Pt1 From Donkey Drivers to Doctors, Bloodletters to Tanners: Rabbinic Insights and Guidance on Professions (Mishnah Kiddushin 4:14; Talmud ibid., 82a-b)

The Good, the Bad, and the Necessary: Professions in the Mishnah and Talmud

This is the first part of a three-part series. The outline is below.

Outline

1. Mishnah (Kiddushin 4:14)

   1. Abba Guryan Warns Against Six Dishonest Professions

   2. R’ Yehuda's Mostly Negative Character Profiles of Five Professions

2. Talmud (Kiddushin 82a-b)

   1. Ten Disqualifying Professions: Ethical Concerns and Leadership Eligibility

   2. The Ten Characteristics of Bloodletters, All Negative

   3. Advice on Trades: Clean and Easy Professions

   4. Fortune and Necessity: Hierarchies in Trades and Gender According to R' Yehuda HaNasi

   5. R’ Meir: A Father Should Teach His Son a Clean and Easy Profession

   6. Human Struggle For Livelihood vs. Animal Ease

3. Appendix #1 - List of Occupations Mentioned In the Text (Twenty)

   1. Intro

   2. List

4. Appendix #2 - Ritual Impurity of Professional Tools (Mishnah Keilim 16:6-7)

   1. Intro

   2. Nine Professions Mentioned

   3. The Passage

      1. Gloves

      2. A list of 18 items (e.g., carpenter’s vice, lyre and violin cases, turban-making blocks, tefillin moulds) deemed pure

      3. General Rule by R' Yose

Mishnah (Kiddushin 4:14)

Mishnah_Kiddushin.4.14¹

Abba Guryan Warns Against Six Dishonest Professions

Abba Guryan of Tzadyan² (אבא גוריון איש צידן), quoting Abba Gurya, advises against teaching one's son certain trades; specifically, one of the following occupations, as these professions (אמנותן) are prone to dishonesty and robbery:³

1. Donkey driver (חַמָּר)

2. Camel driver⁴

3. Barber⁵

4. Sailor⁶

5. Shepherd (רועה)

6. Shopkeeper (חנוני)

אבא גרין איש צדין אומר, משום אבא גריא:

לא ילמד אדם את בנו,

1. חמר,

2. גמל,

3. ספר,

4. ספן,

5. רועה,

6. וחנוני,

שאמנותן אמנות לסטים.

Abba Guryan of Tzadyan says in the name of Abba Gurya:

A person may not teach his son the trades of

1. a donkey driver,

2. a camel driver,

3. a pot maker,

4. a sailor,

5. a shepherd,

6. or a storekeeper.

The reason for all these is the same, as their trades are the trades of robbers; all of these professions involve a measure of dishonesty and are likely to lead to robbery.

R’ Yehuda's Mostly Negative Character Profiles of Five Professions

R' Yehuda adds distinctions, in Abba Gurya’s name:⁷

Most donkey drivers are wicked (due to deceit), while camel drivers are generally upright (as they face dangers in the desert, and pray for safety).

Sailors are mostly pious.⁸

The best doctors (רופאים) are destined for Gehenna, and even the most skilled (כשר) butchers (טבחים) are (metaphorically) “partners of Amalek” (suggesting moral corruption in these professions).

רבי יהודה אומר משמו:

1. החמרין -- רבן רשעים,

2. והגמלין -- רבן כשרים.

3. הספנין -- רבן חסידים.

4. טוב שברופאים -- לגיהנם.

5. והכשר שבטבחים -- שתפו של עמלק.

R' Yehuda says in Abba Gurya’s name:

1. Most donkey drivers are wicked, since they engage in deceit,

2. and most camel drivers, who traverse dangerous places such as deserts, are of fit character, as they pray to God to protect them on their journeys.

3. Most sailors are pious, since the great danger of the seas instills in them the fear of Heaven.

4. The best of doctors is to Gehenna,

and even the fittest of butchers is a partner of Amalek.

1. This is the sixth-longest Mishnah in the total 4000+ Mishnah sections.. See my count here:

2. Either Sidon or Bethsaida, see his Hebrew Wikipedia entry (hyperlinked in the main text), section “His Name and Place [surname]” (שמו ומקומו).

3. לסטים - from Greek.

For an additional list of Talmudic professions, refer to my compilation of occupational surnames in the article "Abba” (at my Academia.edu page), section “Occupational Surnames” (pp. 59-63). .

See also the "Occupations" (בעלי מקצוע) category at Hebrew Wiktionary here.

The typical Hebrew mishkal construct for occupational names are “qatal”, this is the case for the first 4 items in the following list. See Wiktionary, “Appendix:Hebrew patterns/קַטָּל“:

Noun

קַטָּל • (katál, qattāl) m (plural indefinite קַטָּלִים, plural construct קַטָּלֵי־)

1. A male agent noun, indicating a profession or occupation

   גַּן (gán, “a garden”) → גַּנָּן (ganán, gannān, “a gardener; a kindergarten teacher”)

Variants

The קַטָּל (“katál, qattāl”) pattern of weak verbs in ־ה has the ending ־ַאי (“-ay”):

• בָּנָה (baná, bānâ) → בַּנַּאי (banáy, bannaʾy)

See the category of such entries here: Category:Hebrew terms in the pattern קַטָּל

4. גַּמָּל.

This occupation, as well as sailors, mentioned later in the list, are also mentioned in Mishnah_Shabbat.15.1:

אלו קשרים שחיבין עליהן:

1. קשר הגמלין

2. וקשר הספנין.

And these are knots for which one is liable to bring a sin-offering if one tied them on Shabbat:

1. A camel driver’s knot

2. and a sailor’s knot, both of which are meant to be permanent.

5. סַפָּר. Steinsaltz ed. translates “pot maker”.

On barbers, compare also Mishnah_Sheviit.8.5:

אין נותנים

1. לא לביר,

2. ולא לבלן,

3. ולא לספר,

4. ולא לספן.

They may not pay [sheviit proceeds to]

1. a well-digger,

2. an attendant at a public bath,

3. a barber,

4. or a sailor.

Compare my piece here, section “Haman took Mordecai to the bathhouse, washed him, and cut his hair“, which is part of the dramatic expansion of the story of biblical Haman, where Haman is derided as having been a barber for many years:

אמר ליה: רשע, ולאו ספר של כפר קרצום היית?!

תנא: המן, ספר של כפר קרצום היה עשרים ושתים שנה.

Mordecai said to him: Wicked man, were you not once the barber of the village of Kartzum?! If so, why do you sigh? You have merely returned to the occupation of your youth.

It was taught in a baraita: Haman was the barber of the village of Kartzum for twenty-two years.

6. סַפָּן.

A sailor is also referred to in the Bible as a malah (מַלָּח), as well as in the Bible and Mishnah as a “seafarer” (יורד הים), see Mishnah_Nedarim.3.6:

הנודר מיורדי הים —

מתר ביושבי היבשה.

מיושבי היבשה —

אסור ביורדי הים,

שיורדי הים בכלל יושבי היבשה.

לא כאלו שהולכין מעכו ליפו,

אלא במי שדרכו לפרש:

In the case of one who takes a vow that he will not derive benefit from seafarers,

he is permitted to benefit from those who live on dry land.

But if he takes a vow not to derive benefit from those who live on dry land,

he is also prohibited from deriving benefit from seafarers,

because seafarers are included within the category of those who live on dry land.

The mishna now defines seafarers: Not like those that travel by ship from Akko to Jaffa, which is a short trip,

but rather one who customarily departs [lefaresh] to distant locations, e.g., foreign countries.

7. The reasons for the negative or positive evaluations are not given. In parentheses, I provide the traditional explanations for the evaluation of each profession, as presented by Steinsaltz, based on commentators.

8. חסידים - Hasidim, as they are often in peril at sea.