Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 4, 2018)
Reading 1 (Job 7:1-4, 6-7)
1 “Is not man on earth for a limited time,
and are his days not like the days of a hireling?
Lev 25:50
He shall calculate with his buyer the number of years [even if the gentile who bought him be subservient to you, you must not practise crooked ways against him (to avoid desecration of the Name)] from the year of his being sold to him until the Jubilee year [when he would, in any event, be released]. And the purchase price shall be divided by the number of years [that he served him]; as the days of a hired worker, he shall be with him [i.e., the buyer receives the difference between the purchase price and the wages of a hired man for the period that he serves him (that wage being determined proportionately, per year, by the purchase price divided by the number of years until the Jubilee year)].
Bava Kamma 113b:1
indicating that one should not take a Hebrew slave by force and thereby allow him to leave the gentile’s jurisdiction. Rather, the Jew must be freed by legal means. One might have thought that it is permitted to deceive him in order to free the Jew. Therefore, the verse states: “He shall calculate with his buyer” (Lev 25:50), in order to teach that one must be precise in the financial dealings with the purchaser of a Hebrew slave, and one must pay him the appropriate sum without employing any form of deception. This indicates that it is prohibited to steal from a gentile.
Kiddushin 18a:3
The Gemara asks: And Rav Ḥiyya bar Avin, what is the reason that he did not state his opinion in accordance with the explanation of Rava, who derives the inheritance of gentiles from the verse: “He shall calculate with his buyer” (Lev 25:50)? The Gemara answers: Is it written explicitly in the law: He shall calculate with his buyer and not with the heirs of his buyer? This proof is based on an exposition, not on an explicit source.
Rashi’s Commentary
As the days of a hired worker, he shall be with him—i. e. he shall calculate the amount due for each year as though he had hired himself out with him e. g., at one maneh per year and that amount only he (the master) has to allow him.
Deu 15:18
Let it not be difficult in your eyes when you set him free, for he has served you six years [aside from his day labor, his master gives him a Canaanite maid-servant to bear slaves for him] with double the hire of a hired hand [day and night]. And the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
Rashi’s Commentary
With double the hire of a hired hand—From here they (the Rabbis) derived the law that a Hebrew servant has to do service both by day and by night, and that is double as much as the labor of a man hired for day work only. And what is his service during the night? That his master gives him a Canaanite maid-servant with the object of raising children, and the children belong to the master (Sifrei Devarim 123:1; Kiddushin 15a).
2 As a slave who longs for the shadow [of night],
and as a hired laborer, who looks forward to the wages of his labor,
Lev 19:13
You shall not defraud your neighbor [this alludes to holding back the wages of a hired worker], and you shall not rob him.
There shall not abide with you the wages of a [hired] worker overnight until [the next] morning.
Bava Metzia 61b:1
and this prohibition is written in the context of the matter of a hired laborer: “You shall not defraud your neighbor, and you shall not rob him, and there shall not abide with you the wages of a hired worker overnight until morning” (Lev 19:13).
Bava Metzia 112a:5
The mishna teaches: When does he transgress these prohibitions? He transgresses them when the one owed the money claimed the payment from him. If he did not claim his payment from him, the other does not transgress the prohibitions. The Sages taught: With regard to the verse: “There shall not abide with you the wages of a hired worker overnight until morning.” (Lev 19:13), one might have thought that he should be liable even if the worker did not claim his wages from him. The verse states “with you,” meaning the prohibition is not transgressed unless it is with your knowledge and consent that you have not paid him. But if he did not even request his wages yet, the prohibition has not been violated.
Rashi’s Commentary
You shall not defraud—This refers to one who withholds the wages of a hired servant (Sifra, Kedoshim, Section 2 9; Bava Metzia 61a).
Shall not abide . . . overnight—Heb. לֹא תָלִין. The word is feminine gender and refers to the wages.
Deu 24:15
You shall pay him his wages in his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and he bears his soul [risking death in his work] to it [his wage], so that he may not cry to the Lord against you; and there will be in you a sin [in any event, even if he does not call, (but calling hastens punishment)].
(Lev 19:13). When does he transgress these prohibitions? He transgresses them when the one owed the money claimed the payment from him. If he did not claim his payment from him the other does not transgress the prohibitions. If the one who owes the money transferred his payment by leaving instructions with a storekeeper or with a money changer to pay him, he does not transgress the prohibitions.
Bava Metzia 111b:7
The Gemara challenges: Although Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Yehuda, does not derive the verbal analogy of the words: “Hired worker” and “hired worker,” one should still also be liable in the case of animals or vessels due to the injunction of: “You shall pay him his wages in his day.” From where does he derive that such items are not included in this prohibition? Rabbi Ḥananya teaches in a baraita that the verse states: “You shall pay him his wages in his day, and the sun shall not set upon him, for he is poor” (Deu 24:15). This verse clearly is referring to one who can enter into a state of poverty and wealth, which excludes animals and vessels, which cannot enter into a state of poverty and wealth.
Bava Metzia 110b:13
GEMARA: The Sages taught: From where is it derived concerning a day worker that he collects his wages all night? The verse states: “There shall not abide with you the wages of a hired worker overnight until morning” (Lev 19:13). This indicates that he must pay him by the morning, and he has therefore not transgressed the prohibition of delaying the payment of wages until that time. And from where is it derived concerning a night worker that he collects his wages all day? As it is stated: “You shall pay him his wages in his day” (Deu 24:15).
Bava Metzia 111a:17
MISHNA: Whether referring to a person’s wages that he receives or the renting of an animal or the renting of utensils, are all subject to the prohibition of: “You shall pay him his wages in his day” (Deu 24:15), and are subject to the prohibition of: “There shall not abide with you the wages of a hired worker overnight until morning”
Rashi’s Commentary
And he bears his soul to it means, for the sake of this hire he risks his life. For instance, he climbed up a steep staircase or suspended himself from a high tree to do his work (Sifrei Devarim 279:3; Bava Metzia 112a).
And there will be in you a sin—Under any circumstances, even if he does not call against you to the Lord, but greater haste is made to punish you because of him who cries (Sifrei Devarim 279:4; cf. Rashi on Deu 15:9).
3 so am I allotted months of futility [having longed for repose, but not having found it],
and nights of misery have they appointed for me [in heaven].
4 If I would lie down, I would think, ‘When shall I arise,
and when will the evening depart?’ And I was sated with restlessness until dawn.
Deu 28:67
In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” [of the preceding day] and in the evening you will say, “If only it were [the preceding] morning!” [your suffering increasing progressively] because of the terror of your heart that you will experience and because of the sights that your eyes will see.
outcome of the next morning, which would cause him to yearn for its arrival? Rather, it must mean the morning that has passed; that is, in the evening they will pine for the previous morning, because their situation is continuously worsening.
6 “My days [of good] are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to an end without hope.
7 Remember [God] that my life is but breath;
my eye will not return to see good [a denial of the resurrection].
Rashi’s Commentary
My eye will not return—After death. Here Job denies the dogma of the Resurrection of the Dead.
Rashi’s Commentary
In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!”—i.e. if it were only yesterday evening!
And in the evening you will say, “If only it were morning!”—i.e. if it were only morning of today, because the misery will constantly grow more severe, and the curse of each hour will be greater than that of the preceding (cf. Sotah 49a).
Sotah 49a:7
The mishna states that Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua: From the day that the temple was destroyed, there is no day that does not include some form of curse. Rava says: Each and every day is more cursed than the previous one, as it is stated in the chapter detailing the curses in the book of Deuteronomy: “In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!' ” (Deu 28:67). It is unclear which morning the verse means. If we say that in the evening he will wish it would be the following morning, does he know what will be the
Alleluia (Mat 8:17)
This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:
“He himself took our infirmities
and carried away our diseases.”
Gospel (Mar 1:29-39)
Jesus Heals Many
29 And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. 31 And he went to her and helped her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.
32 When evening came, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. 33 And the whole town had gathered at the door, 34 and he healed many who were ill with various diseases, and drove out many demons, and he was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.
Jesus Prays in a Solitary Place
35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a solitary place, and was praying there. 36 Simon and his companions searched for him; 37 they found him, and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else—to the villages nearby—so that I can preach there also; for that is what I came for.” 39 And he went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and driving out the demons.
proper to consecrate it as new moon: He therefore pointed it out to him in the sky with the finger and said to him, “You must see it like this, and consecrate it.” But how could he point it out to him, for did he not conserve with him only by day, as it is said, “Now it came about on the day when the Lord spoke” (Exo 6:28); “on the day that he commanded” (Lev 7:38); “from the day that the Lord gave commandment and onwards” (Num 15:23)? But the explanation is: This chapter was spoken to him close to sunset and he pointed it out to him at nightfall (more lit., near darkness) (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:1).
This work is a derivative of "The Rashi Chumash" and "The Rashi Ketuvim" by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein used under CC BY 3.0
Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:4
This month shall be for you—Adam did not count by it (but by Tishrei, as the first month). You say this, but perhaps (the meaning is) “for you,” but not to a Gentile? (This cannot be, for) this is understood by (Ibid.) “It shall be the first . . . to you.” How, then, am I to understand “for you?” As for you, but not for Adam. We find, then, that Israel count by the moon, and the Gentiles by the sun. Not only does Israel count by the moon, but once in thirty days (at the blessing of the New Moon) they lift their eyes to their Father in heaven. And an eclipse of the sun portends evil to the Gentiles, who count by the sun; and an eclipse of the moon portends evil to Israel, who count by the moon. Rebbi says: An eclipse of the sun in the east portends evil to the dwellers in the east; in the west, to the dwellers in the west. R. Yonathan says: Both (kinds of eclipses) were relegated to the Gentiles, as it is written (Jer 10:2) “Do not emulate the ways of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them.”
Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:5
The beginning of months—I might think, for the minimum of months, two (i.e., the most distinctive of months, Sivan and Tishrei). It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) “of (all) months . . . of the year.”
Rashi’s Commentary
This month—Heb. הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶה, lit., this renewal. He showed him the moon in the first stage of its renewal, and he said to him, “When the moon renews itself, you will have a new month” (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 12:2:2). But no Scriptural verse can lose its literal meaning, and he really spoke this in reference to the month Nisan: this month shall be the beginning in the order of counting the months, so that Iyar shall be called the second, Sivan the third.
This—Moses found difficulty determining the exact moment of the renewal of the moon—how much of it must be visible before it is