Rabbi Alexander said, “He who possesses worldly wisdom and fears not the Lord, is as one who designs building a house and completes only the door, for as David wrote in Psalm 111th, ’The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.’”

When Rabbi Jochanan was ill, his pupils visited him and asked him for a blessing.  With his dying voice the Rabbi said, “I pray that you may fear God as you fear man.”  “What!” exclaimed his pupils, “should we not fear God more than man?”

“I should be well content,” answered the sage, “if your actions proved that you feared Him as much.  When you do wrong you first make sure that no human eyes see you; show the same fear of God, who sees everywhere, and everything, at all times.”

Abba says we can show our fear of God in our intercourse with one another.  “Speak pleasantly and kindly to everyone”; he says, “trying to pacify anger, seeking peace, and pursuing it with your brethren and with all the world, and by this means you will gain that ’favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man,’ which Solomon so highly prized.”

Rabbi Jochanan had heard Rabbi Simon, son of Jochay, illustrate by a parable that passage of Isaiah which reads as follows:  “I, the Lord, love uprightness; but hate robbery (converted) into burnt-offering.”

A king having imported certain goods upon which he laid a duty, bade his officers, as they passed the custom-house, to stop and pay the usual tariff.

Greatly astonished, his attendants addressed him thus:  “Sire! all that is collected belongs to your majesty; why then give what must be eventually paid into thy treasury?”

“Because,” answered the monarch, “I wish travelers to learn from the action I now order you to perform, how abhorrent dishonesty is in my eyes.”

Rabbi Eleazer said:  “He who is guided by righteousness and justice in all his doings, may justly be asserted to have copied God in His unbounded beneficence.  For of Him (blessed be His name) we read, ’He loveth righteousness and justice’; that is, ’The earth is filled with the loving kindness of God.’” Might we think that to follow such a course is an easy task?  No!  The virtue of beneficence can be gained only by great efforts.  Will it be difficult, however, for him that has the fear of God constantly before his eyes to acquire this attribute?  No; he will easily attain it, whose every act is done in the fear of the Lord.

“A crown of grace is the hoary head; on the way of righteousness can it be found.”

So taught Solomon in his Proverbs.  Hence various Rabbis, who had attained an advanced age, were questioned by their pupils as to the probable cause that had secured them that mark of divine favor.  Rabbi Nechumah answered that, in regard to himself, God had taken cognizance of three principles by which he had endeavored to guide his conduct.