The Priest, the Patriarch, and Where a Master Keeps His Vessels

There was an incident with a certain priest and Rabbi Judah the Patriarch who were eating and drinking together, and when their hearts were merry that priest said to Rabbi Judah the Patriarch: We are more merciful than you, for when you were given permission to destroy us, you left among them none but the women alone, as it is said, "For six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom" (1 Kings 11:16). Rabbi Judah was silent and said nothing to the priest. And Rabbi Judah rose and went out to the marketplace and handed these words over to his disciples, and returned and sat down in his place. Rabbi Judah said to the priest: If you wish, let one disciple of mine come in and say to us a thing in which we may rejoice. The priest said to him: Let him come in. That disciple came in and stood on his feet and said: The master of the house knows in what place he stores his vessels, and when the master of the house comes to his house he brings his vessels with him into the house. He said this thing, and repeated it, and said it a third time, three times, until that priest grasped the substance of the matter. At once the priest rose and lifted his two hands to heaven and said: Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who chose you, Israel, more than all who come into the world and more than all the works of His hands that He created in the world, and acquired you as a complete acquisition, and called you sons and servants to His name, and called you a people and an inheritance and a treasure to His name, and scattered you in many hundreds of places. And we said: If we kill those in the land of Israel, those in the north and in the south, who will kill them? If we kill those in the north and in the south, those in Babylon, who will kill them? Behold, the matter is annulled of itself, to nothing. Surely the master of the house knows in what place he stores his vessels, and when the master of the house comes into his house he brings his vessels into the house. Another interpretation of "there they recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of His leadership in Israel" (Judges 5:11): a small city in Israel - they rose and built a synagogue and a house of study and hired for themselves cantors and hired for themselves teachers of children; thus houses of study are many in Israel, as it is said afterward, "Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates" (Judges 5:11). Since synagogues and houses of study are many in Israel - happy is the one to whom words of Torah are renewed by his mouth; and everyone to whom words of Torah are renewed by his mouth is like one to whom they announce from heaven and say to him: Thus says the Holy One, blessed be He, My son, build Me a house of study, for the great reward that I have in My treasury is yours, and for your sake I deliver Israel; as it is said afterward, "They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates; was shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?" (Judges 5:8). From here they said: Forty thousand of Israel who gathered together and went out to war, and there is among them a single pair of disciples of the wise - it is regarded for them as though they held shield and buckler and a two-edged sword in their hands; therefore it is said, "Was shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?"