Memra 7: On the Commandments of the Upright

Memra 7: On the Commandments of the Upright On the commandments that were spoken to the whole world, that they might become upright. For not every person is compelled to ascend to perfection. These are the commandments of the upright: Do not kill; do not steal; do not commit adultery; honor your father and your mother; and have compassion on the afflicted; do not commit fornication; do not bear false witness; do not despise; do not oppress; do not covet your companion’s ox, nor his donkey, nor his house, nor his wife, nor his field, nor his vineyard; and do not remove his boundary marker. And whatever you hate, do not do to your companion. And as you desire that others do to you, so do to them. However, in these commandments, a person is upright who follows after the perfect ones. For just as one hates that someone should kill him, or steal from him, or harm his livestock, or enter his field and his vineyard, or approach his wife or anything that is his, so also he who does not do to his companion that thing which he hates—thus he is upright when he passes by his companion’s boundaries and does not grieve his companion’s heart; thus he is upright before God.

as a blind man again, that he may not see his own filth, nor when he is burdened; and if he is foolish, he is blind to what spreads him out, and he wishes that when he is caught in folly, they should leave him, whether in theft or in fornication, and even up to murder if it is attempted, he wishes that they should leave him when he wants to flee. Thus he does to what he corrupts by these follies, and he becomes sick. And as he wishes that a man should give him food when he is hungry, and his drink what he thirsts for, and when he goes as a stranger, they should bring him into shelter in winter and into shade in summer, and they should give him what he lacks; and as he wishes that a man should clothe him with what is suitable, and shoe him with what is fitting, thus he should do to others, the sons of his flesh. For every son of Adam is his neighbor and a son of his flesh. And if the harshness of the uncircumcised is too great for one man to clothe him because of his poverty, five or ten men should join together and cover the flesh of their neighbors. And when he does thus, he is lesser than the perfect ones, in that he has not vanished from the earth, and he has been sanctified and taken his cross and looked to heaven, and has attained the truth which is the perfect cross of the Lord. And as if he has a pain in a stranger, he wishes that they should stand by him with strangers and heal his pains and his diseases, thus also he should do to the strangers who encounter him.

Thus these great commandments that are in the Law come: those upon which hang the entire force of the Law and the prophets, and by which the whole Law and the prophets are fulfilled, that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your strength and with everything you have. And after that, which is like it, that you may love your neighbor as yourself, for all of them are in the living. And you should care for them as you care for yourself, as much as you are able to help them. For every person who encounters you is your neighbor: either you benefit him or you harm him. For no one benefits or harms someone far from him, but only someone who is near him, and only someone who loves him. If, then, a person loves someone who encounters him, he becomes his neighbor; and if he harms him, he becomes his killer; but if he neither benefits nor harms him, he becomes his distant one, like those who were in the city of the one who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and those were his distant ones in his city; and the Samaritan, the stranger, who loved him became his neighbor.

Thus again he commands everyone to keep away from sorcery and from bloodshed. And that which is a remnant of living creatures or a carcass you shall not eat like the wicked. And you shall not practice divination, nor use incantations, nor whisper charms over serpents, for it is in the name of idols that they are charmed. And you shall not consult soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor makers of amulets, because all these are servants of idols. For it is said in the holy Law: "You shall not allow a diviner, an enchanter, or a maker of amulets to pass over your land." Therefore it is not right for you to do these things, nor even that you should not do them, lest the Lord of these things commit a sin against all, or they be afflicted with sin until their end, or all that you have be lost, or many kinds of calamities and afflictions befall you, like sorrow and like ruin. For these things, indeed, lead your desires toward idols and remove you from truth. Do you not see how much the ancients endured in their trials, until the Lord delivered them? For it is pains that bring enchanters to you, and you are not like Job who endured his trials. And because of childbirth and the rest of pains, they make amulets, and you are not like Abraham and Isaac, who asked of the Lord and he gave them sons. And because of the body, you make incantations and you sprinkle water over the one who is dead and you corrupt him with sin, and the Lord demands it from you by your own hands.

nor be polluted by sin and become defiled. Nor should you be like that man who dwelt in a tomb of demons and lived in a burial place until his Lord healed him, nor like his fathers who did not wash themselves with the water of healing and were ruined. For if a physician wishes, he pours water upon a person who is strong in body and destroys him; it is not the death that destroys a man, but his companion with iron, or a staff, or a stone. For they destroy as their Lord wishes, until the day of judgment. For it is easy for them to destroy you, because you give yourselves to evil spirits; for they give a life for a life as a reward, and they also destroy. And on the day of judgment, God will demand from your hands what you have destroyed, and you will give the lives that you have cut short as the reward for your labor. For thus they cut off what they send to you for destruction, because you give sin on that day, a life for a life of those whom you kill, whether by your word or by your hand. Thus the sorcerers hold them like swords and kill with them among the living. For every soul that they destroy, they give their own soul in its place, and they love the honor of the world and destroy themselves. Glory to you, Lord, how great is your Spirit, which sees and witnesses that they have already repented and have not gone to the fire that is not extinguished.

but to you I say: woe to those upon whom comes reproach from God or punishment, whether because of their sins or because of their transgression, or because they do not know how to bear illness and enter into punishment from the Evil One. They are also healed from the sons of men who corrupt their companions, or from Satan because they listened to him. From God, however, comes reproach upon the sons of men, because he wishes to see whether they are steadfast in their faith, or because thus he helps that man who was sick in his body. From the sons of men, however, comes punishment when they corrupt their companions on account of their enmity and repay one another with evil deeds, and on account of their wickedness they cast evil injuries one upon another. No man or Satan can remove a soul from a body, unless God wills to effect its removal through their hands, because he commanded them not to do evil and kill, lest any of the seven be sought after on the day of judgment. God, however, wills to effect the removal of the sons of men: some by sickness, some by the sword, or by a pit or a ditch, and some by a violent wind, and some by the hands of evil sons of men. And to the sons of men who kill, God gives judgment, because he set for them a law that they should not kill, and he gave them freedom to do their will.

He says to you: "Thus on that day of judgment: in that place where you killed, I wanted to come and make the departure of these souls whom you killed. But you, how did you stretch out your hands against your fellow man and not fear me, who commanded you not to strike the sons of your own flesh, but rather to have compassion and to honor them?" Even when the soul of a person departs, whether by a blow from him or by his own act, he is guilty of what he has shed. These other departures are according to the will of God, who causes souls of men to depart through them, and it is God who wills that by a sword, or by a pit, or by a well, or from a high or low roof, a person be killed. And how many times does a person die by being struck with a stone? And the wind, even if it is strong, is not permitted to kill a person; but if God wills that the departure of that person be by means of Satan, then it is so. For if Satan had this authority to take souls from the bodies of men, especially if he saw a person who wished to repent and escape from him, wherever he had an opportunity he would kill him. And again, if a sinful person escaped and transgressed the law after repenting, he would destroy him. For as a person keeps the commandments and trusts in God, he would fear for his life.

Thus these souls, the evil ones whom you killed by means of a sorcerer or a magician: by the hands of a human being you killed them. And why did not the magician and the sorcerer do something else? And again, does not that one who takes them to the water share in it with you? And that thing with which they bewitch, and a head comes upon a human being and kills him, or buries him alive in a place and destroys him? And see that it is not the foul spirit that kills him, but if God wishes to take him to himself, and sends him to the place he wishes by means of whom he wishes. That one, however, according to the measure of his deeds, is thus placed in prison until the day of judgment, when he receives his body, and again stands in his deeds. Satan, however, is held guilty because he rebels and teaches evil men evil deeds, and brings them together so that they do them, and teaches them to deny God by the will of himself. For just as evil men who draw the sword and teach one another to take hold of it in their hands, so also foul spirits teach evil men to take hold of them in their hands, and to kill one another secretly, with a hidden sword, as with a visible sword. And just as the sword of iron, if a man takes it in his hand and kills with it, does not kill the man, so also foul spirits: they are hidden swords, they do not kill the man, but a human being takes them in his hands and kills with them secretly.

Thus these souls, the evil ones whom you killed by means of a sorcerer or a magician: by the hands of a human being you killed them. And why did not the magician and the sorcerer do something else? And again, does not the one who receives the souls of the evil ones through the hands of the sorcerers and magicians—because they know that they make them murderers of the sons of Gehenna, and they deny God and confess to them, and they become servants to them for evil deeds and for the will of the accursed Satan, who blinds the minds of the evil ones from the truth which they do not see? But the evil spirits, the deceiving ones, have power over the evil ones by their own will, because they obey them and become their slaves, and they transgress the law of God and do not keep his commandments, and they destroy their members, and they are tormented by them openly at times, and at times secretly. Over these, however, who obey them, the rulers alone have power, as Paul said: “Until you become obedient, the authority which is his, you are slaves.” If, therefore, you wish to overcome the deceiving spirits and those evil ones who learn from them and destroy their companions through them, keep the commandments of the Lord and be strengthened in him, until you depart from this world and you go forth victorious over both worlds. But if they cut you off among evil ones, finger by finger, day by day, what then? This torment of the evil ones, which is of a brief time, you cannot endure; how then can you endure Gehenna?

It does not relieve me of my pains and my distresses, even for a little while. And the Lord departed and went to his own place. And does a man not set aside his commandment because of a fleeting health? And does a man go to that eternal affliction? The sons of Adam, then, are condemned because they learn from Satan to kill their own kind and to cast blame upon God, who gives them life. But if the Lord wished that the death of a man who does not die should be accomplished—neither by Satan nor by the sons of men—behold, they cut his body with one of the methods; the human being escapes and does not die. Behold, he stands for one hour or a day. Or else, pay attention how the sons of men strike their companions until they wound them and they do not die. And observe how they throw swords upon the sons of men. And there are times when a hundred men kill ten or twenty men; and there are times when a hundred swordsmen are unable to kill ten men, because God does not wish that their end should come on that day. These murderers, then, are guilty, and they are guilty of their blood, because it was not by their will that they escaped from them. And God does not allow evil beasts to kill human beings; rather, he wishes that their end should come by the hand of beasts.

Because it is written that your fear and your trembling cast upon destructive beasts, so that he who wishes may take his fear from the evil beasts, slaying them and destroying them for the sons of men. But whenever he wishes to harm a man and it is not in his power, he sins in his heart, because from his own side the evil was stirred up. But when, by his own will, he is restrained from evil and repents and seeks from the Lord and sheds tears before him, and passes from evil and does good, the Lord receives him and rejoices greatly over the repentant sinner, as it is written: "There shall be joy in heaven over the repentant sinner." Understand again how a man falls into pits and ditches and precipices, and from cliffs and from roofs, and how many times he swallows iron and rods and stones and does not die, because God does not wish that on that day on which he swallows them his end should be. And how many times does a man swallow a knife or a fork and bring it forth? Is it not known that it is because God wished that his end should be at that hour? And there is again one who falls upon him in the house and does not die, and there is one who falls upon him from a small fence and dies, and there is one who is thrown from a wall and does not die, and there is one who, upon a full stature, falls and escapes.

It is not known that everyone goes according to his will, as it is written: that by your will you have given days and extended them as if nothing were before you. Because of this, you need to be careful: as for the sons of men, you have freedom, and a law is set for you, and a kingdom is appointed for you, and Gehenna is prepared for you. Guard yourself and restrain your hands, so that you do not strike a human being even with a finger, lest he lose his life and his blood be avenged by your hands, and you descend to the Gehenna of fire that is never extinguished. Even if he who commits murder and kills repents and sits in mourning and prayer, in humility and self-abasement, and with tears before the Lord, He forgives him, as He forgave David when he repented and cast himself down before the Lord. For David says: "My Lord saw my toil and labor, and forgave me all my sin." And God saw the toil of his humility and the labor of his petition, and forgave him and pardoned him. Love, then, the one who loves your God, and love and honor everyone, so that you may inherit the kingdom that is appointed for you, without transgressing its boundary, or being loosed in its pleasure, or breaking its support, or dimming its crowns, or being entangled in its pride. For all your needs, then, ask of the Lord, as it is written: "The Lord heals every pain." And the speech of the lips of the wicked: that is, of sorcerers and diviners and augurs and writers of amulets and whisperers and charmers; and condemn them and hold them guilty.

But if you wish to be healed without sins, pray to the Lord and beseech him. And he will heal you from many sicknesses of the passions and of Satan. If it is necessary that in this world you be healed, in this world the Lord will heal you; otherwise, if you are healed in this world, then he will be your helper, and in that world he will anoint you, increase you, and delight you, because you have waited for his redemption until your departure from this world. Do not be hasty in the afflictions of your pains, so that because of the health of your body you go and kill yourself. Or whether your body is healed or not, it is better for you to endure a little affliction of a short time and not go to that affliction which has no end. And it may be that your body is healed by those deceivers, you do not know. For your soul is sick: the sickness that will remain until the day of judgment, and then your guilt will be complete, because you fled from pains and afflictions of a short time, and you went to the affliction from which it is impossible to escape, because you transgressed the commandment of God? But if you have a sickness and you have a physician, ask him thus: Are you a magician or a sorcerer, or one of those who turn in the teaching of the vain doctrine of error? The Lord who judges those who go to his judgment testifies against you: if you bring me some softness, but simply in the name of Jesus, and if not, do not bring it to me.

he permits you to be healed in the name of Yeshuʿ, and he draws near to you. But if it is thus, he counsels you to those who kill the flesh of the poor and the flesh of the foolish, that they might be able to subdue his power. Otherwise, their dwelling is in a house of tombs until the Lord heals him or casts him down, so that you do not die with the physicians and because of the destruction of today, tomorrow the destroyer destroys, or the passer-by passes. You go and share with the cutters, and you do not resemble the ancients who sought from the Lord until something was found that they had lost. Otherwise, something was found that they had lost. Otherwise, it was found. Again, they were praising the Lord, that he gives and he takes, as Job said in all his afflictions and pains, and the shaving of his hair and the troubles of his body, that the Lord gives and the Lord takes. Let the name of the Lord be blessed. And he endured the blows of his body until the Lord healed him and saved him. And the Lord wrote the praises of Job and placed them before the whole world, that in him you may be likened when you do your hair, and when your bodies are pained, and when you die in your lifetime, that you may take from the Lord like him, and praise his name as Job praised. Because the desire of equality brings a hundred evils: you go and kill one another, and you do not resemble the ancients who led their sheep from their mouths and did not sin.

and not when they took the measure of the water-clock from the well of waters, but they approached the place where they had agreed with you on the difficult and the satanic, and they did not agree and did not fall from the faith, and what they were able to do they did not do to others, and what they loved here they did to everyone. What does this pairing of today resemble that earlier pairing? And it is not fitting for the faithful to sing to sin and to dance before Satan. And with kitharas and citharas and flutes and rebecs and cymbals and qarnāthā and ṣapūryāthā and syrinxes and everything that is played, God gave to the children of men, because they were not sufficient to sing with kitharas and citharas of the spirit. And because they did not know the truth, he gave them instruments that are seen, that they might sing with them to God in spiritual songs. Because they did not know that they should praise his name with their members, that they might know what are the instruments of the service and song of the spirit. For this reason, in place of the songs of Satan, he gave them songs of the spirit, with which they might sing with everything that is played and not sin. Woe to the faithful that they should act as the world acts. For behold, the saints do not even sing to God with these instruments. As if they do not fear those who take his body and his blood, the Redeemer, that they serve secretly to hidden idols? And they do not know the sin that the idols of our fathers uprooted sin, and their laws did not uproot it.

When God pursues every foul speech, that which is spoken through the mouth of one who takes his body and his like, and says, "You loved the little one and did the filthy deed," does God care? How then will you give him an answer? How then will you bring in arguments, foul words, and false songs, and lying melodies? Sins, how will they come to you, or garments? But sins and companionships. Therefore, pass from these without being condemned along with the world. Also, God gave you a simple medicine: that you pour oil and wine upon your wounds, as your Lord said who worships him; or a plaster and honey; or a fig poultice, as Isaiah said; or roots that heal you, which are good for the eyes, as Bar Sira said; or a wise man who cuts your pains and your swellings with a knife, for not everyone knows how to cut the body, because of the nerves, lest he cause a wound; but when he has learned how to cut, and when a bone is broken, he knows whether it has distressed him or will take it away. These things God gave knowledge to mankind to do for one another, because God gave you pains on the day you transgressed his commandment, as it is written: that the multitude of your years are toil and pains. This service is given to you who wishes to be a physician. Serve and do not sin and fall from medicine, as your father Adam fell from perfection.

Beware also of pains: that you not strike blows and bruises, that you not share in sin with those who serve idols. He also gave you knowledge, the Creator, on the day of sin that he made for you a covering and made for you hidden skins for winter. And what kinds of wood and what kinds of pain and iron was your service in poverty, and you erred in sin and in labors and in forms that are not sought. And that you not do your work in its time, from summer and in winter you will rest and work for your Lord and know his truth: behold, I have enslaved you so that you may become rich in summer and in winter because of the commandment and for something not urgent: that you not know anything and go to the house of the living. And you are not reminded of the Lord and his law, not even in the churches. In falsehood you eat and are not satisfied, and you run to a fixed snare and nothing remains for you, as the prophet said. For why did the first generation not do thus? Did they not stand like you? Or did they not take wives, or did they not eat and drink wine like you? And is it not written that they perished like you? Or do you not know that because they sang and danced in the days of Moses, and did not praise him who satisfied you from his good things, after your meal the Lord gathered you in the wilderness, because they erred and sang to sin and the limbs of their corpses? Or do you not know that because of your rebellion these things were written: that the Lord does not spare you at any time?

Behold, you have Moses and the prophets: hear them and do. Otherwise, Gehenna is prepared for you, as it is said: like the one who said to that wicked rich man who did not keep the law and the prophets during his life. And when he went and was scattered, he knew that he could have kept these commandments if he had wished, and his word makes known: that he sent and said to his brothers: "If you wish, you can avoid this affliction." He concealed from you, for I would have kept silent, but I would have been able to keep. But he went and said to you from the dead: "Thus is the father distressed, and he does not rejoice as I rejoiced, and he is delivered from Gehenna." You have now this law, that you do not even wish to hear, to hear it daily and learn it. Lest now this God of now is not the one from the beginning, or do these evil deeds not avail? Or because he prolongs his spirit and does not kill you as he did those: do you not know that in Gehenna he prepares all of you, as for that wicked rich man? And all that he promises, because the time of the judgment of your account has approached. Why do you not fast two days a week as is written for the priests? For the perfect fast every day. And why do you not pray three times a day, in the morning and in the evening, as is written for the priests? For the perfect praise him all day long.

And why do they not keep the law of God and do righteous deeds, and pray to him as it is written for the upright? The perfect ones, however, all their days, they perform stations and pray earnestly before the Lord. But when the day of the week came, because righteousness was not learned in it, the sin that is spoken of was sold to them: "He neglected his work." And when the time of prayer came, because they did not worship the Creator, they said, "Our journeys have destroyed us." And those who wish to depart from the world and be perfected, why do they not perform the stations of the weeks, and fast, and pray, and learn the truth, and humble themselves, and after a little while perform the stations of the months? And then the times and the hours, until they are strengthened and raised up, entirely from the earth, and become in heaven, and there pray and minister before the Lord, and not below on the earth. Thus God desires that they act in life, each one according to the rank in which he stands. And that they adorn one another and love their Creator. What is possible in patience and in clothing, adorn for the one who is in need; and whoever wishes to leave all that is and come to perfection, his brother is that of the Lord, and in him he desires good more than thousands and myriads. And whoever does not come to this gift, let him remain in this uprightness which the Lord commands, and not do evil, and let him not fall even from uprightness and be condemned.

For God desires that all people live, for this reason he gave great and small commandments, so that each person might run according to his strength. In the great ones, then, there is a perfect life, and in the small ones there is a righteous life. The Lord says, “A righteous person does not desire the death of sinners.” For if he desired their death, he would not have established a great and small law. Otherwise, they would not be able to come to the great law and be perfected, nor would they live according to the small one and not perish. The end of Memra 7: On the Commandments of the Upright and the Righteous.