Rabbi Yossi said:--"Never once in all my life have the walls of my house seen the hem of my shirt; and I have planted five cedars (sons are figuratively so termed, see Ps. xcii. 12) in Israel--namely, Rabbis Ishmael, Eliezar, Chalafta, Artilas, and Menachem. Never once in my life have I spoken of my wife by any other name than house, and of my ox by any other name than field."
Six things are a disgrace to a disciple of the wise:--To walk abroad perfumed, to walk alone by night, to wear old clouted shoes, to talk with a woman in the street, to sit at table with illiterate men, and to be late at the synagogue. Some add to these, walking with a proud step or a haughty gait.
A soft-boiled egg is better than six ounces of fine flour.
Six things are a certain cure for sickness:--Cabbage, beetroot, water distilled from dry moss, honey, the maw and the matrix of an animal, and the edge of the liver.
These six things are good symptoms in an invalid:--Sneezing, perspiration, evacuation, seminal emission, sleep, and dreaming.
Six things bear interest in this world and the capital remaineth in the world to come:--Hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, meditation in prayer, early attendance at the school of instruction, the training of sons to the study of the law, and judging charitably of one's neighbors.
There are six sorts of tears, three good and three bad:--Those caused by smoke, or grief, or constipation are bad; and those caused by fragrant spices, laughter, and aromatic herbs are good.
Ibid., fol. 151, col. 2; fol. 152, col. 1.
Six things are said respecting the illiterate:--No testimony is to be borne to them, none is to be accepted from them; no secret is to be disclosed to them; they are not to be appointed guardians over orphans, nor keepers of the charity-box, and there should be no fellowship with them when on a journey. Some say also no public notice is to be given of their lost property.
The expression here rendered "illiterate" means literally "people of the land," and was, there is reason to believe, originally applied to the primitive inhabitants of Canaan, traces of whom may still be found among the fellahin of Syria. They appear, like the aboriginal races in many countries of Christendom in relation to Christianity, to have remained generation after generation obdurately inaccessible to Jewish ideas, and so to have given name to the ignorant and untaught generally. This circumstance may account for the harshness of some of the quotations which are appended in reference to them.