Until Morning?
Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
What is the meaning of this? Why does it matter whether one withholds wages for 8 hours overnight versus 8 hours during a day?
Might the answer be found by looking at every time “עַד־בֹּֽקֶר” is found in the text? They are:
1: Things that are retained overnight, until the morning: staying inside during the last plague, manna and Shabbos, the light of the menorah, the fire of the olah on the altar, and the divine fire and cloud over the mishkan.
2: Things that must not continue until the morning: the korban pesach, manna during the week, meat, bread and fats of offerings, thanksgiving offering, and withheld wages.
Given this list, and every reasonable expectation that every word in the Torah has meaning, then what links together all the things in each category?
Could it be like the days of creation, that “it was evening and it was morning” is a way of saying that the things created achieve a lasting permanence once they have lasted through the night?
Might the answer be as simple as “until the morning” suggests a timeless permanence, something that we should always aim to make constant and ever-present in our lives? Remembering leaving Egypt, Shabbos, the light of the menorah, the meaning of an elevation-offering, the olah, that was first brought by Noach? And G-d’s presence, whether fire or cloud, over the mishkan?
While everything that is not supposed to continue overnight are things that we supposed to consciously “sunset” – that we should always seek to never maintain these things, to never crystallize in a creative or destructive act that is maintained forever?
Does this not also apply to our relationships? That the problems that last overnight have a way of sticking with us? While problems that are resolved before we “sleep on it” end up being much less problematic?
Is the Torah trying to teach us the difference between things that we should always try to make permanent in our lives, versus the things that we should always keep as transient, things we can and should always seek to put behind us, so we can keep moving forward? Is that the meaning of “until the morning”?
Can it really be this simplistic? Or is there a deeper level of meaning that explains every example?
Holiness and Source?
You shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy. You shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
What is the meaning of this juxtaposition?
Might it be that holiness requires mindful awareness of where we come from, both biologically (our parents) and spiritually (Shabbos)? Are these two examples chosen specifically so that we should have awareness? Or is it really about gratitude for having received both life and purposeful meaning for our lives?
If we consider aspects of holiness, positing that mikdash is the essence of kodesh (just as mayim is the essence or core of yam), then the mikdash and avodah tells us what is holy: Incense (reminder of our creation and connection with Gd, realizing the importance of the insubstantial); Menorah (light/knowledge/ influence); Altar (elevation of the physical); Table/showbread (partnership, controlling desires); and Ark (relationships) – are not both parents and Shabbos connected to all of these?
Could we argue that holiness is achieved not through anchoring ourselves to something that is itself physically timeless, but instead continually and spiritually reinvesting our pasts into our futures?
Are there better answers?
Why Three Days?
And if you offer a sacrifice of peace/completion offering to the Lord, you shall offer it so that it may be favourably accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the morrow: and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is pigul; it shall not be accepted.
What is so important about the third day for this particular offering, a zevach shlamim?
Might it be connected to one key purpose of any offering: to put a line under the past, and only look forward? After all, we cannot change the past – we can only change what we do next. Which means that the past should be reconciled, and dealt with, and then put behind us. (It is one explanation why salt is at every offering – Lot’s wife looked back, and turned into salt. So salt reminds us to keep looking forward.)
So why three days?
Might it be connected to the days of creation? Until the third day, G-d created nothing living. But then on the third day, G-d made plants: life and death. It was unlike anything that had ever been created beforehand, so it was a revolutionary breakthrough, not an evolutionary change.
And then the next 3 days are similar: plants and animals and all manner of living things – and then mankind is made. We are unlike anything else in the world, because we are ensouled by a divine spark. We, human beings, are the only place in this world where the Torah tells us that G-d’s own spirit can be found (until, later, the Mishkan becomes the other place).
So is the third day for the “fulfillment” or “completion” offering a reminder that after three days, if we are truly following in G-d’s pathway, it is time to move on to something entirely new?
Might it be also connected to the first zevach shlamim found in the Torah? This was at Sinai, just before Moshe goes up on the mountain:
And Moshe wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Yisra᾽el. And he sent the young men of the children of Yisra᾽el, who offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed zevach shlamim of oxen to the Lord.
Was this first example of zevach shlamim not also a step-change for all the people and our relationship with G-d, analogous to the step-changes of the third and sixth (or even seventh) days of creation?
Is there a better explanation for why this offering must be eaten within three days?