<b>That they take for Me an offering (Exod. 25:2).</b> Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: <i>For I give you good doctrine; forsake ye not My teaching</i> (Prov. 4:2). R. Simeon the son of Lakish explained this verse as follows: Once there were two merchants who were traveling together. One of them held a bolt of silk material in his hand, while the other held some pepper. They said to each other: “Let us exchange our merchandise.” One took the pepper and the other took the silk. What one of them had previously owned was no longer his, and that which the other had owned was, likewise, no longer his. With the law, however, this is not so. If one man studies Tractate Ze’raim, and another Tractate Mo’ed, and they instruct each other, each possesses knowledge of both. Truly, is there any merchandise more valuable than this? Therefore, <i>For I give you good doctrine; forsake ye not My teaching</i>.

Once a passenger aboard a ship, on which many were traveling, was asked by them: “What kind of merchandise do you possess?” He answered: “My merchandise is superior to yours.” Whereupon they searched the boat to examine his merchandise. When they were unable to find anything that belonged to him, they began to scoff at him. Shortly after, pirates attacked them, and carried the men and everything they found in the ship away. After some time they reached port, and all the men were brought to the city, without food to eat or clothes to wear. What did the one passenger do? He went to the schoolhouse, where he sat and studied. When the residents of the town discovered that he was a learned student of the law, they treated him with the greatest respect. They made a collection in his behalf, as was customary and proper for a man of distinction. The important men of the community would walk at his right and his left, accompanying him wherever he went. When the merchants saw what was happening, they went to him and pleaded: “Please, we beg you to help us, speak in our behalf to the men of the city, for you know what has happened to us and how much we lost in the ship. We implore you to ask them to give us some bread, that we may live and not die of starvation.” He answered: “Did I not tell you that my merchandise was better than yours? Yours has been destroyed, but mine endures.” Therefore it says: <i>For I give you good doctrine</i>.