R. ‘Aḳiba said: He who takes a peruṭah from charity when not in need of it will not depart from this world before he falls in need of his fellow-men. He also said: He who wraps rags over his eyes or about his loins, and cries, ‘Help the blind! Help the leper!’1lit. ‘one who is afflicted with boils (or, ulcers)’. will in the end cry so in earnest. He also said: He who throws his bread to the ground, or scatters his money in his anger, will not depart from this world before he falls in need of his fellow-men.
He also said: He who tears his clothes in his anger or breaks his vessels in his rage, will in the end worship idols; for such is the device of the evil inclination: to-day it bids man, ‘Tear your clothes’ and to-morrow it bids him, ‘Worship idols’.2Cf. Shab. 105b (Sonc. ed., p. 510) where it is quoted by R. Simeon b. Eleazar in the name of Ḥalfa b. Agra in R. Joḥanan b. Nuri’s name.
He also said: He who hopes for the death of his wife that he may inherit her property or that he may marry her sister, or hopes for the death of his brother3Without issue, so that the law of Deut. 25, 5 might apply. that he may marry the widow, will surely be survived by them.4lit. ‘in the end they will bury him during their lifetime’. Concerning such a person Scripture states, He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it, and whoso breaketh through a fence, a serpent shall bite him.5Eccl. 10, 8.
The story is told6Cf. B.Ḳ. 90b (Sonc. ed., p. 521). of a certain man who, in contravention of R. ‘Aḳiba’s teaching, unloosed a woman’s hair in the marketplace. When the woman came before R. ‘Aḳiba he ordered the man to pay her the sum of four hundred zuz. The man said, ‘Rabbi, give me time to pay’, and he agreed. [When the man had come out] a friend of his said to him, ‘I will advise you how you will not have to pay her even one peruḳah’. ‘Do advise me’, said the man; and the friend said, ‘Go and take oil to the value of an issar, and break the jar in front of the door of that woman’. [He did so.] What did the woman do? She came out of her house, unloosed her hair in the open street, scooped up [the oil with her hand], and then laid her hand on her head.7She rubbed the oil into her head in order not to waste it. The man had arranged witnesses against her, and he proceeded before R. ‘Aḳiba and said, ‘To such a worthless woman must I pay four hundred zuz? For the sake of oil worth an issar she lost all self-respect, came out of her house, unloosed her hair in the open street, scooped up the oil, and then laid her hand on her head!’ R. ‘Aḳiba replied, ‘Your words prove nothing. For he who wounds himself, though he is not permitted to do so, is free from liability, whereas if others wounded him they are liable. If this woman wounds herself she is free from liability, but you, having wounded her, must pay her four hundred zuz’.
R. Dosethai b. R. Jannai said: If you have prepared your soil8lit. ‘selected’ or cleared (the soil)’. MS. E reads ‘set out early’; GRA suggests ‘plowed’. and sown your seed at the first rainfall9There are three periods of rain expected in the early winter: the first from the 17th to the 23rd of the eighth month (Marḥeshwan), the second from the 23rd to the end of the month, the third from the 1st of the ninth month (Kislew) and onwards. go and sow again at the second rainfall, lest hail fall in the world and the first sowing will be affected while the second sowing may endure, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good10Eccl. 11, 6. or both alike bad, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand. If you have prepared your soil and sown your seed at the first and second rainfalls, go and sow again at the third rainfall, lest a blight come upon the world and the early sowings will be blasted while the late sowing may endure, as it is stated, For thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, etc.
R. Ishmael b. R. Jose said: Study Torah in your old age. If you have studied Torah in your youth, say not, ‘I will not study in my old age’; but continue studying for thou knowest not which shall prosper. If you studied in a time of wealth do not leave off11lit. ‘turn away’; according to a variant reading ‘sit idle’. in a time of poverty; if in a time of plenty do not leave off in a time of famine; if in a time of ease do not leave off in a time of hardship; because one word [learnt] by a man in adversity is more precious to him than a hundred learnt in prosperity, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand.R. ‘Aḳiba said: If you have studied Torah in your youth, study it also in your old age, and say not, ‘I will not study Torah in my old age’, for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether both will remain with you, or whether they both shall be alike good, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, etc.R. Meir said: If you have studied under one teacher, say not, ‘It is enough for me’; but go to [another] scholar and study Torah under him. Go not, however, to anyone, but to him who is akin to you from the outset,12i.e. whose style and manner of study approximates to your own. Alternatively ḳarob means ‘near’, i.e. who resides near your house. Another reading is ḳarob lah ‘near to her’, i.e. a scholar who is sincere and near to the Torah. as it is stated, Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.13Prov. 5, 15. The verse counsels one to learn from such sources as are similar in scope to one’s own springs of learning. It is incumbent upon a man to attend upon three scholars [19b] such as R. Eliezer, R. Joshua and R. ‘Aḳiba, as it is stated, Happy is the man that hearkeneth to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door14ibid. VIII, 34.—read not my gates but ‘the door of my gates’.15Thus arriving at the number ‘three’: ‘door’ suggests one and ‘gates’ in the plural a further two; hence the need to study under three teachers. The text, however, is difficult. In the Yalḳuṭ on this verse the text reads: ‘It says not delathai but dalthothai’, and the explanation is that the former term, being in the plural, implies two, therefore the latter term, which is in an amplified form, implies three. For16This is the continuation of R. Meir’s dictum, explaining why it is necessary to study under more than one master. you know not whether both will remain with you or whether they both shall be alike good, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, etc.R. Joshua said: Take a wife in your youth and take a wife in your old age; beget children in your youth and beget children in your old age. Say not, ‘I will no more take a wife’, but take her and beget sons and daughters and increase your offspring on the earth, because you know not whether both17i.e. the children of your youth and the children of your later years. will remain with you or whether both shall be alike good, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, etc.
He used to say: If you have given a peruṭah to a poor man in the morning, and there comes to you in the evening another poor man asking for alms, give to him also, because you know not whether both18i.e. the two acts of charity. will remain with you or whether they both shall be alike good, as it is stated, In the morning sow thy seed, etc.
The story is told19Cf. Ber. 18b (Sonc. ed., pp. 110f). of a certain pious man who, in a year of drought, gave a poor man a dinar. His wife scolded him for it; so he went and passed the night in a cemetery. There he overheard two spirits conversing with one another. ‘Come, my dear,’ said one to her companion, ‘let us wander about the world and find out what calamity is about to come upon the world.’20According to the Talmudic version the incident happened on the eve of the New Year when the fate of the world in the coming year is decided. The other replied, ‘My dear, I cannot go forth because I am buried in a matting of reeds;21i.e. a shroud of inferior quality and not the usual linen shroud. but you go and tell me whatever you hear’. She departed and on her return was asked, ‘Did you hear from behind the curtain22Which screens the heavenly Court of Justice. what calamity is about to come upon the world?’ She replied, ‘I heard that whoever sows at the first rainfall will have his crops smitten by hail’. The man went and sowed at the second rainfall, with the result that everybody’s crop was smitten but his was not. The following year he again went and passed the night in the cemetery and overheard the same two spirits conversing with one another. ‘Come,’ said one to her companion, ‘let us wander about the world and find out what calamity is about to come upon the world.’ The other replied, ‘My dear, have I not previously told you that I cannot go forth because I am buried in a matting of reeds? You go, and tell me whatever you hear’. She departed and on her return her companion asked her, ‘Did you hear anything from behind the curtain?’ She replied, ‘I heard that whoever sows at the second rainfall will have his crops blasted’. He went and sowed at the first rainfall. When the blight came into the world, everybody’s crop was blasted but his was not. His wife asked him, ‘How was it that when the calamity came into the world, everybody’s crops were smitten and blasted but yours were not?’ He told her the whole story. After a time a quarrel broke out between that pious man’s wife and the mother of the young woman,23Who had been buried like a pauper in a reed matting. and the former said to the other, ‘Come and I will show you your daughter buried in a matting of reeds!’ The following year the man went and spent the night in the cemetery and overheard those two spirits conversing with one another. One said, ‘Come, my dear, let us wander about the world and listen to what is said behind the curtain’. But her companion replied, ‘My dear, leave me alone; what has passed between you and me has in the past been overheard by the living’.
It is told of a certain pious man who was in the habit of dispensing charity that he was once travelling in a ship when a storm arose and the ship was sunk in the sea. R. ‘Aḳiba who witnessed [the tragedy] came before the Beth Din to testify on behalf of the wife to enable her to remarry. Before the time came for him to testify, that pious man entered and stood before him. R. ‘Aḳiba said to him, ‘You are the man who was drowned at sea’. ‘Yes, I am,’ he replied. ‘And who brought you up from the sea?’ asked R. ‘Aḳiba. He answered, ‘The charity which I dispensed brought me up from the sea’. ‘How do you know it?’ asked R. ‘Aḳiba. He replied, ‘When I went down to the nethermost depths, I heard a mighty roaring of the waves calling one to the other, “Hurry and let us bring up this man from the sea because he dispensed charity all his days” ’. At this R. ‘Aḳiba began [to praise] saying, ‘Blessed be God, the God of Israel, Who has chosen the words of the Torah and the sayings of the wise; for the words of the Torah and the sayings of the wise endure for ever and to all eternity, as it is stated, Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.24Eccl. 11, 1. It is also written, Charity delivereth from death.25Prov. 10, 2, E.V., righteousness delivereth.
It is told26Cf. B.B. 11a (Sonc. ed., p. 52). of Benjamin the Just, who was the overseer of the charity fund, that one day a woman came to him and said, ‘Master, assist me’. He replied, ‘By the Temple Service, there is nothing left in the charity fund’. She said, ‘Master, if you do not assist me, I perish with my four27In B.B. loc. cit. ‘seven’, and so corrected here by GRA. children’. He thereupon assisted her from his own purse. After a time Benjamin the Just fell ill and lay in pain on his bed. The ministering angels addressed the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, ‘Sovereign of the universe, Thou hast said that whoever saves a single soul in Israel is deemed as though he had saved alive the whole world.28Cf. Sanh. 37a (Sonc. ed., p. 234). How much greater must be the merit of Benjamin the Just who saved alive a widow and her four children! He is now on his bed suffering much pain in his sickness’. Thus they sought mercy on his behalf and the decree against him was annulled, twenty-two years being added to his life.