Part 4 (1/2)

(27) That is, Rome. Avoid office seeking.

11. Abtalion said, ”Ye sages, be heedful of your words, lest ye incur the penalty of exile and be exiled to a place of evil waters, and the disciples who come after you drink thereof and die, and the Heavenly Name be profaned” (28).

(28) Scholars must be careful in their teachings, lest their disciples misinterpret their words, and thus adopt false doctrines, as was the case with the disciples of Antigonus of Soko (_Supra_, n. 12). ”Evil waters” may stand for evil doctrines or evil people. When a teacher went into banishment, he was usually followed by his disciples.

Departure from the law is equivalent to death.

12. Hillel and Shammai (29) received (the tradition) from them.

Hillel said, ”Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace (30), loving mankind and drawing them night to the _Torah_”

(31). 13. He used to say, ”A name made great is a name destroyed (32); he who does not increase (his knowledge) decreases (it); and he who does not study deserves to die; and he who makes a worldly use of the crown (of the _Torah_) shall waste away.” 14. He used to say, ”If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I care for myself only, what am I? (33). And if not now, when?”

(29) Hillel and Shammai, the most renowned of the ”pairs”

([zugot]), lived about 100 years before the destruction of the Temple. Each was the founder of a school, _Bet Hillel_ and _Bet Shammai_, being generally opposed to one another in the interpretation of the _Torah_. Hillel was the embodiment of humility, gentleness, and kindness; Shammai was irritable, and lacked gentleness and patience. The former's most celebrated saying is, ”What is hateful to thee do not do unto thy fellow man; this is the whole _Torah_, the rest is mere commentary.”

See Bacher, _Agada der Tanaiten_; Schurer, _History_, I, ii, p. 359 _et seq._; Myers, _story of the Jewish People_, I, p.

136 _et seq._; geiger, _Judaism and its History_, p. 113 _et seq._

(30) Psalm XXIV, 15: ”Seek peace and pursue it.”

(31) Draw men to the _Torah_ by good example, not by endeavoring to make converts.

(32) He who seeks a name loses fame.

(33) Be self-reliant, but not selfish.

15. Shammai said, ”Set a fixed time for thy (study of) _Torah;_ say little and do much (34); and receive all men with a cheerful countenance.”

(34) Or ”promise little.” Be like Abraham, who promised only bread, but brought a ”calf tender and good” (Genesis XVIII, 5 and 7).

16. Rabban (35) Gamaliel said, ”Provide thyself with a teacher; be quit of doubt (36); and accustom not thyself to give t.i.thes (37) by a conjectural estimate.”

(35) ”Our teacher,” ”our master,” a t.i.tle given only to the presidents of the _Sanhendrin_, Gamaliel being the first to be thus known. Gamaliel was a grandson of Hillel and a teacher of Paul. See Strack, _Einleitung_, p. 85.

(36) Establish over you the authority of a teacher, to hold you from the clutch of doubt (Kohut).

(37) There were three kinds of t.i.thes (the tenth part of anything): (a) ”the first t.i.the” (_maaser rishon), given to the Lebites; ”the second t.i.the” (_maaser sheni_), taken to Jerusalem and consumed there by the owner and his family; and (c) the t.i.the paid to the poor (_maaser ani_). See Leviticus XXVII, 30 _et seq._, Numbers XVIII, 21-24, and Deuteronomy XIV, 22-29; also _Tractates Maasrot_ and _Maaser Sheni_ of the _Mishnah_. Consult Babbs, _The Law of t.i.thes_.

17. Simeon (38) his son, said, ”All my days I have grown up amongst the wise, and I have found nothing better for man than silence (39); not learning but doing is the chief thing (40); and whoso multiplies words causes sin” (41).

(38) Simeon beg Gamaliel I lived at the time of the war with Rome. See Josephus, _Jewish Wars_, IV, 3, 9.

(39) Cf. chapter III, 17.

(40) Where words fail, deeds tell. _Non scholae sed vitae_.

(41) Cf. Proverbs X, 19.

18. Rabban Simeon, the son of Gamaliel (42) said, ”By three things is the world preserved (43); by truth, by judgment, and by peace, as it is said, 'Judge ye the truth and the judgment of peace in your gates'”

(44).