Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 9, scan section 63

enjoy longevity and have a share in the world to come. Be also joyful when giving charity from your house, in order that you may pacify the anger of death, as it is written [Prov. xxi. 14] : ''A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a bribe in the bosom, strong fury." If you have troubled your feet for the poor or for the sake of a merit, the following passages may be applied to you [Deut xxviii. 6] : " Blessed shalt thou be at thy coming in, and blessed shalt thou be at thy coming out." If you keep your mouth from slander, you will spend all the days of life in peace. One who is audacious towards one who is greater than he will finally be punished with a plague. If you run to do honor to a sage, you will be rewarded with enviable children ; and for running to do honor to the poor, you will be rewarded with sons of learning and a law-abiding record in Israel. Dost thou see a sage die, do not turn away from him until after burial, that thou, too, mayest receive respect and attention when it will be thy time to die. When you see your neighbor has be- come poor and his power is on the decline, do not refuse to help him, as it is written [Eccl. viii. 5] : "Whoso keepeth the commandment will experience no evil thing." If you have loaned him something when he was in need, the following passage will be fulfilled on you [Is. Iviii. 9] : *' Then shalt thou call, and the Lord will answer." If you lower yourself, the Lord will lift you up ; but if you as- sume superiority over your fellowmen, the Lord will lower you. If others quarrel with thee, whether in a house of learning or at an ordinary meeting-place, do not leave until peace is restored, and they shall praise thee in thy absence as Pinchas b. Elazar. Great is peace, that even when it reigns among idolaters nothing can be done to them, as it is written [Hosea, iv. 17] : " Ephraim 30 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. is bound (bound together) to idols ; let him alone." But if they quarrel among themselves, it is said of them [ibid. X. 2] : " Their heart is divided ; now shall they bear their guilt." Hence that house in which there is strife will be destroyed, and the sages say that even a prayer- house in which there is strife will be demolished. The same is it with two chiefs of the court who live in one town and quarrel with each other, they will finally die. Abba Saul said : Strife between courts is a destruction of the world. Abba Issi b. Johanan said in the name of Samuel the Little : This world resembles the eyeball of a man. The white is the ocean that surrounds the whole land ; the black is the world ; the circle in the black is Jerusalem, and the image (the pupil) in the circle is the Temple, which will be rebuilt in the near future. Amen. THE CHAPTER ON PEACE.* R. Jehoshua b. Levi said : Great is peace, for it is as the leaven to dough. If the Holy One had not given peace to the world, sword and beast would devour up the whole world, as it is written [Lev. xxvi. 6] : ** And I will give peace in the land." It is written [Eccl. i. 4] : " One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth en- dureth for ever." King Solomon meant to say thus : Although one generation passes away and another one comes, one kingdom disappears and another one appears ; and although evil decrees one after another are enacted against Israel, still they endure forever. The Lord does not abandon them, and they are never abandoned. They are never annihilated, neither do they decrease, as it is written [Mai. iii. 6] : " For I the Lord have not changed : and ye sons of Jacob, ye have not ceased to be " {i.e., as I ♦ This chapter is considered a separate treatise. See Zunz and other bibliographers. TRACT DERECH ERETZ— ZUTA. 31 have never changed and will never change, so ye sons of Jacob have never ceased and will never cease to be). But [Deut. iv. 4]: *^Ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive, every one of you, this day." R. Jehoshua said : Great is peace, for at the time Israel arose and said [Exod. xxiv. 7] : ** All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and obey," the Holy One was pleased to give unto them His Torah and blessed them with peace, as it is written [Ps. xxix. 11]: " The Lord will bless his people with peace." Hezekiah said: Great is peace, for at every commantiment in the Torah it is written " if," as, for instance, Exod. xxiii. 4, *' If thou meet," etc., which means, ^/"such a thing occurs to you, you must do the command- ment ; but concerning peact? it is different, there it is written [Ps. xxxiv. 15]: "Seek peace, and pursue it," which means, seek peace at the pirtce where you are, and if you do not find it, seek it in other places. Great is peace : about all the journeys of Israel it is written, *' And they removed . . . and . . . encamped," which means they removed in strife and encamped in strife, but when they came to Sinai there was no more strife, and they encamped in peace, as it is written [Exod. xix. 2] : *'And Israel encamped opposite the Mount" (i.e,^ all Is- rael were united). The Holy One, blessed be He, then said : ** Because Israel hates discord and loves peace, and all are united, this is a favorable time that I should give them my Torah." Adoniah the son of David was killed because he was quarrelsome, and it is permitted to sup- port the accusation of a quarrelsome man, as Nathan the prophet did when Bath-Sheba accused Adoniah [I Kings, i. 14] : "I myself will come in after thee, and confirm thy words." And Rabbi said : All manner of lying is pro- hibited, except it be to make peace between one and his neighbor. Bar Kappara said : Great is peace, as among the angels there is no animosity, no jealousy, no hatred, no commanding, no quarrelling, because the Holy One, blessed be He, has made peace among them, 32 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. as it is written [Job, xxv. 2] : ''Dominion and dread are with him : he maketh peace in his high places." " Do- minion " is the angel Michael and ''Dread" is Gabriel, one of whom is of fire and the other one of water, and still they do not oppose each other, for the Holy One, blessed be He, has made peace between them. R. Jehoshua said : Great is peace, in that the covenant of the priests was made with peace, as it is written [Numb, xxv. 12] : "I give unto him my covenant of peace." The name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is also "peace" (Shalom), as it is written [Judges, vi. 24] : "And called it Adonay-shalom." R. Jose the Galilean said : The name of the Messiah is also " peace " (Shalom), as it is written [Is. ix. 5] : " The prince of peace." Said R. Je- hoshua : Israel is also called " peace," as it is written [Zech. viii. 12]: "For the seed shall be undisturbed, the