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 fa 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) nrnn 
 
 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 true r 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 awak j 
 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 ivy 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. 
 (I 1 *? 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. 
 
 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) nn 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? Tf0 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 JK 
 
 "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 nn 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? nn 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 rxn 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 NP 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) n3B"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 D s nDD) ^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 be j 
 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 "^ "ION 11 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 yp 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 ivy 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 p3 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 njtr 1 *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 ruT 
 
 "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
 
 9 8 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 pvi jr&n DKijn 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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