SHABBAT: YESHIVAT HAVERIM – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p51

YESHIVAT HAVERIM – BABYLONIAN TALMUD p51

Resh Lakish said: What does the verse, “The trust of thy times shall be the strength of salvation,
wisdom, and knowledge,” etc. [Isa. xxxiii. 6]–what does this mean? (I think that this can be a
biblical support to the six divisions of the Mishna which we possess. 1) “The trust” comes within
the section of “Zeraim” (seeds); “thy times” in “Moed” (festivals); “strength” in
“Nashim” (women); “salvation” in “Nezikin” (jurisprudence); “wisdom” in
“Qodoshim” (holiness), and “knowledge” in section “Taharith” (purity). And yet “the fear of the
Lord is his treasure”(i.e., all these do not avail where there is not the fear of the Lord).

Rabha said: When a man comes before the (divine) judgment, he is asked: “Hast thou traded in
good faith? Mist thou apportioned regular times for study? Hast thou produced children? Didst
thou hope for salvation? Hast thou discussed subjects of wisdom? Hast thou formed (logical)
conclusions from the things thou hast learned?” After all this (if he can affirm all these
questions), if he possessed the fear of the Lord, it was well; if not, it was not so. This is like a
man who ordered his agent to store a measure of wheat in the attic. The agent did so. Then the
man asked him whether he had mixed some dry dust with the wheat (for protection against
weevils), and he answered nay. “It were better,” said the merchant, “if thou hadst not stored it.”

Rabba b. R. Huna said: “A man who possesses learning, but has no fear of Heaven, is like the manager (of a palace) who has the keys to the inside apartments, but lacks the one which opens the outside gate. How can he enter?”