The Priest Who Feared Heaven in Secret and the Fruitful Vine

Tanna Debei Eliyahu Rabbah 18:2

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

There was once a priest who feared Heaven in concealment, and all the good deeds he did, he did in concealment. He had ten children from one wife, six sons and four daughters, and every single day he would pray and prostrate himself and beg mercy and lick the dust with his tongue, so that not one of them should come to transgression or to anything unfit. They said: That year did not pass, nor a second, nor a third, before Ezra came and the Holy One brought Israel up by his hand from Babylon, and that priest with them. And that priest did not depart from this world until he saw high priests and young priests from his sons and his sons' sons for fifty years; and afterward that priest entered his eternal home. Of him Scripture says, "Trust in the LORD and do good... Delight in the LORD, and He will grant you the requests of your heart" (Psalms 37:4). And thus the Holy One said to Israel: My children, can the empty things that deny the Torah give to those who serve them food and drink and provisions, even in this world, let alone the world to come? But you, children of Israel, I took to Myself, because all is Mine and all is the work of My hands. Moreover, I sit upon My throne of glory: a third of the day I read and study, a third of the day I judge, and a third of the day I perform charity and feed and sustain all who come into the world, as it is said, "Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock" (Isaiah 26) - for the two worlds are Mine. Therefore I say, "He who trusts in Your Name in truth shall never be ashamed," as it is said, "In You our ancestors trusted; they trusted and You delivered them" (Psalms 22). Happy are the righteous whose trust is such that they rely on their Father in Heaven, who created the world with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and discernment; therefore it is said, "He shall be like a tree planted by water" (Jeremiah 17). They told a parable: To what may this be compared? To a king to whom his servant brought a gift, a measure of wheat. If he ground it but did not sift it, this is shameful. If he sifted it but did not grind it, this is shameful. If he sifted and ground it but did not extract fine flour, this is middling. But if he sifted and ground it and extracted fine flour from it, this is the perfect measure. So too with disciples of the wise in this world in words of Torah: one who read Scripture but did not study Mishnah, this is shameful; studied but did not read Scripture, shameful; read and studied but did not serve the sages, middling; but one who read Torah, Prophets, and Writings, and studied Mishnah, Midrash, laws, and aggadot, and served the sages, this is the perfect measure. And it says, "On the bank of the stream, on this side and that, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither nor its fruit fail; it shall bear fresh fruit monthly, for its waters issue from the sanctuary; its fruit shall be for food and its leaf for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12). What is the tree that grows by the stream? These are disciples of the wise who possess Torah - Scripture and Mishnah, laws and aggadot - and good deeds and service of the sages. "Happy is everyone who fears the LORD" (Psalms 128). Even servants and converts who fear Heaven are included in "happy." For if not so, Scripture should have said "happy are the sages and their students and their teachers"; but from the following verse you cannot say so, since it is written, "When you eat the labor of your hands, happy shall you be" - I call heaven and earth to witness that any disciple of the wise who eats of his own and enjoys the labor of his hands and does not benefit from the community is included in "happy." "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your house" - your wife shall be like a vine that produces fruit, and when is your wife like a fruitful vine? As long as your wife is in the recesses of your house. What is written after it? "Your children like olive shoots." Just as the olive yields olives for eating, for drying, and for oil, so as long as your wife is in the recesses of your house she does not stir from her place, and her children are like the olive: some masters of Scripture, some of Mishnah, some of Talmud, some of commerce, some sages and some discerning, knowing understanding, everything in its time. Second to her is a woman who walks about in the market and speaks with everyone; she brings evil upon herself and causes her children to be evil. If she did not separate the dough offering in purity, or was negligent regarding the laws of purity stated in the Torah, she too brings evil upon herself and her children, that they be blemished, and she never finds contentment. And when do they judge a child? Not when he is born, nor when he is weaned from milk, but once he comes to his teacher's house for Scripture and Mishnah and then abandons everything and goes off; then they judge him, as it is said, "Who is the wise man who can understand this... why is the land ruined?... And the LORD said, Because they forsook My Torah which I set before them" (Jeremiah 9). But if he occupies himself with Scripture and Mishnah and does not abandon it, all love him and have mercy on him. And from where do we know that Torah is likened to a woman? As it is said, "He who finds a wife finds good and obtains favor from the LORD" (Proverbs 18:22).

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