"

"In ages past, the learned men among us were called Baale Tressim or
armour-bearers. What was their armour? Their armour was the
understanding of the covenant. Why were they armed? To protect Israel
from annihilation. They said: Israel shall not disappear from the
surface of the earth, for we will give him a strong hold from the
covenant of 'Moses. Thus said the Tanaim. And the Sanhedrin where
they sat, and the schools in which they taught became as the arsenal
where they ground and prepared their weapons. Gamaliel, Eliezer,
Joshua, Akiba, and Jehuda were amongst them like suns among the
stars. Others followed in their footsteps, and through five hundred
years they compiled, explained and wrote the great book which they'
named the Talmud, and which through centuries was a bulwark to the
Israelites, shielding them from the devouring elements From its pages
the sons of Israel drew wisdom and comfort, and during the great
dispersion they were never divided, because their thoughts and sighs
went towards it and gathered round it, like children round their
mother."

"But is everything which is good in itself equally perfect?"

"This book, which during five hundred years was written and composed
by wise and loving men, cannot be a foolish or a bad book. He who
speaks thus of it, tell him to clean his heart from evil, and then
open it and read."

"There are clouds in the sky, and in the purest heart the Lord
discerns a flaw. Did Jehovah himself write the books of Our Law? Did
the angels write them? No; people wrote them. Has there ever been a
man during all the ages who did not know what it meant to go astray?
Is there any human work which is adequate or all times and all ages?"

"The throne of the Pharaohs has been shattered; Nineveh fell into
ruins; Rome which ruled over half the world broke asunder; and
Greek wisdom has made way for other wisdom. The desert spreads now
where once were rich and powerful cities; and cities are rising where
formerly was desert. Thus human works, the greatest of them, pass
away and others take their place."

"Israel! the nourishment which sustained your soul through many
generations contains grain, but also chaff. In your treasure hoards
there are diamonds and worthless sand."

"The books of your Law are as the pomegranate which the foolish man
ate with the rind, which left a bitter taste in his mouth. When Rabbi
Meir saw him doing this, he plucked fruit from the tree, threw away
th