That is, labor has its rough, unpleasant side, yet it ends in profit. So also, the life of contemplation may seem purer, cleaner than that…

Where no oxen are, the crib is clean...—A proverb which may be taken in various ways. Some have seen in it an exhortation…

Where no oxen [are] the crib [is] clean
Or "empty" ^F26, so Jarchi and Aben Ezra. Oxen were used in Judea …

There can be no advantage without something that, though of little importance, will frighten the lazy.