Commerce Is Less Worthy than Agriculture
And no alien god is bound to him (Deuteronomy 32:12)—there shall not be among you any who engage in commerce of any sort.
For it is stated: Let there be hands-full of grain in the Land (Psalm 72:16)—that is, let the wheat yield loaves that fill the hand’s entire span!
Let its fruit crackle, like Lebanon (Psalm 72:16)—that is, let the wheat berries rub against each other, shedding their semolina upon the Land, so that you can come and take from it a handful to support yourself.
Translated by Martin Jaffee.
Credits
Sifre Deuteronomy 315, from Sifre Devarim: A New Translation of the 4th-century Rabbinic Oral Commentaries on Deuteronomy, trans. Marty Jaffee (Seattle, Wash.: Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, 2016), https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/book/sifre-devarim/. Used with permission of the publisher.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
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