A worker is allowed to eat a cucumber even if it’s worth as a dinar. A dinar was a lot of money in those days, and therefore he could even eat something he was working on that was worth a dinar. He’s allowed to eat a date even if it’s worth a dinar. Basically, what we’re saying here is that an employee is allowed to eat his employer’s produce no matter what, no matter how much it costs. He could have as much as he wants. It doesn’t matter. He’s a worker. He could eat as much as he wants.
A worker is not allowed to eat more than he’s being paid for that day. The pasuk (verse) tells us that when you go into your friend’s field and eat grapes, it allows you to eat as many grapes as it takes to satiate your soul, to satiate yourself. So we learn from this pasuk: How much are you putting your life at risk for? To go up a ramp, to go hang by a tree, and to go pick things. You’re putting your life on the line, basically. You’re putting yourself on the line in order to get this work done. That’s how much you’re allowed to work for. That’s how Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma learns it, right from the pasuk.
Ve-chachamim matirin. Ve-chachamim allow a person to eat as much as he wants, even if it’s more than he’s paid for that day, so they disagree with Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma. But we tell a person good advice: don’t be a glutton. Don’t be somebody who’s going to eat a tremendous amount, because what’s going to happen is people are going to close the doors of employment in front of you. People are going to not want to hire you. They’re going to say, “This guy cost me too much money. He’s very expensive. He eats all of my food. I don’t want to hire him.” So therefore, we tell a person, just be smart about it. Don’t eat too much, so you get to keep your job.
So there are three opinions over here. Tanna Kama (first Tanna) would say the worker could eat as much as he wants, and we don’t tell him anything. We don’t tell him to cut back. If he’s hungry, he may not work as well, and therefore let him eat as much as he wants in order to have as much productivity out of him as you can. That’s number one. Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma tells us he’s not allowed to eat more than he is paid per day. Ve-chachamim allow him to eat as much as he wants, even more than he’s paid per day, but they advise that he shouldn’t do it. They recommend that he doesn’t do it in order to keep his job.