תלמוד על אבות 1:1

⁹⁷The following is a series of homilies on Eccl. 12:11, without direct connection with the theme of the Chapter; cf Note 96. Parallels are found in Pesiqta rabbati 3 (ed. Ish-Shalom 7b–8a); Midrash Qohelet 12:11–12; Lev. rabba 129(6), Num. rabba 13:11–13).The words of the Sages are like goads; Rebbi Huna said, like a pearl. There, they call a pearl dirah⁹⁸In Babylonia one uses the Arabic דּוּרָּה. Read דורה with G.. Another explanation, like goads, like a girl’s ball. Just as this ball is caught from hand to hand but in the end will come to rest in one hand, so “Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets transmitted it to the Men of the Great Assembly⁹⁹Mishnah Avot 1:1..” Another explanation, like goads. It has three names, mardea`, da̅r<sup>e</sup>va̅n, malmad. Mardea`, because it teaches knowledge to the cow¹⁰⁰It already is noted in the Pesiqta that מרדע is a Mishnaic, not a biblical word.. Da̅r^eva̅n, because it plants understanding in the cow. Malmad, because it teaches the cow to plough, to keep its owners alive. Rebbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said, if a person makes a goad for his cow, certainly [he has to make one] for his bad inclinations which will remove him from this world and the World to Come.

[And raise up many students.] For the House of Shammai, say: One should teach only a person who is wise, humble, of good pedigree, and rich. But the House of Hillel say: Teach everyone, for there were many sinners in Israel, and they were brought close to Torah study, and they came out righteous, kind, and proper.

MISHNAH: He who sows one species on his field gives one peah even though he works⁸²Literally: He makes two threshing floors. Not only the act of threshing is involved, but also the collection of threshed grain into orderly heaps. The best translation is: processing (grain on the stalk into a commercial commodity.) at two different threshing floors. If he sows two species, he gives two peot even though he threshes them together⁸³And puts them together in the same heap.. He who sows two different kinds of wheat on his field gives one peah if he processes them together⁸⁴That means that he treats them as one kind of wheat., two peot if he threshes them separately.
It happened that Rebbi Simeon from Miẓpah⁹³A Mishnah collector in the times of Rabban Gamliel I; one of a very small number of scholars who lived during Second Temple times who is always mentioned with the title “Rebbi.” {It is possible that before the destruction of the Temple, “Rebbi” did not designate a rabbi but a collector of legal statements.} Miẓpah probably is today’s Nebi Samwil, N. W. of Jerusalem. sowed before Rabban Gamliel; they ascended to the stone hall⁹⁴The hall on the Temple Mount whose walls were formed by hewn stone and in which the high court held its sessions. and asked. Naḥum the scribe⁹⁵Cf. Latin libellaris, “of books.” He was the clerk of Rabban Gamliel I’s court. said: I have the tradition from Rebbi Miasha, who received it from my father, who received it from the pairs⁹⁶The pairs of authorities, chiefs and deputy chiefs of the high court in Jerusalem, who are mentioned in the first chapter of Pirqe Avot., who received if from the prophets⁹⁷Ḥaggai, Zachariah, Malachi, who by tradition are counted as members of the “Great Assembly.”, a practice going back to Moses on Sinai, that he who sows two different kinds of wheat on his field gives one peah if he stores them together, two peot if he stores them separately.