TALMUDIC PROVERBS.
SCATTERED here and there throughout the tractates of the Talmud are a goodly number of those pithy and popular sayings which, in contradistinction to the dicta of individual rabbins, may properly claim to come under the heading of Proverbs. They were, for the most part, current among the Jews before the sixth century, and may safely be accepted as genuine remanets of the popular wisdom of the Hebrews. In several instances it is even possible to localise such adages, owing to the formula with which they are introduced in the text of the Rabbinical books, as "The Jews say," "The Gallleans say," "In the West (i.e., in Palestine) people say," and so forth. Many of the Talmudic maxims will readily be recog nised as old friends—a fact of importance to the collator; others differ so little from familiar sayings of our own as to suggest some curious questions about the pedigree of proverbs generally. There is no collection extant of Jewish proverbs, and most of those given below have been gleaned in the course of a cursory reading of Talmud and Medrash. There is not a sufficient number bearing upon each topic to admit of classification under heads; and it will be better, therefore, as well as easier, to pick out the plums as we find them, and string them together as they come.
Among the scraps of popular wisdom preserved in the Talmud which need no introduction when presented in a Saxon garb, must be reckoned " Walls have ears,"—a warning more emphatically conveyed in "Even unfenced fields tell tales." " The strongest rules," is the Jewish variant of " Might is right ;" and " King's knight, King's right," is about as close to the original Hebrew as it is possible to keep. "A bird in the cage is worth a hundred on the tree," is the Talmudic prototype of our bird in the hand. The moral is the same in " Better a yard of ground than an acre of roof," and " The berry I have got tastes better than the melon I am promised." The last is the most expressive ; it smacks of the fireside. " Wine in, secret out ;" "Sufficient the pain when it comes ;" "Fodder for one, fodder for more;" "Pride is the sign of poverty ;" and "Don't throw a stone into the well from which you have drunk," suggest their obvious English parallels : while " Light for one, light for a hundred ;" "Drop by drop the cistern is filled ;" "A hundred flatterers, and not one to tell the truth ;" " The ass is cold in midsummer;" " Care kills half the man ;" " Who goes to the wars must be prepared to lose ;" and "Buying and selling don't make a merchant," are Talmudic gems of which the setting will be more or less familiar. The common saying about silence being gold finds a parallel in the Jewish,—" Speech is worth a selab, but silence two." "Better one's own tub than another's cistern," is almost Saxon in its homeliness, like "Better the grain one has sown than the bushel one has bought." " The camel wanted horns and lost his ears," appears in every European collection of proverbs ; and our vulgar adage, "If you want to hang yourself, choose a high tree," is another piece of popular wisdom we can trace back, if not home, to the pages of the Talmud.
That astute worldliness and crooked wisdom generally associated with the name Jew is not particularly prominent in Talmudic proverb. " Join the fat man, and you will grow fat too," " Follow the fortunate," " Touch the King's garments and your own hands will smell," are maxims inculcating a moral neither better nor worse than the average ; and " When the fox is king make your bow to him," is a standing recognition of the value of expediency by no means confined to the
Jew. There are not many proverbs referring to riches, but a few we have noted are suggestive. "Money has no flavour" is one, but has an insincere ring about it, and is as little in favour with the modern Hebrew as " Sell your daughter, but keep from usury." "Dance after money" is more than significant, for dancing has always been considered disreputable and degrading among Easterns. A propos of money, benevolence is recommended as a preservative of riches which would otherwise take wings to itself. The Jew is told "Charity is the salt of riches," a maxim that looks better than it is, for salt is here used with a reference to its antiseptic qualities, and not as a flavour or zest-imparting condiment. Another Talmudic adage of the same class, "Tithe that you may get tenfold "—with a play upon the Hebrew word for "ten "—establishes a connection between giving and getting, but savours unpleasingly of a speculative investment promising cent. per cent. Anyway, it is not a very elevated view to take of benevolence, which makes it the sprat that is to catch a mackerel. A propos, too, of money, we may here introduce a few sayings having reference to the lack of it. " Poverty pursues the poor man." " The poor man hungers, but does not know it," an adage true in more senses than one. "Scratch the poor man, and he is tickled; set fire to his beard, and he cannot laugh sufficiently," is too graphic to be spoiled by a single word of comment.
The experience of the Jew, as summed-up in the popular sayings of the Talmud, is often on all-fours with our own. "Make the peasant king and he'll shoulder the basket," and " Put the ass in the lion's skin and he'll bray," both illustrate the proverbial difficulty of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. " While the oven is hot bake your meat," and "When the dates are in the press prepare your wine," bid the Hebrew ." Make hay while the sun shines." " The crooked cedar walks among the stunted shrubs," and " The barren palm finds friends among the unfruitful trees," convey the same moral as our adage about birds of a feather. " The plant is in the seed and already shows prickles," like "In the opening bud you see the youthful thorns," reminds us that the boy is father to the man. "He forged the iron that fetters his legs," and "He sharpened the arrow that tore his flesh," have reference to that species of retributive justice which we term being hoist with one's own petard. In this connection may also be quoted, "The raven took fire to warm himself, and burnt his nest." " If two call you ' ass,' go and put on the saddle," and " If three say drunk,' lie down and sleep," tell us what all the world says must be true. " When one rope breaks the other soon follows," is a reminder that misfortunes never come singly. " When the ox's head is in the manger, look out for kicks," suggests the insolence of prosperity ; and " Between two dry sticks the damp one soon learns to burn," the facility with which, in evil company, bad manners can be acquired. " When the thief cannot steal he takes to honest ways," tells of making a virtue of necessity ; " When weeds are uprooted many a good plant perishes," teaches the old truth about the innocent suffering with the guilty ; and " Who undertakes much has undertaken nothing," with the converse," Who undertakes one thing has undertaken something," is a distinct warning against having too many irons in the fire. On the other hand, the popular wisdom of the Talmud is sometimes at issue with our own. "The myrtle among the thorns is still a myrtle," and "Among the thorns the rose (?) blooms," caution us against judging a man by his associates, and are, therefore, hardly in harmony with sundry wise saws of our own. Nor is the Talmud opposed to the proceeding we ridicule as taking coals to Newcastle. On the contrary, it is recommended. "Take straw to Es-ravim," (where straw was exceedingly plentiful) is one of the oldest Jewish proverbs extant; and " Where cabbages are plentiful, there take them to market," is a later maxim to the self-same tenour and effect.
Woman, according to Talmudic adage, is a somewhat doubtful blessing. She talks too much for Jewish wiseacres. " Ten measures of talk were sent down from Heaven, and woman took nine." She is meddlesome, and is told,—" A woman's wisdom is in the spindle." She will not do one thing at a time—" A woman spins and talks." She is vain—" With her foot in the grave, a woman clings to vanity." She is bold and immodest— "A woman would sooner have one measure of frowardness than forty of modesty." And worse ; she likes dancing—" At sixty her feet tingle when she hears the cymbals." Her power is, nevertheless, admitted. " Woman is a mass of corruption, yet all men pursue her "—the original has a stronger word than corruption though. Despite all this, woman is desirable as a companion,—for, "He who has no wife is no man." Apropos of marriage, there is a word of advice in, "Take a wife from beneath, a friend from above you." Good-looks are not of much account in the choice of a partner, nor, indeed, in any other transaction— "Be the goat white, be the goat black, so she give good milk." Deference to a wife is recommended. "If your wife is little, bend down to her ;" and if things go wrong in the house, the husband is told to look at home for the cause,—since, "Every man gets the wife he deserves." Next to marriage, friends are considered desirable. " Have friends, or die," says much in little, and is impressive in its simplicity. Of course, sincere friends only are meant,—for, "If your friend be deaf when you call, turn your back on him."
Many of the popular and proverbial locutions preserved in the Talmud are among the best and most expressive of their kind. " Vinegar, the son of Wine," for instance, described the unpopular son of a popular father ; " A box full of books," a learned man, from whose learning the world had derived no advantage; "Grapes with grape sauce," a discourse where the matter was neither much nor to the point. "He has words in his backbone," applied to a talkative bore; "He scalds himself with lukewarm water," to the man who made a muddle of the simplest matter entrusted to his management; and " He will make the ocean sweet," to one whose pretensions were as extravagant as ill-founded. " He loses what he has and what he has not," was said of an unfortunate man ; "He puts his money on the horns of a deer," of an imprudent one ; and "His cheeks grow grass," of a cunning and impudent fellow. Exaggeration, for which the Medians seem to have been notorious, was referred to as " making camels dance in a halfpint pot," and plausible dexterity of argument as " drawing a column through the eye of a needle." A few miscellaneous maxims will, perhaps, fittingly conclude the present article. " Wisdom needs no herald," reminds us that a good proverb should speak for itself; and the following selection, while fulfilling this necessary condition, will probably contain something to suit all palates :—" The pig grows fat where the lamb starves;" " Spare the salt, and give your meat to the dogs ;" "He who owns the balcony supports it most;" "If you follow my calling you must wear my clothes ;" "When clouds are heavy, blessings come ;" " The sot looks at the cup, the host at the money-bag;" "If you hire yourself out you must heckle the wool;" " When the house falls the windows are broken ;" "Don't kick the drunkard, he'll fall himself;" " When the cat Joins the weasel there's mischief a-brewing ;" " Out of love for the hole the man turned thief ;" "The pot kills more than famine ;" " He who has been buried does not think much of dying ;" " Even a barber finds apprentices ;" " Where the mistress sleeps, the bread-basket is empty ;" " At home my name, abroad my clothes;" "To the wasp say neither your sting nor your honey ;" "Even the bald-headed is master in his own house ;" " Chew well with the teeth, you'll find it again in the legs ;" " A handful won't satisfy the lion ;" " The law knows no mercy ;" " Think of your teeth, you'll forget your legs ;" " No need to change scale-pans when the weights are equal ;" "They wonder at the cedar when it is fallen ;" " When the idols are shattered the priests tremble ;" " The lie is for the liar only ;" "Truth is God's own seal."
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