Wednesday, March 23, 2005

A Few Jewish Quotes

"He that increases knowledge increases sorrow."
-Bible: Ecclesiatics 1:18

Oy! How true!

"None is poor but he who lacks knowlege."
-Abaye. Talmud: Nedarim 41a

Also true. What is worth more than knowledge? What else is worth pursuing compared to it?

It would seem that thinking people (who I try to emulate) are always running after sadness.

Something to think about...though, on the other hand, maybe not.

Perhaps Socrates has the answer:

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy."

And it would seem the Gemara agrees.

"A beautiful wife makes for happiness and her husband's days are doubled."
- Talmud: Tebamoth 63b

Perhaps it is love which is worth more than knowledge. Though there's no reason one can't do both, right?

Methinks maybe I should charge up my social life a bit.

2 comments:

BrooklynWolf said...

The Socrates quote is interesting, considering he ended up with a shrew like Xantippe.

The Wolf

Orthoprax said...

The Wolf,

Ah, but I left out the second half of that quote. The full one is like so:

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher."

And as we know, Socrates was a philosopher.