“The sages of Ethics recounted that they once asked a person who feared Hashem why he did not get angry. To this he replied: because I don’t have free time to be able to do it”.
The Jewish culture is the oldest of the monotheistic religions and with more than three thousand years of traditions, its teachings are invaluable.
Its history is rich, complex and fertile, as it continues to be written day by day and although it is estimated that today there are only about 14.3 million Jews (compared to the 2.35 billion believers of Christianity or the 1.35 billion followers of Islam), its culture is more alive than ever.
The following proverbs were born from Judaism, some phrases have been paraphrased by modern thinkers and others are faithful replicas of the oral tradition of that religion that for millennia has passed these phrases by word of mouth, demonstrating their importance and depth.
1. “An old friend is better than two new friends.”
2. “The upright person falls seven times and gets up.”
3. “God gave man two ears and one mouth so he would listen more and talk less.”
4. “Don’t be sweet, or they’ll eat you. Don’t be bitter, or they’ll spit on you.”
5. “When there is love we can lie on the edge of a sword, when we do not love each other even a huge bed is not enough.”
6. “Killing time is committing suicide in installments.”
7. “If you don’t know what you’re willing to die for, then you don’t know what you’re living for.”
8. “If you can’t explain it, that means you don’t fully understand it.”
9. “Not everything that is thought should be said. Not everything that is said should be written down. Not everything that is written should be published. And not everything that is published should be read.
10. “Soap is to the body what tears are to the soul.”
11. “Knowledge doesn’t take up much room.”
12. “As we get older, the human being sees worse but more.”
13. “The worst enemy is too long a happiness.”
14. “They are both in love: He with him and she with her.”
15. “When the wise man gets angry, he ceases to be wise.”
16. “The result of contentment is calm.”
17. “The goal of wisdom is not to know good qualities but to apply them.”
18. “As sweet as love is, it won’t feed you.”
19. “Evil cannot be eliminated through the intellect, but only through the performance of concrete actions.”
20. “Pride is the root of all evil. And how can a person save himself from pride? The answer is very simple: focus on the ‘doing’ instead of focusing on the ‘being.'”
Finally, this is a phrase written by Mark Twain more than 100 years ago, showing that despite persecution and criticism, Judaism, with all its wisdom and history, will never disappear:
“The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians rose up, filled the planet with noise and splendor, and then faded and disappeared; the Greeks and Romans followed, made a lot of noise, and are gone; Other peoples have arisen and have maintained their fire for a time, but it burned out and they are now in darkness or have disappeared. The Jew saw them all, defeated them all, and is still the same as he ever was, exhibiting no decline, no infirmity of age, no weakening of his parts, no diminution of his energies, no dullness of his vivacity or his aggressive mind. All things are mortal except the Jew; all forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?