Echoes of wisdom : or, Talmudic sayings with classic, especially Latin, parallelisms

Echoes of Wisdom

OR

Talmudic Sayings with Classic,
especially Latin, Parallelisms,

BY

G. TAUBENHAUS,

Minister Cong. Beth Elohim, Brooklyn.

PART I.

HA.EDRICH & SONS' PRINT,
Cor. Jay & Johnson Sts., Brooklyn.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1900, by

G. TAUBENHAUS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

To the sacred memory of my beloved father,

BENJAMIN TAUBENHAUS,

I dedicate this book.

THE AUTHOR.

2071672

PREFACE.

In presenting Talmud and Classics together, the
object is not to throw the charge of plagiarism at any
door, but to bring the Talmud nearer to the under-
standing of at least some of the many who, lacking all
knowledge of the same, profanely disparage it.

The beautiful form is not the chief boast of the
Classics. They are at their noblest when glorifying
some metaphysical or practical truth. Where that
is absent they fail to charm us. Homer and Virgil,
Plato and Cicero have no fascination in spite of their
rhythmic and blossoming diction when they correct
no error, improve no moral, clarify no idea, and
elevate no truth.

That wisdom which is the pulsation and vitality
of the Classics is a part of the wisdom laid up in the
Talmud, I say a part, because as to vastness of
influence and loftiness of religious thought the
Talmud is without a compeer. It is the luminous
stratum of the Bible, and has been and is still, to a
vast extent, the enlarged and illustrated Bible of
Israel.

The present volume, comprising Talmudic
sayings beginning with "Aleph," is the first of a
proposed series to come forth in alphabetical order,
and on the same plan.

Recognizing my indebtedness to the "Milin
D'rabbanan" and to Ramage's "Beautiful thoughts of
Latin Authors," whose translation I occasionally
adopted, I wish this booklet a cordial reception.

THE AUTHOR.

ECHOES OF WISDOM

I.

"The pipe which affords sweet music to princes is not
appreciated by weavers." — Talmud.

We should seek to earn the plaudits of refined
taste. Although it is some accomplishment to
please any class of people. The cheap dining-room
is as much needed as the high-toned restaurant.
Shall those starve who have no taste and no means
for dainties and delicacies? But to please all tastes
alike is a difficult matter.

So Horace: "What shall I give, what shall I not give.
Thou refusest what another demands.''

(a NDV; rrro rrnp» x> 'N-n: nor "nn aiax

2. "Quid dem? Quid non dem? Renuis tu, quod jubet
alter." — Epist. ii. 2.

II.

"At the door of the well-supplied store-room there
are brethren and friends; but at the door of poverty
neither brethren nor friends are seen."

This is a universal experience and it were
useless to ask why it is so. Aristotle having been
asked why people like to spend so much of their
time with handsome persons remarked: "This is a
question fit for a blind man to ask."

Everything in this world must feed on something.
Love and friendship, too, must have some means of
sustenance.

2 ECHOES OF WISDOM

We should seek to acquire some virtue, some noble
qualification, whereby we may be held in esteem, and
in prosperity we should bear in mind how difficult it
is, under some circumstances, to obtain a helping
hand when such is most needed.

"Whilst thou art favored by fortune thou shalt
have many friends; when stormy times come thou
shalt find thyself alone." — Ovid.

Q"^ rat?) •'iDnioi TIN ^-s: Knwun :ON

"Donee eris felix, multos numerabis amicos; Tempora si
fuerint nubila, solus erit." — Ovid Trist i, 9.

III.

"Our fathers said they have forgotten the good
things; we have not even seen them."

A famous cook obligated himself to furnish the
recipes of a thousand dishes. But his culinary know-
ledge proved inadequate to the agreement. He was
sued, and the judge Rabbi Jehudi acquitted him on
the ground that it was not for the benefit of society
to carry that art to such a high pitch.

"Who could tolerate such sordid luxury." (Juvenal.)

CJ D'-m) '31 UKI raiD ireu VIDK

Quis feret istas luxuriae sordes. (Sat. i.)

ECHOES OF WISDOM 3

IV.

"The stones of one's house, the walls of one's house will
testify against him." — Tal.

Wrong, though done unobserved and unwatched,
will come to light. Our home will not afford us
sufficient help to cover and hide it. We are reminded
of the lines of Swift:

"For by old proverbs it appears,
That walls have tongues and hedges ears."

"Oh! Corydon, poor, simple Corydon! Do you think aught
that a rich man does, can be secret? Even though his slaves
should hold their tongues, his cattle will tell the tale; and his
dogs and door posts and marble statues." — Juvenal.

(K* mini n p'yo ms ijp irva rvnipi DTK ^ vp3 ^x

Secretum divkis ullum esse putas? Servi ut taceant ju-
menta loquenitur et canis e't postes et marmora. — Sat. ix.

V.

"By the way threaten the enemy." — Tal.

The idea is to check evil at the very start and not to
allow it to gain any ground. The angel Gabriel, com-
missioned to go and to ripen the fruit ot Israel's
fields, was advised to cut off the Assyrians on the
road. For to bless the harvest without obviating
hostile invasion would have been tantamount to pre-
paring a sumptuous banquet for the enemy. Indeed,
that gardener is careless and indiscreet who makes

4 ECHOES OF WISDOM

no timely provisions against injurious influences.

Persius expressed the same thought. "Meet the
disease on the road."

(n"v irwo^ yone"K inm !>jn^ -jrrnK ajK

Venienti occurrite morbo. — Persius iii. 64.

VI.

"The reward of the religious discourse is haste." — Tal.

Our religious obligation does not centre in the
hand. A man, carrying a hundred Bibles and having
nothing in his heart and conscience to duplicate any
portion of their sacred contents, carries a heavy load
but not the word of God. An action itself does not
determine its merit or demerit. Water is achromatic
and receives an agreeable or disagreeable color from
something else. A few minute rain-drops, upon
which sun-rays fall, reflect the gorgeous hues of the
rainbow, the sign of God's promise, the flag of
Providence, which we see suspended in the sky after
storms to announce, as it were, the victory over the
enraged elements of nature. The same deed which,
if performed by a sincere man, might elicit our hearty
congratulation, is to us a source of annoyance and
irritation if done by a hypocrite.

Religion is primarily an internal element: the con-
sciousness of our higher relation. To strengthen
and to foster this consciousness — what an inestima--
ble gain! Light of truth and holy ardor within,

ECHOES OF WISDOM 5

what a strong impulse to ideal realization without!
"Hasten, my dearest Lucilius, think how you would
accelerate your speed, were an enemy pursuing you."
— Seneca.

CT main) KB'.TI xpian si^

Propero ergo, Lucili carissime, et cogita quantum addi-
turus celeritati fueris, si a tergo hostis instaret. — Epist.xxxii.

VII.

"The reward of study (tradition) is the understanding."
— Tal

The Talmudic sages reverenced tradition not
as the despot of the mind; but as its emancipator,
tutor and educator. They laid great stress upon
finding the reason why things were said or done so,
and not otherwise. They were rational followers of
tradition. "Ask me a point of law," said Kami har
Chami, "and though I will answer according to rea-
son, you will find its parallel in tradition."

Rabbi 'Jochanan grieved when Rabbi Elieser, in
an almost flattering manner, backed his statements
with corroborative references to tradition, and
mournfully cried: "Where is the son of Lakish,
who, by cross-questioning, compelled me to be more
exact and elaborate in my teachings?"

Once it happened, when the head of the Baby-
lonian college was to be elected, that there were
two prospective candidates, each of whom was dis-
tinguished in his way. Rabbi Joseph was a pro-

6 ECHOES OF WISDOM

found scholar, but less of a thinker; Rabbah was an
acute dialectician, but less of a scholar. The com-
munity, at a loss in whose favor to decide, sent to
Palestine for advice in the matter. The reply was
that knowledge was preferable to subtlety and argu-
mentive skill, because without knowledge the mind
is helpless — a tabula rasa. Yet Rabbi Joseph, upon
whom the choice fell, voluntarily left the field and
made room for his more intellectual rival.

The most irrefutable argument in favor of tradi-
tion was made by the great Hillel when he con-
vinced a heathen, who desired to embrace Judaism,
oh the condition of being exempt from the oral law,
that even the alphabet cannot be learned without
the assistance of tradition.

Reason is not antagonistic to tradition; tradition
is no opponent of reason. Before we can speak we
have to hear, and before we can form an opinion of
our own, we must submit to the instruction and
authority of others. Tradition is the sum of the
experience and the outcome of the active brain of
the past. It is generation speaking to generation,
age impelling age — the magnificent scope of an im-
mensely widened and broadened present, the chariot
of progresive thought.

"Not to know what happened before one was
born is always to remain a child." — Cicero.

"Nescire autem, quid antea, quam natus sis, accident, id
est semper esse puerum." — Or. 34.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 7

VIII.
"Silence is the reward of the visit of condolence." — Tal.

Considering what tattlers we are, and how un-
manageable a thing the tongue is, it is not at all to
be wondered at that the suppression of speech at
the house of mourning has been declared a virtue.
But our saying has a loftier meaning. We come
grumbling into the world. Some of us continue the
mortifying exercise until a few shovels of earth put
an end to it. But most of us imitate the hooting of
the owl and strike the plaintive notes of the pessi-
mist too often. We have domineering dispositions,
hence we are beside ourselves when aught goes
against our will and expectation.

A great calamity is not the unbearable part of
life. We murmur more against sultriness than
against the thunder. When the worst occurs we
are calmed. Resignation is an unfailing antidote.
But trivial losses, common-place disappointments,
avoidable altercations, insults that we magnify, cares
which we invite and wants which we create are the
most provoking and vexing things, nipping so many
joys in the bud. And if we reflect upon the final
and inevitable blast or upon the danger which
threatens our house, our very life, every hour of our
existence, does it not look comical and irrational to
pine and complain about trifles? "It is better to go
to the house of mourning than to the house of

8 ECHOES OF WISDOM

feasting," says the wise Solomon. For here our
vanity and discontent is fed. There in the shadow
of the departed soul, solemn considerations loom up
and humility and resignation or, what is the same,
silence recommends itself as wisdom.

"To be silent is learned by the many misfortunes
in life." — Seneca.

"Tacere multis discitur vitae malis." — Thyest 319.

IX.
"The reward of fasting is charity." — Tal.

If fasting itself were a religious act the people
who gladly starve themselves in order to fatten their
purse would be the most religious. What ordinance
would be so welcome to the miser as that which
gave him the religious right to keep his family in
starvation at short intervals? But it was custom-
ary to distribute the savings in consequence of fast-
ing among the poor. This impressed upon the fast-
day a true religious character. Self-denial, not for
the sake of accumulation, but for the sake of ex-
tending a helping hand to those who cannot do
without it, is charity, indeed.

"Let us use those things intrusted to us, let us
not boast of them; and let us use them sparingly

as a loan deposited with us which will soon depart."
— Seneca.

(DP) xnp-tt Njvjym K-IJK

"Utamur illis non giloriemur; et utamur parce, tamquam
depositis apud nos et abituris." — Epist. Ixxiv.

X.

"The reward of the funeral oration is the lamenting
voice."— TaJ.

"It is some relief to weep; grief is satisfied and
carried off by tears." — Ovid.

(DP) "l^T KTBDm N"UK

Est quaedam flere voluptas, expletur lacrymis egeritur-
que dolor." — Trist iv. 3.

XL
"While the sand is yet on thy feet, sell."— To/.

When you return with merchandise from your
journey sell at any profit, and do not wait for a
better market. This advice Rab gave to his son,
when he said to him: "I have done my best to edu-
cate and fit you for the learned profession, and
failed. Now let me teach you how to conduct your-
self as a business man."

The son of Rab must have belonged to those

io ECHOES OF WISDOM

who liked to defer things from day to day, and citing
to him the golden rule of mercantile pursuits,
Rab meant to teach him at the same time a moral
and religious lesson. The rule to create and not idly
wait for the opportunity, and to quickly embrace it
when it presents itself, is as beneficial in religion as
elsewhere. "While we are deliberating, the oppor-
tunity is often lost." — Syrus.

"Ddiberando saepe perit occasio.

XII.
"Love overlooks station." — Tal.

When under the influence of love, it is immaterial to
us whether what we do is dignifying or not. To illus-
trate this, the Talmud refers to Abraham, who, in
his anxiety to do the will of God, rose up early in
the morning and did the work of a servant.

"Dignity and love do not blend well or continue
long together." — Ovid.

(n"p pirwo) rrm-t ntaao

"Non bene conveniunt, nee in <una sede morantur majes-
tas et amor." — Met. ii. 846.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 11

XIII.

"Love depending upon a thing ceases when the thing
ceases." — Tal.

"If it were expediency that cemented friendships,
the same, when changed, would dissolve them." —
Cicero.

Cn 'D nnx> rarm ntan -m f>B3 inna mW ronx

"Si utilitas amicitias conglutinaret, eadem commutata
dissolveret." — De Amicitia, ix.

XIV.

"Woe is me from my Maker and woe is m<e from my
nature." — Tal

A small quantum of religion amounts to next to
nothing. We cannot go beyond our standard of duty,
and if that does not rise above the ground, the little
we accomplish will make us rejoice, and fancy that
we perform wonders, as children do when they walk
on a ladder which has a safe and horizontal position.
But if our religious conception is of a high grade,
land to live religiously means to us to give to life
such shape and symmetry as will reflect some of the
grandeur of the Divine attributes, then conscience
will not be pacified by the defective performance
of dilettantism, nor rocked to sleep by the shallow
song of the amateur. But in that struggle for
spiritual dominion and for emancipation from the

12 ECHOES OF WISDOM

delusion of earthly splendor, how frequent is the
repulsion! As an eagle, whose pinion fails in his
lofty flight to the sun, sinks exhausted upon some
strange mountain, where he has to tarry to regain
strength, and is suffering in the meantime from
both a thirst for the upper air and a longing for
more genial environs, so many a man with strong
religious propensities, moving amidst the tempta-
tions and allurements of the world, finds himself
often between two realms — one which he cannot
call his, and one that gives him no satisfaction.
Body and soul — what opposites! Yet man has to
live in both. The world and the religious idea —
what antagonists! Yet the one has to be worked
out in the other. The flesh is the loom of immor-
tality; matter the door to eternity.

The saying is attributed to Rabbi Meier, who was
a disciple of Elisha ben Abijah, the famous apostate,
called in the Talmud Acher. It bears a striking
resemblance to the words of Faust: "Two souls, alas!
within me contend." The same sentiment Seneca
expresses: "What is it, Lucilius, that we are inten-
tionally going one way, still drives us another? What
is it that impels us to the very place from which we
desire to recede?"

(K"D rnrra) niro ^ ••INI nxvo ^ -"IN

"Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust, die eine will
sich von der andern trennen." — Goethe's Faust.

"Quid est hoc Ludli, quod nos alio tendentes alio trahit,
et eo unde recedere cupimus, impellit?" — Ep. 52.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 13

XV.

"Woe unto me, if I speak; woe unto me if I do not
speak." — Tal.

Rabbi Jochanan Ben Saccai made that exclamation
with reference to the frauds and imposters of his age.

"If I speak about them, some of my disciples be-
coming familiar with their vulpine practice might be
tempted to try it. Should I not expose them they will
continue undisturbed to take advantage of my disci-
ples who are ignorant of their methods."

"It is misery," says Syrus, "to be compelled to
suppress the very thing you desire to proclaim."

(B"D N"im K33) 1D1K &6 DS ^ "IK 1O1N DX ^ ^K
"Quam miserum est tacere cogi quod cupias loqui."

XVI.

"Woe unto people who see and do not know what they
see; stand and do not know upon what they stand."

—Tal.

The saying, though dressed in sceptical phraseol-
ogy, opposes scepticism. There is a difference,
according to Kant, between scepticism and the scep-
tical method. "Scepticism — a principle of technical
and scientific ignorance — undermines the founda-
tions of all knowledge, in order, if possible, to destroy
our belief and confidence therein. The sceptical
method aims at certainty." Indeed, in the Bible,
especially in the book of Job and Ecclesiastes, that

14 ECHOES OF WISDOM

method is used in order to bring about a complete
surrender of reason to faith. The Talmud, too,
avails itself of it, and has many a dispute which is
left undecided because revelation sheds no light upon
it, and the evidences on both sides appeal with equal
force to reason.

On the same Talmudic page from which the above
saying is copied, there is a controversy between the
school of Hillel and that of Shammai about the
priority in the order of the creation of Heaven and
Earth which embarrasses and confuses reason, be-
cause both theories, contradictory as they are, seem,
each in its turn, admissible and legitimate.

The idea which our saying is intended to convey is
that if we ignore revelation and disparage faith, we
will reason and theorize without arriving at any satis-
factory conclusion. Every affirmative meets its nega-
tive, and every thesis is weakened by the opposition
of an antithesis. Duty the contract and agreement
of society, the leading thought in the Book of Life,
becomes misty and illegible, and if reason unassisted
by revelation does stand by it, it is only as an inter-
rogation.

"O miserable thoughts of men! O shaded minds!
In what dangers and what darkness is spent what-
ever there is of life!" — Lucretius.

p'wi WIDW rriKn no mjnv \y«\ rnww nv-in^ Dr6 ••IN

(3'"1 n;wn) nnoiy \n no hy nijnv

"O miseras 'hominum mentes! O pectora caeca!" — u. 13.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 15

XVII.
"Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor. — Tal.

"Your affairs are at stake when the next house is
on fire." — Horace.

"Tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet." — Ep. i, 18.

XVIII.

"Either company with man or death." — Tal.

Choni Hamagol, who is highly spoken of in the
Talmud for his piety and learning, once saw a man
plant a tree, and said: "You do not expect to eat
the fruit of this tree; why do you plant it?" "I have
found trees in the world," answered the man; "my
father planted such trees for me, and I plant them
for my children." Pleased with this wise reply,
Choni Hamagol walked away. In a place of solitude
he was overtaken with sleep, where he slept for
seventy years. At the end of that period he
awakened, and returned home, where -he inquired
for his son. He was dead. His grandson refused
to recognize him. He went into the school where
the sages philosophized. He heard his name men-
tioned with respect. A scholar, discussing a point
of law, said; "This is as clear to-day as it was in the
days of Choni Hamagol." The resurrected man

i6

cried out: "I am Choni Hamagol." But no one gave
credence to his story. He prayed for death.

"If his solitude be such that he could not come
in contact with man, he would wish to get out of
life." — Cicero.

(ya myn) KTIWD IN wiran >N

"Tamen, si solitudo tanta sit ut ihominem videre non pos-
sit, excedat e vita." — De Offic i. 43.

XIX.

"This people is likened to the dust and is likened to the
stars, because if it goes down it is to the dust, if it
ascends it is to the stars." — To/.

We fall deep and rise high. Clinging to our
teachings and principles we are superior to all
nations ; abandoning them we are inferior. Politic-
ally and socially our history presents the same oppo-
sites. Either we are despised or raised to the high-
est honors; either are we called, "the people chosen
by God" or "the people cursed by God."

"Man is a god or a brute," is a Latin saying
adopted from Aristole.

-lV pIV pK>3 D'333^ r6lt}>Dl IDvi? r6w» IT HOIK

(r B n^'JD) D'333^ ny

"Dens aut bestia."

ECHOES OF WISDOM 17

XX.

"Speak moderately about a man's merits when he is
present, but do him justice in his absence." — Talmud.

Praise is discriminative, hence, not without offen-
siveness ; it is like a golden sword which glorifies
him to whom it is given, but is a menace to others.
Praise going in the direction of merit hints that
those who are unnoticed are undeserving. But we
cannot afford to treat all alike, and gratitude insists
upon its rights. If the heart is full of admiration,
why should it not come out? Place the good man in
a light where he will be seen to the best advantage.
Omit nothing in his life that tends to render his
name more endeared. Let every gold button, every
jewel, every grace and ornament in the apparel of
the good soul shine out with pleasing distinction.
"By praise emulation is excited." But when you
face him, control your feeling and let the laudatory
words be few, or you run the risk of being taken for
a common flatterer.

So Syrus: "Admonish thy friend secretely, but praise him
the more publicly."

(m pviyj ns3 xta itai VJB3 DIK i>B»

Secreto amicos admone, lauda palam.

i8 ECHOES OF WISDOM

XXI.

"The scholarship is appreciated, the daughter is not ap-
preciated." — Tal.

Rabbi Jochanan desired to have Seira for a son-in-
law and made to him a proposal to that effect. But
Seira who was a proud Babylonian did not like to
marry into a Palestine family, and avoided Rabbi
Jochanan as much as he could, in order not to be
compelled to repeat the refusal and to embarrass the
sage a second time. Accidentally, however, they
met on the road, and coming to a stream, Seira
carried the Rabbi over on his shoulders. Rabbi
Jochanan then remarked: "My wisdom is good
enough, my daughter is not good enough for you."

"Philosophy does not consider pedigree. She did
not receive Plato as noble, but made him so."

vh prun muo prrniK

"Platonem non accepit nobilem Philosophia, sed fecit."

— Seneca. Ep. 44.

XXII.

"If one of the society dies, all its members should
tremble."— Tal.

Let it not be said that he died because he was old
and feeble, or because he led an indiscreet life, or

ECHOES OF WISDOM 19

because he was poor and had not the means to attend
to himself properly, or because he was rich and
fattened himself excessively.

"We all are reserved for death... Xor is there
any question about the thing, but about the day."-
Scneca.

(vp nap; mian f»a UNT not? rrnan -oaiD nnx

Omnes reserva>mur ad mortem. — Nat. Quaest. vi, i.

XXIII.

"Do you think that fear of God is a small matter?" — Tal.

The rational fear of God is the highest attainment
inasmuch as it excludes the fear of man, as Ibn Ezra
puts it: "Because I fear the One God, I fear no one
else." So we understand the blessing which Rabbi
Jochanan gave unto his disciples: "May it be your
portion to fear God as much as you do men."
(Then you will fear men less.)

"To obey God is liberty." — Seneca.

Deo parere libertas est. — De Vit. Bet. 15.

20 ECHOES OF WISDOM

XXIV.

"Does it follow that -he is no great man because he does
not know this?" — Tal.

We cannot know and learn everything, and that
which we have learned and believe to have mastered,
we cannot always apply with equal skill. Rabbi
Jochanan was perplexed by a simple question of Ves-
pasian. Rabbi Saphra disappointed his interrogators,
to whom he had been highly recommened. Rabbi
Jehudah was silent when asked to explain a Biblical
passage.

When Plato defined man as being a two-footed
animal without feathers, he was ridiculed by Diogenes,
who, on the following day plucked a cock, brought
it to the academy and said: "This is Plato's man.''

"Even the great Homer nods at times." — Horace.

(T"D p"o) Kin ran jnaa ^ mn jrr t&i {NO IDK

Quandoque bonus dormitat. — Homeros (A. P.)

XXV.

"Do you think that the sage can proceed in the manner
of the dealer in spices." — Tal.

His article -cannot be put in the scales. It is not
a thing about which to say: "I want just so much and
no more and no less." You desire to have ten differ-
ent rules to apply to ten different conditions in life,
and he imparts only one, but in that, the principles

ECHOES OF WISDOM 21

of all others are contained, and it is for you to find
them.

There is no book, philosophical, theological or
poetical, no matter how excellent and exhaustive it be,
that you could read with any benefit if your reason
and imagination did not assist you. Good style is
but a pleasant manner of presenting a subject whereby
an interest for it is created. The way to truth may
be pointed out, but self-culture must do the rest.

We are reminded of Lessing's Nathan: "Strange!
how is this? What wills the Sultan of me? I came
prepared with cash — he asks truth. Truth? As if
truth, too, were cash — a coin disused, that goes by
weight — indeed, 'tis some such thing. But a new
coin, known by the stamp at once, to be flung down
upon the counter — it is not that."

So Cicero: "For our mode of speaking is to be
adapted to the ear of the multitude, to fascinate and
excite their mind and to prove things which are not
weighed in the scales of the goldsmith."

Heac enim nostra oratio....ad ea prabanda quae non
aurificis statera . . . examinantur. (De Or. II, 38.)

XXVI.

"If the king says: ' Let the mountain be removed/ it
will surely be done." — Tal.

22 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"When Caesar says: 'Do this/ it is performed."

— Shakespeare.

Retraction, though it have the smile and loveli-
ness of mercy, weakens authority.

"It is something to hold a sceptre with firm
hand."— Ovid.

ipy "nits «npy
CJ 3"3) iT3 "n

Est -aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu.

XXVII.

"If you will lift the weight, I, too, will lift."— To/.

Barak said to Deborah: "If you go, (to war), I,
too, will go."

"It is inborn in man to be satisfied to be a
follower, when it is risky to be a leader." — Tacitus.

vb vh ^i win Kin min •"«
(:3"x p"3) xrh

Insita mortalibus natura, propere sequi quae piget
inchohare. — Hist, i, 55.

XXVIII.

"The peasant clings to his basket even if a crown is
placed upon his head." — Tal.

Rabbah had risen from extreme poverty to be at

ECHOES OF WISDOM 23

the head of the College of Pumpaditha and the chief
figure of his age. Once he sent Purim gifts of an
ordinary nature to a man of high station and refined
taste. Abayi seeing the poor selection the sage made
quoted the above adage as a possible criticism which
the patrician might fling at him, when receiving the
coarse presents.

Promotion, like a new and beautiful garment, im-
proves appearance, but does not change habits. The
wider the leap and the more abrupt the elevation, the
more difficult is the task of perfect assimilation.

"Whatever is innate or inbred, may be corrected
by art, but cannot be rooted out." — Seneca.

sfjipn w$> Kata n^pn ^
or H^JO) rvm vh n

Quidquid infixum et ingenitum est lenitur arte, non
vincitur. — Ep. xi.

XXIX.

"Had I not picked up the potsherd wouldst thou have
found the pearl?" — Tal.

So Rabbi Jannai observed, when his disciple,
Rabbi Jochanan, made an excellent point in argument.

While we may claim the credit of application,
we ought not to forget our indebtedness to our
teachers for the knowledge we acquire with their
assistance.

24 ECHOES OF WISDOM

Carneades, speaking about Chrysipus, whose
writings he absorbed, said: "If Chrysipus had not
lived I should never have existed."

Our sages have appreciated the evolution of in-
struction to such an extent that they taught: "If one
learns from a person one maxim or one word, he
owes him the respect due to a teacher." One maxim
or one word may enable us to uncover pearls of
wisdom.

"You buy an inestimable treasure from your
teacher." — Seneca.

nrDPN <D Kaon -(?
('3 'DT) n»rnn»

Emis . . . rem inestimabilem . . .bonarum artium prae-
ceptore. — De Ben. iv.

XXX.

"Had not a great man praised thee, I might have taken
exception to what you say." — Tal.

We rely not only upon the superior judgment
of the great man, but also upon his superior sense of
justice, and taking it for granted that he will not
stoop to misrepresentation, we extend courtesy to
his protege.

"Good men will yield thee praise, then slight the
rest."

ECHOES OF WISDOM 25

" Tis best praise-worthy to have pleased the best."
— Capt. John Smith.

Cicero expresses the same idea: "For it is un-
doubtedly truer that applause is sweet, when it pro-
ceeds from those whose own life has been most
applauded."

d"v '»:r) '3i ran

Est enim profecto jucunda laus, quae ab iis proficiscitur,
qui ipsi in laude yixerunt. — Fam. xv, 6.

XXXI.

"Were it not for this day, there would be many Josephs."

—Tal.

Rab Joseph was in habit of giving a banquet to
his friends on the feast of weeks, because to the event
of that day he felt indebted for his exalted position.

There would be more consistency, gratitude and
light of beneficence in the world, if those who enjoy
distinction should honor the sources which lend it to
them.

"Law is what distinguishes right and wrong.
— Cicero.

Lex justorum injustorumque distinotio. — Leg. ii, 5.

26 ECHOES OF WISDOM

XXXII.

"If this prince will rule, thou wilt be his .subject, and if
that prince will rule, thou wilt be his subject. (There
is nothing for thee to gain.) — Talmud.

So the wife of On Ben Peleth reasoned with her
husband when he intimated to her his intention to
join the conspiracy of Korah against Moses.

The moral is: "We should not take sides in
contests of the great. Let them fight it out among
themselves. So Seneca:

"What is it to you, Marcus Cato! It is not a
question of liberty. The question is whether Caesar
or Pompejus shall be master of the commonwealth.
The conquest does not concern you. What matters
it to you who of them conquers?"
N2-I ID W

(B"p nmo)

Quaeritur utrum Caesar, an Pompejus possideat rem
publicam. Dominus eligitur, quid tua, qui vincerit. — Ep. 14.

XXXIII.

"If the book, then no sword, if the sword, then no book."
—Tal.

Peace favors and war impedes culture and refine-
ment. When the book glories, the sword is rusty, and
when the sword is unsheathed, the dust accumulates
on the book.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 27

No man can be both a scholar and a soldier; a
servant of God, and an enemy of His creature; an up-
holder of religion, and an assasin of truth.

We are reminded of Lucan: "Faith and probity
are not found among the men who follow the camp."

(T'"1 t"y) JOBD 1t

Nulla fides probitasque viris qui castra sequuntur. —
Bel. Civ. x.

XXXIV.

"If you have hired out yourself, you have to beat the
wool if you are told to do so." — Tal.

We should either not undertake to do anything
which is beneath our station, or we must abide by the
agreement.

Rab came to Nahardua, and incognito performed
the function of interpreter. At that time the leading
Rabbi of the city did not speak directly to the people.
He suggested the text and the points to be discussed,
but the homily was worked out, and delivered in the
idiom of the masses, by one who was engaged for that
purpose, and was called Methurgeman or Emora.

In some instances he towered intellectually high
above the Rabbi, as was the case with Judah Bar
Nachmaini who acted as speaker for one so ignorant
that he could not even furnish a suitable text for the

28 ECHOES OF WISDOM

occasion, and he, astonished at the uninstructed
usurper, cried out in the words of the prophet: "Woe,
if it is said to a piece of wood awake, and to a stone
arise."

It was not so bad with Rabbi Shilo. His erudi-
tion entitled him to the position which he occupied
with dignity. But his scholarship was inferior to that
of Rab, and as the latter was progressing in his dis-
course, it dawned upon Rabbi Shilo that his tempor-
ary Methurgeman was no less a personality than the
famous Rab. At once he rose from his seat, and
interrupting the speaker, said: "I am not worthy to
preside where you stand." Rab, however, insisted
upon finishing the work he began.

"Either do not begin or finish," is also a Latin
proverb.

pc n<!> man ^
CD 'ov) moj;

Aut nunquam tentes, out perfice.

XXXV.

"The parts of one's own bodily structure will testify
against him." — Tal.

The idea is' not that we can know a man's mind
and character by looking at him. "Do not judge the
contents by the pitcher, is a Talmudic sentiment
which reminds of Shakespeare, when he says; "There

ECHOES OF WISDOM 29

is no art to find the mind's construction in the face."

Is the spirit of a Samuel, an Isaiah, Ezrah, Akiba,
Copernicus, Goethe in the face? How many people
there have been and are, who likened them in size and
weight of body, and resembled them in complexion
and features, but intellectually were no more like
them than is the moon like the sun.

Moses had to perform wonders with his staff to
prove to Pharaoh that he was sent by God. The pro-
phet Elisha was molested by the bad boys for his
bald-headedness, and perhaps some other bodily
defect. Hannah was taken for an inebriate by the
High Priest Eli. Rabbi Jehudah was told that he re-
sembled a swine breeder more than a scholar, because
he had a flushed face. In a conversation with Rabbi
Joshua Ben Chananyah who had an ungainly appear-
ance a Roman princess expressed her astonishment
that such a bright intellect should have no manifesta-
tion in facial delineation.

Homer was blind, and Sophocles, charged by his
sons with silliness, read his latest work to his judges,
and thus proved that he was not the dotard com-
plained of. Socrates was declared an immoral man
by a famous phrenologist.

Diognes Leartius, tells about Cleanthes: "He
boasted that on the principles of Zeno he could judge
a man's character by his looks. A young man
brought him a profligate fellow having a hardy look
from working a good deal in the field, and requested

30 ECHOES OF WISDOM

him to tell his moral character. Cleanthes, having
hesitated a little, bade him depart, and as he departed
he sneezed: "I have "the fellow now," said Cleanthes,
"he is a debauchee!"

But what, if that fellow had not sneezed, the-
philosopher would have been puzzled.

Of course, we cannot ignore and disparage ap-
pearance. Is it not by it that we can tell one thing
from the other? There is truth in the popular say-
ing: "Appearance is everything." Science is nothing
else than our knowledge of appearances. But the
appearance of mind and moral character are works
and actions. Would Raphael's hands, without the
great work he performed have secured for him his
renown of a great artist? What, if Epaminondas had
lacked the opportunity to manifest his moral courage,
would history have taken notice of him? The halo
of Moses minus his stupendous achievements would
have been a mere cipher.

What then is the meaning of our saying? That
things done in all secrecy, will in many instances leave
traces upon him by which they will be known. "If a
calamity has befallen the community," says the Tal-
mud "it is the duty of every individual to mourn and
let no one say: "I will mourn publicly, but do good
unto my heart in -safe retreat, who will know what I
am doing?"

We are reminded of Dryden:

"Sorrow nor joy can be disguised by art;
Our foreheads blab the secrets of the heart."

ECHOES OF WISDOM 31

Cicero declares that "the countenance is the im-
age of the mind, and the eyes are its interpreters,"
but involuntarily admits their deceptiveness.

n p'yo
(&o myn) 'n DKJ ny DDK

"Imago animi vultus, indices oculi. — De Ora-t. iii, 59.

XXXVI.

"When the sun rises the weak rise." — Tal.

To the sick and troubled heart the shades of
night are peculiarly depressing, and the very stars
are emblematic of flowers strewn upon graves.

In such an unhappy mood, Young wrote: "Night,
sable goddess! from her ebon throne, in rayless
majesty, now stretches forth her leaden sceptre o'er
a slumbering world. Silence, how dead! and darkness,
how profound! Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object
finds; Creation sleeps. Tis as the general pulse of
life stood still, and nature made a pause, an awful
pause! prophetic of her end."

Morning is resurrection. Beaming with awakj
ened glories the world rises as from an abyss of dark-
ness to new life and expectation. Man recovered from
his stupor looks again for his opportunity. There is
some relief in the chamber of anguish and sorrowful
watchfulness.

32 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"The morn is up again, the dewy morn, with
breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, laughing
the clouds away with playful scorn and living as if
earth contained no tomb." — Byron.

Figuratively, the saying means that when the
good man is in the ascendency, others ascend with
him. It is associated in the Talmud with a beautiful
myth. Abraham wore a jewel which restored to
health all the sick that had an opportunity to cast a
glance at it. When the Patriarch died, the Almighty
hung it upon the sun. Now, Abraham's jewel is the
blessing of God, that he shall be a benefit to those
who wish him well. That blessing did not cease
with Abraham's death, but was transferred upon the
righteous who followed him. In the Bible, the right-
eous are compared to the rising sun.

"One comfort," says Carlyle, "is that great men
taken up in any way are profitable company. We
cannot look, however, imperfectly upon a great man
without gaining something by him. He is the living
light-fountain which it is good and pleasant to be
near. The light which enlightens, which has enlight-
ened the darkness of the world, and this not as a
kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary
shining by the gift of Heaven."

(TD 3"3 KVYp ^VX KDV ^TN
Apollo morbos depellit.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 33

XXXVII.

"Who is a hero? He who subdues 'his passions."

That the man of great and extraordinary power is
a hero is admitted by all. There is, however, a differ-
ence of opinion with regard to the sphere of exercis-
ing and concentrating that power. The people in
general hail it in the external. Their hero destroys
cities, overthrows kingdoms and conquers nations.
But the wise seek heroism in the breast. With them
the question is not, how many people one holds in
obedience to his will, and in subjugation to his whims,
but how much influence and commanding power he
has over himself. The microcosm of his inner being
is the seat and realm of true heroism. The greatest
hero is he who has the requirements to plant himself
the idol of his environs, but scorns the opportunity
in conformity to nobler principles.

The heroes of the people with some exceptions
acted the dual part of strength and weakness;
bravery and cowardice; the master and the slave.
Quite interesting and suggestive is Lucian on the
subject, and his dialogue of Alexander and Hannibal,
invoking the aid of Minos to decide their dispute
about precedence, speaks for itself.

Says Hannibal: "I took the Celtibarians, and con-
quered the Western Galatians ; passing over great
mountains, I overran all those parts about the Eri-
danus, and subverted so many cities; and subdued the

34 ECHOES OF WISDOM

plains of Italy, and came over to the suburbs of the
ruling city Rome, and slew so many on one day that
I measured their rings by the bushels, and bridged
rivers with the dead . . . All these things I did as a
Barbarian, and unskilled in Grecian literature, and I
never recited Homer as he (Alexander) did, nor was
I educated by the sophist Aristotle, using as my guide
a good natural education. These are the things in
which I declare myself to be superior to Alexander."

To this speech of Hannibal, Alexander makes
the following reply: "I ought, indeed, answer nothing,
O Minos! to a man so impudent. For fame is suffi-
cient to inform you how great a king I was, and how
great a robber he .... Being elected general, I
deigned not to be contented with ruling as many as
my father left me; but comprehending the entire
world in my ambition, and thinking it a shocking
thing if I did not rule over all, I invaded Asia and
conquered . . . and taking . . . and constantly subdu-
ing all before me . . . After this, O Minos! you remem-
ber how many dead I sent you down on one day. The
ferry-man says that his boat was not sufficient for
them . . . Do you judge, oh Minos! For these few
observations are enough out of many."

The Talmud relates the following story about
Alexander. He besieged a city in Africa, which was
inhabited exclusively by women, but overcome in
argument by the female deputation that came to him
to negotiate for peace, he promised to withdraw his

ECHOES OF WISDOM 35

forces, and to do no injury to the city. He requested
them, however, to bring him bread, and oh! how
great was his disappointment, when in place of bread,
they brought him gold. He assured them that he
meant what he said, and had no desire for gold, but
was hungry, and actually craved for bread, and the
women shouted: "What! didst thou have no bread at
home that thou hast come that perilous distance to beg
for it?" Hereupon he wrote on the gate of the city:
"I, Alexander the Great, have been a fool until I came
to this place, where I have learned wisdom."

That Hegel should have inveighed against those
who, favoring a calmer polity, questioned the great-
ness of Macedonia's most discontented son, seems
strange, to say the least. It were wicked to think
that the famous philosopher had the ambition that his
voice be appreciated in the house of the Prussian
Pharaoh.

Shakespeare's Roman play, Julius Caesar, is per-
haps nothing else than a satire on Rome's heroes.
They all look upon life as upon a plaything, yet with
what a resolution they brandish the sword in the
interest of their ambition, and how rapturously they
speak about virtue. What a comical heroism! Is
the life held so cheap, worth the steel and the senti-
ment they lavishly bestow upon it?

Even Brutus, "the noblest of them all," is no
satisfactory personification of the higher conception
of true heroism. He has brilliant traits in character,

36

but is too conscious of them, and that consciousness
breeds self-admiration. In spite of his moral super-
iority, he sees too often through the eyes of Cassius.
and is his follower when he should be his leader. He
despises the method of Cassius of raising funds, but
applies to him for pecuniary aid when in need, and
loses his temper when refused. His philosophy is
not enough to hold him when the thought of Portia's
death comes upon him without the strength which the
spirit of the grape administers. Losing his battles,
he, rather than bear the ignominy of defeat, puts an
end to his life — an act for which he boldly censured
Cato.

The Bible, too, unfolds a picture of perverted
heroism in the life of Samson. That muscular Danite
kills lions, removes cities, but is a helpless boy in the
presence of Delilah — a characteristic which prompted
our sages to remark: "Samson followed his eyes."

"It is foolish to command others, and not to be
able to control ourselves." — Syrus.

Cn nnx) nv nx tpnian TITJ IDPN

"Stuitum est imperare caeteros qui nesoit sibi."

XXXVIII.
"Who is wise? He who learns from every man." — Tal.

To Pythagoras we are indebted for the term
philosopher. Herefusedtobe called wise, and thought

ECHOES OF WISDOM 37

that man could be at best only a lover of wisdom.
For the same reason our sages preferred the title of
Talmid Chacham (pupil of the wise) to that of wise.

The wise man is pre-eminently a student, and
learns even when teaching. Rabbi Chaninah used to
say: "Much I have learned from my teachers, more
from my associates, but most from my pupils."

It is a bad sign, if one thinks he has finished
school, or he has to look to the clouds for a teacher.
Thought is bountifully diffused. Rabbi Jochanan
taught that by being observant, we could learn many
a moral lesson even in the zoological realm.

King Solomon, you remember, refers to the ant,
that creeping dot, as an efficient professor of economy
and .industry.

As to man, how much could be learned from
him? "Surely, the proper study of mankind is man."

"No one is sufficiently wise by himself." — Plautus.
Cn nnx) DIK fc» noftn Dan

Nemo solus satis sapis. — Mil. Glor. iii.

XXXIX.

"Who is honored? He who honors others." — Tal.

It is said about Napoleon, as he returned in a
coach from his successful wars with Italy and Austria,
the people everywhere manifested their loyalty and
admiration in a loud and conspicuous manner, but

38 ECHOES OF WISDOM

he took little notice of all the proceedings. Bourienne,
who sat with the Emperor, said to him: "It must be
delightful to be greeted with such demonstrations of
love and attachment." "Bah!" Napoleon said, "this
same unthinking crowd, under a slight change of cir-
cumstances, would just as eagerly follow me to the
scaffold."— Little's H. L.

Honor must be reciprocal. He who receives it
must have a good opinion about the one who confers
it, and unless one sees and honors God in His
creation all honors are farcical.

"He who can . . . honor anyone, will quickly be
honored himself." — Seneca.

Cn rvax) nv-on nx naaon 13120 nr»

Qui sic aliquem vereri potest cito erit verendus. — Ep. jd.

XL.
"Who is rich? He who takes delight in his portion."

The most of us claim a share in wisdom. We may
have minutes of recognizing our stupidity, but self-
infatuation quickly returns, and is the printing press
of our opinions, and the mint of our actions. What
is more natural to us than that we should be num-
bered among the wise? Do we not despise that man
as a blasphemer who dares to question our wisdom?
Not so as to riches. Our discontent and incessant

ECHOES OF WISDOM 39

struggle for more and more evidences that the world
is a poor-house and its inmates are beggars.

The fact however, is that the rich by far out-
number the wise, and if there are comparatively so
few who consider themselves actually rich, it is on
account of the scarcity of wisdom.

"You cannot, with propriety, call him happy who
possesses much; he more justly claims the title of
happy man who understands how to make a wise use
of the gifts of the gods." — Horace.

mi nm ii> e^e> hi VB>y I.IPN
(ra nae>) o"n *ian npya

Non possidentem multa vocaveris recte beatum; radius
occupat nomen beati, qui deorum muneribus sapienter uti.

— Ode iv, 9.

XLI.

"Which is the summum bonum? A good heart." — To/.

The dialogue form of philosophy is older than
are the writings of Plato. The book of Job is dia-
logue from beginning to the end, and a more inspir-
ing philosophy is nowhere found.

In the Talmud that method of philosophising is
fruitfully applied, and our heading is an abreviation of
a paragraph in the second chapter of the Sayings of
the Fathers, where a master and his disciples briefly
discuss a subject which is at the bottom of all sound
philosophy.

40 ECHOES OF WISDOM

Rabbi Jochanan, the founder of the famous
school at Jamnia, proposes to his disciples to care-
fully consider that something in which the truly reli-
gious life centers. "Go and see," he says, "which
virtue, which quality a man should cultivate with the
utmost care and solicitude."

Rabbi Elieser answered: "A good eye," that is
contentedness and pleasantness, which regards the
whole world as if it were a bouquet in the hand of
God.

Rabbi Joshua answered: "A good friend." This
sage thought that we cannot afford to treat all alike,
but out of the whole mass of men we ought to select
some one to whom we should attach ourselves, and
that some one, it is understood, must be a good per-
son, capable of uplifting his associate.

Seneca quotes Epicure to have said: "You must
be more careful with whom you eat, than what you
eat. For good cheer without a friend is the life of a
lion or wolf."

Rabbi Jose answered: "A good neighbor," that
is good surroundings.

"I consider neighborhood the first step to friend-
ship."— Terence.

Rabbi Sirnon answered: "Looking ahead."
"The cautious seldom err." — Confucius.

Rabbi Elasar answered: "A good heart." And
the master declared this answer the best of all.

That the golden rule is altogether omitted from

ECHOES OF WISDOM 41

this discussion goes to show that Hillel did not press
it upon his disciples as the test and criterion of the
good life, and the sum total of Judaism. Had he done
so, then Rabbi Jochanan, who was the exponent of
his teachings, would either not have propounded the
question of 'the chief good which he must have re-
garded as settled, or if he had done it with a view of
enlightening his disciples on the subject, or of testing
their reasoning and speculative faculty, he would, at
least, have done his master the honor of quoting his
favorite saying as the torch of life.

Hillel gave utterance to that rule accidentally
only, and in a sense suitable to the occasion. A
heathen came to him, and expressed the desire of
embracing Judaism on the condition to be instructed
in all its precepts and tenets while he stood on one
foot. Hillel saw that he had to deal with an impudent
fellow. "Stans in pede una," (standing on one foot)
was a satirical phrase. And he cited the golden rule as
a lesson which the heathen was most in need of at the
time. "What is disagreeable to you, do not unto
others." Hillel meant to say: "You came to have
sport with me, how would you like it if others sported
with you?"

To declare that rule the quintessence of Judaism ;
the apex, and all other teachings as its supporters ;
the great general, for whose safety and elevation all
other teachings and usages are in the field, is to make
the idea of God subservient to the purpose of man.

42 ECHOES OF WISDOM

Moreover, that rule raising, as it does, the ego of each
individual as the measure and standard of the conduct
of others, as the supreme court and sovereign of our
entire being, is destructive to all rule, since there is
among men a signal difference in the temperament,
taste, desire, circumstances and even in the concep-
tion of right and wrong. According to that rule, a
man has to consult in every case his likes and dislikes,
and make his actions fit the one or the other. A man,
for instance, who detests to be advised and corrected,
would have absolutely no right to let others have the
benefit of his advice. A man who thinks it shameful
and unmanly to receive charity, and is satisfied in his
mind that, were he poor, he would rather starve than
make use of the kindness of people, would be per-
fectly justified to refuse every application of the needy
for assistance.

Time and again inquiry was made into the fun-
damental principle of Judaism with no favorable
result, which goes to show that there has been no
unanimity on the subject among the learned in Israel,
and that it is an ungrateful task, as the Marsho puts
it, "to make Judaism stand on one foot." (See the
following chapter.)

Rabbi Elasar's answer that the good heart is
the chief good, leaves enough room for speculation.
What constitutes the good heart? Is not the good
heart easily misled? Can the good heart be acquired?
But in the sense that the chief good is the good which

ECHOES OF WISDOM 43

has its spring in the heart, it may be said that Rabbi
Elasar struck the highest keynote. Without the heart
pleasantness is only a painted flower, friendship an
impossibility, foresight makes the pedant, and religion
leads to hypocrisy.

According to Seneca, the chief good depends
upon the judgment and the possession of a virtuous
mind.

Dixn ra pyre? raio i~n arn IPK

C3 's JTQK) ma 3^

Summum bonum in ipso iudicio est, et habitu optimae
mentis. — De Vit Bea. ix.

XLII.

" Which passage in the Bible," says Bar Kappara, "com-
prises all the essentials of the Thora (Law)? That
which in the book of Proverbs reads: 'In all thy
ways asknowledge Him, and He will make level thy
path.' "

Bar Kappara was not the only Talmudic sage
who read the Bible with such discrimination. Other
sages have done the same thing. Rabbi Akiba, for
instance, designated the injunction of love for fellow-
man as the emphasis of revelation. Ben Azai found
more light in the words : "This is the book of the gen-
erations of Adam." Ben Zoma recognized the supre-
macy of the passage: "Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is

44 ECHOES OF WISDOM

our God, the Eternal is One. "Ben Pazai was satisfied
that the words: "And the one lamb thou shalt take
in the morning," were the most significant in Scrip-
tures. And while Rabbi Simlai accorded to the
teaching of the Prophet Amos: "Seek me and ye shall
live," the merit of comprehensiveness, Rabbi Nach-
man was more pleased with the words of Habakkuk:
"And the righteous shall live by his faith."

Even in the Bible, where every letter stands for
something and every dot is suggestive, there is a
gradation of meaning. Happy, he who finds in it the
most fertile spot, and the fountain-head of instruction
and enlightenment.

Reading is a privilege. The book is the chief
victory of man. "Were I to pray for a taste," says
Sir John Hershel, "which should stand me instead
under every variety of circumstances, and be a source
of happiness and cheerfulness to me during life, and a
shield against its ills, however things might go amiss,
and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for
reading." But there is economy to be used in that
exercise. Not all books are desirable auxiliaries, and
the pages of the best book have not the same value
and importance. To know to imbibe the good of the
good i>ook, as the bee knows how to extract honey
from the flower, is an enviable accomplishment.

To be sure, the Jew knew how to use his Bible.
It was to him in its entirety the gift of God. He read
it again and again. Yet he took out of it one verse

ECHOES OF WISDOM 45

which he attached to his name — the first letter of that
verse corresponded to the first letter of his name —
and that was his theme of meditation in solitude, his
weapon in danger, his protector against temptation,
a lamp to his feet, the companion of his mind, and a
part of his consciousness. It was the diminutive
Bible he carried in his very bosom, and hoped to use
it as a pass-word at the Gate of Heaven. "That I,
too, do," Seneca writes, "of the many things I read,
I apprehend somewhat."

p!>n min <au bt? ruop nene NTI irx
(J"D rvo-Q) m

"Hoc ipse quoque facio: ex pluribus, quae legi aliquid
adprehendo." — Ep. ii.

XLIII.

"And he brought a very fine glass and broke it, and they,
(the invited guests) became sad." — Tal.

Rabbi Ashi, at the wedding of his son sought to
lower the tone of hilarity of the invited guests by
breaking a glass in a conspicuous manner.

This incident explains the origin of the usage of
breaking a glass at a wedding. (See Tosefoth.)

"Fortune is like glass, it breaks while shining."

— Syrus.

"Fortuna vitrea est, turn cum splendet frangitur."

46 ECHOES OF WISDOM

XLIV.

"The world has been given over to fools."

Rabbi Acha made the insinuation when he was
informed that Rabbi Chisdai, a high state official,
could give no satisfactory answer, when asked by
King Shabur, whether there was an injunction in the
Bible concerning burial.

"All places are replete with fools." — Cicero.

(1"D '-IHJD) 'NPEtn «T3 Vxby nDD'K
"Stultorum plena sunt omnia."— Ep. ix, 22.

XLV.

"Man does not know whereby he may profit." — Tal.

Cromwell used to say: "One never goes up so
high as when one goes, and one does not know
where one goes."

"Let your hooks always be ready; in the pool
where you least expect, there a fish will be." — Ovid.
(Y'j D'riDB) i3ne>D noa jnv DIN px

"Semper tibi pendeat hamus, quo minime credas gurgiite
piscis erit." — Art. Am. iii, 425.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 47

XLVI.
"Let your heart be in your study." — Tal.

Cicero quotes a Greek proverb expressing the
same thought: "Apply your talent where best you are
skilled."

(: & yy) pan n^ Dipoo t6x mm 10^ DIN fx

"Quam quisque norit artem in hac re exerceat."

— Tus. i, 18.

XLVII.

"No man is 'expected to admit that he is wicked." — Tal.

No man is to accuse himself unless it were before
God.— L. Mat.

(n"a w) yen i»vy D'tro DIK p«

"Accusare se nemo debet, nisi coram deo."

XLVIII.

"You do not cut your ringer unless it has been so
decreed above." — Tal.

The idea is not that it is proclaimed in Heaven
that this one or that one shall cut his finger, but that
law governs all things, and even such a small thing
as cutting one's finger occurs according to law — being

48 ECHOES OF WISDOM

the effect of carelessly handling a thing with a sharp
edge. There is no such thing as chance. The law
of cause and effect operates everywhere, and as the
law has its origin in the Deity, it may be said philoso-
phically, that whatever happens has been decreed
above. "He who is the builder and creator of all has
written the fate of all." — Seneca.
or !>in) rtota v^y roo a"N

"Ille ipse omnium conditor et rector scripsit quidem
fata."— De Prov. v.

XLIX.

"No man is suspected of having done anything unless
he has done it, or has done some of it, or had at
least the thought of doing it." — Tal.

Malice is one thing, and suspicion is another.
The wiles of hatred do not come under this heading.
Nor is here meant the suspicion which is begotten
by a feverish imagination, that arch blunderer that
sees spectres climb the lamp-post, and mocking
faces float in the vacant air.

But the suspicion conceived and kept up by the
impartial and sober-minded is not without some
foundation.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time, but you can-
not fool all of the people all of the time." — Lincoln.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 49

"No one has ever deceived all, nor have all ever
deceived one." — Pliny.

rwy "613 rwy vf? DKI IMW p DK K^N 1313 nt?m DIK p«

(: TV p"o) 'iDi invpo

"Nemo omnes, n em in em omnes fefellerunt." — Pangyr, 62.

L.

"A man is not accountable for what he says or does
under the influence of pain and grief." — To/.

Heine, perhaps, thought of this passage when he
ridiculed the priests, who, in proof of the indispensi-
bility of religion, boastfully cite the fact that some of
the outspoken atheists and sceptics have, in the last
hour of their lives, expressed a desire for the sacra-
ment. This, according to the illustrious humorist,
argues against the priests inasmuch as it goes to
show that as long as those men had their wits they
were above such needs.

In the Talmud, however, the saying is used in a
solemn sense, in answer to a serious question con-
cerning the believer. Why is it, that he, too, weeps
and mourns over losses? Believing in Providence
and the noble destiny of man, is it not rather incon-
sistent to lament death which to him is the door to
his better and real home?

The answer is, that allowance must be made for
some inconsistencies. Religion seeks to refine our

50 ECHOES OF WISDOM

nature and not to destroy it; to soften our heart and
not to harden it; to purify our earthly relations and
not to annul them. The sages take the hint from
Holy Writ. Job, in his state of intense suffering, is
not free from impious utterances, and is not charged
with heresy or blasphemy.

"What shame or bound can there be to our affec-
tionate regret for so dear a person." — Horace.

C TB 3''2) V1J?¥ JW3 DQJ-U DIN fK
"Quis desiderio sit pudor out modus tarn cari capitis."

LI.

"No man sees his own guilt." — Tal.

We have an excuse for every mistake we make,
and a euphonious name for every vice we have. Thus.
"the timid claims to be cautious, and the miser frugal."

— Lat. Prov,

"Timidus se vocat cautum parcum sordidus."

LII.

"Not hay, but meat makes the lion roar." — Tal.

The criticism to which the successful man is often
subjected to by such as fail in the emulation is in

ECHOES OF WISDOM 51

many instances unjust. What assurance have we thafi
we would act better in his circumstances? Unless we
belong to the class of the godly, who pray not for
riches, but for daily bread, we have no right to cen-
sure the sons of a better fate. Acquire wealth and
your definition of charity and quality will radically
change.

"Even the most illustrious generals became in-
solent in prosperity." — Tacitus.
(I1*? n«~a) nea hw &6x pn }v naip ^ino omj n« px

"Rebus secundis etiam egregrios duces indolescere."

Hist, id, 7.

Lilt

"Say before the dead what is creditable to the dead."

—Tal.

"Nothing should be said about the dead, if not
good." — Lot. Prov.

0 nia-a) 'i3i no ^ vnm N^N non ^22 pnoix ps

"De mortuis nil nisi bonum."

LIV.

"The son of David Messiah, will come at a time when
it will be difficult to procure a fish for a patient."

—Tal

The belief was that the Messiah will come when
the general condition of things will be very critical.

52 ECHOES OF WISDOM

Can we conceive of harder times than when fish are
rare? Plutarch quotes the following as a favorite
saying of Cato: "It is hard to preserve a city when a
fish sold for more than an ox."
(n"¥ Truo) N¥»<1 N^I rh\rh n B>p3n>B> ny NU in p p«

"Difficulter posse salvam esse urbem in qua majoris
pisois quam bos venerat. — Plut. Cato. Ma.

LV.

"The blessing is in the thing which is hidden from the
eye." — Tal.

The eye is not an ever competent and safe guide
Though its services are beyond all computation, and
we can ill afford to keep the shutters always closed
upon it, we are bound to go astray if we place too
much confidence in this whimsical sovereign of our
senses, which often magnifies and diminishes things,

There is no thing which discloses to the eye or
any other sense, its inner being. Subtract from any
given object its attributes or those characteristics by
which it is known, and an unknowable something is
left in which these attributes have their origin and
sustenance.

Then we have to consider that everything has
a relation to something else which determines its real
value. We enjoy the present hour because we hope
that there is another one for us in waiting. What, if

ECHOES OF WISDOM 53

we knew that this was our last, the luminaries of the
lighted firmament could not comfort and calm us.

"Our knowledge," says Buckle, "is composed not
of facts, but of relations which facts and ideas bear
to themselves and to each other, and real knowledge
consists not of an acquaintance with facts, which only
make the pedant, but in the relation of facts which
makes the philosopher."

"Let the soul find out the good of the soul."

— Seneca.
(n myn) pyn jo "loon -im vh* mvo naian pK

"Animi bonum animus inveniat." — De Vit. Bea. ii.

LVI.

"A handful does not satisfy the lion."— To/.

It is one thing to deal with the multitude and
another, to deal with an individual.

Some Talmudists take the saying in the sense
that the grasshopper does not satisfy the lion, and it
reminds of the Latin Prov.: "The eagle does not
catch flies."

('a rvD-a) n«n rm yyyo }>»ipn px

"Aquila non capit muscas."

54 ECHOES OF WISDOM

LVII.

"The captive cannot accomplish his own release." — Tal,

In some instances our helplessness and depend-
ence upon others is more apparent than in others, but
in reality, we are always inadequate to the task, and
in need of some support and lifting hand. Independ-
ence is a shallow phrase. The link must be attached
to another link to be a part of the chain. "The bell
must be pulled, that its sounds shall be heard."
Thoughts need the wing of language.

Success is not independent. The teacher must
have pupils, the author readers, the potentate
subjects.

Abuzurg-Mihir, the Persian Seneca, is said to
have invented the play of chess, with a view of prov-
ing to King Hormuz how little the ruler can do with-
out the assistance and protection of army and people.

"No one is sufficiently strong to rise by himself;
some helping hand is always necessary." — Seneca.

Cfl DSJ>) DniDXn JT30 lEtfJ? Tf«0 Bnan |>N
"Nemo per se satis valet ut emergat." — Ep. 52.

LVIII.

'It is in the work of the loom that woman is expected
to show her wisdom." — Tal.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 55

So Rabbi Elieser observed, when a woman em-
barrassed him by raising the question, why the
worshippers of the golden calf did not all die the
same death, since they committed the same sin. What
he meant to say is what Lord Littleton expressed
with the help of the muse

"Seek to be good, but aim not to be great:
A woman's noblet station is Retreat,
Her fairest virtues fly from public sight,
Domestic worth — that shuns too strong a light."

Theodorus, annoyed by the arguments of the
female philosopher Hypparchia, asked: "Who is the
woman that left the shuttle so near the warp?"

Juvenal is too severe on the literary woman when
he says: "I hate her who is forever poring over and
studying Palaemo's treatise; who never violates the
rules and principles of grammar, and, skilled in anti-
quarian lore, quotes verses I never knew, and corrects
the phrases of her friend as old-fashioned which mer
would never heed. A husband should have the priv-
ilege of committing some solecism."

"Odi hanc ego quae repetit volvitque Palaemonis artem
soloecismus liceat fecisse marito." — Sat. vi.

56 ECHOES OF WISDOM

LIX.

"Do not attack a dead lion." — Tal.

The great man is frequently called in the Talmud
Hon. To attack a great man when he can no longer
defend himself, is as cowardly as to wreak venge-
ance on a dead lion.

"That he knew and was well aware that nothing
was easier than to ascribe the blame of an act to the
dead." — Caesar.

era pay) inio ~\nvb nun nx pyeno p«

"Scire et intelligere caussam peccati facillime mortuis
delegari." — Bel. Gol. vii, 26.

LX.

"No monuments are erected unto the righteous. Their
words perpetuate their memory." — Tal.

"The erection of a monument is useless: the
remembrance of us will last if we have deserved it
by our lives." — Plin. m.

("i <{?\>v} D'pHV^ nit^DJ ptiny p«

"Impensa monumenti supervacua est; memoria nostra
durabit si vita meruimus." — 'ix, 19.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 57

LXI.

"No one is so poor as he who has no sense." — Talmud.

"There is nothing either good or bad, but think-
ing makes it so." — Shakespeare.

"The mind is the master of every kind of fortune:
itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own
happiness and misery." — Seneca.

nyna N>N vy r«

"Valentior omni fortuna animus est." — Ep. 98.

LXII.

"The habitual disputant can be no defender." — Tal.

"In excessive altercation, truth is lost." — Syrus.
('n' nia-a) -nrjo npyj -wap J»K

"Nimium altercando veritas amittitur."

LXIII.

"You cannot compare the foolishness which is harmful
to that which is innocent" — Tal.

How we enjoy the foolish prattling of children!
Thus, there is many a joke which may be appreciated
by the devout religionist. Austerity is no virtue and

58 ECHOES OF WISDOM

joviality no vice. But the humor which misrepre-
sents principle, and sports with the moral feeling, is
like an obscene picture.

''That laughter costs too much which is pur-
chased by the sacrifice of principle." — Juvenal.
(typ rot?) Nton 13 PNC? i>3r6 Nan 13 tw ^3n n»n I^N

"N'imium risus pretium est si probitatis impendio
constat." — vi, 3.

LXIV.

"Do not compare the man who has a subsistence to the
one who is without it." — Tal.

Our disposition and character are in alliance with
the body. The stomach is the autocrat whose man-
dates must be attended to. Hunger is a despicable
tyrant, and the care for the next day's food will en-
able to do many a thing which under other circum-
stances might not be dreamed of.

"The belly is the teacher of art and the bestower
of genius." — Persius.
(Y'y NOV) 1^03 na if> PNG? ^ 1^03 ns i$> GW ^ non I^N

"Magister artium ingeniique Jargitor venter." — Prologue.

LXV.

"There is a difference between learning one's lesson a

ECHOES OF WISDOM 59

hundred times and learning it a hundred and one
times." — Tal.

Study makes the scholar, and if we desire to
master a branch of knowledge it is not enough to
resort to it occasionally, but we have to build our
nest in it, and make it our home.

There are precepts in our religion which cannot
be sufficiently repeated because they are the beacon
lights on our path. If one said: "I know them there-
fore I can do without their recital, it was regarded by
the Talmudic sages as an unmistaken sign of the de-
crease of his religious fervor. Our old ritual contains
not only the forcible expression of daily supplication
and thanksgiving, but the essence of the theology and
doctrinal portion of Judaism. How dear It was to
our fathers ! Every day it had the interest and novelty
of a new revelation.

"That never is too often said which cannot be
sufficiently learned."— Scucca.

'nya nxn ipis ny\vb n^oya nx» ip-ia rwt? n»n irs

CD reran)

"Nunquam nimis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur."

LXVI.

"A stater (small coin) is in the vase, what a noise it
makes." — Tal.

Among shallow surroundings it is an easy matter

60 ECHOES OF WISDOM

to be noticeable. Among weaklings a man with little
strength is feared as an athlete. Among beggars one
having something in his purse is envied for his wealth.
Among the utterly uninstructed a. man having the
ability to read and write is admired for his scholarship.
Then again, our saying may be taken in the sense
of the Latin proverb: "Empty vessels give out the
loudest sound."

Vasa vacua plurimum sonant."

LXVII.
"Woman spins while she speaks." — Tal.

Literally, it means that she is loquacious. Figur-
atively, it implies that there is method in her talk-
ativeness. She aims at something.

"It is easy for you women to counterfeit your
words and your actions." — Propertius.

(Y"1 n^o) ND^Q xnit? nra xnn-'K

"Sed vobis facile est verba et eomponere fraudes." — ii, 5.

LXVIII.

"Thy wife is short, bow down and consult her." — Tal.

How do you like that sentiment, my dear female
reader? Believe it, tftnat the Talmudic sages had the

ECHOES OF WISDOM 61

highest regard for your sex. Consider the following
Talmudic expression: "He who lives without a wife
lives without joy, without light, without peace."
Again: "He who has no wife is no complete man."
And again: "A husband should love his wife like
himself, and honor her more than himself." And
again: "Let every husband be solicitous about the
honor of his wife, for it is through her that a house-
hold is blessed."

Plutarch quotes Cato to have said: "Men gener-
ally govern women, but we command all men, and
women command us."

(si o"3) rh nr6rn pro KVIJ inrvt*

"Omnes homines mulierebus imperamt nos omnibus
hominibus, nobis mulieres." — Cat. Ma.

LXIX.

"The wife of Korah, said to her husband: 'Behold what
Moses is doing! He is king. His brother he made
high priest, the sons of his brother he made
priests.' "

"There are few disputes in life which do not
originate with a woman." — Juvenal.

0"p p-nruD) nw Tayp »wo nn ^"K mpn rrnrvN

"Nulla fere causa est in qua non foemina litem moverit."

— Sat. iv.

62 ECHOES OF WISDOM

LXX.

"To eat vegetables with a tr'anquil mind is preferable to
eating poultry and have palpitation of heart in con-
sequence thereof." — Tal.

The Midrash tells of a fox who fasted three days
in order to enter an orchard through a small open-
ing of the fence. Having banquetted therein for
three days he became so fat that he could not make his
exit through the same loop-hole. Remembering,
that he will be severely punished if discovered, he
fasted again three days to make his escape possible

"Now learn what, and how great benefits a
temperate diet will bring with it." — Hor.
CTp DTIDS) i>¥l 3C>1 *?"*! ^DK
"Quae virtus et quanta boni sit vivere parvo di.scite."

LXXI.

"Let no one distribute more than one-fifth of his income
among the poor, that he should niot become an
object of charity himself."

According to a tradition, Moses introduced the
system of tithes, not only for the benefit of the poor,
but the protecfion of the rich. When he enunciated
to the children of Israel the divine lesson of brotherly
love, it kindled in them an enthusiasm which caused
many of them to give away all they had. He saw
the danger which such an utter disregard for self

ECHOES OF WISDOM 63

brings with it, and counteracted it. "It is enough if
one gives the tenth part of his income." But to spend
more than one-fifth of his income is to wrong one-
self.

"Our purse should neither be so closed that our
generosity cannot open it, nor so unfastened that it
lies open to all, a bound should be set and bear
reference to our means." — Cicero.

CJ nninD) traino inv DIN DTT ^

"Nee ita claudenda res est familiaris ut team benignkas
aperire non possit, nee ita reseranda, tut pateait omnibus."

— De off. ii, 15.

LXXII.

"Do not trust thyself until the day of death." — Tal.

Epaminondas being asked which of the three he
held in greatest esteem, Chabrias, Iphicrates or him-
self. "You must see us die before that question can
be settled," was his reply.

Solon, too said, being asked by Croesus to pro-
nounce him the happiest man: "No one is to be
regarded happy before his death." — Ovid.
C3 nnx) into DV ny ~p\'jD r»xn hx

"Dicique beatus ante obitum nemo." — Met.

64 ECHOES OF WISDOM

LXXIII.

"Do not live in a city the governors of which are
philosophers." — Tal.

Frederick the Great is reported to have said:
"If I wanted to ruin one of my provinces, I would
make over its government to the philosophers."
— Buckl.

"The state of philosophers is such as the learned
man imagine but cannot be established." — Lev.
0"'p TIDS) D'eon 'Ti^n iTK>&oe> vjn inn ^N

"Sapientiuim civitas, quam docti fingunt magis quam
norunt." — xxvi, 22.

LXXIV.

"Despise no man and disparage no thing, for there is
<no man who has not his hour, and no thing which
has not its place."

We do not know ourselves, how can we sit in
judgment over others? The man whom we condemn
for his misdemeanor, may in the next hour rise
superior to us. "The breadth of two fingers only
separates the abode of the faithful from the place of
the wicked."

Socially, too, that despised man may live to see
a change for the better. We landed in this world
with less than the poorest man has. We did not bring
even a rag with us. His turn will be yet. He may

ECHOES OF WISDOM 65

become our benefactor, our biographer, the sculptor
of our monument, or the digger of our grave.

Things, too, have their great possibilities. The
diamond which glitters on the bosom of our love was
originally a vegetable. The mountain which lifts up
its proud summit as if in support of the firmament,
may be the growth and outcome of a little stone
which a playful lad threw to catch a bird.

What is more insignificant than the death of an
animal! No priest chants mass, no Rabbi recites the
Kadish, and no relative sheds a tear. Yet, it is with
bones of extinct species that long established creeds
are being stormed.

Ye gods of Egypt! You are avenged. Your
rotten bones have become a menace to the theology
that demolished your temples.

The mastadon rises and altars tremble; a petri-
fied butterfly is unearthed and there is joy among
scientists, and consternation in the camp of
orthodoxy.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth,
Horatio, than are dreamed of in our philosophy."

66 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"It would be quite advantageous to examine
those things which appear trifles at first sight, but out
of which develop great events." — Tacitus.

("i nnN) in JDE '?in w DIN n <nn N

"Non sine usu fuerit introspicere ilia primo aspectu levia,
ex quibus magnarum saepe rerum motus oriuntur."

—An. iv, 32.

LXXV.

"Let the curse of an ordinary person not be light in
thine eyes." — Tal.

"Nothing is so strong, but may be endangered,
even by the weakest." — Quint. Cur.

(Y'v p"a) T^JO rp cvnn

"Nihil tarn firmum, cui periculum non sit etiam ab
invalido." — vii, 8.

LXXVI.

"Do not attempt to console your woe-stricken friend
while the dead is still before him." — Tal.

"As a fresh wound shrinks from the hand of the
surgeon, then gradually submits to it and even calls
for it; so the mind under the first impression of mis-

' ECHOES OF WISDOM 67

fortune shuns and rejects all comfort, but at length
if touched with tenderness, calmly and willingly
resigns." — Pliny Minor.

Cn rvQK) VJE iD mot? wa innrun K

"Ut enim crudum adhuc vulnus medentium manus
reformidat, deinde patitur, atque ultro requirit etc."

—Hist, v, 16.

LXXVII.

"Do not maim yourself."

A sensible person will not cut off his nose or any
part of his body. Hence, the saying cannot be taken
literally. Nor does it refer to moral disfigurement.
Plainer language would have been used in that case.
It is an advice, according to the Talmud, given by a
father to his son, not to weaken his position in busi-
ness. For instance, if one goes in partnership with
three persons, he will have to sacrifice his interest to
their interest for fear they might conspire against
him, one of them will appear as his accuser and the
other two as witnesses against him-

Emerson, however, might take our saying to
mean what he expressed in the following words:
"Why should we make it a point with our modesty to
disparage that man we are, and that form of being
assigned to us? A good man is contented."

68 ECHOES OF WISDOM

Yet to Martian's, we would have to give the credit
of originality in this point. For he said long before
Emerson: "Be satisfied with what you are, and
have no desire to be anything else."

(a"^p D^noB) -jovya DIO vyn ^

"Quod sis, esse velis, nihilque malis." — x, 47.

LXXVIII.

"Do not worry over the possible mishaps of to-morrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth."

—Tal.

"Such," says Montaign, "as accuse mankind of
the folly of gaping and panting after future things, and
advise us to make our 'benefits of those which are
present, and to set up and rest upon them as having
too short a reach to lay hold upon that which is to
come — have hit upon the most universal of human
errors. For we are never present with, but always
beyond ourselves. Fear, desire and hope are still
pushing us on towards the future, depriving us in the
meantime of the sum and consideration of that which
is to amuse us, with the thought of what shall be,
even when we are no more."

"Do not seek to know what will happen to-
morrow." — Hor.

nno N»P DV i^v TO jnn vb ^ tno rm nvn ^>N

"Quid sit futurum eras fuge quaerere." — i, 9.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 69

LXXIX.

"Do not sit, do not stand, do not walk excessively."

—Tal

"There is a mean in all things." — Hor.
(K'"1? 'svw) n3»B"3 nmn *?x

"Est modus in rebus." — Sat. i, I.

LXXX.

"Do not seek to reconcile your friend while he is in a
state of anger." — Tal.

"Anger is a passing madness." — Hor.
Cn rvoK) IDJD nyt?3 Tnn n« rmn ta

"Ira furor brevis est." — Ep. i, 2.

LXXXI.

"Do not engage in scholarly discussion on the road."

—Tal.

You might lose your way. Thales was looking
up to the stars while walking along a river, and fell
into it. Satire observed: "Had Thaks looked into the
river, he could have seen the stars."

yo ECHOES OF WISDOM

"No one sees what is before him. They scru-
tinize the starry region." — Cicero.

('" myn) mn nm ipoynn >x

"Qod est ante pedes nemo spectat, coeli plagas
scrutantur." — Divin. ii, 13.

LXXXII.

"These as well as these are wards spoken in the
religious spirit, yet those of the school of Hillel
shall prevail." — To/.

Hillel and Shamai were contemporaneous
teachers of great renown in Israel. Their names
are closely united like those of Shmayah and
Abtalion. Yet in disposition and method they were
no more like one another than Democritus and
Heraclitus.

Hillel was cheerful and patient; Shamai austere
and irritable. The people whom Shamai drove away
were cordially received by Hillel. Hillel enjoyed the
present making at the same time provision for the
future ; Shamai sacrificed the present to the future.

Their teachings exhibited the same differences.
Those of Hillel were liberal, progressive and in touch
with the conditions of the times. Those of Shamai
were rigorous and restrictively uncompromising.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 71

Both founded schools which vied with one an-
other in carrying out the instruction, upholding the
method and absorbing the spirit and individuality of
their respective masters.

For several years the Beth Hillel and Beth
Shamai, (so those schools were called), had disputed
about a question, when a voice from above, (Bath Kol)
proclaimed that the arguments of both schools were
equally pleasing and acceptable, yet the decision is in
favor of the school of Hillel.

The Talmud properly asks: "Why has it been
decided in favor of the school of Hillel, since the
school of Shamai did equally as well?" And the
answer is: "Because the school of Hillel was patient,
submissive and honored its opponent, the school of
Shamai."

It is to be regretted that there should be con-
troversy. Those who rejoice in the existence of
difference of opinion ignore the fact that we are not
all philosophically built. The remark which Male-
branche made: "If I held truth captive in my hand, I
should open my hand and let it fly, in order that I
might pursue and capture it," is at best a pretty
extemporization. Malebranche, perhaps, could
capture truth, could "let it fly" and capture it again.
But we simpletons do not understand that kind of
game.

Controversy is always more or less mischievous.
The storm which purifies the air and assists growth

72 ECHOES OF WISDOM

works destruction at the saime time. So controversy.
While it promotes the interest of truth, creates doubt
somewhere, and while it seeks to establish certainty,
proves that there is no certainty.

But since there is no other method for the exten-
sion of the government of truth, the manner in which
the school of Hillel disputed is worthy of consider-
ation and emulation.

"Yield to thy opponent, by yielding, thou shalt
come out victor." — Ovid.

"Cedo repugnanti; cedendo victor abibis." — Art. Am. ii.

LXXXIII.

"If it is truth, why then should it be called parable?"

The object of the parable is to bring truth nearer
home.

"Art is the agency of the inexpressible." — Schiller.

Our higher mental efforts are in the service of
the majesty of truth. We flatter fiction if we take
it for truth, but there is no grosser insult than when
we let truth pass for fiction.

Truth is self-supporting; when established, it
takes care of itself. Mathematical truth, for instance,
is not in need of the lordly hexameter of a Homer
for its immortalization.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 73

"A good understanding and right sense can well
dispense with the flowers of art." — Goethe.

"I lay aside both, verses and all other sportive
matter; my study and inquiry is often what is true
and fitting." — Horace.

"Nunc itaque et versus et cetera ludicraoono,quidverum
atque decens euro et rogo." — Ep. i.

LXXXIV.

''If I am here all are; if I am not here, \vh.) is?" — TaL

No person is irreplaceable to the extent that
things should come to a stand-still without him.
Parents breath their last, and their children continue
to live and prosped- Great leaders pass away, and
are quickly succeeded by others. The world moves
on no matter who steps out of it. Perhaps there are
such as think that Atlas-like they carry our globe,
and if they go down it must go with them. Hillel,
the author of our saying, certainly did not belong to
that class.

What he meant to say is, that if good was to be
done, and he could do it, he did not acquiesce in the
supposition that it will be done by others, but did it
himself on the principle that if he did not perform his
function properly, he had no right to expect others
to be more anxious to do their duty.

74 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"The people expect of those greater than they,
greater things."- — Seneca.

(y^ naio) |so T> jto 'j« PN OKI 1x2 fen fan 'JK DN

"Majora populus semper a summo exigit." — Oct.

LXXXV.

"If you desire to strangle, let it be on a high tree." — Tal.

Rashi takes it in the sense, if you would overcome
your opponent in argument cite a great authority.
Indeed, we find in the Talmud that Hillel put an end
to a very heated debate when he said: "I heard it from
Shemayah and Abtalion."

Quotation is ,both the jewelry and weapon of
composition. It is a sign of respect for the work
and opinion of others, elevation of authority by
which the quoter, too, is raised.

"It is generally supposed," says Disraeli, "that
where there is no quotation, there will be found
most originality . . . The greater part of our writers
in consquence, have become so original, that no one
cares to imitate them; and those who never quote are
in return never -quoted."

Another reading of the saying is: "If you
desire to be strangled hang yourself on a large tree."
This version may be taken in the sense, if you have !o
ignore your own opinion and to act according to

ECHOES OF WISDOM 75

that of another one let it be according to the opinion
of a great and acknowledged authority.

It might also be understood to mean,if you have
a particular wish to be vanquished in argument, begin
one with a great man. But Rabbi Akiba, the father
of the saying, would not be guilty of such a sarcasm.

The Romans had a proverb:

"Do not take a blind guide or a weak adviser."
d"'p DsnDD) ^vw £'K:I n^nn pjrr6 n^pn DN

"Neque caecum ducem neque amentesn consultorem."

LXXXVI.

"Though them art a high state official, remember that
thy pedigree is well-known here." — Tal.

"Though thou art proud of thy wealth, thou art
the man thou hast -been, fortune does not change
birth." — Horace.

('1 3"2) |K3 "pSD "f?y -p"T DN

"Licet superbus ambules pecunia, fortuna non mutat
genus." — Od. v, 4.

LXXXVII.

"If it is as clear as morning, say it" — Tal.

"If the good," says the friar in Nathan the Wise,
"that I propose to do is somewhat twined with mis-
chief, then I let the good alone."

76 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"Those direct us properly who advise us not to
do anything which we doubt whether it is right or
wrong." — Cicero.

Cr "iruD) imosn !>x 156 DNI imox npaa -iTin •$ -ira CN

''Quocirca bene praecipiunt, qui vetant quicquam agere,
quod dubites, aequum sit an iniquum." — De off. i, 9.

LXXXVIII.

"If one says: "I have exerted myself and yet accom-
plished nothing," do not believe him; "I have taken
no pains and yet I reached the object," do not bej
lieve; "I have worked and succeeded," believe him.

—Tal.

Hillel was altogether without the means of a sub-
sistence when he came from Babylon to Jerusalem, to
quench his burning thirst for knowledge. During the
day he chopped wood for a living, and studied in the
evening at the school of Shemayah and Abtalion,
where he divided with the porter of the same his
scanty earnings in order to obtain admission. Once,
it happened that he was not able to gratify the porter,
and could not or would not seek free admission-
But in order not to loose the benefit of the lecture,
he climbed to the window-sill of the school and
listened -there.

About Rabbi Akiba the Talmud tells us that
every day during his period of learning, he was in the

ECHOES OF WISDOM 77

habit of cutting bundles of straw, half of which he
would sell for his needs and the other half use for
light. His neighbors were not at all pleased with
'his manner, and said: "Akiba, the smoke greatly
annoys us. Sell us the straw and buy oil." But
Rabbi Akiba answered: "The straw serves me in
three ways, I study by its light, warm myself by its
fire and make my bed on it at night."

Moses Mendelson became deformed as a boy,
in consequence of the persistent studies he made of
the philosophical writings of Maimonides. When
pursuing a course of studies in Berlin, he lived for a
while on bread, and that, too, he used sparingly. In
order not to overeat himself at one meal and then be
left without food, he made cuts in the loaf of bread
by which he knew how many meals he could make of
it and how far he could go at each meal.

Cleanthes was so poor, that "he was forced to
undertake mercenary employments, and he used to
draw water in the gardens at night, and by day he
exercised himself in philosophical discussions; on
which account he was called Phrenaulles. They also
say that he was on one occasion brought before a
court of police to be compelled to give an account of
what his sources of income were; and that then he
was acquitted, having produced as his witness the
gardener, in whose garden he drew the water, and a
woman who was a meal-seller in whose establishment
he used to prepare the meal." — Yonge's Diog-. Leart.

78 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"The heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight;

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night." — Longfellow.

"Labor overcomes all things." — Virgil.

(1 n^JO) "31 PDW1 $>N TIKXD N^ 'J1W DIN "^ "ION11 DN
"Labor omnia vincit." — G. i.

LXXXIX.

"If the young tell you to build and the old tell you to
destroy, listen to the latter; for the building of youth
is destruction and the destruction of the old is
building." — Tal.

That is the young build in order to destroy, and
the old destroy in order to build.

"Rashness, beyond a doubt, belongs to life when
in its bloom, wisdom to it in old age." — Cicero.

yopn $>Ni D'jp£ y»p lino D'3pn run DH^ if? nDx*1 ex

CD D'VU) DH^

"Temeritas est videlicet ftorentis aetatis, prudentia
senescentis." — De Sen. 5.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 79

xc.

"If them hast the means, enjoy thyself, for there is no
pleasure in the grave, and no postponement of death
. . . Human beings are like the gras-s of the field,
while some flourish, others wither." — Tal.

The enjoyment 'alluded to is that kind which the
noble consciousness of an upright and good life
affords.

Seneca has a similar thought: "Few have the
pleasures of safe repose who bear in mind how swiftly
never returning time passes. While the fates allow,
enjoy yourselves and be merry."

(Y'j pniTy) '21 1^ ntrn -j$> v» DN

"N'ovh paucos secura quies . . . Dum fata sinunt vivite
laeti." — Her. Fur.

XCI.

"If you will work for the earth like a slave you will have
plenty, ignore her claim, and you will not have
enough bread." — Tal.

So Seneca: "If you live according to nature you
will never be poor, if according to the opinion of
others, you will never be rich."

8o ECHOES OF WISDOM

(n"j piroD) nr6 JOB* rmnvb naya i»vy DIK neny DK

"Si ad naturam vivas, nunquam eris pauper, si ad
opinionem, nunquam eris dives." — Ep. 16.

XCII.

"If an ignorant person is extremely pious, do not live
in his neighborhood." — Tal.

The ignorant person (am aretz), referred to in the
Talmud, scorned knowledge and despised authority.
He was more embittered against the Jewish scholar
than was the heathen against the Jew. Rabbi Akiba,
who began to study at an advanced age frankly admits
that at the time he was ignorant (am aretz) he had
such an animosity against the learned classes that
many a time he wished he could get hold of a scholar
and break his bones. The more airs of piety those
lovers of ignorance put on the more intolerable they
were.

"Nothing is more disagreeable than a man
of mean origin raised into power." — Clodian.
(B"D D'riD2) inflate inn ^K Ton Kin psn ay DN

"Asperius nihil est humili, cum surgit in ahum." — In
Eutrop. I.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 81

XCIII.

"If our ancestors were like angels, we are only like
human beings; if our ancestors were like human
beings, we are like donkies." — Tal.

Diction is one thing and thought another. The
idea may be transcendent, and the expression com-
monplace. The word may be high sounding, and the
thought objectionable. It does not follow that,
because tfie cup is golden, the liquid therein is
acceptable, nor is the refreshing drink less so, because
the pitcher is not of exquisite make.

The wording of the above apophthegm is not
free from extravagence but the idea it expresses,
which is, that we are greatly inferior to our ancestors,
commands respect.

Israel always believed that in the past was the
refulgent east and window of divine revelation, and
glorified the lives of his ancestors as patterns and
their words as oracles. If King Solomon exhorts us
not to say that the former ages were better, he does
not mean to weaken and abrogate the authority of
the inspired teachers of ages gone by. It was tradi-
tion that lent force to his sceptre. King Solomon
contends against palliating religious relaxation by the
groundless assertion that in former times circum-
stances were more favorable to high religious
pursuits.

Many of us to-day are wont to look back to

82 ECHOES OF WISDOM

antiquity with the smile and exaltation of a pros-
perous man looking back to the child that he once
was. Is it really so sure a thing that knowledge
increases and the human mind becomes stronger in
proportion to the succession of generations? History
does not show it- It does not exemplify such a
constant process of higher development of the
intellect; such a continuous improvement and perfect-
ing of man.

There is no such a period as the childhood of the
human race in history. It begins with existing
organizations, with the admirable work of men of
amazing mental power. History is biography —
fragmentary biography. The history of a nation is
the narrative of the signal virtues and vices, victories
and defeats of its rulers and leaders. The history of
the human race is the record of the struggles and
creations of comparatively few men who instructed
and awakened the masses and impressed their own
image upon them. A comparison between the mind
of to-day and that of ages gone by, does not justify
that pride and self-aggrandizement of which we have
an abundant supply. We are still under the sway and
influence of antiquity.

Religion is an old institution. Our ethics are the
amaranths of antiquity. Our governments, the best
and noblest, are either continuations or reproductions
of old principles. The poetry of to-day is imitation,

ECHOES OF WISDOM 83

the philosophy repetition, the theatres and museums
are copies.

Our whole civilization must be attributed to the
genius of two peoples, the old Jews and the Greeks.
Other nations of antiquity have contributed their
share, but those two peoples have bequeathed the
most wonderful legacies.

There is a difference in the kind of work they
have done and in the ideas which led them to it. The
Jews had a firm religious conviction, the Greeks
lacked a criterion- The Jews had the rule of life, the
Greeks were in search of such a rule. The Jews spirit-
ualized the material; the Greeks materialized the
spiritual. The aim of the Jew was holiness, the aim
of the Greek was the beautiful. Hence, the one
raised a saintly life above all attainments, while the
other ran into extasy over a pleasing poem, a sharp
syllogism, a beautiful statue and an heroic perform-
ance in the battlefield. Heine contrasts the two
peoples with prophectic force when he says: "I see
now, that the Greeks were beautiful youths, while the
Jews impress me as "having been men mature and
strong, fearless and invincible."

Yet it is very difficult to duly estimate the influ-
ence of the Greeks and to tell exactly where it ceases.
A man of no less acumen than Schlegel deemed it
proper to say: "The Greeks are the second chosen
people of God."

But can we think of Jews and Greeks without

84 ECHOES OF WISDOM

thinking of Moses and Homer? Moses is not only
the proem, the incipiency of the brilliant career of his
people, but the holy ark which moves with them,
giving them direction and inspiration. His spirit
breathes in our immortal prophecies, those fearless
admonitions, stirring exhortations, piercing com-
plaints, soothing consolatories, and fiery religions
discourses Which are the majestic utterances of the
divine in man. His wisdom enables the Talmudic
sages to open a realm where the sky is radiant with
certainty, the air balmy with faith and the soil blos-
soming with hope. His genius endows Israel with
that valor of endurance which has rendered our
history unique and unparalleled.

The words in the Bible : "And no man knows his
(Moses) grave" has a deeper meaning than the letter
conveys. Who can imagine that mysterious person-
age dead and buried? His institutions are sacred.
His writings are written miracles, to be instructed in
them is a religious duty, to interpret them a privilege,
to live in them a blessing, and to die for them an
honor. The history of Israel is the history of the
exegesis and embodiment of Mosaism, the paragon
of intellectual achievement, the panacea of the world-

What Moses is in Israel, Homer was in Greece,
the law-giver, the scientist, the artist. He is not the
dawn, but the constant co-worker of a great history.
Under the influence of his genius, a band of poets
flourish whose words are sweet music, giving wings

ECHOES OF WISDOM 85

to imagination and delight to the ear. Philosophers
build a labyrinth of thought so tempting, that
to be lost in it seems a pleasure. Sculptors chisel
the cold marbel into forms that seem to breath.
Historians describe the past with a magic skill as
to make it a part of our own experience. Heroes
rise who attain distinction for superiority of senti-
ment no less than that of strategy and courage.
Homer is the sweet dream of the Greeks, or rather as
Hegel puts it: "The element in which the Greek world
lives as man lives in the air."

"Those who have lived before us have done
much, but have not finished the work, yet they are
to be esteemed and reverenced like gods. — Seneca.

(3"»p ri3K>) 'S\ D'BOK M2 UK D^K^D U3 D'JIBtO DK
Multum egerunt qui ante nos fuerunt, sed non perege-
runt; sus pic iendi tamen sunt et ritudeorme colendi. — Ep. 64.

XCIV.

"If thou art free from slanderous utterances thou shalt
live in peace." — Tal.

''' 'Tis slander;

Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of the Nile; whose breath
Rides on posting winds, and does belie
All corners of the world; kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters." — Shakespeare.

86 ECHOES OF WISDOM

"Why do you wound," the serpent is asked,
"without any benefit?" "Go to man," the serpent
replies, "and ask him what benefit he derives from
slander." — Midrash.

"Nothing is so swift as evil speech." — Cicero.
(B"S KBIT K"l) D1^ TD» ^3 Kiin Y'r6» -pB mot? DK

"Nihil est auten tarn volucre quam maledictum."

Cn. Plane.

XCV.

"Sighing impairs health." — Tal.

"Care to our coffin adds nail." — Walcott.
"Care is at times beyond the reach of art."
—Ovid.

"Cura quoque interdum nulla medicabilis arte." — Ep. ex
Pont, i, 3.

XCVI.

"I speak to you common sense," and you say: "Heaven
will have mercy!" — Tal.

So Rabbi Jose observed. He saw that Rabbi
Chananyah continued to teach in spite of the prohibi-

ECHOES OF WISDOM 87

tory ordinance of the Romans and anxious to save
him from the impending- punishment, said to him:
"Brother! do you not see what a mighty power the
Romans are? They destroyed the city of God, burnt
his temple and slew so many of his servants, yet they
rule and succeed, and you dare to oppose and defy
them?" To this Rabbi Chananyah replied: "Heaven
will have mercy."

It reminds of Cicero : "You oppose me . . . with
stories, but I demand reasons of you."

"Rumoribus mecum pugnas, ego autem a te rationes
require."— D. N. D. iii, 5.

XCVII.

"The myrtle though standing among thorns is neverthe-
less a myrtle." — Tal.

It is not safe to judge always a man's character
by those with whom he associates. Antisthenes was
once approached for being intimate with wicked
people and said: "Physicians also live with those who
are sick and yet they do not catch fevers." — Dioe-
Leart.

"The rose is often found to be near the nettle "
—Ovid.

(Y'D

"Urticae proxima saepe rosa est."— Remed. Am. 45.

88 ECHOES OF WISDOM

XCVIII.

"It is forbidden to steal the good will even of a heathen."

—Tal

"Steal" is a strong word. Our sages put him
down as a thief, who obtains the good wishes of any-
body on a false pretence.

That they have given the same consideration to
the heathen would itself prove that they did not
nourish that apathy against him which is maliciously
attributed to them- But there are numerous passages
in the Talmud which indicate that our sages stood
upon the platform of universal love. For instance:
"The heathen who is engaged in the study of
the Law is like a high priest." "Also the pious of the
heathens has a portion in the world to come." "Who
steals of a heathen will also steal of an Israelite, and
who commits perjury against a heathen will be
guilty of the same sin against a Jew." "We should
feed the poor of the heathens, attend to their sick,
bury their dead and save their property for the sake
of peace."

Our saying is the most forcible expression of the
duty of fair dealing with all men compared with which
Cicero: "No one should take advantage of the ignor-
ance of others," is weak.

(Y'J p^n) '31 ninan njn 21:1:6 IIDN

"Neminem ita agere ut ex ulterius praedetur inscientia."
— Cicero.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 89

XCIX.
"A physician for nothing is worth nothing." — Tal.

He may not take enough interest in the patient
if his services are not remunerated. In the Talmud,
the physician is spoken of as a material necessity.
Although the Talmud is not in favor of giving over
to him the leadership of a city, it cautions against
living in a city which has no physician. If it says:
"The best of physicians is doomed to h — 1," we are
to take it as a stricture upon the conceited physician,
who thinks himself the best of his profession, and
refuses to consult a colleague though seeing that his
patient sinks under his treatment.

Yet at first sight, the saying which heads this
chapter, seems to convey the idea which Arbiter
expressed when he said: "The physician is nothing
else but a consolation of the mind."

(T'B p"2) N'1K> po p»3 pDT JODK
"Medicus nihil aliud est quam animi consolatio." — Sat.

c.

"The physician who comes from a distance makes blind."

—Tal.

Having his practice and reputation elsewhere, he
may treat the patient as an object of experiment with

90 ECHOES OF WISDOM

serious results. Other commentators take the say-
ing in the sense that his skill is greatly over-rated.
"Distance lends enchantment." The stars would,
perhaps, not be half so glorified were they nearer our
globe. "The prophet has greater fascination abroad
than at home."

"Everything unknown is taken for magnificent."
— Tacit.

"Omne ignotum pro magnified." — Agr. 30.

CI.

"Though he sinned, he is still an Israelite." — Tal.

"A man's a man for a' that. — Burns.
"I am human, consequently, nothing human is a
stranger to me." — Terence.

"Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienuni puto."

— Heaut, i.

cii:

"Even father and son, teacher and pupil studying in the
same place will disagree." — Tal.

"As many persons there are so many opinions."
— Cicero.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 91

I rrrra ppow ...

"Tot homines tot sententiae."

cm.

"Even in peril a man should assert his dignity."

.;•*•:- .-,

"If a man must fall, let him meet the danger
courageously. — Tacitus.
U"5f 'nnjo) 'DI levy nx DIN njtr1 *6 runon nyea I^SN

"Si cadere necesse est occurrendum discrimine."

—Hist, i, 33.

CIV.

"Even if the sword is on his neck he should pray." — Tal.

''The sick should hope as long as there is life." —
Cicero.

('" rvana) D*»mn jo yw ^>N nwix ^y nmiD mn mn

"Aegroto, dum anima, spes est." — Ep. ad At. ix, 10.

cv.

"Even among the rabble there are men who are as
imbued with virtues as is the pomegranate full of
seeds." — Tal.

92 ECHOES OF WISDOM

This fruit has no very inviting exterior, but its
inside testifies to the bounty, beauty and harmony of
nature. Thus, there are people who carry within
wealth of noble feeling.

How much more encouraging this sentiment is
than that of the pessimists who claim there is no
virtue !

> No virtue? The desire to be better is universal,
so is the admiration for virtue. Is not that admir-
ation a virtue in itself? Has it a motive? It comes
we do not know how, and brings reproach with it that
we are not on a higher level. Moreover, we could
not admire good traits in character if we were utterly
void of them. To appreciate a good poem, one must
have i some poetry in him. To find pleasure in a
philosophical treatise, one must be a philosopher to
some extent. Does not this hold good of religion
and morality?

It is not far fetched to say that virtue as a mere
fancy could not have asserted itself. The most of
our ideas are transcripts of what is, the impressions of
things real. No science has ever preceeded exper-
ience ; no history the men and events it describes. It
may be asserted with impunity, that the first virtuous
man was not one who sighed for virtue, but practiced
it.

There is a difference in the degree and practice
of virtue as there is a difference in the quality of the
work men do, but there are people of integrity and

ECHOES OF WISDOM 93

higher cravings among all classes, even the humblest.
"Virtue is withheld from no one. She can be
reached by all, accepts all, invites all, gentlemen, freed
men, slaves, kings and exiles; she selects neither
house nor fortune, she is satisfied with human beings,
with man as man." — Seneca.

(r"i» "iruo) PDID rwto

"Nulli preaolusa virtus est, omnibus patet, omires
admitted omnes invitat, etc." — De Belief, iii, 18.

CVI.

"Four kinds of people are disgusting: a poor man who
is proud; a rich man who pleads poverty; an old
man who is licentious; a leader who is insolent."

It reminds of Cicero: "Who does not hate the
mean, the vain, the fickle and trifling?"

ipn BTDO nnpjn nsa h p bx jrtaio njnn
(r'-'p "TIDE) nwnon

"Quis non odit sordidos, vanos, leves, futiles."

— Fin. iii, 2.

CVII.

"Her womanhood is her protection." — Tal.

"There is no memorable name in female punish-
ment, nor has that victory any glory." — Vir.

94 ECHOES OF WISDOM

(n"3 t"y) rr>y ru«T

"Nullum memorabile nomen in foemi-nea poena nee ita
victoria habet laudem." — Aen. ii.

CVIII.

"A woman reads the people coming to her house better
than man."

Had Buckle been familiar with this apophthegm
he might have quoted it with some show of Talmudic
knowledge in his lecture on "Woman's influence on
the progress of knowledge."

"Another circumstance," says Buckle, "which
makes women more deductive,is that they possess
more of what is called intuition. They cannot see as
far as man can, but what they do see they see quicker.
Hence, they are constantly tempted to grasp at once
at an idea, and seek to solve a problem suddenly in
contradistinction to the slower and more laborious
ascent of the inductive investigator. That women
are more deductive than men, because they think
quicker is a. proposition which some persons will not
relish, and yet it may be proved in a variety of ways."

"To this, I may add another observation which
many travellers have made, and which anyone can
testify; namely, "that when you are in a foreign
country and speaking a foreign language, women will
understand you quicker thsn men will."

ECHOES OF WISDOM 95

('j "TIDQ) c"KD nnv D'rnisa mao

"Parvis mobilis rebus animus muliebris." — Levy vi, 34.

CIX.

"The man is well off who does not go to theatres." — Tal.

That is the man upon whom time does not hang
heavily and who finds amusement and diversion in
pursuits the legitimacy of which can not be ques-
tioned. And our sages are not without support in
this respect.

Boswell has the following item about Samuel
Johnson: "He for a considerable time used to fre-
quent the green-room, and seemed to take delight in
dissipating his gloom by mixing in the sprightly chit-
chat of the motley circle then to be found there. Mr.
David Hume related to me from Garrick that John-
son at last denied himself that amusement from a
consideration of rigid virtue, saying: "I come no
more behind the green scenes, David; for the silk
stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite
my amorous propensities." — Little's Hist- Lights.

"Ovid employs two hundred lines in the research
of places the most favorable to love. Above all, he
considers the theatres as the best adapted to collect
the beauties of Rome and to melt them with tender-
ness and sensuality." — Ibid.

Solon, the lawgiver of Athens, "forbade Thespis

96 ECHOES OF WISDOM

to perform and represent his tragedies, on the ground
of falsehood being unprofitable ; and when Pisistratos
wounded 'himself, he said it all came of Thespis
tragedies." — Yonge's Diog. Leart.

Seneca advises his young friend to stay away
from public shows, saying: "Nothing is so hurtful to
good morals as to while away the time at some public
show."

(n/M T"y) nvtnm -

"Nihil vero tarn damnosum bonis moribus, quam in
aliquo spectaculo desidere." — Ep. vii.

ex.

"The generation is to be congratulated which has Rabbi
Elazar, son of Azariah." — Tal.

When the position of Nassi was made vacant by
the abdication of Rabbi Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar was
declared the best equipped man for the office. He
was learned, influential and of a family which traced
its genealogy to Ezrah. His wife, 'however, did not
care for the promotion, and said to him: "They will
depose you as they did Rabbi Gamliel." "This," he
said, "does not trouble me." "We use costly glass-
ware knowing that it may break." She then referred
to his extremely useful appearance. He was then
only eighteen years old.

At any rate, he was elected, and having been in

ECHOES OF WISDOM 97

the exalted office a short time, a reconciliation was
effected between Rabbi Gamliel and his opponents,
whose rehabilitation was desired- Cheerfully and
readily Rabbi Elazar resigned, and headed a party
to congratulate the reinstated Nassi.

"There are Clodii at all times, but the Catos are
rare." — Seneca.

('a nyjn) tti «vn TIP y nx 'nt? inn new

"Omne tempes Clodii, non omne Catones feret." — Ep. 97

CXI.

"Happy are the martyrs." — Tal.

Rabbi Joseph recovered from his sickness, and
his father, Rabbi Joshua, asked him, what vision he
had when he was in a state of apparent unconscious-
ness. Rabbi Joseph answered: "I have seen a world
with a reversed order of things. The high-stationed
were down and the lowly were up." And the father
said: "Thou hast seen a well ordered world. But
what hast them seen of us scholars?" And he
answered: "As we are here, so we are there. And I
'heard say: "Happy who comes here with learning in
his hand, (that is, Whose learning caused good
action). And I also heard say: "Happy are the
martyrs." Commenting on this last utterance the
Talmud says: "It does not refer to Rabbi Akiba and

98 ECHOES OF WISDOM

his associates who had other great merits, but to the
martyrs in Lydda. It happened that a king's daugh-
ter was murdered, and, as the murderer was not found,
the whole Jewish colony was charged with the crime.
But in order to remove all suspicion from, and thus
save their brethren, two brave young men sacrificed
themselves. They gave themselves up to the thought-
less government as the assassins of the king's
daughter, and were innocently put to death.

"It is sweet and glorious to die for the father*
land-"— Hor.

CJ DTIDS) niata 'Jinn nt?K

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."— Od. Hi, 2.

exit

"Happy the man who repents while he is yet a man."

—Tal.

That is when one's better nature has still that
warmth and impressionability to become victor of
the base passions.

It reminds of Juvenal: "When armed and
helmeted it is too late to repent of the fight."

"Galeatum sero duelli poenitet." — Sat. I.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 99

CXIII.

"Thou art hailed, O Rabbi Akiba! that thy soul has
departed while "echod" was on thy lips." — Tal.

Rabbi Akiba is the most amazing personality in
the Talmud. Of obscure descent and beginning to
study at an advanced age, he acquired phenomenal
sway over the leading men in Israel as a scholarly
genius and religious hero. He may be said to 'have
been both, the Jewish Aristotle and Epaminondas of
that period. He had the intellectual brilliancy of the
former and the devotion and self-abnegation of the
latter.

About his death, the Talmud gives the following
information: "Disregarding the Roman edict to quit
all Jewish study and instruction, he continued to lec-
ture to large gatherings. Warned by Pappus, he told
him that fishes once chided a fox who invited them to
follow him on land, because they were in danger in
the river." They said: "Thou, o'h fox, art sly, but
nevertheless a fool- If we are not safe in the water, we
are less so on land." About the study of the law
it is written: "For it is thy life and the length of thy
days," and if we are not safe in it, it is useless to
look for safety elsewhere."

In a few days, however, Rabbi Akiba was seized
and tortured to death,but,to the very last, he asserted
his spiritual independence and invincibility. While
his skin was being torn from him with a curry-comb,

too ECHOES OF WISDOM

he recited passages from the Scriptures. His
disciples, seeing that the executioner was determined
to break the constancy of his victim, and therefore pro-
longed his agonies, cried out: "Master, it is enough."
But the mutilated master calmed them, saying: "It is
written: "And thou shalt love the Eternal, thy God,
with all thy soul." It means even at the cost of thy
life- Many a time I wondered whether I will have an
opportunity to manifest such a love for my God. And
now that I have it shall I not use it? Again he said:
"Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal
is One," and kept up the sound of the last word "One"
until his body sank, and the glory that tenanted it
rose heavenward." A voice from above (Bath Kol)
exclaimed "Happy art thou, Rabbi Akiba, that thy
soul departed with "echod" on thy lips."

"Who falls for the love of God shall rise a star."

Ben Jonson.

;(N"D main) nnxn "jnotw nnvn? y"n

CXIV.

"It is written: Thou shalt fear the Eternal thy God,"
this teaches at the same time that the sages must be
respected.' " — Tal.

Our wise men revered the Bible as an emanation
of divine Intelligence in which the solution of life's

ECHOES OF WISDOM 101

problem could be found, if properly studied. There
was no superfluity and no platitude in it. Every
sentence was a constellation, every word a glittering
star.

The word "eth" stood for more than a gram-
matical form, namely, for an intimation that an addi-
tional lesson was intended which, though not
expressed, could be guessed by the student. And we
are told that a sage by the name of Simon, satis-
factorily explained the special meaning of that word
in all its relations except in that to fear of God.
He was afraid to say that this denoted a plus. Whom
is man to fear besides God? What other fear then
could that include? His disciples said to him:
"Master, thy disinclination to elucidate the word here,
will weaken all your efforts in that direction. For if
it is here only a grammatical form, why should it not
be taken as such in all its connections?" The master
replied: "As I hope to 'be rewarded for explanation
elsewhere, so I hope to be rewarded for my departure
in this case." Rabbi Akiba, however, said: "The
word 'eth' has even in this connection a special sug-
gestion, namely, that next to God we owe reverence
to the sage who benefits us by his inspiring word and
glorious example."

"I say great men are still admirable, I say there
is, at bottom, nothing else admirable! No nobler
feeling than this of admiration for one higher than
himself dwells in the breast of man. It is to this hour,

102 ECHOES OF WISDOM

and at all hours, the vivifying influence in man's life.
Religion I find stand upon it." — Carlyle.

"Next and immediately after the gods men are

most useful to men It is by the wisdom and

virtues of excellent men that we are urged and excited
to study and improve our conditions." — Cicero.
d"3 TIDB) n"n nn~6 NTD 'K 'n nx

"Proxime autem et secundum deos homines... Hominum
studia virorum praestantium sapientia excitantur." — De Off.
«, 3, 5-

cxv.

"The donkey came and kicked the candelabrum." — Tal.

There was a philosopher who used to brag of
his deep sense of justice and utter abhorrence for
bribery, but whom Rabbi Gamliel and his sister knew
to lead a double life. In order to expose him, they
pretended to have a disagreement about their father's
estate, and appointed him judge in the -matter. Both
bribed him, she with a golden candelabrum, and Rabbi
Gamliel with an imported donkey. During the trial
she said to the judge: "May thy judgment be as
bright as the candelabrum," and Rabbi Gamliel, in
order to remind him of his gift said: "The donkey
came and kicked the candelabrum."

Whether Rabbi Gamliel and his sister actually
played such unbecoming parts may reasonably be

ECHOES OF WISDOM 103

questioned. It is more likely that some disappointed
scholar gave 'birth to the above saying, and means
that nonsense is often more appreciated by the people
than substantial thought

It reminds of the story of the shadow of an ass.
Demosthenes pleaded a very important case, and
observing that the judges paid him no attention, told
them that once a man hired a donkey to ride on its
back to some city. On the road the man sat down
under the donkey to rest. The owner of the same
then demanded extra pay for the use of the shadow
of his animal, which the other party refused. They
went to court. At this point of the story the famous
orator turned to leave the room, but the judges
anxious to hear how the court disposed of the shadow
of the ass bade him stay and continue.

"Comedy carries the day."

(VBp rot?) Nn&6 K>B:II anon

"Vocem comoedia tollit." — L. Prov.

CXVI.
"You have, I have not said it." — Tal.

Bar Kappara was sent by the Rabbies to inquire
about Rabbi Jehudah Hanassi, whose sickness had
taken an alarming turn and for whose recovery a
fast was ordained and prayers were said. Coming

104 ECHOES OF WISDOM

back to the Rabbies he said "Angels and righteous
men combatted about the possession of the holy
ark and the angels succeeded to carry it off." "Is
he dead?" the Rabbies asked, and he replied: "You
have, I have not said it."

The same is related about Rabbi Joshua. He
was requested by the Rabbies to go and see how
Rabbi Kahanah was, and finding him dead, he tore
his garment and wept. When he returned, the
Rabbies asked: "Is he dead?" And he answered:
"You have, I have not said it. He who utters
offensive speech is a fool."

There was a feeling that the expression: "He
died" or "He is dead" could not well be applied to
a man so honored and cherished. Death and immor-
tality, what a contradiction! Can we consistently
speak of the death of anyone whom we believe
immortal? What those sages meant by saying: "You
have, I have not said it," is, to use a Ciceronian
expression: "1 am not so absurd as to say that."

"Non sum ita hebes, ut istud dicam." — Tuscul. i, 6.

CXVII.

'You have come to see one who cannot see, may it be
your prerogative to see Him who sees, but is not
seen." — Tal.

ECHOES OF WISDOM 105

Rabbi Jehudah and Rabbi Chiya came into a city
and inquired whether a learned man dwelled there.
They were informed that a learned man lived there,
but he was blind. They paid him a visit. What the
conversation of these scholars was is not repeated.
But when the distinguished visitors were about to
leave him he blessed them in the above words.

There is a passage in Cicero which deserves to
be cited in this connection. It is this: "Pompejus
used to relate that when he came to Rhodus, he had a
great desire to hear Posidonius lecture. But he was
informed that the philosopher was a great sufferer,
and though he gave up all hope of hearing him, he
paid him a visit. Pompeius after greeting the phil-
osopher expressed his regrets that he could not hear
him lecture. But Posidonius said: "I shall not per-
mit any illness to cause such a distinguished visitor
to leave me without hearing me." And he discussed
earnestly and fluently the proposition : "Nothing was
good but what was honest." But as often as his
malady gave him severe pain so that he had to
interrupt himself, he said: "Pain, thou accomplishest
nothing. Thou art annoying, but I will never admit
that thou art an evil."

Cn nrjn) 's\ ism p«vi jr&n D»Kijn DMQ nrtapn ant*

"Nihil agis dolor: quamvis sis molestus, nunquam te
esse confitebor malum." — Tuscul. ii, 25.

io6 ECHOES OF WISDOM

CXVIII.

"The thief may escape two or three times, but will pay
the penalty in the end." — Tal.

Punishment though late comes on with silent
step. — Tibullus.

("i 'nruD) tep'D N^> >aj: r6ni wins

"Sera tamen tacitis poena venit pedibus."

Typographical errors corrected.

HEBREW
Page 1, line 2,
" 18, " 16,

"36, " 14,

LATIN

Page 61, line 13, mulieribus
" 63, " 10, earn
" 85, " 16, suspiciendi
" " " " ritu deorum

ENGLISH

Page 23, line 1, Pumbaditha | Page 64, line 6, Buckle
" 50, " 20, omit "to" " 73, " 13, prosper

" 51, " 8, become " 76, " 20, lose,

Page 77, line 13, Phreantles.

Page 5. line 0, properc Page 65, line 17, mastodon
Page 70, line 4 Quod
" 96, " 23, youthful

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