goodness. For instance, it is better to distribute one
hundred coins among one hundred people than to give them all
to one person.

(58) The world is compared to the office of a merchant.

(59) Ecc. IX, 12: "for man also knoweth not his time, like the
fishes that are caught in an evil net."

(60) The shop stands for the world and its enjoyments.

(61) Man has free will, and is therefore responsible for all
his acts.

(62) For everything is recorded.

(63) This world is merely a preparation for the next. The
enjoyment of the world to come is likened by the Rabbis to a
banquet, which is shared in by the good and the bad, after
they have paid off their moral debts.

21. R. Eleazar, the son of Azariah (64), said, "Where there is no
_Torah_, there are no manners; where there are no manners, there is no
_Torah_: where there is no wisdom, there is no fear of God; where
there is no fear of God, there is no wisdom: where there is no
knowledge, there no understanding; where there is no understanding,
there is no knowledge (65): where there is no meal, there is no
_Torah;_ where there is no _Torah_, there is no meal" (66). 22. He
used to say, "He whose wisdom exceeds his works, to what is he like?
To a tree whose branches are many, but whose roots are few; and the