Should they strike, I can bear the blows better than thou; and should they strip me of my clothes, let me rather go naked than my aged father.'—Now, surely, this man, although he set his father to work at the mill, will inherit Paradise."
Compassion Toward the Unhappy: or, Rabbi Jose and His Repudiated Wife
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink; for, though thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, the Lord shall reward thee."—Prov. xxv. 21, 22.
Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, had the misfortune to be married to a perverse and quarrelsome woman, who not only did not pay him the respect due to his station, but would often insult him in the presence of his disciples. Seeing these repeated acts of aggression, they asked him why he did not divorce her, and thus get rid of so troublesome a companion. "Her dowry is large, and I am poor," replied their instructor; "and it would be unjust to send her away without restoring to her what she brought me." One day, the rich and learned Eliezer, the son of Azariah, paid our Rabbi a friendly visit. Rejoiced to see this great luminary of learning, and thinking himself highly honored by the
