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Keep Your Secrets Close

Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha Alphabet of Ben Sira, Letter Gimel

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published March 15, 2026

<p>For the letter Gimel, Ben Sira offers a proverb about trust:</p>

<p>"Reveal your secret to one out of a thousand, even if you have many well-wishers."</p>

<p>One out of a thousand. That's the ratio of trustworthy confidants to everyone else, according to this medieval Jewish wisdom text composed between 700 and 1000 CE. The saying echoes (Ecclesiastes 7:28): "One man in a thousand I found." And it lands with particular force here, because the educator has already been spilling his secrets to a child he's known for about five minutes.</p>

<p>The teacher pauses. He thinks it over. "I have revealed my secret to you, but to no other," he says, as if that makes it acceptable. Then, apparently deciding this infant is now his personal therapist, he goes further: "Advise me based on what I tell you. I want to divorce my wife, because there is in my neighborhood an extremely beautiful woman."</p>

<p>There it is. The real confession. This isn't just idle worry about an ugly wife — the man is actively considering leaving her for the beauty next door. He's asking a child prodigy for relationship advice, and he doesn't even see the absurdity of the situation. The Alphabet of Ben Sira loves this kind of comedy: the adult authority figure who can't stop revealing his weaknesses to the very student he's supposed to be teaching. Each letter peels back another layer. Ben Sira says nothing about the confession. He simply asks for the next letter.</p>

Themes

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