Page:Hebrew tales; selected and translated from the writings of the ancient Hebrew sages (1917).djvu/88

 torments of Gehinnom." —"And do you," resumed the general, "call this a merit? I should rather call it a demerit; nay, a crime, for which you well deserve the punishment of Gehinnom. For, suppose a king were angry with one of his slaves, and ordered him into prison, there to be kept without either meat or drink; would not the king have just reason to be displeased with any one who should dare to supply the prisoner with either?" "Suppose, rather," said the Rabbi, "that the king's displeasure were to fall on one of his own sons, and that in the moment of anger he were to order him into confinement, there to be kept without food; think you the king would be angry if any of his subjects, out of loyalty to the father, were to relieve the distress of the son? Would he not rather reward them for it? Besides,—it is even the will of God that we should relieve the poor: for thus he has declared by his prophet Isaiah, 'O break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the distressed poor into thy house.'—There must, therefore, be a merit in relieving them."

Baba Batra, 10a.