Commentary for Avodah Zarah 124:2
ורבא אמר לעולם דקדוש בקדושת שביעית ודקא קשיא לך פועל פועל דלא נפיש אגריה לא קנסוהו רבנן חמרין דנפיש אגרייהו קנסו רבנן בהו ומתני' חומרא דיין נסך שאני:
And Rava said: [The meaning is] certainly that their wage has the holiness of [the produce of] the Sabbatical year, and the difficulty you raised with regard to the workman, in the case of a workman whose wage is small the Rabbis did not impose a penalty, but in the case of donkey-drivers whose wage is considerable the Rabbis did impose a penalty; and as for our Mishnah the stringency of yayin nesekh is different.
Daf Shevui to Avodah Zarah
Rava says that the baraita does indeed mean that the wages of the donkey driver carrying Sabbatical year produce are holy like the produce itself. So why is the same not true for the wages of an average workman working with Sabbatical year produce? Because his wages are low. Donkey-drivers, on the other hand, have much higher wages, and therefore the rabbis penalized them.
There is one last question though—the mishnah we have been learning says that the rabbis penalized laborers who work with yayin nesekh. But we just said that since workers’ wages are low they are not penalized! The answer is that since the laws of yayin nesekh are more stringent, the rabbis penalized them as well.
There is one last question though—the mishnah we have been learning says that the rabbis penalized laborers who work with yayin nesekh. But we just said that since workers’ wages are low they are not penalized! The answer is that since the laws of yayin nesekh are more stringent, the rabbis penalized them as well.
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