re: ‘If You Don’t Work, You…’

To be clear, yesterday’s title was not referencing the “Nude Testament”, God forbid and forfend, but rather Chazal, as shown earlier.

As Mendelsohn is reputed to have remarked upon being pressured by a non-Jewish acquaintance (Bishop?) into reading the Cursedian’s fake bible for himself:

Well, it has much that is valuable, and much that is novel, too. But… What’s novel about it isn’t any good. And what is good isn’t original to it.


As I wrote there:

Wikipedia ignorantly claims the saying “He who does not work, neither shall he eat” originated from Paul the meshumad, later cited by John Smith in Jamestown, Virginia, and by Lenin during the Russian Revolution.

Actually, the expression comes from holy Chazal in Medrash Rabba (Bereishis Rabba 14:10, Koheles Rabba 2:23, Eicha Rabba 1:43).

Here’s a composite:

ויהי האדם לנפש חיה, …ר’ הונא אמר, עשאו עבד מכודן בפני עצמו, דאי לא לעי לא נגיס. הוא דעתיה דר’ חנינא, דאמר ר’ חנינא, נתנני ה’ בידי לא אוכל קום. בידי לא אוכל קום, אי לא לעי ביממא בלילא לא אוכל קום.

Continue reading elsewhere…