잠언 20:4의 인용 해설

Solomon also addresses apparent contradictions which man could expect if he were to make Torah-principles his sole guidelines such as giving charity generously. He explains that contrary to human logic “giving” does not impoverish the giver but enriches him (Proverbs 11,24). A similar thought is voiced in Proverbs 28,27 i.e. “he who gives to the poor will not be in need.” It is important to realize that all such parables need to be based on life’s experiences, matters man experiences with one or more of his five senses. Unless the parable is something with which we are familiar it cannot hope to achieve its purpose, i.e. to convey the moral lesson it is meant to convey. The meaning of this statement is also that just as the body derives physical gratification from the consumption of honey, so the soul derives spiritual gratification from the absorption of words of wisdom. This is one of the meanings of Exodus 24,11: “they saw G’d and ate and drank.” In other words, just as eating and drinking provided physical gratification, so a vision of the divine provides man with spiritual gratification. One of the reasons Moses could spend 40 days on Mount Sinai going without bread or water, i.e. physical food, was that the divine visions he beheld during that time did more for his soul, his spiritual essence, than even the vision described as being had by the אצילי בני ישראל, ‘the nobles of Israel” in Exodus 24,11. Moses drew on this spiritual food-reservoir for practically 120 days seeing that the brief time he spent in the camp between his three sojourns on the mountain amounted to less than a full day each time. [The author had already explained the logic that if physical food which originally derived from the celestial regions can sustain our bodies on earth, then spiritual food, i.e. food at its source, not diluted by various detours before it reaches man, such as soil, trees, etc., would most certainly not do any less for the person absorbing it. In our day and age the best illustration is probably to compare that celestial, “pure” food to patients on earth who have to be fed intravenously. These patients do not suffer by their food by-passing the mouth, the stomach, and the intestines which are the body’s primary organs for food intake. Ed.]
The author demonstrates that when Moses ascended the mountain on the first of Elul (the third time) this was a Monday so that his return on Yom Kippur occurred on Thursday. This is why the sages determined that courts were to sit on Mondays and Thursdays of each week. This is the allegorical meaning of the words דרשו ה' בהמצאו, “seek out the Lord when He is liable to be found” (Isaiah 55,6). The days which have proved particularly propitious are Mondays and Thursdays. The commandment to construct the Tabernacle was issued on the morrow of Yom HaKippurim, hence this is where our portion begins.

Shemayah and Avtalyon received from them. Shemayah says, "Love work": So that a man not be idle from work, since idleness brings a person to ennui (Ketuvot 59b); and that is a trait of illness, as it is stated about it (Proverbs 21:25), "The craving of a lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to do." It means to say, when he accustoms his limbs to be idle from work, his hands refuse, since habit rules over them. And it also states about it (Proverbs 20:4), "From the winter the lazy man does not plow; at harvest time he seeks, and there is nothing." As he thinks when he is idle from work that it is rest for him, but it is the opposite; as [it is] with exertion [that] he will have rest. As with the winter he will rest and stay in his house and not plow and seek to reap and gather the grain [when] there is none and die of hunger. But the one who plows in the winter - 'he who tills his land will be sated with bread,' as a man cannot reach rest without exertion first. 'But he who pursues vanities' and pursues the ones that sit in the corners idle from work 'will be sated with poverty.'

It is written in Proverbs 20:4, “The sluggard will not plow when it is winter; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.” The wise one [Solomon], who was imbued with the Divine Spirit, did not come to tell us what even small children know. As explained by Rashi’s commentary on that verse, derived from the Midrash Rabbah on the Torah portion Nitzavim, this verse is a parable and analogy, referring to the Torah. For we already know from other [Talmudic sources] that the toil and labor applied to Torah [study] is compared to bread. Tractate Hagigah 14a states, pertaining to the verse, “Come, eat of my bread…,”²²Prov. 9:5, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine that I have mixed.” [that bread] refers to the Talmud.²³See Ha’amek Davar, Deut. 28:2, where the Netziv explains that the word lehem denotes how the Torah creates a strong connection between God and Israel which cannot be severed. It resembles the Hebrew word laham, which means to weld or glue two things together strongly. Scripture compares the toil of Torah in one’s youth to “plowing,” while “harvest” is referring to a person later in life, who possesses a clear mind and benefits others with his wisdom. [King Solomon] is stating that if one does not toil by applying analysis in his youth,²⁴This is the parable of planting in the winter. he will beg for explanations of the Torah and receive nothing.²⁵This means that he will not receive an understanding of clearly-defined laws. We now need to understand that just as plowing when done by the elderly is not successful, because at a weaker time of life one can not hoe well, so there is no point in man harvesting in his youth, i.e., reaping the fruit [of Torah] too early, so that it cannot be restored or improved by means of great analysis. The fruit of the tree of life is fragile and delicate,²⁶Isa.47:1. and its essential taste and aroma come when it has matured and not when it is unripe.