>
>
>There is a quote, from a classic Jewish source, I can't remember which
>at the moment.
>"It is not your responsibility to finish the work (of making the world
>a better place), but you are also not free to ignore it either." How's
>that for one to put up on our office walls?
>
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/pirkei_avot.html
> Rabbi Tarfon taught: "It is not your responsibility to finish the work
> [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it
> either" (2:16).
>
> Ethics of the Fathers/Pirkei Avot
>
> The quotes found in Pirkei Avot generally are spiritual and edifying,
> but they can also be practical. Two thousand years ago, Ben Zoma
> rendered what remains, in my opinion, the best definition of
> happiness. "Who is rich? He who is happy with what he has" (4:1).
> Hillel <http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/hillel.html> is
> frequently cited in Pirkei Avot. He is best known for "If I am not for
> myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?"
> (1:14). The last sentence should logically read who am I? But as
> Professor Louis Kaplan taught: "If you are only for yourself, you
> cease to be a real human being, and you become no longer a who, but a
> what." Hillel concludes the sentence with a thought that was borrowed
> two millennia later by President Ronald Reagan, who cited the sage's
> words while trying to push through urgently needed economic reforms:
> "And if not now, when?"
>
One of the research skills translators develop is finding and
identifying quotes, while realizing that the phrasing can vary depending
on the translation...
I am quoting some of the rest of it, too, since I liked a lot of the
other quotes.
Can someone help me identify this properly? Is Rabbi Tarfon one of the
teachers quoted in a book entitled Pirkei Avot, which translates into
English as Ethics of the Fathers?
Thanks for a delightful search this afternoon! Back to grant
applications... :-(
Jo-Anne Elder-Gomes
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
