CHAPTER XXXVI.
SAYINGS AND STORIES OF THE SAGES OF THE TALMUD.
"Let me make the ballads of a people and I care not who makes the laws."
The maxims with which the rabbis occasionally endorsed their decisions and the bits of humor with which they relieved the tension of argument, may give a deeper insight into their character than their laws. These morsels of homely philosophy and casual reflections on human experience best reveal, too, their outlook on the world and on life. So in its way the Agada is quite as precious a legacy from the Fathers as the Halacha.
The writing of parables of which some of the rabbis were masters, is almost a lost art; it seems to have died out in literature. But no moral is pointed so aptly as through a tale and no teaching impressed so lastingly as through a story.
Many a Hebrew philosopher like Socrates, the Greek, and the yet earlier prophet (nabi) would make the highway his school-house and the passing crowd his disciples. Darmesteter suggests that the lesson might have been conveyed in somewhat in the following way:
"Who wishes to live long," cries an Agadist in the open street; "who wishes to buy happiness?" The original questions attract a crowd demanding to know the orator's secret. "Thou desirest to live many days," he answers, "thou wishest to enjoy peace and happiness? Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Seek peace and pursue it. Depart from the evil and do good." And paraphrasing these words of the Psalmist (Ps. xxxiv, 13-15), he developed his ideas in the midst of the attentive crowd.
The parables and maxims that follow have been gathered promiscuously and are classified here under appropriate heads.