Another matter, “and for one who sets [vesam] his path” – Rabbi Yanai said: It is written vesham,6The word vesam is written with a sin, which can also be read as a shin, such that the word is vesham. [indicating] that one who assesses [deshayem] his path, his value is great. There was an incident involving Rabbi Yanai who was walking along the way, and he saw a certain person who was exceedingly distinguished in dress.7Rabbi Yanai mistook him for a Torah scholar based on his appearance.
He said to him: ‘Would the Rabbi [agree to] be received as a guest with us?’ He said to him: ‘Yes.’ He took him into his house and gave him food and drink. He tested him in Bible, but did not find him knowledgeable; in Mishna, but did not find him knowledgeable; in agadda, but did not find him knowledgeable; in Talmud, but did not find him knowledgeable.
He said to him: ‘Take and recite the blessing.’8Take a cup of wine and recite Grace after Meals. He said to him: ‘Let Yanai recite the blessing in his house.’ He said to him: ‘Are you able to repeat what I say to you?’ He said to him: ‘Yes.’
He said to him: ‘Say, the dog ate Yanai’s piece of bread.’ [The guest] stood and grabbed [Rabbi Yanai] and said to him: ‘My inheritance is with you and you are preventing me from it.’ He said: ‘In what sense is your inheritance with me?’ He said to him: ‘One time, I was passing before a school and I heard the voices of the children saying: “Moses commanded us Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4).
“The inheritance of the congregation of Yanai” is not written here, but rather “the congregation of Jacob.”’9The guest was saying to Rabbi Yanai that he had just as much a stake in the Torah as the Torah scholars, and by calling him a dog Rabbi Yanai was denying him that right (Matnot Kehuna). He said to him: ‘Why did you merit to eat at my table?’ He said to him: ‘In all my days, I never heard a bad word and related it to its subject, and I never saw two [people] quarreling with one another and did not make peace between them.’
He said: ‘You have so much civility to your credit, and I called you a dog?’ He applied in his regard: “And for one who sets his path” – one who assesses his path, his value is great. As Rabbi Yishmael bar Rav Naḥman said: Civility preceded the Torah by twenty-six generations. That is what is written: “To guard the path to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).
“Path,” this is civility, and then “the tree of life,” this is the Torah. “I will show him the salvation of God” (Psalms 50:23), Rabbi Abahu said: This is one of the verses in which the salvation of the Holy One blessed be He is the salvation of Israel: “It is for You to save us” (Psalms 80:3).10The verse is understood here to mean: Our salvation is Yours.