“One who transports stones will be saddened by them; and one who splits wood will benefit from it” (Ecclesiastes 10:9). “One who transports stones will be saddened by them” – one who transports himself from his studies will ultimately be sorry. He will seek a matter but will not find it.48He will seek to recall some detail of his Torah study but will not remember it. “And one who splits wood will benefit [yisakhen] from it.”
As long as he toils in it, he will benefit from it, just as you say: “She will be an attendant [sokhenet] for him” (I Kings 1:2). Another matter: “One who transports stones” from place to place “will be saddened by them”; “and one who splits wood will benefit from it.”49Previously the midrash interpreted the phrase “one who transports stones” to refer to one who removes himself from Torah study, as stones are an allusion to the tablets given at Sinai.
Now the midrash interprets the verse literally as referring to one who moves stones from place to place. Unscrupulous individuals might remove stones from their fields to the public domain, but ultimately it is they who will stumble (Midrash HaMevo’ar). Rabbi Meyashya said: In reward for the two logs that Abraham chopped on Mount Moriah, he was privileged to have the sea split for his descendants into twelve strips.