He who eats an ant is flogged five times with forty stripes save one.
Rabbi Akiva used to say there are five judgments on record each of twelve months' duration:--That of the deluge, that of Job, that of the Egyptians, that of Gog and Magog, and that of the wicked in hell. This last is said of those whose demerits outweigh their virtues, or those who have sinned against their bodies.
Five possessions hath the Holy One--blessed be He!--purchased for Himself in this world:--(1.) The law is one possession (Prov. viii. 22); (2.) Heaven and earth is one possession (Isa. lxvi. 1, Ps. civ. 24); (3.) Abraham is one possession (Gen. xiv. 9); (4.) Israel is one possession (Exod. xv. 16); (5.) the Temple is one possession, as it is said (Exod. xv. 17), "The sanctuary, O Lord, Thy hands have established." And it is also said (Ps. lxxviii. 54), "And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased."
Rabbi Akiva says he who marries a woman not suited to him violates five precepts:--(1.) Thou shalt not avenge; (2.) thou shalt not bear a grudge; (3.) thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; (4.) thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; (5.) and that thy brother may live with thee. For if he hates her he wishes she were dead, and thus he diminishes the population.
Five have no forgiveness of sins:--(1.) He who keeps on sinning and repenting alternately; (2.) he who sins in a sinless age; (3.) he who sins on purpose to repent; (4.) he who causes the name of God to be blasphemed. The fifth is not given in the Talmud.
He who has no fringes to his garment transgresses five positive commands (see Num. xv. 38. etc.; Deut. xxii. 12).
A learner who, after five years, sees no profit in studying, will never see it. Rabbi Yossi says, after three years, as it is written (Dan. i. 4, 5), "That they should be taught the literature and the language of the Chaldeans," so educating them in three years.
Any one who doeth any of these things sinneth against himself, and his blood is upon his own head:--He that (1.) eats garlic, onions, or eggs which were peeled the night before; (2.) or drinks water drawn over night; (3.) or sleeps all night in a burying-place; (4.) or pares his nails and throws the cuttings into the public street.