair, one for youth and one for old age, answering the two halves of what Rabbi Nehorai said about a trade. These are the closing words of masechta Kiddushin.