קהלת פרק יא - ניהול סיכונים

(1) Send your bread forth upon the waters; for after many days you will find it. (2) Distribute portions to seven or even to eight, for you cannot know what misfortune may occur on earth. (3) If the clouds are filled, they will pour down rain on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will stay where it falls. (4) If one watches the wind, he will never sow; and if one observes the clouds, he will never reap. (5) Just as you do not know how the lifebreath passes into the limbs within the womb of the pregnant woman, so you cannot foresee the actions of God, who causes all things to happen. (6) Sow your seed in the morning, and don’t hold back your hand in the evening, since you don’t know which is going to succeed, the one or the other, or if both are equally good. (7) How sweet is the light, what a delight for the eyes to behold the sun! (8) Even if a man lives many years, let him enjoy himself in all of them, remembering how many the days of darkness are going to be. The only future is nothingness! (9) O youth, enjoy yourself while you are young! Let your heart lead you to enjoyment in the days of your youth. Follow the desires of your heart and the glances of your eyes—but know well that God will call you to account for all such things— (10) and banish care from your mind, and pluck sorrow out of your flesh! For youth and black hair are fleeting.

In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand (Eccl. XI, 6). R. Eliezer and R. Joshua discussed this. R. Eliezer said: If you have sown in the early season, sow in the late season, for you do not know which will be successful, whether the early sowing or the late sowing, as Scripture continues, For thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good (ib.). R. Joshua said: If a poor man comes to you in the morning, relieve him; if in the evening, relieve him too, because you do not know which of them the Holy One, blessed be He, has allotted to you, ’ Whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.’ R. Ishmael and R. Akiba discussed it. R. Ishmael said: If you have studied Torah in your youth, study it in your old age, because you do not know which you will retain, ' Whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.’ R. Akiba said: If you have raised disciples in your youth, raise disciples in your old age, because you do not know which the Holy One, blessed be He, has destined for you,
(To preserve and transmit your teachings.) Whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.’ R. Akiba had twelve thousand disciples from Gabbath(In the territory of Dan; Biblical Gibbethon. Cur. edd.: Acco.) to Antipatris (A town north-north-west of Jerusalem, founded by Herod the Great and named after his father (Jast.).) and all died at the same period. Why? Because they looked grudgingly on each other. Eventually he raised seven disciples: R. Meir, R. Judah, R. Jose, R. Simeon, R. Eleazar b. Shamua’, R. Johanan the Cobbler, (Many of the Rabbis were manual workers.) and R. Eliezer b. Jacob. Others say: R. Judah, R. Nehemiah, R. Meir, R. Jose, R. Simeon b. Yohai, R. Hanina b. Hakinai, and R. Johanan the Cobbler. Said he: My sons, the previous ones died only because they grudged each other [the knowledge of the Torah; see to it that you do not act thus. They therefore arose and filled the whole of Eretz Israel with Torah. R. Dostai and R. Jannai
in the name of R. Samuel b. Nahman explained it: If you have had children in your youth, take a wife in old age and beget children. From whom do you learn this? From Abraham, who had children in his younger years,(Comparatively speaking.) and yet took a wife in his old age and begot children, as it says, AND ABRAHAM TOOK ANOTHER WIFE, etc.

(4) Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, (5) and instructed them as follows, “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob: I stayed with Laban and remained until now; (6) I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male and female slaves; and I send this message to my lord in the hope of gaining your favor.’” (7) The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau; he himself is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” (8) Jacob was greatly frightened; in his anxiety, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, (9) thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp may yet escape.”

(19) My lord asked his servants, ‘Have you a father or another brother?’ (20) We told my lord, ‘We have an old father, and there is a child of his old age, the youngest; his full brother is dead, so that he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him.’ (21) Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on him.’ (22) We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he were to leave him, his father would die.’ (23) But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, do not let me see your faces.’ (24) When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my lord’s words to him. (25) “Later our father said, ‘Go back and procure some food for us.’ (26) We answered, ‘We cannot go down; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go down, for we may not show our faces to the man unless our youngest brother is with us.’ (27) Your servant my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. (28) But one is gone from me, and I said: Alas, he was torn by a beast! And I have not seen him since. (29) If you take this one from me, too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down to Sheol in sorrow.’ (30) “Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—since his own life is so bound up with his— (31) when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the white head of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. (32) Now your servant has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father forever.’ (33) Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. (34) For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!”

(1) ועזב את אביו ומת FOR IF HE SHOULD LEAVE HIS FATHER, HE WOULD DIE — If he leaves his father we shall be in anxiety lest he die on the journey, because indeed his mother died during a journey.

(1) וקרהו אסון AND MISCHIEF BEFALL HIM — For Satan brings charges against men in the hour of danger (Genesis Rabbah 91.9). (2) 'והורדתם את שיבתי וגו YE SHALL BRING DOWN MY GRAY HAIRS etc. — Whilst Benjamin is beside me I find comfort in him for the loss of his mother and his brother, so that if he dies it will seem to me as though the three of them died in the same day.