Rabbi Meir draws a remarkable theological lesson from one of the most unlikely sources: the Torah's laws of livestock theft. His observation reveals how deeply God values honest labor, and the proof comes from the difference between stealing an ox and stealing a lamb.
The Torah prescribes that a thief who steals and slaughters or sells an ox must pay five times its value. A thief who does the same with a lamb pays only four times its value. Rabbi Meir asks: why the difference? Both are theft. Both involve slaughter or sale. Why does the ox command a higher penalty?
The answer, Rabbi Meir explains, lies in work. An ox works. It plows fields. It threshes grain. It is an active participant in human labor. When a thief steals an ox, he removes a working animal from its productive role. He does not just take property. He takes away someone's capacity to work the land.
A lamb, by contrast, does not work. It grazes. It provides wool and meat, but it does not pull a plow or turn a millstone. Stealing a lamb is theft of property but not theft of labor.
The extra payment for the ox, Rabbi Meir concludes, demonstrates how beloved work is to God. The Torah itself imposes a heavier penalty for disrupting productive labor than for stealing passive property. This is not merely a legal technicality. It is a divine value judgment encoded in legislation. God, who spoke and brought the world into being, designed a legal system that honors and protects the dignity of work above the mere possession of goods.