Completing a Book of Talmud

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The bulk of tractate Kiddushin discusses the laws of betrothal and marriage. The last few pages of the tractate delve into the laws of yichud, the prohibition against an unrelated man and woman (unmarried to each other) from secluding together. On a related note, the Talmud discusses various professions that should be avoided by bachelors, because they call for extensive dealings with members of the opposite gender.

This springboards into a larger discussion regarding the ideal professions that parents should endeavor to teach their children:

Rabbi Meir said: One should always teach his son a clean and easy craft, and beseech for mercy from He to whom wealth and property belong, for neither poverty nor wealth comes from one’s profession, but from He to whom wealth belong, as it is said (Haggai 2:8): “Mine is the silver, Mine is the gold, says the G-d of hosts.”

At this point, the Talmud cites from the Mishnah a saying from Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar, and expands upon it:

It was taught: Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar said: In all my days, I have not seen a deer drying figs, a lion carrying burdens, or a fox as a shopkeeper, yet they are sustained without trouble. Now, they were created only to serve me, and I was created to serve my Maker. Now, if these, who were created only to serve me are sustained without trouble, how much more so should I – who was created to serve my Maker – be sustained without trouble! But it is because I have acted evilly and destroyed my livelihood, as it is said (Jeremiah 5:25), “Your iniquities have turned away [these things, and your sins have withheld the good from you.].”

Now the Talmud cites from the Mishnah a saying from Rabbi Nehorai, and expands upon it:

It was taught: R. Nehorai said: I abandon all trades in the world and teach my son only Torah, for every trade in the world stands a man in stead only in his youth, but in his old age he is exposed to hunger. But the Torah is not so: it stands by him in his youth and gives him a future and hope in his old age. Of the time of his youth what is said? “But they who put their hope in G-d shall renew their strength; they shall raise wings as eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). Of his old age what is said? “They shall yet bring forth fruit in old age; fat and fresh will they be.” (Psalms 92:15).