ading into Paradise and the other into Hell, and should
I not weep?" Then prayed they him, and said, "Rabbi, give us thy
farewell blessing;" and he said unto them, "Oh that the fear of God may
be as much upon you as the fear of man."

_Berachoth_, fol. 28, col. 2.

Rabbi Ami says, "Knowledge is of great price, for it is placed between
two divine names, as it is written (I Sam. ii. 3), 'A God of knowledge
is the Lord,' and therefore mercy is to be denied to him who has no
knowledge; for it is written (Isa. xxvii. 11), 'It is a people of no
understanding, therefore He that hath made them will not have mercy on
them.'"

_Berachoth_ fol. 33, col. 1.

Here we have a clear law, drawn from Scripture, forbidding, or
at any rate denying, mercy to the ignorant. The words of Rabbi
(the Holy) are a practical commentary on the text worth quoting,
"Woe is unto me because I have given my morsel to an ignorant
one." (_Bava Bathra_, fol. 8, col. 1.)

But who is the ignorant one from whom this mercy is to be
withheld? Here the doctors disagree. He, says Rabbi Eliezer, who
does not read the Shema, "Hear, O Israel," etc., both morning
and evening. According to Rabbi Yehudah, he that does not put on
phylacteries is an ignorant one. Rabbi Azai affirms that he who
wears no fringes to his garment is an ignorant one, etc. Others
again say he who even reads the Bible and the Mishna but does
not serve the disciples of the wise, is an ignorant one. Rabbi
Huna winds up with the words "the law is as the others have
said," and so leaves the difficulty where he finds it.
(_Berachoth_, fol. 47, col. 2.)

Of him "who transgresses the words of the wise, which he is
commanded to obey," it is written, "He is guilty of death and
has forfeited his life." (_Berachoth_, fol. 4, col. 2, and
_Yevamoth_, fol. 20, col. 1.) Whoso, therefore, shows mercy to
him contradicts the purpose and incurs the displeasure of God.
It was in application of this principle, literally interpreted,
that the wise should hold no parley with the ignorant, which led
the Jews to condemn the contrary procedure of Jesus Christ.

It was this prohibition to show mercy to the ignorant, together
with the solemn threatenings directed against those who
neglected the study of the law, that worked such a wonderful
revolution in Hezekiah's time; for it is said that then "they