JOSE B. JOEZER SAID: LET YOUR HOUSE BE A MEETING-HOUSE FOR THE WISE. What is meant by this? It teaches that a man’s house should be available to the wise, their disciples, and the disciples of their disciples; in the same manner that a man might say to his fellow, ‘I will wait for you at such and such a place’.¹ Another interpretation of LET YOUR HOUSE BE A MEETING-HOUSE FOR THE WISE: this means that when a disciple comes into your presence and says to you, ‘Give me instruction’, if it is within your power to teach him, instruct him, but if not dismiss him at once.² Moreover, let him not sit before you on a couch or on a chair or on a bench, but on the ground; and every word that you utter he should accept with awe and reverence, with fear and dread.

footnotes: ¹ So should your house be the rendezvous of scholars. ² Your house should be a place for instruction and study; if therefore you are not in a position to impart knowledge, do not detain the would-be learner, but let him seek instruction elsewhere.

AND SIT AMIDST THE DUST OF THEIR FEET. What is meant by this? When a scholar comes to a town, say not, ‘I have no need of him’; but go to him, and sit not before him on a couch or on a chair or on a bench, but sit before him on the ground; and every word that he utters accept with awe and reverence, with fear and dread, in the same manner that our forefathers received the Torah at Mount Sinai with awe and reverence, with fear and dread. Another interpretation of AND SIT AMIDST THE DUST OF THEIR FEET—as did R. Eliezer; AND DRINK IN THEIR WORDS WITH THIRST—as did R. ‘Aḳiba. What was the beginning of R. ‘Aḳiba? It was said of him that at the age of forty he had learnt nothing at all. On one occasion, as he was standing by the mouth of a well, he enquired, ‘Who carved out this stone?’ They answered, ‘The water which constantly falls on it, day in and day out’. They continued, ‘ ‘Aḳiba, have you not read the verse, The waters wear the stones?’³ Forthwith R. ‘Aḳiba applied to himself the following a fortiori argument: If the soft [water] can wear away the hard [stone], how much more can the words of the Torah, which are hard like iron, carve a way into my heart which is of flesh and blood! Immediately he turned to the study of the Torah. Both he and his son went and sat down before the school-teacher and said to him, ‘Master, teach us the Torah’. R. ‘Aḳiba took hold of the tablet by one end and his son by the other end, and on it the teacher wrote ’alef beth⁴ which he learnt, ’alef taw⁵ which he learnt, and then the Book of Leviticus which he also learnt.⁶ So he continued to study until he had learnt the whole Torah. He then went and sat before R. Eliezer and R. Joshua and said to them, ‘My masters, initiate me into the reasoning of the Mishnah’. As soon as they recited one halakah to him, he went away and sat down alone asking himself, ‘Why is ’alef so written? Why is beth so written? Why is this stated?’ He thereupon returned to his masters and asked them, and held them up with his words. R. Simeon b. Eleazar said, ‘I will illustrate this to you by a parable. To what can this be compared? To a stonemason who was quarrying stones in a mountain. One day he took his pick in his hand, went out and sat on the mountain, and chipped away small stones. When people came and asked him what he was doing, he told them, “I mean to uproot the mountain and cast it into the Jordan”. They said to him, “You cannot possibly uproot the whole mountain”. Nevertheless, he continued chipping away until it became the size of a large boulder. He inserted himself beneath it, unloosed it, uprooted it, and cast it into the Jordan, saying, “Here is not your place but there” ’.⁷ In this way did R. ‘Aḳiba glean the knowledge of Torah from⁸ R. Eliezer and R. Joshua. R. Ṭarfon said to him, ‘ ‘Aḳiba, it is of you that the verse speaks, He bindeth the streams that they trickle not; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.’⁹ The things which were hidden from men R. ‘Aḳiba brought to light. Every day he used to gather a bundle of wood, half of which he sold to provide food for himself, and the other half he used for his personal needs. His neighbours rose up against him and cried, ‘ ‘Aḳiba, you are ruining us with your smoke! Come, sell all [the wood] to us, and with the money you can buy oil, and study by the light of an oil lamp’. But he replied, ‘I derive many uses from [the wood]: first I study by its light, secondly I keep myself warm by it, and thirdly I am able to sleep on it’. In the Hereafter [the example of] R. ‘Aḳiba will condemn all the poor; for when they will be charged, ‘Why did you not study Torah?’ and they plead, ‘Because we were too poor’, it will be retorted, ‘Was not R. ‘Aḳiba very poor and in straitened circumstances?’ And if they plead, ‘Because of our little children’, it will be retorted, ‘Did not R. ‘Aḳiba have many sons and daughters for whom he had to provide as well as his wife Rachel [and yet he studied the Torah]?’¹⁰ According to Finkelstein, op. cit. p. 188, the original reading is: ‘many sons and daughters who were provided for by his wife Rachel’; i.e. the poor will be able to offer as defence that their wives were not like Rachel, He was forty years old when he started to study Torah and by the end of thirteen years he taught Torah in public. It is said that he did not depart this life before he had enjoyed the luxury of tables of silver and gold, and ascended his bed by golden steps. His wife went out dressed in fine robes¹¹, ‘a long-sleeved tunic’. [Krauss, Lehnwörter, p. 519, connects it with the Latin scordisci, ‘leather shoes’; or in his Talmudische Archäologie I, p. 182 (soleae) corticeae, ‘shoes with cork soles’.] and wearing a ‘golden city’ tiara.¹² When his disciples said to him, ‘Master, you put us to shame by the [lavish] way you treat her’, he replied, ‘Much hardship has she endured with me for the sake of the Torah’.

footnotes: ³ Job 14, 19. ⁴ The first and second letters of the Hebrew alphabet. ⁵ The first and last letters of the alphabet. ⁶ All the verbs used here are in the singular, obviously referring to ‘Aḳiba; but no further information is given of the son. ⁷ The point of the parable is that by slow degrees, perseverance and skill, one can master even what seems impossible. ⁸ lit. ‘did to, act towards’. ⁹ Job 28, 11. ¹⁰ The text of the last sentence is far from clear and the translation follows the reading suggested by GRA; cf. Schechter ad loc. ¹¹ There are many variants of the word in the text and the meaning is dubious. According to Jastrow, the word is ḳarduṭin ¹² An ornament of gold shaped like the city of Jerusalem worn by women; cf. Shab. 59a (Sonc. ed., p. 276).

What was the beginning of R. Eliezer b. Hyrḳanos? He was twenty-two years old and had not yet studied Torah. One day he said [to his father], ‘I will go and study Torah under Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai’. His father Hyrḳanos replied, ‘You shall not taste a morsel of food until you shall have ploughed a complete furrow’. He rose early in the morning and ploughed a complete furrow. It is said that that day was the eve of the Sabbath, so that he went and dined at the house of his father-in-law. Another version is that he tasted nothing between six hours before the Sabbath and six hours after the Sabbath. As he was walking on his way he saw a stone which he thought¹³ (he lifted it up). [to be food]; he took it and put it in his mouth—some say that it was cattle dung. He walked on until he came to an inn where he spent the night. He went and sat before Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai in Jerusalem. Soon an offensive smell came forth from his mouth; whereupon Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai said, ‘Eliezer, my son, have you eaten anything to-day!’ He did not answer. Again the question was put to him and he still remained silent. The innkeeper was sent for and asked, ‘Has Eliezer eaten with you?’ He replied, ‘I thought that perhaps he had eaten at your table, Master’. ‘I, too, thought that perhaps he had eaten at your table,’ said Rabban Joḥanan; ‘between us we might have lost R. Eliezer.’ He then said to Eliezer, ‘Just as an offensive smell came forth from your mouth, so shall there go forth from you a distinguished name in Torah’. When his father Hyrḳanos heard that he was studying Torah under Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai, he declared, ‘I shall go [to Jerusalem] and prohibit my son Eliezer by vow [from deriving any benefit] from my estate’. It was said that on that day Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai was sitting and expounding the Torah in Jerusalem, and all the notables of Israel were sitting before him. On learning that Hyrḳanos had arrived, he posted watchmen and charged them, ‘If Hyrḳanos comes in and wishes to sit down,¹⁴ do not let him.’¹⁵ When he came in and wished to sit down, they did not allow him to do so, and he was compelled to move forward¹⁶ until he came to where Ben Ẓiẓith Hakkeseth, Naḳdimon b. Gorion, and Ben Kalba Sabua‘¹⁷ were seated, and he sat down among them trembling. It was said that on that day Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai turned his gaze upon R. Eliezer and bade him commence the discourse. He said, ‘I cannot do so’. The master as well as the disciples urged him, whereupon he began the discourse and expounded matters about which no ear had ever heard [the like]. At every utterance that came from his lips, Rabban Joḥanan b. Zakkai stood up and kissed him on the head; but R. Eliezer exclaimed, ‘My master, you have taught me the truth’. Before the time of adjournment had arrived, his father Hyrḳanos stood up and said, ‘My masters, I came here for the sole purpose of depriving my son Eliezer by vow of my property, but now [I declare] all my property assigned to my son Eliezer, [21a] and all his brothers stand dispossessed and deprived of everything’. Why was Ẓiẓith Hakkeseth so named? Because he used to recline upon a silver couch at the head of all the notables of Israel.¹⁸ p. 135. In the Talmud (Giṭ. loc. cit.) he was so called because his fringes (ẓiẓith) used to trail on cushions (keseth), or his seat (kisse’) was among those of the Roman nobility. It is related concerning the daughter of Naḳdimon b. Gorion that her bed had been arrayed at the cost of twelve thousand golden dinars, and that from one eve of the Sabbath to the next a Tyrian golden dinar was spent by her on sweetmeats. She was then a childless widow awaiting the decision of her brother-in-law.¹⁹ Why was Naḳdimon b. Gorion so named? Because the sun had again broken through for his sake.²⁰ ‘to pierce, break through’, hence ‘to shine’ (of the sun). Once²¹ when all Israel had come up to Jerusalem for the festival, there was no water for them to drink. Naḳdimon went to a certain nobleman and said to him, ‘Lend me twelve wells of water from now until such and such a day, and if I do not repay you twelve wells of water I will give you twelve talents of silver’. He fixed a time-limit for repayment. When the time came the nobleman sent him [the message], ‘Deliver to me either twelve wells of water or twelve talents of silver’. He replied, ‘There is still time during the day [for repayment]’. The nobleman sneeringly said to him, ‘There has been no rain the whole year, will it rain now?’ The nobleman repaired in a happy mood to the bath-house, while Naḳdimon b. Gorion entered the Temple,²² V reads: ‘House of Study.’ [Büchler, Studies in Jewish History, pp. 99f. holds that “though many legendary features are interwoven in this story, there is no ground for doubting the actual occurrence related.”] wrapped himself in his cloak and stood up to pray. He said, ‘Lord of the universe! It is revealed and known before Thee that I did not act for my own glory or for the glory of my father’s house, but for Thy glory did I act that the pilgrims should have water to drink’. Immediately the sky became overcast and rain began to fall until the twelve wells were filled to overflowing. He then sent [a message] to that nobleman, ‘Deliver to me the money for the extra water which you have because of me’. He replied, ‘The sun has already set and the rain has fallen in my possession’. Naḳdimon returned to the Temple,²² V reads: ‘House of Study.’ [Büchler, Studies in Jewish History, pp. 99f. holds that “though many legendary features are interwoven in this story, there is no ground for doubting the actual occurrence related.”] wrapped himself in his cloak and again stood up in prayer, saying, ‘Lord of the universe! Perform for me a miracle now as Thou didst perform before’. Immediately the wind blew, the clouds dispersed, and the sun shone through. When they met the nobleman said, ‘I know that it was only for your sake that the Holy One, blessed be He, disorganized His world’. Why was Kalba Sabua‘ so named? Because whoever entered his house hungry like a dog came out fed to the full.²³ When the Emperor Vespasian came to destroy Jerusalem, the zealots sought to burn all his stores with fire. Kalba Sabua‘ said to them, ‘Why do you destroy this city and seek to burn all [my] stores with fire? Wait until I go in and ascertain what I have in the house’. He went in and found that he had enough to supply food for every citizen in Jerusalem for a period of twenty-two years. He immediately gave orders and the produce was stacked and cleaned, ground and sifted, kneaded and baked into bread, so providing a food-supply for every citizen in Jerusalem for twenty-two years. They, however, paid no heed to him. What did the men of Jerusalem do? They took the loaves of bread,²⁴ for ha’agalim with Jastrow, p. 1066b. cut them through with saws and soiled them with mud. In consequence the men of Jerusalem had to resort to cooking straw and eating it.²⁵ Every man of Israel who was encamped near the walls of Jerusalem called out, ‘For a reward of five dates I will go down and fetch five heads of the enemy’. One man was given five dates, and he went down and brought back five heads of the men of Vespasian. When Vespasian examined the excrement of the besieged men and saw that it was without a trace of corn, he remarked to his soldiers, ‘If these men who subsist on straw only can slay so many of you, how many more of you would they slay if they were to eat and drink like you!’

footnotes: ¹³ An unusual word in this context. MS. E. reads herimah ¹⁴ Among the scholars in the back rows. ¹⁵ He would then have to move forward to the front rows, thus coming closer to his son and witnessing his distinction. ¹⁶ lit. ‘he was leaping and going forward’. ¹⁷ These three men are named as being extremely wealthy in Giṭ. 56a (Sonc. ed., p. 256). ¹⁸ On the basis of the explanation given here it has been argued that the correct form of the name is Ẓiẓith Hakkesef, i.e. ‘Ẓiẓith of the silver (couch)’. This variant has some MS. authority; cf. Finkelstein, op. cit. ¹⁹ In accordance with the law of Deut. 25, 5ff. ²⁰ Naḳdimon is connected with the root naḳad ²¹ Cf. Ta‘an. 19b, 20a (Sonc. ed., pp. 97f). ²² So according to GRA and Ta‘an. loc. cit. ²² So according to GRA and Ta‘an. loc. cit. ²³ Kalba means ‘a dog’ and Sabua‘ ‘satiated’. ²⁴ Reading ha’iggulim ²⁵ Because of the famine that ensued.