Rabbi Yohanan Who Sold His Fields for Torah

"And you shall take" (Leviticus 23:40). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana opened: "Take my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold" (Proverbs 8:10). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said, take the instruction of the Torah and not silver. "Why do you weigh out silver?" (Isaiah 55:2), why do you weigh out silver to the sons of Esau? "For that which is not bread" (Isaiah 55:2), because you have not sated yourselves with the bread of the Torah. "And your labor for that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2), why do you labor while the nations of the world are satisfied? Because you have not sated yourselves with the war of the Torah and the wine of the Torah, as it is written, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Proverbs 9:5). Rabbi Berekhiah and Rabbi Hiyya his father in the name of Rabbi Yose bar Nehorai: it is written, "And I will punish all who oppress him" (Jeremiah 30:20), even the charity collectors, except for the wages of teachers of Scripture and Mishnah, who take only the wage of their idle time. But for the wage of teaching one matter of the Torah, no creature is able to give it. It is taught: from the New Year a person's sustenance is decreed, except for what he spends on festivals, Sabbaths, new moons, and the intermediate days of the festival, and what the children bring to the schoolhouse; if he reduces it, they reduce his portion, and if he increases it, they increase his portion. Rabbi Yohanan was walking and going up from Tiberias to Sepphoris, leaning on the shoulder of Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba. They reached a field, and he said, this field was mine and I sold it to toil in the Torah. They reached a vineyard, and he said, this vineyard was mine and I sold it to toil in the Torah. They reached an olive grove, and he said, this olive grove was mine and I sold it to toil in the Torah. Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba began to weep. He said to him, why do you weep? He said, I weep because you have left nothing for your old age. He said to him, Hiyya my son, is what I did so light in your eyes, that I sold a thing given in six days and acquired a thing given in forty days and forty nights? For the whole world was created in only six days, as it is written, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth" (Exodus 31:17), but the Torah was given only in forty days and forty nights, as it is written, "And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights" (Exodus 34:28). When Rabbi Yohanan passed away, his generation read over him, "If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love" (Song of Songs 8:7), for Rabbi Yohanan loved the Torah; "it would be utterly despised" (Song of Songs 8:7). When Abba bar Hoshaya, the man of Tirya, passed away, they saw his bier floating in the air, and his generation read over him the same verse, for the Omnipresent loved Abba bar Hoshaya. When Rabbi Lazar bar Simeon passed away, his generation read over him, "Who is this coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke?" (Song of Songs 3:6). What is "with all the powders of the merchant" (Song of Songs 3:6)? That he read Scripture and taught Mishnah, and was a liturgical poet and an expositor. Another interpretation: "Take my instruction and not silver" (Proverbs 8:10). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said, from the reward of taking you learn the reward of the lulav. The reward of taking: in Egypt it is written, "And you shall take a bunch of hyssop" (Exodus 12:22) at what price? Some say four maneh, some say five maneh; and that hyssop secured for them the spoil of Egypt, the spoil of the sea, the spoil of Sihon and Og, the spoil of the thirty-one kings. The lulav, which costs a person a great deal and contains so many commandments, how much more so. Therefore Moses warns Israel and says to them, "And you shall take for yourselves on the first day" (Leviticus 23:40).