You should always be pleasant on entering and leaving [a house]. Spend less time on business and occupy yourself with [the study of] the Torah. It once happened that R. Simeon b. Eleazar¹ was coming from Migdal Eder² from the house of his teacher and was riding leisurely on his ass by the seaside.³ A certain man⁴ chanced to meet him, who was exceedingly ugly. He said to him, ‘Raḳa,⁵ how ugly are the children of Abraham our father!’⁶ The other replied, ‘What can I do for you? Speak to the Craftsman Who made me’. R. Simeon b. Eleazar immediately dismounted from the ass, prostrated himself before him⁷ and said to him, ‘I apologize to you, forgive me’. He replied to him, ‘I will not forgive you until you go to the Craftsman Who made me and say to Him, “How ugly is the vessel which You have made!” ’ R. Simeon walked behind him for three mil.⁸. When his fellow-citizens heard [of his arrival] they came out to meet him, greeting him with the words, ‘Peace be upon you, Rabbi’. The man said to them, ‘Whom are you calling Rabbi?’ They answered, ‘He who is walking behind you’. Thereupon he exclaimed, ‘If this man be a Rabbi, may there not be any more like him in Israel!’ He told them the whole story. They earnestly begged him to pardon him, and he replied, ‘I will forgive him, but only on condition that he does not act⁹ in the same manner again’. That same day R. Simeon sat and expounded in his great Academy: Be always pliable like the reed and not unyielding like the cedar. In the case of a reed, though the four winds of the world were to blow upon it, the reed bends with them, and when the winds drop, it remains standing in its place, with the result that one is able to make a pen of it to write a scroll of the Torah. But the cedar is not like that: if the east, north [or] west wind blows upon it, it cannot move it from its place; but as soon as the south wind blows upon it, it uproots it and the result is that people come and cut it up,¹⁰ chop it and use it for building houses, and what is left is used for firewood. Therefore the Sages said: Be always pliable like the reed and not unyielding like the cedar.¹¹

footnotes: ¹ Others read ‘R. Eleazar b. R. Simeon’. But the story here related is more befitting the character of his son, R. Simeon. Cf. B.M. 85a (Sonc. ed., p. 487). ² In the extreme south of Judah. ³ In Ta‘an. 20a (Sonc. ed., p. 100) ‘riverside’. ⁴ According to some it was Elijah who wanted to teach him a lesson. ⁵ lit. ‘empty one’, good-for-nothing. ⁶ Some versions read: ‘Are all your fellow-citizens as ugly as you?’ Cf. above, p. 295. ⁷ R. Simeon realized that he had done wrong. ⁸ V and H ‘half a mil’ ⁹ So GRA and H. V has ‘speak’. ¹⁰ The translation follows the corrected text of GRA. ¹¹ Cf. Ta‘an loc. cit.

How does one honour his teacher? When they are both walking along the way, he must place himself at his¹² left hand and not at his right. If three [were walking together] and a Sage or a teacher was among them, the teacher is to be in the middle, the more important of the other two on his right and the less important on his left. We find it so in connection with the three angels who came to Abraham our father, viz. Gabriel, Michael and Raphael. Gabriel came to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah, Raphael came to heal Abraham¹³ and Michael came to announce to Sarah [that she would have a son]. Michael was in the middle, Gabriel on his right and Raphael on his left.¹⁴ When Abraham our father saw the Ministering Angels, the Divine Presence appeared and stood over him. He said to them, ‘Sires, wait until I take leave of the Divine Presence, which is greater than you’, as it is stated, And he said: My lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.¹⁵ does not signify God. Others interpret that he spoke to God, praying Him to wait until he had attended to his guests. They therefore cite here ibid. XVII, 22, And He left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. When Abraham our father had taken leave of the Divine Presence, he came, bowed to them and led them beneath the tree, as it is stated, Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet,¹⁶ XVIII, 4. and afterwards [it is written], And I will fetch a morsel of bread.¹⁷ 5. But [when the angels came] to Lot, what did he say? And tarry all night, and wash your feet.¹⁸ XIX, 2. Abraham had mistaken the angels for Arabs, who worship the dust of their feet and, being anxious not to introduce idolatry in any form into his house, he asked them to wash their feet first. Lot, however, who had no such anxiety, offered them a night’s lodging before asking them to wash their feet. Others, who give the interpretation which follows in the text, maintain that Lot also was anxious that they should first wash their feet, a custom he had learnt from Abraham; but the reason that he told them to stay the night before washing was to deceive the people of Sodom. Others say: Lot spoke to them [in this manner] only as a clever device. He said [to himself], ‘If [the men of Sodom] find them with their faces, hands and feet already washed, the result will be that they will kill me, my wife and my daughters.¹⁹ Let them, therefore, find them with the dust still on their feet, and they will think that they have only just arrived’.

footnotes: ¹² The teacher’s. ¹³ Of the effects of his circumcision. ¹⁴ Cf. Yoma 37a (Sonc. ed., p. 172). ¹⁵ Gen. 18, 3. Abraham addressed the chief of them and consequently the word lord ¹⁶ ibid. ¹⁷ ibid. ¹⁸ ibid. ¹⁹ For not reporting their arrival earlier.

He who walks behind his teacher may not leave him without first obtaining his permission. If they were both equal in learning, the host enters [the house] first and then the guest, but when leaving the guest goes out first and the host leaves last.²⁰ He who is about to leave the company of his fellow,²¹ whether he be greater than he or not, must say to him, ‘I am leaving’.

footnotes: ²⁰ The reason is not to leave the wife unprotected; cf. Ta‘an. 23b (Sonc. ed., p. 120). ²¹ So GRA. V and H read ‘his teacher’.