good, it is bad and indifferent; it is trash and it is treasure; it is
dust and it is diamonds; it is potsherd and it is pearls; and in the
hands of impartial scholars, it is one of the great monuments of mental
achievement, one of the world's wonders.
Maurice H. Harris
THE TALMUD
* * * * *
Where do we learn that the Shechinah rests even upon one who studies the
law? In Exodus xx. 24, where it is written, "In all places where I
record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."
_Berachoth_, fol. 6, col. 1.
One pang of remorse at a man's heart is of more avail than many stripes
applied to him. (See Prov. xvii. 10.)
Ibid., fol. 7, col. 1.
"Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!" (Deut. vi. 4.) Whosoever
prolongs the utterance of the word one, shall have his days and years
prolonged to him. So also _Zohar_, syn. tit. ii.
Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2.
Once, as the Rabbis tell us, the Roman Government issued a decree
forbidding Israel to study the law. Whereupon Pappus, the son of
Yehudah, one day found Rabbi Akiva teaching it openly to multitudes,
whom he had gathered round him to hear it. "Akiva," said he, "art thou
not afraid of the Government?" "List," was the reply, "and I will tell
thee how it is by a parable. It is with me as with the fishes whom a
fox, walking once by a river's side, saw darting distractedly to and fro
in the stream; and, addressing, inquired, 'From what, pray, are ye
fleeing?' 'From the nets,' they replied, 'which the children of men have
set to ensnare us.' 'Why, then,' rejoined the fox, 'not try the dry land
with me, where you and I can live together, as our fathers managed to do
before us?' 'Surely,' exclaimed they, 'thou art not he of whom we have
heard so much as the most cunning of animals, for herein thou art not
wise, but foolish. For if we have cause to fear where it is natural for
us to live, how much more reason have we to do so where we needs must
die!' Just so," continued Akiva, "is it with us who study the law, in
which (Deut. xxx. 20) it is written, 'He is thy life and the length of
thy days;' for if we suffer while we study the law, how much more shall
we if we neglect it?" Not many days after, it is related, this Rabbi
Akiva was apprehended and thrown into prison. As it happened, they led
him out for execution just at the time when "Hear, O Israel!" fell to be
repeated, and as they tore his flesh with currycombs, and as he was with
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