Parashios Achrai-Kedoshim

"You shall not oppress your fellow man nor rob him; you shall not let a hired man's wages abide with you until morning."

"Lo salin pe'ulas sachir eetcha ad boker."

It shall not abide: Rashi: [The word "salin" ] is feminine gender and refers to "wages".

What Is Rashi Saying ?

Rashi makes an important grammatical point. The meaning of the word "salin" is ambiguous. The prefix letter "t" can mean one of two things:
1) You shall not cause to abide (2nd person singular)
2) It (the wages) shall not abide (3rd person singular feminine. The word "wages" is feminine in Hebrew)

Rashi tells us that the correct translation here is choice #2. Note that our translation of the verse above is not according to Rashi, there we used choice #1, as do many translations. But according to Rashi it should read: "You shall not oppress your fellow man nor rob him; the wages of a hired man shall not abide by you until morning." But then, considering the whole verse, you should have a question on Rashi.
Your Question:

Questioning Rashi

A Question: The verse uses the prefix "t" before this to mean "you" (You shall not oppress, you shall not rob ). Why does Rashi switch, in mid-verse, the meaning of the "t" prefix from "you" to "it (wages)" ?
You must be somewhat familiar with Hebrew grammar to answer this one. Can you? There are several reasons that forced Rashi to make the choice he did. What are they?
Your Answer:

Understanding Rashi

Some Answers:
1) If the meaning were "You shall not let the wages abide ..." Then the Hebrew should have added the word "es" before the direct object "wages". In biblical Hebrew the "es" is placed before the direct object.
Like this: "lo salin es pe'ulas sachir eetcha ad boker."

2) The words "You shall not let abide..." imply intentionality, that is, you shall not keep the hired man's wages until morning (on purpose). But if that were the correct meaning, then the word "eetcha" - "with you" is redundant. Where else would you keep it, if not "with you"?! It would have been more appropriate to simply say:

"lo salin es pe'ulas sachir ad boker." The addition of the word "with you" implies that you left it with you by accident or due to forgetfulness.

3) Conceptually we must say that the prohibition is against unintentional and inconsiderate forgetting to pay your workers' wages on time but not against intentional withholding wages. If it were intentional it would be identical with the first prohibition in this verse of "lo sa'shoke es ra'echa" in this verse which Rashi himself tells us means "do not withhold wages of a hired man."

For these reasons Rashi chose to interpret the words "lo salin" as he did.

A Deeper Look

But if the prohibition is against unintentional forgetting you should have a question. What would you ask?
Your Question:

A Question: How can the Torah prohibit an unintentional act? By definition, the person did not do the transgression on purpose, so how can it be prohibited and if transgressed, why should the person would be punished?
You Answer:

An Answer: This is precisely the point. The Torah makes us aware of the eventuality of forgetting to pay a workman on time. By making a person culpable for such inconsiderate forgetting, the Torah increases the chance that the person will be aware to be more considerate and less forgetful.

This too is probably the reason this prohibition is included in parshas Kedoshim, as Rashi said at the beginning of the sedra "be far removed from transgression."

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