THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES Quotes

“Be of them that are persecuted, not of the persecutors.--Be the cursed, not he that curses.”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“The defending attorneys of a man (before divine justice) are penitence and good deeds. If there should be nine hundred and ninety-nine accusers against him and only one to plead in his favor, he is saved, as it is written: "If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand to show unto man his uprightness, then He is gracious unto him," etc. [Job xxxiii. 23].”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“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?”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“The dead do not praise God,' means this: One must always occupy himself with study and with meritorious acts before his death;”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“Life is like unto a fleeting shadow. Is it the shadow of a tower or of a bird? It is the shadow of a bird in its flight. Away flies the bird, and neither bird nor shadow remains behind.”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“To speak of a completed Talmud is as incorrect as to speak of a biblical canon. No religious body, no solemn resolution of a synod, ever declared either the Talmud or the Bible a completed whole. Canonizing of any kind is distinctly opposed to the spirit of Judaism. The fact is that the tide of traditional lore has never ceased to flow.”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“In the form in which it issued from the Jewish academies of Babylonia and Palestine, it is a great national work, a scientific document of first importance, the archives of ten centuries, in which are preserved the thoughts and opinions, the views and verdicts, the errors, transgressions, hopes, disappointments, customs, ideals, convictions, and sorrows of Israel--a work produced by the zeal and patience of thirty generations, laboring with a self-denial unparalleled in the history of literature.”
― Michael Levi Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“I praise mirth" [Eccl. viii. 15]. This means the righteous man rejoices when he performs a meritorious act. "And of joy, what doth this do?" [Eccl. ii. 2] alludes to rejoicing that comes not through a Heaven-pleasing deed. This teaches that the divine presence (Shekhina) comes not by sadness, by indolence, by hilarity, by levity, by gossip, or by senseless talk, but through rejoicing in a meritorious deed; as it is written: "Now bring me a minstrel; and when the minstrel played, the power of the Lord was upon him" [II Kings, iii. 15]. Rabba said: The same (should be done) in order to enjoy good dreams. R. Jehudah says: The same (should be done) to predispose one's self for legislative work, as Rabba did: Before commencing to expound a Halakha he introduced it with a simile and caused the masters to become joyful; afterward, he sat down in the fear of the Lord and began to expound the Halakha.”
― Michael Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES

“The rabbis taught: The "Roll of Fasts" was written by Hananiah b. Hyzkiyah and his company, for they thought with fondness of the troubles (which their race had experienced). Said R. Simeon b. Gamaliel: We also think with fondness of the troubles; but what shall we do? If we were to record (all the troubles our race has experienced since that time) we would never finish. It may also be said: A fool never feels trouble, or (more pointedly) a dead member on a living body feels not the lancet.”
― Michael Rodkinson, THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD, ALL 20 VOLUMES