A man once hired two servants to fill a basket with water.  One of them said, “Why should I continue this useless labor?  I put the water in one side and it immediately leaks out of the other; what profit is it?”

The other workman, who was wise, replied, “We have the profit of the reward which we receive for our labor.”

It is the same in studying the law.  One man says, “What does it profit me to study the law when I must ever continue it or else forget what I have learned.”  But the other man replies, “God will reward us for the will which we display even though we do forget.”

Rabbi Ze-irah has said that even a single letter in the law which we might deem of no importance, if wanting, would neutralize the whole law.  In Deuteronomy 22:17, we read, “Neither shall he take to himself many wives, that his heart may turn away.”  Solomon transgressed this precept, and it is said by Rabbi Simon that the angels took note of his ill-doing and addressed the Deity:  “Sovereign of the world, Solomon has made Thy law even as a law liable to change and diminution.  Three precepts he has disregarded, namely, ‘He shall not acquire for himself many horses’; ‘neither shall he take to himself many wives’; ’nor shall he acquire to himself too much silver and gold.’” Then the Lord replied, “Solomon will perish from the earth; aye, and a hundred Solomons after him, and yet the smallest letter of the law shall not be dispensed with.”

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The Rabbis have often applied in a figurative sense, various passages of Holy Writ, among others the opening verse of the 55th chapter of Isaiah.  “Ho, every one of ye that thirsteth, come ye to the water, and he, too, that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy without money and without price, wine and milk.”

The three liquids which men are thus urged to procure are considered by the sages of Israel as typical of the law.

One Rabbi asked, “Why is the word of God compared to water?”

To this question the following answer was returned:  “As water runs down from an eminence (the mountains), and rests in a low place (the sea), so the law, emanating from Heaven, can remain in the possession of those only who are humble in spirit.”

Another Rabbi inquired, “Wherefore has the Word of God been likened to wine and milk?” The reply made was, “As these fluids cannot be preserved in golden vessels, but only in those of earthenware, so those minds will be the best receptacles of learning which are found in homely bodies.”

Rabbi Joshua ben Chaninah, who was very homely in appearance, possessed great wisdom and erudition; and one of his favorite sayings was, that “though many have exhibited a vast amount of knowledge, notwithstanding their personal attractions, yet had they been less handsome, their acquirements might have been more extensive.”

The precepts are compared to a lamp; the law of God to a light.  The lamp gives light only so long as it contains oil.  So he who observes the precepts receives his reward while performing them.  The law, however, is a light perpetual; it is a protection forever to the one who studies it, as it is written:—­