משלי יד:ד
בְּאֵין אֲלָפִים אֵבוּס בָּר וְרָב תְּבוּאוֹת בְּכֹחַ שׁוֹר:
Mishlei 14:4 – “Cake and Ox-filth”
Where there are no oxen, the barn is clean; but many crops come [through] the power of an ox.
This pasuk is a nuanced version of the American proverb: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” The only way to have abundant crops is by means of an ox, but if you have an ox, you’ll have to deal with all of the filth it produces. The same is true in all other areas of life: if you desire an end, you’ll have to deal not only with the means, but even with the accidental byproducts of the means, such as the filth produced by the oxen. To desire an end without its means and their byproducts is to desire an impossible fantasy, and will only increase frustration and misery.
Thank you for the post.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure אבוס can be rendered as "barn". As far as I know it's only limited to the feeding trough. Is there a particular commentator you're quoting for "barn"?
Jastrow defines "אבוס" as: (1) feeding receptacle, bowl; manger (2) stall, stable.
ReplyDeleteWhen I learned this פסוק initially, I relied on the מאירי for the translation. The מאירי writes: ואבוס הוא אבוס ממש, והוא המקום שאוכלות שם הבהמות, "וחמור אבוס בעליו" (ישעיה א:ג), כלומר באין אלפים נשאר האבוס בר ונקי וריק ונעור. I assumed by his use of the term מקום rather than כלי that he was referring to the location in which the שוורים eat, rather than the receptacle.
Either way, my translation doesn't change the idea (as I understand it). To me, the imagery of a filthy barn is better than that of a dirty feeding trough.
Just looking for the very first time at Mishlei 14 on chabad, it seems like the second half of the statement tends to represent the arrogant course of action, with its consequences...The first seven verses seem closely linked, which makes me wonder, among other things whether an abundance of crops is necessarily a good thing, except the day before the sabbath when it obviously is, though still only to a point.
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