The Jewish Wisdom Database

Who closes his ears to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard.

If a poor man bakes a cake, any man that comes and snatches it from him is held wicked.

Help the poor, for you may not know what the day will bring forth, and the wheel revolves!

Who performs one precept gains one advocate for himself.

Just as precepts do not cancel one another out, so with bans.

If a man break a light precept, he will end by breaking a grave one.

The most important purpose of the precept is to straighten the heart.

The onus of proof is on the plaintiff.

Proof cannot be got from fools.

Things well-known need no proof.

A prosecutor cannot become counsel for the defense.

Who can protest against a wrong and does not, will be punished for it.

You do not punish without warning first.

Just as the reward is great, so is the punishment.

The righteous are punished even for light sins and the wicked only for serious ones.

It is an honor for a man to cease from strife.

Quarrel not with a great man, lest you be compelled to give way, or with a stronger, lest you fall into his hands.

You can stop a quarrel before it starts!

If two did not like to, one would not quarrel. [It takes two to make a quarrel.]

To ransom prisoners is a splendid act of piety.

A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred flailings into a fool.

Rebuke will be of no avail to the stiff-necked.

The State binds and compels, religion teaches and persuades; the State gives laws, religion gives commandments.

A religion should be judged by its preachings and its best preachers, not by the many or few hypocrites who profess it.

Once a man repents, stop reminding him of what he did!