(printed p. 135 — Book II)
To conclude that rather gloomy discussion of the Pharisees a little more pleasantly and fruitfully, I shall taste a few of their sayings, as they are recited, always with the names prefixed, in the tractate Pirke Aboth, chapters 1 and 2.
[margin: Benjamin, folio 75.]
(printed p. 136)
-
The men of the Great Synagogue stated three sayings: first, be slow in judgment; second, have many disciples; third, make a fence for the law.
-
Simeon the Just, who was among the remnants of the Great Synagogue, used to say: the world stands upon three things: law, religion or the worship of God, and beneficence or gratitude.
-
Antigonus of Socho was accustomed to say: do not be like servants who serve a master on the condition that they receive a reward, and let the fear of God be upon you.
-
Jose the Tseredahite used to say: let your house be a school, or let it be a house into which wise men gather; make yourself dusty in the dust of their feet, and drink their words with thirst.
-
Jose the Jerusalemite used to say: let your house be open toward the street, and let the poor be children of your house.
-
Again he used to say: do not multiply conversation with a woman. Thus, he says, the wise men spoke, and they understood this of one’s own wife; how much more of the wife of one’s neighbor? From this comes what the same wise men said: during the whole time in which a man multiplies conversation with a woman, first he devours and gnaws evil for himself; then he ceases from the study of the law; finally, third, he descends into Gehenna.
-
Joshua the Perachite used to say: prepare a teacher for yourself; acquire even at a price a companion in study; and judge every person innocently.
(printed p. 137)
-
Nithai the Arbelite said: remove yourself far from a bad neighbor; do not associate yourself with an evil man; and do not despair of vengeance, namely divine vengeance.
-
Judas Tabaeus used to say: do not make yourself like those who arrange lawsuits; and when litigants stand before you, let them both be in your eyes as evil and guilty. But when they have been dismissed from your sight, let them be in your eyes as just and innocent, because they have now accepted judgment upon themselves.
-
Simon Sarachius said: be abundant in examining witnesses, and be cautious in your words, lest perhaps from them they learn to lie and deceive.
-
Rabbi Schemaias used to say: love work; hate mastery; do not join yourself to dominion, that is, do not become too familiar with great lords.
-
Rabbi Abtalion said: O wise men, use great caution in your words, lest you sin with a fault worthy of deportation or exile, and be transferred to a place of bad waters which the disciples who come after you will drink, and the name of God be found profaned.
-
Rabbi Hillel said: be one of the disciples of Aaron, who loved peace, pursued peace, loved creatures, and applied them to the law. It could also be translated this way: be one of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, loving creatures, and using them according to the precept and goal of the law.
(printed p. 138)
-
He said again: whoever makes his name famous loses that very name; and whoever does not increase diminishes.
-
Again: whoever does not learn is worthy of death; and whoever exercises himself in the crown, that is, in the law, for the sake of his own advantage, will perish.
-
He said besides: if I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?
-
The same Hillel said: do not separate yourself from the Church, and do not trust yourself until the day of your death.
-
The same: do not judge your neighbor until you reach his place.
-
The same: do not say anything that cannot be understood on the assumption that, in the end, it can be understood.
-
The same: do not say, “When I have found leisure I shall learn,” lest perhaps you never find it.
-
Rabbi Schammai used to say: make your law, that is, the law which you have imposed on yourself or which has been given to you for your benefit, fixed.
-
The same: speak little and do much.
-
The same again: receive every person with a serene face.
-
Rabbi Gamaliel: prepare a teacher for yourself; separate yourself from a doubtful matter; and do not become accustomed to giving tithes often by conjecture.
-
Rabbi Simon Gamaliel says: all the days of my life I was brought up among the wise,
[margin: Pliny, book 2, letter 10. The printed clause in saying 14 appears to read “whoever does not increase, increases”; the standard maxim requires the opposite sense.]
(printed p. 139)
and I found nothing more useful for the body than silence. The foundation of happiness is not speech but work; and everyone who multiplies words brings in sin.
- The same: the world is founded upon three things: truth, judgment, and peace, according to what is said in Zechariah 8: “Bring truth, judgment, and peace into your gates.”
These are those men. From them I pass to the Sadducees.