ANTIGONUS of Socho said: Be not like servants basely bred, Who to their master minister In hope of gift he may confer. But be you like those servants still, Who strive to do their master's will Without a thought of guerdon given, And be on you the fear of Heaven. And this did Rabbi Tarphon say: The work is great and short the day, Sluggish the labourers, their Lord Urgent, but mighty the reward. He also said: 'Tis not on thee Incumbent, that thou shouldest end The work, but neither art thou free To cease from it. If thou dost spend Much time in studying the divine Torah, much guerdon shall be thine, For faithful thine employer is To pay thee for thy labour's sum, And know thou that the righteous is Rewarded in the time to come. And Rabbi Jacob said of old: Do thou this world of ours behold As though a vestibule it were Into the world to come. Prepare Thyself the Vestibule within, That thou the hall may'st enter in. And further thus his saying reads: One hour's repentance and good deeds In this world better is than all The world to come, but yet withal In yonder world one hour of bliss Is better than all life in this. |