Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 4

_Chaggigah_, fol. 15, col. 1.

The question asked above by Acheer has been practically resolved by all wise men from the beginning of the world, but it is the boast of the Hegelians that it has for the first time been resolved philosophically by their master. Others had maintained that you could not think a thing but through its opposite; he first maintained it could not exist but through its opposite, that, in fact, the thing and its opposite must needs arise together, and that eternally, as complements of one unity: the white is not there without the black, nor the black without the white; the good is not there without the evil, nor the evil without the good.

Pride is unbecoming in women. There were two proud women, and their names were contemptible; the name of the one, Deborah, meaning wasp, and of the other, Huldah, weasel. Respecting the wasp it is written (Judges iv. 6), "And she sent and called Barak," whereas she ought to have gone to him. Concerning the weasel it is written (2 Kings xxii. 15), "Tell the man that sent you," whereas she should have said, "Tell the king."

_Meggillah_, fol. 14, col. 2.

If speech is worth one sela (a small coin so called), silence is worth two.

Ibid., fol. 18, col. 1.

The Swiss motto, "Speech is worth silver, silence worth gold,"

expresses a sentiment which finds great favor with the authors and varied expression in the pages of the Talmud.

If silence be good for wise men, how much better must it be for fools!

_P'sachim_, fol. 98, col. 2.

For every evil silence is the best remedy.

_Meggillah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

Silence is as good as confession.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 87, col. 1.

Silence in a Babylonian was a mark of his being of good family.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 71, col. 2.

Simeon, the son of Gamliel, said, "I have been brought up all my life among the wise, and I have never found anything of more material benefit than silence."

_Avoth_, chap. 1.

Rabbi Akiva said, "Laughter and levity lead a man to lewdness; but tradition is a fence to the law, t.i.thes are a fence to riches, vows are a fence to abstinence, while the fence of wisdom is silence."

Ibid., chap. 3.

When they opened his brain, they found in it a gnat as big as a swallow and weighing two selas.

_Gittin_, fol. 56, col. 2.

The context of the above states a tradition current among the Jews in reference to t.i.tus, the destroyer of Jerusalem. It is said that when, after taking the city, he had shamefully violated and profaned the Temple, he took the sacred vessels of the sanctuary, wrapped them in the veil of the holy place, and sailed with them to Rome. At sea a storm arose and threatened to sink the ship; upon which he was heard reflecting, "It seems the G.o.d of these Jews has no power anywhere but at sea. Pharaoh He drowned, and Sisera He drowned, and now He is about to drown me also. If He be mighty, let Him go ash.o.r.e and contend with me there." Then came a voice from heaven and said, "O thou wicked one, son of a wicked man and grandson of Esau the wicked, go ash.o.r.e. I have a creature--an insignificant one in my world--go and fight with it."

This creature was a gnat, and is called insignificant because it must receive and discharge what it eats by one aperture.

Immediately, therefore, he landed, when a gnat flew up his nostrils and made its way to his brain, on which it fed for a period of seven years. One day he happened to pa.s.s a blacksmith's forge, when the noise of the hammer soothed the gnawing at his brain. "Aha" said t.i.tus, "I have found a remedy at last;" and he ordered a blacksmith to hammer before him. To a Gentile for this he (for a time) paid four zuzim a day, but to a Jewish blacksmith he paid nothing, remarking to him, "It is payment enough to thee to see thy enemy suffering so painfully."

For thirty days he felt relieved, but after, no amount of hammering in the least relieved him. As to what happened after his death, we have this testimony from Rabbi Phineas, the son of Aruba: "I myself was among the Roman magnates when an inquest was held upon the body of t.i.tus, and on opening his brain they found therein a gnat as big as a swallow, weighing two selas."

Others say it was as large as a pigeon a year old and weighed two litras. Abaii says, "We found its mouth was of copper and its claws of iron." t.i.tus gave instructions that after his death his body should be burned, and the ashes thereof scattered over the surface of the seven seas, that the G.o.d of the Jews might not find him and bring him to judgment. (_Gittin_, fol. 56, col.

2.)

"The man with two wives, one young and the other old." Rav Ami and Rav a.s.si were in social converse with Rabbi Isaac Naphcha, when one of them said to him, "Tell us, sir, some pretty legend," and the other said, "Pray explain to us rather some nice point of law." When he began the legend he displeased the one, and when he proceeded to explain a point of law, he offended the other. Whereupon he took up this parable in ill.u.s.tration of the plight in which their obstinacy placed him. "I am like the man with the two wives, the one young and the other old. The young one plucked out all his gray hairs (that he might look young), and the old wife pulled out all his black hairs (that he might look old); and so between the one and the other he became bald. So is it with me between you. However, I've something nice for both of you. It is written (Exod. xxii. 6), 'If a fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restoration.' The Holy One--blessed be He!--hath said, 'I must both judge myself and take upon myself to indemnify the evil of the conflagration I have caused, for I have kindled a fire in Zion,' as it is written (Lament, iv. 11), 'He hath kindled a fire in Zion, and hath devoured the foundations thereof.' I must therefore rebuild her with fire, as it is written (Zech. ii. 5), 'I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.'"

_Bava Kama_, fol. 60, col. 2.

Rabbi Oshaia asked, "What is this that is written, (Zech. xi. 7), 'I took unto me two staves; the one I called Amiable and the other Destroyer'?" The staff called Amiable represents the disciples of the wise in the land of Israel, who were friendly one toward another in their debates about the law. The staff called Destroyer represents the disciples of the wise of Babylon, who in the like debates were fierce tempered and not friendly toward one another. What is the meaning of Babel or Babylon? Rabbi Yochanan says it means "confused in the Bible, confused in the Mishna, and confused in the Talmud." "He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old" (Lam. iii. 6). Rabbi Jeremiah said by this we are to understand the Babylonian Talmud.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 24, col. 1.

The Rabbis say these three hate their fellows--dogs, c.o.c.ks, and conjurors; to which some add, among others, the disciples of the wise of Babylon. (_P'sachim_, fol. 113, col. 2.)

On his return from Babylon to the land of Israel, Rabbi Zira fasted a hundred fasts, during which he prayed that he might be enabled to forget the Babylonian Talmud. (_Bava Metzia_, fol.

85, col. 1.)

Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Yonathan traveled one day together; they came to two roads, one of which led by the door of a place devoted to the worship of idols, and the other by a place of ill fame. Upon which one said to the other, "Let us go by the former, because our inclination to the evil that waylays us there is already extinguished." "Nay, rather,"

said the other, "let us go by the latter, and curb our desires; so shall we receive a reward in recompense." In this resolution they went on, and as they pa.s.sed the place the women humbled themselves before them and withdrew ashamed into their chambers. Then Yochanan asked the other, "How didst thou know that this would occur to us?" He made answer, "From what is written (in Prov. ii. 2), 'Discretion (in the law) shall preserve thee.'"

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 17, cols. 1, 2.

Given two dry firebrands and one piece of green wood, the dry will set fire to the green.

_Sanhedrin_, fol 93, col. 1.

With two dogs they caught the lion.

Ibid., fol. 95, col. 1.

Both these proverbs express the same idea, that a minority, be it ever so strong, must give way to a majority.

"And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed together"

(Numb. xxii. 7). Midian and Moab were never friendly toward each other; they were like two dogs tending a flock, always at variance. When the wolf came upon the one, however, the other thought, "If I do not help my neighbor to-day, the wolf may come upon myself to-morrow;" therefore the two dogs leagued together and, killed the wolf. Hence, says Rabbi Pappa, the popular saying, "The mouse and the cat are combined to make a feast on the fat of the unfortunate."

Ibid., fol. 105, col. 1.

Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Yossi, the son of Zimra, asks, "What is this that is written (Ps. cxx. 3), 'What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be added unto thee, O thou false tongue'?" The Holy One--blessed be He!--said to the tongue, "All the members of the body are erect, thou only art rec.u.mbent; all other members are without, thou art within, and not only so, for I have surrounded thee with two walls, one of bone and the other of flesh. What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added unto thee, O thou false tongue?" Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Yossi, says, "He who slanders is an atheist, for it is written (Ps. xii. 4), 'Who have said, With our tongues will we prevail; Our lips are with us; who is lord over us?'"

_Erchin_, fol. 15, col. 2.

Here are a few sayings from the Talmud on the abuse of the tongue.

He who slanders, he who receives slander, and he who bears false witness against his neighbor, deserve to be cast to the dogs.

_Psachim_, fol. 118, col. 1.

All animals will one day remonstrate with the serpent and say, "The lion treads upon his prey and devours it, the wolf tears and eats it, but thou, what profit hast thou in biting?" The serpent will reply (Eccl.

viii. II), "I am no worse than a slanderer."

_Taanith_, fol. 8, col. 1.