Six Things The Lord Hates And Seven His Soul Abhors

Midrash Mishlei 6:4

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

(Proverbs 6:16): "These six the LORD hates, and seven are an abomination to His soul" — and these are the six that the Holy One, blessed be He, hates: "haughty eyes," "and a lying tongue," "and hands that shed innocent blood," "a heart that devises iniquitous thoughts," "feet that hasten to run to evil," "a false witness who breathes out lies and one who sends forth strife among brothers" (Proverbs 6:17 to 19). And these are the seven that are an abomination to His soul: idolatry, and forbidden sexual unions, and the shedding of blood, and slander (lashon hara), and everyone who flatters his fellow with words, and everyone who reports a thing not in the name of the one who said it — for (Mishnah Avot 6:6): "Everyone who reports a thing in the name of the one who said it brings redemption to the world," as it is said (Esther 2:22): "And Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai" — and everyone who reports a thing not in the name of the one who said it brings a curse to the world.

Themes

EthicsSpeechDivine Justice

Continue Reading

The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The Buried Money and the Neighbor Who Was OutsmartedA man in a certain town buried a sum of money in his garden for safekeeping. He thought no one had seen. He was wrong. His neighbor, watching through a gap in tThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Bar Temalian and the Hollow Stick Full of Stolen MoneyA man had entrusted a sum of money to a neighbor, Bar Temalian, for safekeeping. When he came back to collect it, Bar Temalian lied to his face and said, I neveThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The False Oath, the Dinar, and the Bread of MourningTwo women lived as close friends in one of the towns of late antique Israel. One day one of them was kneading dough at her neighbor's house, and a gold dinar slThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The Baker Who Swore on Her Child's LifeA poor person came to a woman's door and gave her a dinar, a silver coin, to hold for safekeeping. She took it and, with characteristic absentmindedness, set itThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The Town Where a Single Lie Killed a ChildRabbi Rabina, a fifth-century Babylonian Sage, once learned from Rabbi Tabut (also called Tabyome) that there was a place on earth where truth was not an ethicaThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The Dinar the Woman Baked Into Charity by AccidentA man left a dinar, a single silver coin, with a woman for safekeeping. She didn't want to forget where she had put it. She dropped it into a jar of flour and w