Asher, tenth son of Jacob, born of Zilpah, spoke to his sons in the hundred and twenty-fifth year of his life, while still in health. "Hearken, you children of Asher, to your father, and I will declare to you all that is upright in the sight of the Lord."
His teaching was philosophical and precise. Two ways has God given to the sons of men. Two inclinations. Two kinds of action. Two modes. Two outcomes. Everything exists in pairs, one set against the other. Good and evil. Light and dark. The two inclinations dwell in every human breast, and the soul must choose between them.
"If the soul takes pleasure in the good inclination," Asher taught, "all its actions are in righteousness. And if it sins, it straightway repents, for its thoughts are set upon righteousness, and it casts away wickedness, overthrows evil, and uproots sin." But if the soul inclines to the evil inclination, all its actions are in wickedness. It drives away the good, cleaves to the evil, and is ruled by Beliar. Even when it works what seems good, Beliar perverts the outcome to evil.
Asher then cataloged the most dangerous deception: the person who appears righteous but is rotten within. A man who shows compassion only to serve his own ends. A man who loves an evildoer and would die for evil. A man who conceals wickedness behind a good name. A man who steals and defrauds yet pities the poor. A man who commits adultery and fornication yet fasts devoutly. These are the double-faced, and Asher condemned them utterly.
"Such men are like hares," he said, "clean in appearance, like those that divide the hoof, but in truth unclean. For God in the tables of the commandments has thus declared."
"Do not wear two faces like them," Asher commanded, "of goodness and of wickedness. Cleave unto goodness only, for God has His habitation therein. From wickedness flee away, destroying the evil inclination by your good works. For the double-faced serve not God, but their own lusts, so that they may please Beliar."
But good men of single face, even if the double-faced accuse them of sin, are just before God. One who hates the merciful-yet-unjust man, who hates the adulterer-who-fasts, follows the Lord's example, refusing to accept seeming good as genuine good. One who refuses to feast with rioters lest he pollute his soul may appear odd, but is clean. "Such men are like stags and hinds," Asher said, "which seem unclean in the manner of wild animals, but are altogether clean, because they walk in zeal for the Lord."
He laid out the cosmic pairing: in wealth hides covetousness, in conviviality hides drunkenness, in laughter hides grief, in wedlock hides profligacy. Death follows life. Dishonor follows glory. Night follows day. Darkness follows light. Eternal life awaits beyond death. Truth cannot be called a lie, nor right called wrong, for all truth is under the light, even as all things are under God.
"All these things I proved in my life," Asher said, "and I wandered not from the truth of the Lord. I searched out the commandments of the Most High, walking according to all my strength with singleness of face unto that which is good."
He warned of the judgment: "When the soul departs troubled, it is tormented by the evil spirit which it also served in lusts and evil works. But if it is peaceful with joy, it meets the angel of peace, and he leads it into eternal life."
"Become not as Sodom," Asher warned, "which sinned against the angels of the Lord and perished forever." He foresaw that his sons would sin and be scattered to the four corners of the earth, set at naught in the dispersion, vanishing like water. But the Most High would visit the earth, and the Lord would gather them together in faith through His tender mercy, for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"Bury me in Hebron," Asher commanded. He fell asleep at a good old age, and his sons carried him to Hebron and buried him with his fathers.