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Article: The teaching of Ben Zoma.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- January 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1.
You, my friend -- a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens -- are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul.(1)
IN THESE WORDS, SOCRATES DESCRIBES THE manner in which he would approach his fellow citizens in order to exhort them to the right of way of life.
In a similar vein, Plato, in The Republic, refers to "three classes of men -- lovers of wisdom, lovers of honour, lovers of gain,"(2) and extols life devoted to the pursuit of wisdom as the best; life dedicated to the quest of honour as second in worth; ...