CHAPTER I
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Gorfinkle, Joseph I. (Joseph Isaac)
(31) Draw men to the Torah by good example, not by endeavoring to make converts.
(32) He who seeks a name loses fame.
(33) Be self-reliant, but not selfish.
15. Shammai said, "Set a fixed time for thy (study of) Torah; say little and do much (34); and receive all men with a cheerful countenance."
(34) Or "promise little." Be like Abraham, who promised only bread, but brought a "calf tender and good" (Genesis XVIII, 5 and 7).
16. Rabban (35) Gamaliel said, "Provide thyself with a teacher; be quit of doubt (36); and accustom not thyself to give tithes (37) by a conjectural estimate."
(35) "Our teacher," "our master," a title given only to the presidents of the Sanhendrin, Gamaliel being the first to be thus known. Gamaliel was a grandson of Hillel and a teacher of Paul. See Strack, Einleitung, p. 85.
(36) Establish over you the authority of a teacher, to hold you from the clutch of doubt (Kohut).
(37) There were three kinds of tithes (the tenth part of anything): (a) "the first tithe" (_maaser rishon), given to the Lebites; "the second tithe" (maaser sheni), taken to Jerusalem and consumed there by the owner and his family; and (c) the tithe paid to the poor (maaser ani). See Leviticus XXVII, 30 et seq., Numbers XVIII, 21-24, and Deuteronomy XIV, 22-29; also Tractates Maasrot and Maaser Sheni of the Mishnah. Consult Babbs, The Law of Tithes.
17. Simeon (38) his son, said, "All my days I have grown up amongst the wise, and I have found nothing better for man than silence (39); not learning but doing is the chief thing (40); and whoso multiplies words causes sin" (41).
(38) Simeon beg Gamaliel I lived at the time of the war with Rome. See Josephus, Jewish Wars, IV, 3, 9.
(39) Cf. chapter III, 17.
(40) Where words fail, deeds tell. Non scholae sed vitae.
(41) Cf. Proverbs X, 19.
18. Rabban Simeon, the son of Gamaliel (42) said, "By three things is the world preserved (43); by truth, by judgment, and by peace, as it is said, 'Judge ye the truth and the judgment of peace in your gates'" (44).
(42) Rabban Simeon II, son of Gamaliel II (80-115 C.E.) and grandson of Simeon (verse 17).
(43) Cf. chapter I, 2. Torah, Temple service, and benevolence are the foundations and, at the same time, the aims of the world. Truth, judgment, and peace maintain the world's permanency.
(44) Zechariah VIII, 16.
Rabbi Chanania (45), the son of Akashia, said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, was pleased to make Israel worthy; wherefore He gave them a copious Torah and many commandments, as it is said, 'It pleased the Lord, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the Torah and make it honorable'" (46).
(45) This saying did not belong originally to Abot, but was taken from Makkot, III, 16. According to Goldschmidt, it was introduced into the Mishnah from the separate editions, and then found its way into the Talmudical texts of Abot. This verse is recited at the end of each chapter. See Rawicz, Commentor des Maimonides, p. 114, n. 1.
(46) Isaiah, xlii, 21.