A person should never leave [the company of his teacher or even] his fellow unless he had previously obtained his consent. All can learn such good manners from the All-present, Who said, as it were, to Abraham, ‘I am now leaving’, as it is stated, And the Lord went His way,¹ as soon as He had left off speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned unto his place.²

footnotes: ¹ God notified Abraham that He was departing. ² Gen. 18, 33. The translation follows the emended text of GRA. V’s reading is: ‘Who said to Abraham, “Abraham, has he any further need of Me?” He said before Him, “Lord of the Universe, no” ’.

A person should never enter into someone else's house suddenly.³ And all people should learn derekh eretz (proper behavior) from the Omnipresent, Who stood at the entrance to the Garden [of Eden] and called to Adam,⁴ as it is stated, "And God called to Adam and said, 'Where are you?'"⁵ The story is told of the four Sages, viz. Rabban Gamaliel, R. Joshua, R. Eleazar b. Azariah and R. ‘Aḳiba, who were on their way to attend a Privy Council⁶ which also included a certain philosopher as a member. R. Joshua said to Rabban Gamaliel, ‘Master, would you like us to call on our companion the philosopher?’⁷ He replied, ‘No’. In the morning he again asked him, ‘Master, would you like us to call on our companion the philosopher?’ He replied, ‘Yes’. R. Joshua went and knocked on the door. The philosopher thought and said [to himself], ‘This can only be the manners of a Sage’. [When he knocked] a second time, [the philosopher] got up and washed his face, hands and feet. On the third knock he arose and opened the door and saw the Sages of Israel coming all together.⁸ Rabban Gamaliel was in the middle, R. Joshua and R. Eleazar b. Azariah on his right and R. ‘Aḳiba on his left. The philosopher was meditating and saying [to himself], ‘How shall I greet these Sages of Israel? If I say, “Peace be upon you, Rabban Gamaliel”, I shall be guilty of derogatory conduct towards the [other] Sages. If I say, “Peace be upon you, Sages of Israel”, that would be an insult to Rabban Gamaliel’.⁹ As soon as he approached them, he greeted them with the words, ‘Peace be upon you, Sages of Israel, headed by Rabban Gamaliel’. (We learn [this rule of etiquette] not from [this story of] Rabban Gamaliel but from the Divine Presence, as it is stated, I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His left.)¹⁰

footnotes: ³ Cf. Nid. 16b (Sonc. ed., p. 112). ⁴ To announce His presence. ⁵ Gen. 3:9. ⁶ Or, lit. ‘an interior kingdom’. ⁷ To confer with him before the meeting. ⁸ lit. ‘some from here and some from there’. ⁹ Who had the title of Prince or Patriarch, and was President of the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. ¹⁰ 1 Kings 22, 19. This passage is omitted by GRA and printed in V within brackets. He inserts it in chap. IV towards the end and reads: ‘We learn this [rule] not only from the angels but from the Divine Presence’, etc.

Always let all people [who visit you] be regarded by you as robbers, but show them the same respect as to Rabban Gamaliel. The story is told of R. Joshua on whom a certain person called early in the morning. He gave him food and drink, and took him up to the loft to sleep and then removed the ladder from under him. What did that man do? He arose in the middle of the night, collected the vessels¹¹ and wrapped them up in his cloak. As soon as he started to descend,¹² he fell from the loft and broke his neck. When morning came, R. Joshua rose early and found him where he had fallen. He said to him, ‘Raḳa!¹³ do all persons act as you have?’ He replied, ‘Master, I did not know that you had removed the ladder from under me’. He said to him, ‘Raḳa! Do you not know that already yesterday¹⁴ we were suspicious of you?’ Hence R. Joshua said: Always let all men be in your eyes as robbers, but show them the same respect as to Rabban Gamaliel.

footnotes: ¹¹ Which were stored in the loft. ¹² Thinking that the ladder was still there. ¹³ Cf. p. 545, n. 5. ¹⁴ From the moment you arrived