The Fisherman Who Could Not Read and the Fear of Heaven

One time I was walking from place to place, and a certain man found me who had in him neither Scripture nor Mishnah, and he was mocking and scoffing with words, and he came against me. I said to him: My son, what will you answer your Father in heaven on the day of judgment? He said to me: Rabbi, I have words with which to answer Him -- understanding and knowledge were not given to me from heaven, that I should read and study. I said to him: My son, what is your work? He said to me: I am a fisherman. I said to him: My son, who taught you and told you to bring flax and weave it into nets and cast it into the sea and bring up the fish from the sea? And he said to me: Rabbi, in this, understanding and knowledge were given to me from heaven. I said to him: To bring flax and to weave nets and to cast into the sea and to bring up fish from the sea, understanding and knowledge were given to you from heaven; but for the words of the Torah, of which it is written, "For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it" (Deuteronomy 30:14), understanding and knowledge were not given to you from heaven? Immediately he would raise his voice and weep and sigh. I said to him: My son, let it not grieve you; rather, all other people who come into the world give this same answer regarding the matter in which they are occupied, but their deeds testify against them. And concerning them, and concerning those like them, and concerning those who do as they do, what does Scripture say of them? "Moreover those who work in combed flax shall be ashamed, and those who weave white cloth" (Isaiah 19:9). The beginning and the end of all matters is the fear of Heaven and good deeds. And let a person not read and study yet have no fear of Heaven, as it is said, "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD; a good understanding have all those who do them" (Psalms 111:10), and it says, "The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Who impoverishes himself? The one who is excessive in eating and drinking and sleeping, as it is said, "For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness clothes a man in rags" (Proverbs 23:21), and it says, "Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes and you shall be satisfied with bread" (Proverbs 20:13); and "bread" and "wine" mean nothing but the words of the Torah, as it is said, "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed" (Proverbs 9:5), and it says, "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, to know how to sustain with a word him who is weary; He awakens morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned" (Isaiah 50:4). You have thus learned that the words of the Torah are absorbed in a person's heart only by one who grows weary for them. And thus the holy spirit would bring good tidings to the disciples of the wise and say to them: My children, even though I gave you much good in this world, and needless to say in the days of the son of David and in the world to come, that you shall have a great reward, doubled and redoubled, do not treat the words of the Torah lightly and do not be excessive in eating and drinking and sleeping, as it is said, "Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore double to you" (Zechariah 9:12), and it says, "And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you, and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be ashamed" (Joel 2:25-26), and it says, "Instead of your shame you shall have double, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion; therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs" (Isaiah 61:7). We have thus learned that Israel shall eat double in the days of the son of David; and even if a single one of Israel should dwell at the end of the world and several rivers should sweep before him, the Holy One, blessed be He, will split all those rivers and bring that Israelite to Him, as it is said, "Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that they shall no longer say, As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but, As the LORD lives who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:7-8). And how do you know to say thus? For Israel are not redeemed out of trouble, nor out of bondage, nor out of being tossed about, nor out of confusion, nor out of distress, nor out of having no food, but out of ten people who sit beside one another, and each of them reads and studies with his fellow, and their voice is heard, as it is said, "But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and it shall be holy" (Obadiah 1:17). And so too we find with our early forefathers, that they were not redeemed from Egypt except through the words of the Torah, even though they had not yet reached the forty days of the receiving of the Torah and had not yet come to that hour; rather, they did Torah all their days. Therefore it is said of them, "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant; therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out" (Exodus 6:5,6). And just as Israel were redeemed from Egypt by the merit of being fruitful and multiplying, so too they will be redeemed in the future by the merit of being fruitful and multiplying. And how do you know it is so? That Israel are not redeemed unless they are fruitful and multiply and fill the whole world, as it is said, "For you shall spread out to the right and to the left, and your seed shall inherit the nations and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" (Isaiah 54:3).