R. Eliezer Ha-Ḳappar said: Keep aloof from making complaints, because if you complain against others you will be led to further sin.²

footnotes: ² To hatred, quarrel and slander; cf. above I, 15, p. 569.

Love him who reproves you so that you may increase knowledge; and hate him who flatters³ you so that your knowledge may not decrease.

footnotes: ³ lit. ‘honours, praises’. Praise may discourage one from further study.

Love the Synagogue that you may receive your reward daily.⁴

footnotes: ⁴ Cf. Ber. 8a (Sonc. ed., p. 39).

Love the House of Study that your children may come to study the Torah.⁵

footnotes: ⁵ Copying the example of their parents.

Love the poor that your children may not come to that condition.

Love meekness that you may complete [the number of] your years.⁶ for yadeka.

footnotes: ⁶ So GRA. V reads ‘fill your hands’; H ‘your days’, reading yameka

Love the pious⁷ that you may be saved from the Angel of Darkness.⁸

footnotes: ⁷ By emulating them. ⁸ According to NY he is so called because the Angel of Death makes the face of man black. H reads ‘Angel of Death’.

Be heedful in the reading of the Shema‘ and the ‘Amidah⁹ that you may be saved from the judgment of Gehinnom.

footnotes: ⁹ To recite them at the proper time and with devotion; cf. Aboth II, 18 (Sonc. ed., II, 13, p. 22).

Let your house be open wide¹⁰ I, 5 (Sonc. ed., p. 4). that you may have no lack of food.

footnotes: ¹⁰ ibid.

Be heedful not to shut the doors of your house when you sit down to eat and drink, because the doors of your house may bring you to poverty.¹

footnotes: ¹ (10a) They will shut out prosperity from you.

Be heedful to honour¹¹ your wife¹² that she become not barren.

footnotes: ¹¹ GRA omits ‘to honour’ and reads ‘with respect to your wife’, alluding to conjugal rights. Cf. B.M. 59a (Sonc. ed., p. 352). ¹² A wife is sensitive and quick to feel and resent a hurt.

Be happy when sufferings come upon you, because they deliver you from the punishment of Gehinnom.¹³

footnotes: ¹³ So GRA. If sufferings are interpreted as punishment for wrongdoing they induce a feeling of remorse and lead to repentance.

Rejoice at your table when the hungry benefit from it so that your life may be prolonged in this world and in the World to Come.

Be happy when you donate gifts [of charity] quietly¹⁴ so that the anger [of the Angel of Death]¹⁵ may be diverted from you, as it is stated, A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a present in the bosom strong wrath.¹⁶

footnotes: ¹⁴ lit. ‘from your house’. ¹⁵ GRA omits ‘the Angel of Death’ and it may refer to God’s anger. ¹⁶ Prov. 21, 14.

If you have restrained yourself from doing a good deed, the Angel of Death will come to meet you.¹⁷

footnotes: ¹⁷ And you will be prevented from making good the omission.

If you have exerted yourself¹⁸ in connection with the poor or the fulfilment of a precept, there will be fulfilled in you Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.¹⁹

footnotes: ¹⁸ lit. ‘scattered your foot generously’. ¹⁹ Deut. 28, 6.

If you guarded your mouth from slander, all the days of your life will be spent in peace; but if you were presumptuous towards a person greater than yourself, you will ultimately be stricken with skin disease.²⁰

footnotes: ²⁰ Cf. ‘Arak. 16a (Sonc. ed., p. 91): ‘Because of seven things the plague of leprosy is incurred: These are: slander’, etc. Cf. the incident of Miriam (Num. 12, 1ff.).

If you withheld yourself from performing a meritorious act and occupied yourself with a sinful act, your wife will ultimately die of a stroke, as it is stated, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke.²¹

footnotes: ²¹ Ezek. 24, 16.

If you bestirred yourself to honour a Sage, you will have perfect sons and daughters; and if you bestirred yourself to honour a poor man, you will have children in Israel who are learned in Torah and perform the commandments.

If you were present at the death of a Sage, do not leave him until you have accompanied him to the grave,²² so that when you die you may enter and rest in the grave in peace.²³

footnotes: ²² Cf. Shab. 105b (Sonc. ed., p. 509) for rites to be observed on the death of a Sage. ²³ From ‘so that’ is added by GRA instead of V which inserts here the last clause of §11.

If you notice that your fellow’s face is worried because he has become poor, do not send him away empty-handed, in order that you may be delivered from all evil;²⁴ as it is stated, Whoso keepeth the commandment shall know no evil thing.²⁵

footnotes: ²⁴ ‘In order … evil’ is added by GRA. ²⁵ Eccl. 8, 5.

If you have given him a loan in the time of his emergency, there will be fulfilled in you Then shalt thou call, and the Lord will answer.²⁶

footnotes: ²⁶ Isa. 58, 9.

If you have humbled yourself, the Holy One, blessed be He, will lift you up; if you have exalted yourself before your fellow, the Holy One, blessed be He, will set you low.

Should people strive²⁷ with you, whether it be in the House of Study or at a social gathering,²⁸ make peace with them, so that when you leave them²⁹ they may speak well of you, as was spoken of Phinehas the son of Eleazar.³⁰ And so used R. Eleazar Ha-Ḳappar to say: Love peace and hate dissension. Great is peace, for even if [Israel] were to practise idolatry but maintained peace among themselves, the Divine Presence, as it were, would be unable to do them harm, as it is stated, Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.³¹ But if there is dissension between them, what is stated of them? Their heart is divided; now shall they bear their guilt.³² A house in which is dissension will ultimately be destroyed. A Synagogue [in which is dissension] will ultimately be turned into a place of idolatry.³³ If two scholars reside in the same city who have set up separate Courts of Law and dissension occurs between them, they will ultimately die [prematurely].³⁴ Abba Saul said: Dissension between separate Courts of Law is the ruination of the world.

footnotes: ²⁷ So GRA; V ‘honour’. ²⁸ lit. ‘in a sitting [for study] or in a reclining [at a meal]’. ²⁹ lit. ‘on your return [home]’. ³⁰ Cf. Num. 25, 10-13. The translation follows GRA instead of V’s senseless ‘so that he may come and rest upon your bed’. ³¹ Hos. 4, 17. Cf. Midrash Rabbah, Num., XI, 7 (Sonc. ed., p. 441) where the reading is: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, says: Satan shall not touch them’. In Midrash Rabbah, Gen., XXXVIII, 6 (Sonc. ed., p. 306) the version is: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I have no dominion over them’. ³² Hos. 10, 2. ³³ So GRA; cf. Yeb. 96b (Sonc. ed., p. 660). V reads: ‘The Sages said: When there is dissension in a Synagogue it will be cut in pieces’. ³⁴ Cf. Soṭah 49a (Sonc. ed., p. 263).

Abba Isi b. Joḥanan said in the name of Samuel the Small: This world is likened to a person’s eyeball: the white of the eye [corresponds to] the ocean which surrounds the whole world; the iris to the [inhabited] world; the pupil of the eye to Jerusalem; the face in the pupil to the Temple. May it be rebuilt speedily in our days and in the days of all Israel, Amen.