Ancient Jewish Proverbs: Chapter I: Human Existence

*4. He who has issued from thee teacheth thee reason (Jeb. 63a; D. 206). The young can often teach their elders. The context of the proverb is as follows: There lived once a Rabbi who was married to a shrew. She would always do just the opposite of what her husband wanted. If he asked for peas she cocked him lentils, and vice versa. Their son, one day, in conveying his father's wishes to his mother, stated the exact reverse, and in this way the old man obtained his desires. The father rebuked his son for his lack of filial respect, but for all that learnt from him how to manage his wife. 5. In old men there is no taste, in young no insight (Shab. 89b; D. 413). The old lack the imagination and enthusiasm of the young, but the young lack the shrewdness and prudence of the old. *6. When we were young [we were esteemed] p. 32 as men; now that we are old as school-children (B. K. 92b; D. 331). Many a person displays ability in his youth and is entrusted with duties above his age. When he grows old he is regarded as unfit for important work as children. Cf. "A man at sixteen will prove a child at sixty." 7. Two are better than Three; woe to the One which goes but never returns (Shab. 152a; D. 303). The resemblance to the riddle of the Sphinx is very striking. The question was: What is it that walks on four legs in the morning, on two at midday, and on three in the evening? The answer is: Man, who crawls on all fours as an infant, walks on two legs in his prime, but with the aid of a stick in his old age. The "One" that goes but never returns is Youth.