Memra 11

Memra 11 — On the Reading of the Scriptures and When the Law is Read Before You. Just as the foods of the body are distinguished and known, which is good and which is bad, and which is impure and which is pure, and it is known that there are foods in which there is the poison of death, so it is necessary for you to distinguish food from foods. So also with the Scriptures: when the scribe reads, if there is something that interprets for you, well and good; if not, do not be silent, but distinguish the commandments of perfection from those of milk and honey, and gentle commandments from harsh ones, and great ones from small ones, and those that do not live in them, take what is fitting from them, from those that live, what they preserve for them. What the Law says: "Love the Lord your God more than yourself, and your neighbor as yourself," say you: "This commandment is mine." And what is said: "Eye for eye, and hate your enemy and those like them," say: "These are not mine, but of the harsh and the evil." For to the gentle, gentle commandments are set for them, so that they may become gentle and perfect, as is written above. And what David says: "I have hated your haters, O Lord," say you: "This was not mine; it was the Spirit that commanded and spoke against the haters of the Lord, that they might hear and fear and repent and live." And what is said: "Who is the man who desires life?

and be discerning in your hearing, and learn the fear of God. Guard your tongues from evil, and your lips from speaking slander. Pass over from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Be at rest from wrath and be at rest from anger. Remove the evil heart from me, and I will not know evil. Say, "These are my commandments, that a person be gentle in them and humble of spirit," and those who are like them, in all the prophets and apostles. As the apostle said, "You have chosen for yourselves those who are humble from among those who are harsh, and thus they are perfected in you." And when the apostle and the gospel are read, all these commandments are perfect, which were chosen for you from above. In them you were running, and in those like them, and you were prevented from those which are green and milk, and not to one person are they commanded. Do you wish to be perfected? Run after the great commandments. Otherwise, set your mind that you yourself place them for one person, these great and small commandments, as if you cannot keep them all together, and if you leave one, you do not keep one. And see how the words of Jesus oppose one another. And so that you may know that they are spoken to two persons, the Lord said, "Do not judge," and he said, "The shame of a person before the whole church.

If it is yours, between the two of you, on which side do you stand? If you know that it is yours, it is incumbent upon you not to transgress that great commandment; and if it is not yours, you have been warned from that commandment which stands before the whole church. Again, the Lord says: Forgive your brother seventy times seven, if he wrongs you in one day. And again he says: Consider his thoughts as sin. If for one person it is said: On which side do you stand? On that which forgives seventy times seven, or on that which considers his thoughts as sin and separates you from him? For in that which forgives, he says to you: Do not separate from your brother. And thus great and small commandments are established, because it was not said for one person, but for every person according to the power that is in him. As with that commandment: Do not mix with pagans, in that it is for everyone. These commandments, therefore, do not judge a person, but for every person they show the powers that are said. For these, it is said that the powers of the sickness of the weak are guilty: take and every day serve between you, and between you walk humbly. And these small ones, said for youths and for the lesser ones who are trained in your conduct, as Paul said: For one whose mind is weak, his conduct is much trained; when he sees one whose mind is strong, when he eats with pagans and rebukes them, as you have conducted yourselves before the Lord.

just as the Jews were being reproached in Jesus, that he receives sinners and eats with them. For the pure, nothing that is pure is for them; but he whose heart is pure from Satan does not think evil about anyone, but only good things. But he whose thought is mixed with Satan thinks impurity about all people. Again, he commanded the healthy that they should not be a burden to the sick until they are healed, and otherwise they would die and cause you to sin through the Messiah who died for your sake. And again, the apostle said to the healthy: consider every person as better than yourselves. And to the beginner he said: do not eat with pagans, because you have not done as they have, in the sacrifice of the one who strayed from the truth. Under which of these commandments does the one who says that they are spoken to one person stand? To the great or to the small? The great is this: humble yourself and consider your brother as better than yourself. And the small is this: do not eat with pagans. If you keep the great, you receive blessing from God. And if you stand by the small, the multitude of the world becomes impure in your eyes. Also, Satan makes the pure impure in your eyes, by your giving him a place to rule over you. If, therefore, you keep the great commandment, you rise above the small. And if you stand by the small, you fall away from the great.

Again he says: that he be all with all, and that he not mix with the fornicators, for that great commandment is contrary to that small one. The great one says: that he be all with all and not judge anyone. And the small one says: that he flee from the sick and go to the healthy. For he said that the sick person is not to be despised. All the sick are sent to the healthy, and the healthy to the sick, as it is fitting for the healthy to take upon themselves the sickness of the sick. To one who is unable to teach even himself, he says: Do not go to the sick, but to the healthy, so that the sick do not go one to another and become worse, for there is no one to comfort them. If, therefore, a person does not distinguish because of what is said, they neither help nor are helped. Well, then, the Spirit wrote, while the sick were not aware that they were being helped, and the one who is healthy knows which commandment is his. And because the Lord said: that whoever abandons one of these small commandments and teaches the people, he will be called lesser. You do not begin to abandon these small commandments and stand in the great ones; you begin to abandon that small commandment and stand in the great one. What does it matter what kind of person a man is, because the milk of infants does not curdle? Does he then abolish the milk? Far from it. The infants curdle, and he does not approach the milk.

Also the milk of the Spirit: when it is lacking and comes to something greater than milk, thus for the true food of these, who by force are compelled to understand and to distinguish the service above from that below. As for the children, I gave you milk in Christ. Now I bring you to the true food: that is, from the small commandments to the great. And just as milk is for a man a preparation for him to be weaned, and for a child it is a preparation for bread, so the small commandment is the opposite of perfection. For never will a person be healed from that one who spreads a snare for his brother before the church and considers him as a pagan, and does not attain perfection; but he approaches that one who forgave him seventy times seven, and considers him as better than himself. End of Memra 11 on the meaning of the holy scriptures.