BARAITHA. ¹Judge your words before you let them come forth from your mouth. Plan your deeds in accordance with good manners and so add to the furtherance of your progress.² Always accept with resignation the verdict against you and refrain from grumbling. Judge your fellow-man in the scale of merit and do not judge him in the scale of guilt. Rejoice in your portion; be content³ with the little you have and do not hate him who reproves you. Be small in your eyes so that your portion may be blessed for ever. Regard everyone with a good eye and a considerate soul. Teach your tongue to say, ‘I do not know’ lest you be induced to tell a falsehood and be caught.⁴ If you are slack in the performance of one precept⁵ for Mishnah. in the end you will neglect another like it. If you feel impelled⁶ to make light of it in the end you will make light of another like it, and you will have no reward for your trouble. If you have taken what is not yours, then what is yours will be taken from you. Be careful with sacred foods both in the eating and disposing of them. Be submissive and beloved when answering those whom you know.⁷ Be submissive towards all men and towards the members of your household more than to all men. The beginning of vows is the door to folly; the beginning of impurity [in conduct] is the door to idolatry; levity with women is the door to immorality. If you become surety, it is on the condition that you will have to pay; if you borrow, it is on the condition that you will pay back; if you lend, it is on the condition [that there is a possibility of] not being paid back. Hasten to settle your account.⁸ One who gains a good name gains it for himself. The shamefaced cannot learn, the impatient cannot teach, the ‘am ha-’areẓ cannot be pious, the empty-headed cannot be God-fearing, and who is engaged over much in business cannot acquire wisdom.⁹ GEMARA. ‘Judge [your words]’: so that a man may consider what to answer and what answer might be given to him. ‘Accept with resignation’: [Admit that the judge] has given a correct judgment, that he has rightly condemned, that he has judged well. ‘Refrain from grumbling’: But this has already been taught!¹⁰ There it speaks of matters concerning himself, here of matters relating to the Holy One, blessed be He. ‘Judge your fellow-man’, etc.: when the matter is known to you. ‘Do not judge him in the scale of guilt’: by not abiding by the verdict when he wins it. ‘Rejoice in your portion’: That is [in your] wife; for Scripture declares, *For what would be the portion of God from above?*¹¹ and it further states, House and riches are the inheritance of fathers; but a prudent wife is from the Lord.¹² ‘Be content with the little you have’—in the matter of food. ‘Hate the “how much?” ’¹³ But this has already been taught in a previous chapter!¹⁴ There it refers to general matters; here [it means that] one should not say, ‘How much [I would like to be the husband of] So-and-so’s daughter if she were unmarried!’ ‘Be small in your eyes.’ As it is written, In whose eyes a vile person is despised.¹⁵ ‘So that your portion may be blessed.’ As it is written, Let thy fountain be blessed.¹⁶ ‘Regard everyone with a good eye.’ As it is written, He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed.¹⁷ XXII, 9. ‘And a considerate soul.’ As it is written, And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry.¹⁸ ‘Teach your tongue.’ As it is written of Ahimaaz.¹⁹. ‘If you are slack.’ As it is written, If thou faint in the day of adversity.²⁰ ‘Be submissive and beloved’—but this has already been taught!²¹ There²² it certainly refers to being so before the All-present. ‘The beginning of vows … levity with women.’ It is not necessary [to mention this] except in connection with one’s wife. ‘If you become surety.’ As it is written, Take [leḳaḥ] his garment that is surety for a stranger.²³ Here it is written leḳaḥ and in another verse it is written ḳaḥ: Take [ḳaḥ] *his garment that is surety for a stranger!*²⁴ XXVII, 13. [It indicates] that whoever is surety for another and does not repay [if called upon to do so] is regarded as though he incurred the debt and did not repay. If you borrowed with the intention to repay, all is well; but if you lent with the intention not to demand it,²⁵. then ‘split’.²⁶ If so, the consequence is that the money is lost! We deal here with the disciples of the wise who will not transgress [the teaching of Scripture], The wicked borroweth, and payeth not; but the righteous dealeth graciously, and giveth.²⁷ ‘Hasten to settle your account.’ This is good advice offered to the disciples of the wise, that when they have business deals with men of the world not to be neglectful and incur one loss after another. ‘One who gains a good name.’ As it is written, If thou art wise, thou art wise for thyself.²⁸ ‘The empty-headed man cannot be God-fearing.’ Since he is ignorant of the Torah, he does not know how to keep away from sin. ‘The ’am ha-’areẓ cannot be pious.’ Why? Since he has not learnt the words of the Torah, the verse is applied to him, He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.²⁹ XXVIII, 9. ‘The shamefaced cannot learn, the impatient cannot teach.’ This is self-evident! No, [it was necessary to mention it to make clear that it holds good] even in matters of behaviour. Father³⁰, when Elijah was translated to heaven (2 Kings 2, 12). The phrase ‘Father Elijah’ occurs in Sanh. 113a (Sonc. ed., p. 780). Elijah, may his memory be for good, said, ‘The knowledge of the Torah cannot be spread except by one who is not impatient. I, too, will not reveal myself except to one who is not impatient’. Happy is the man who met [Elijah] and sat with him, for he is assured of being a son of the World to Come.

footnotes: ¹ With the Baraithoth of this chapter, cf. DEZ III. ² lit. ‘reward to your steps’. ³ lit. ‘suited’. ⁴ Ber. 4a (Sonc. ed., p. 10). ⁵ Reading miẓwah ⁶ The text of V is corrupt. For the meaning given here, cf. DEZ II (ed. Higger, p. 89) ⁷ Here, too, the text of V is corrupt; cf. DEZ III. ⁸ The text is corrected in agreement with DEZ III. ⁹ Aboth II, 6 (Sonc. ed., II, 5, p. 13). ¹⁰ Cf. III, 24. ¹¹ Job 31, 2. ¹² Prov. 19, 14. ¹³ Reading המה בכך for V’s המברך. This clause has apparently fallen out from the present Baraitha. ¹⁴ In III, 20. ¹⁵ Ps. 15, 4. ¹⁶ Prov. 5, 18. ¹⁷ ibid. ¹⁸ Isa. 58, 10. ¹⁹ Cf. 2 Sam. 18, 29. In reply to a question by David, he answered, But I knew not what it was ²⁰ Prov. 24, 10. ²¹ In III, 3. ²² H reads ‘here’; but in both references the context relates to human beings. ²³ Prov. 20, 16. ²⁴ ibid. ²⁵ Reading with H lithbo‘a ²⁶ i.e. grin and bear the loss. ²⁷ Ps. 37, 21. ²⁸ Prov. 9, 12. ²⁹ ibid. ³⁰ A term of endearment suggested perhaps by Elisha’s cry, my father my father