R. Ḥananiah, the deputy High Priest,¹ said: He who lays the words of the Torah to his heart will be freed from the anxieties of the sword, hunger, madness, lust, the evil inclination, adultery, vain thoughts, and of the yoke of human cares; for so it is written in the Book of Psalms by David king of Israel, The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.² And he who does not lay the words of the Torah to his heart will be burdened with the anxieties of the sword, hunger, madness, lust, the evil inclination, adultery, vain thoughts, and of the yoke of human cares; for so it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy by Moses our master, And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever; because thou didst not serve the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemy whom the Lord shall send against thee in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things.³ In hunger: what does this mean? When a man longs to eat barley bread and cannot afford even that, his enemies demand of him white bread and rich meat. And in thirst: what does this mean? When a man longs to drink a drop of sour wine or a drop of beer and cannot afford even that, his enemies demand of him the best wine of all the lands. And in nakedness: what does this mean? When a man wishes to wear a woollen or linen shirt and cannot afford even that, his enemies demand of him the finest silks and satins of all the lands. And in want of all things: he will be without a lamp, [26a] without a knife and without a table. Another interpretation of And in want of all things: he will be without vinegar and salt. When people curse one another they say, ‘May there be no vinegar or salt in your house!’ He used to say: [It is written:] Look not upon me, that I am swarthy, that the sun hath tanned me; [my mother’s sons were incensed against me]:⁴ these are the councillors⁵. Cf. Giṭ. 37a (Sonc. ed., p. 151, n. 5, where the word is explained as the Greek for ‘city councils’). V has banoth (daughters) which does not make sense. [On the passage, cf. Büchler, Studies in Sin and Atonement, pp. 63f and The Economic Conditions of Judaea, p. 28, n. 2.] of Judah who cast from themselves the yoke of the Holy One, blessed be He, and set a human king over them.⁶ Another interpretation of My mother’s sons were incensed against me: this refers to Moses when he killed the Egyptian,⁷ as it is stated, And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens … and he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.⁸ What do the words that there was no man imply? They teach that Moses had set up a Sanhedrin of ministering angels⁹ and said to them, ‘Shall I kill this man?’ They replied, ‘Kill him’. And do you think that he killed by the sword? No, he killed him with speech, as it is stated, Dost thou say to kill me as thou didst kill the Egyptian,¹⁰ 14. E.V., thinkest thou to kill me. proving that he killed him by [pronouncing] the Name. Another interpretation of My mother’s sons were incensed against me: this refers to Moses when he fled to Midian; as it is stated, When Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters … and the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flocks.¹¹ 15-17. Moses was incensed by the action of the shepherds. Moses came forward and sat in judgment upon [the men]. He said to them, ‘In the ordinary way men draw¹² the water and women give the flocks to drink, but here women draw the water and men [take it and] give their flocks to drink! This is an injustice; you are guilty in law’. Thereupon he rose up and helped [the women].¹³ Some report the matter as follows: So long as Moses was standing by the edge of the well the waters surged up towards him, but when he moved away the waters receded. At that moment he exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! I have abandoned my people and am come to dwell with strangers!’ Another interpretation of My mother’s sons were incensed against me: this refers to the people of Israel when they made the golden calf.¹⁴ At first they said, All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and obey,¹⁵ XXIV, 7. but later they said, This is thy god, O Israel.¹⁶ XXXII, 4. Another interpretation of My mother’s sons were incensed against me: this refers to the spies when they spread an evil report about the land, and in consequence caused the carcasses of Israel to fall in the wilderness; as it is stated, Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.¹⁷ They made me keeper of the vineyards.¹⁸. Israel, God’s vineyard, was unkept by Him because of the people’s shortcomings. The Holy One, blessed be He, declared, ‘Who was it that caused Me to show favour to the Gentiles, if not Israel? For so long as the Gentiles dwell at ease, the people of Israel are oppressed, rejected and tossed about’. Another interpretation of They made me keeper of the vineyards: this refers to the people of Israel when they were exiled to Babylon. The prophets in their midst arose and bade them, ‘Set apart your terumah and your tithes.’ They replied, ‘It was because we did not separate terumah and tithes that we were exiled from our land, and now you bid us to set apart terumah and tithes [in exile]?’ Scripture therefore states, They made me keeper of the vineyards; [but mine own vineyard have I not kept].¹⁹ Because Israel had not observed the laws relating to fields and vineyards, they were driven into captivity where they had to labour in the vineyards of strangers.

footnotes: ¹ In Aboth 3:2 (Sonc. ed., p. 27) there is a different saying attributed to ‘R. Ḥanina, the deputy High Priest’, and in III, 5 (Sonc. ed., III, 5, p. 29) a statement of R. Neḥuniah b. Ha-Ḳanah bears some resemblance to what is quoted here. ² Ps. 19, 9. ³ Deut. 28, 46-48. ⁴ Cant. 1, 6. ⁵ Reading bula’oth ⁶ The lords of Judah were so incensed against God that in their exasperation they acted to their own hurt. ⁷ Moses was so incensed at the injustice which he witnessed that he acted zealously ‘for Me’, i.e. on God’s behalf. ⁸ Ex. 2, 11f. ⁹ Since no human beings were about, he had no alternative but to call upon angels to form a court of justice. ¹⁰ ibid. ¹¹ ibid. ¹² Or ‘fill’ according to a variant. ¹³ Following the emendation of GRA and Schechter. V reads ‘you are guilty at the hour’. ¹⁴ The people here showed their resentment against God by making a golden calf, and the spies (next §) by spreading an evil report about the land. ¹⁵ ibid. ¹⁶ ibid. ¹⁷ Num. 14, 29. ¹⁸ Cant. 1, 6. The verse concludes, but mine own vineyard have I not kept ¹⁹ ibid.