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Working with Yayin Nesech

Avodah Zara (5:1) | Yisrael Bankier | an hour ago

The Mishnah (5:1) teaches that if one is paid to work with yayin nesech -- wine that is used for idol worship -- then the money earnt is prohibited. If however, he was instructed to perform other work, and in whilst working was asked to move a barrel of wine, then his salary is permitted. We shall try to understand this Mishnah.

The Bartenura explains that wages being prohibited is a fine (knas) introduced by the Chachamim for working with yayin nesech or stam yayin. The Ritva explains that the knas is because he is maintaining an object of idol worship, which is a violation of the instruction to destroy idols and objects of idol worship.

With this we can understand the Gemara (63b) that addresses the case where one was paid to break barrels of yayin nesech. The Gemara explains that, on the one hand he is paid to break the barrels, and wants them to be intact so he can be the one to break them. On the other hand, he will be ridding the world of it. Rav Nachman answered, "he should break them, and he should be blessed".

The Chatam Sofer explains that, according to Rashi, the Gemara assumed that ideally one should not take such a job, since ultimately, he would be profiting for an issur hanaah -- and object that one is not allowed to benefit from. From the response of Rav Nachman however, that "he should be blessed" the conclusion is that one can even ideally take that job. Based on the Ritva above, the conclusion makes sense. The assumption was that the issue was simply deriving benefit from an issur hanaah. However, since the reason for the gezeira to prohibit the wages was because it was maintaining objects of idol worship and the job is to do the exact opposite, the wages would be permitted.

Returning to our Mishnah, the Bartenura explains that in the case where the salary is permitted, it is where the person was paid to move barrels with a payment of a coin per barrel transported. The Tosfot Yom Tov cites Rashi who explains that he could take his payment, aside from the amount for the barrel of wine. Alternatively, if the full fee was paid together, then he could simply take one coin and throw it to the yam ha'melach.

The Bartenura adds that if however, he was commissioned to move a one-hundred barrels for one-hundred coins and a barrel of wine was amongst them, his payment would be prohibited. One might ask, can the worker simply discard one of the coins like in the previous case? This is indeed the position of the Raavad (Maachalot Assurot 13:18). The Tosfot Yom Tov however cites the Ran who explains that in this case, if he did not move all the barrels, he would not get paid. Consequently, the prohibited barrel is what enabled the entire salary payment. The Tosfot Yom Tov adds that according to this explanation it must be that the barrel of wine was amongst the barrels that he was employed to move.

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