Soon It Can Be All Over

(9) As I see them from the mountain tops, Gaze on them from the heights, There is a people that dwells apart, Not reckoned among the nations,

(11) There are four temperaments among dispositions: [a person who is] easy to anger and easy to appease -- his gain is canceled by his loss. [A person who is] hard to anger but [also] hard to appease -- his loss is canceled by his gain. [A person who is] hard to anger, but easy to appease -- [that's a] pious person. [A person who is] easy to anger and hard to appease -- [that's a] wicked person.

(12) There are four temperaments among students: Quick to understand and quick to forget -- his gain is canceled by his loss. [A student who is] slow to understand and slow to forget -- his loss is canceled by his gain. [A student who is] quick to understand and slow to forget -- he is a sage. [A student who is] slow to understand and quick to forget -- that is a bad portion.

(15) Rabbi said : "There are four temperaments : Easily angered and easily pacified; his loss is cancelled out by his gain. Hard to anger and hard to pacify; his gain is cancelled out by his loss. Easily angered and hard to pacify is a wicked man. Hard to anger and easily pacified is a saintly man."

(3) As soon as this giant was weaned he commenced to busy his mind, in his infancy he commenced to think by day and by night, and would encounter this enigma: How is it possible that this planet should continuously be in motion and have no leader—and who, indeed, causes it to revolve, it being impossible that it should revolve itself? Moreover, he neither had a teacher nor one to impart aught to him, for he was sunk in Ur of the Chaldeans among the foolish worshipers of stars, and his father, and his mother, like all the people, worshiped stars, and he, although following them in their worship, busies his heart and reflects until he attains the path of truth, and, by his correct thinking, he understood when he finally saw the line of righteousness. He knew that there is One God; He leads the planet; He created everything; and in all that is there is no god save He. He knew that the whole world was in error, and that the thing which caused them to err was, that their worshiping the stars and the images brought about the loss of the truth from their consciousness. And, when Abraham was forty years old he recognized his Creator. After he came to this comprehension and knowledge he started to confute the sons of Ur of the Chaldeans, and to organize disputations with them, cautioning them, saying: "This is not the true path that you are following", and he destroyed the images, and commenced preaching to the people warning them that it is not right to worship any save the God of the universe, and unto Him alone it is right to bow down, to offer sacrifices, and compound offerings, so that the creatures of the future shall recognize Him. Moreover, it is right to destroy and break in pieces all of the images, so that the whole population of the future be not led to an error like unto these who imagine that there is no God save these images. When he had them subdued by his well supported contentions, the king tried to put him to death, but he was saved by a miracle, and went hence to Haran. There he stood up anew and called out in a great voice to the whole world, to let them know that there is One God for the whole universe, and unto Him it is proper to render service. And thus he went onward with his proclamations from city to city, and from government to government, until he attained the land of Canaan amidst his outcry, even as it is said: "And called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God" (Gen. 21.33). When the people who congregated about him asked him concerning his preachments, he replied by imparting knowledge to each and every one according to his mentality, to the end that he was able to turn him to the path of truth, until there congregated about him thousands, even tens of thousands, and they became the people of Abraham's household, in whose heart he implanted this great cause, concerning which he compiled books, and which he imparted to his son Isaac.³Nedarim, 32a. C. Isaac, from his seat of learning, gave instructions and admonitions. And Isaac, in turn, imparted it to Jacob and appointed him head master, who, at his seat of learning, gave instructions and supported all who flocked to him. And Jacob our father instructed all his sons, but separated Levi and appointed him head master, and established him in a seat of learning where to instruct in the path of the Name and in the observance of the charges of Abraham. He, moreover, commanded his sons not to interrupt the succession of the sons of Levi to the presidency of the school so that the learning be not forgotten. So did the movement advance intensely among the sons of Jacob and their followers that the world saw a God-knowing nation called into existence, until Israel spent a long time in Egypt, when they turned to be instructed in their practice and to worship the stars as they did, save only the tribe of Levi, which remained faithful to their ancestorial charge; for the tribe of Levi at no time worshiped stars. Verily, in but a short space of time, the root which Abraham had planted would have been uprooted, and the sons of Jacob would have turned to the universal error and wandering; save because of the Lord's love for us, and because He observes the oath of covenant with Abraham our father, He appointed Moses our Master lord of all prophets, and made him His messenger. After Moses our Master was endowed with prophecy and the Lord chose Israel as an inheritance, He crowned them with commandments, and made known to them the way to serve Him, and what will be the judgment rendered against idolatry and all its erring devotees.³

(13) Not only the tribe of Levi, but each well-informed thinking person whose spirit moves him to devote himself to the service of the Lord, to know the Lord, and has walked uprightly after casting off his neck the yoke of many a cunning wile that men contrived, is indeed divinely consecrated, and the Lord will forever and ever be his portion. God will provide sufficiently for his needs, as he did for the priests and the Levites. David, may he rest in peace, declared: "The Lord is my allotted portion and my cup; thou holdest my lot" (Psalm 16:5).

(25) Rabbi Simon, the son of Halafta said, "From the date that the power of flattery grew strong, laws have been twisted and deeds have been perverted, and no man was able to say honestly to his companion, 'My deeds are greater than your deeds.' " Said Rabbi Elazar, "Every man that has flattery in his nature, brings wrath upon the world," as it is said, "But they that are godless in heart lay up anger" (Job 36:13). Not only this, but his prayer is not heard, as it is said, "They cry not for help when He bindeth them" (ibid). And even the unborn children, still in the wombs of their mothers, curse him, and he falls into Gehennah. And everyone who flatters a wicked man falls into his hand. And if he does not fall into his hand, then he falls into the hand of the son of the wicked man, and if he does not fall into the hand of his son, then he falls in the hand of his grandson (Sotah 41b). Every congregation that has within it the trait of flattery is as loathsome as a woman in her impurity, and in the end will be exiled (Sotah 42a).