. 10.
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."
_Avoth_, chap. 6.
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.
_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 26.
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.
Ibid., chap. 39.
He who has no fringes to his garment transgresses five positive commands
(see Num. xv. 38. etc.; Deut. xxii. 12).
_Menachoth_, fol. 44, col. 1.
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.
_Chullin_, fol. 24, col. 1.
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.
_Niddah_, fol. 17, col. 1.
Rabbi Yossi said:--"Never once in all my life have the walls of my house
seen the hem of my shirt; and I have planted five cedars (sons are
figuratively so termed, see Ps. xcii. 12) in Israel--namely, Rabbis
Ishmael, Eliezar, Chalafta, Artilas, and Menachem. Never once in my life
have I spoken of my wife by any other name than house, and of my ox by
any other n
|