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The letter Mem — which in Hebrew also means "water" — brings a proverb built entirely around that elemental image: "The waters of a virgin wife are sweet and add strength; the wate...
The letter Nun delivers a proverb about the domestic nightmare the Alphabet of Ben Sira seems to fear most — not infidelity, not poverty, but a wife who won't stop talking: "Shake ...
The Alphabet of Ben Sira, a satirical and provocative medieval text composed between 700 and 1000 CE, doesn't shy away from blunt advice about marriage. In this proverb, tied to th...
"Blind your eyes because of a widowed woman, and do not covet her beauty in your heart." That's what Ben Sira says, in the proverb attached to the Hebrew letter Ayin (ע) -- and it'...
"Control your face around evil friends. Do not walk on the road with them. Hold your feet back around them, lest you be caught in their trap." This proverb, corresponding to the le...
"My son, hide your money during your lifetime and store it, and until the day of your death, do not give it to your heirs." This is the proverb of the letter Tzadi (צ) in the Alpha...
"Acquire for yourself money, and a good wife, fear of God, and accumulate sons for yourself, even a hundred of them." The letter Kuf (ק) in the Alphabet of Ben Sira delivers a prov...
"Distance yourself from an evil neighbor and do not be counted among their friends." So begins the proverb of the letter Resh (ר) in the Alphabet of Ben Sira. It sounds like a stra...
"Listen, master, to what I am saying. Rest yourself from starting quarrels with your neighbors, and if you see something evil about your friend, do not produce their slander on you...
