Reflect before [the word] issues from your mouth. Consider your actions in accordance with good manners. Set a reward for every step you take.¹ Submit to [divine] judgment and refrain from grumbling.

footnotes: ¹ i.e. see that your steps are directed to perform deeds which deserve a reward.

Judge your fellow in the scale of merit² and do not turn the scale against him.³ Rejoice in your lot and enjoy the little you have. Hate not him who reproves you. Your lot will always be blessed if you possess a bountiful eye⁴ and a contented soul.

footnotes: ² Seek a favourable interpretation of his actions even though they seem suspicious. Cf. Aboth I, 6 (Sonc. ed., p. 5). ³ Take a charitable view of his deeds. ⁴ Well disposed, generous; cf. Prov. 22, 9.

Accustom your tongue to say, ‘I do not know’, lest you be led to falsehood and be apprehended.

If you are negligent in [the performance of] one precept you will eventually be negligent with another like it. If you belittle⁵ one precept you will eventually belittle others like it.⁶ If you transgress the words of the Torah intentionally, you will be made to transgress them intentionally or unintentionally.⁷ [58b] If you take for yourself anything which is not yours, what is yours will be taken from you.

footnotes: ⁵ lit. ‘speak lightly of’. ⁶ V adds in brackets ‘and you have done nothing for your trouble’ in fulfilling the precepts since you regard them of small worth. ⁷ Circumstances will make it impossible for you to perform the precepts even if you are desirous of making good former lapses.

Be careful with consecrated objects both when giving them⁸ or Levite; do not withhold them. and when eating them.⁹

footnotes: ⁸ To the kohen ⁹ They must be eaten in a state of ritual cleanliness.

Be humble and affable to all persons and particularly to the members of your household.¹⁰

footnotes: ¹⁰ According to the text emended by GRA. V and H read: ‘Be humble and affable to return [a salutation] to your acquaintance. Be lowly of spirit with all men, with the members of your household more than with all men; and if you grumble and fight with your household, your end is for Gehinnom’.

The first stage of vowing leads to folly; the first stage of [ritual] uncleanness leads to idolatry; the first stage of levity with women leads to unchastity.¹¹

footnotes: ¹¹ Cf. Ned. 20a (Sonc. ed., p. 56).

If you make yourself a surety [for another] it should be with the object of paying [that surety];¹² or if you become a guarantor it should be with the object of paying [the guarantee].¹³ If you borrow [money] it should be with the object of repaying [the loan];¹⁴ and if you lend money bear in mind that you may have to claim it¹⁵ and that you might [even] have to make a settlement.¹⁶, ‘lose the sum’. If one has acquired for himself a good name,¹⁷ he has acquired it for himself.¹⁸ If one has acquired for himself words of Torah, he has acquired for himself the life of the World to Come.

footnotes: ¹² If called upon to do so. ¹³ Therefore do not offer to become a guarantor lightheartedly. ¹⁴ So borrow only if you are in a position to repay. ¹⁵ And have difficulty in collecting it. ¹⁶ And lose part of the sum loaned. Another reading is lehafsid ¹⁷ Cf. Prov. 22, 1; Eccl. 7, 1; Aboth II, 8 (Sonc. ed., II, 7, p. 17). ¹⁸ In the sense that, unlike any other possession, it cannot be transmitted to another.

A shamefaced person is not apt to learn, nor is an impatient person fitted to teach. An ignorant person¹⁹ cannot be pious, an uncultured person²⁰ sin-fearing,²¹ or anyone who engages much²² in business become a scholar. Put your mind, therefore, to the study of the Torah rather than to business.

footnotes: ¹⁹ For this passage, cf. Aboth II, 6 (Sonc. ed., II, 5, p. 15, nn. 3-8). ²⁰ One devoid of knowledge and ethical principles. ²¹ He may avoid sin from fear of the consequences but not from ethical motives. ²² And leaves little or no time for study.

Fifteen characteristics are mentioned in connection with a scholar, viz.: he is decorous in his entering and leaving,²³ modest in his sitting,²⁴ subtle²⁵ in the fear [of God], shrewd in knowledge, discerning in his ways, [his mind] is absorptive and retentive, he answers fully,²⁶ asks in accordance with the subject-matter²⁷ and answers in accordance with the accepted decisions, listens [to others]²⁸ and enlarges upon each subject, goes [to seek instruction] from the wise and learns in order to teach and practise.

footnotes: ²³ ‘And leaving’ is inserted by GRA. ²⁴ Does not rush to occupy a front seat. ²⁵ In devising ways of manifesting his fear; cf. Ber. 17a (Sonc. ed., p. 102). ²⁶ He takes a considerable time before answering. ²⁷ Cf. above I, 1, n. 6. ²⁸ Added by GRA.

Be not like the topmost lintel which is inaccessible to the feet or like the doorpost²⁹ where anyone who sits by it is troubled and which ultimately collapses. Be like the doorstep³⁰ on which most people tread but which remains when the whole building is in ruins.³¹

footnotes: ²⁹ lit. ‘the middle [post]’. ³⁰ lit. ‘the nethermost post’. ³¹ Referring to the quality of humility. GRA emends the text to read: ‘Be not like a lintel which can injure the face (by a person crashing into it), nor like the doorpost which can hurt the legs and ultimately collapses; but be like the doorstep on which most people tread and which remains in its place even when the whole building collapses’.