Wise Counsel: Selected verses from the Book of ben Sira for a Seliḥot Service by Paltiel Birnbaum

Contributor(s):

Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

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11 July 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Second Temple Period

Tags:

wisdom, Cairo Geniza, מוסר mussar, 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., Classical Antiquity, deuterocanonical works, Ecclesiasticus, Jews of Alexandria

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
	^1:20 Reverence for the Lord is the root of wisdom, And the branches of wisdom are long life.
	^1:30 Do not exalt yourself, or you may fall And bring disgrace upon yourself.
	^3:3 He who provides for his father atones for his sins; He who honors his mother is like one who gathers treasure.
בני התחזק בכבוד אביך ואל תעזבהו כל ימי חייך׃	^3:12 My child, help your father in his old age; Do not grieve him as long as he lives.
אש לוהטת יכבו מים כן צדקה תכפר חטאת׃	^3:30 As water will quench a blazing fire, So kindliness will atone for sin.
בני אל תלעג לחיי עני ואל תדאיב נפש עני ומר נפׄש׃	^4:1 My child, do not defraud the poor of their living; Do not make the eyes of the needy wait long.
דָוֶה^[1] או “רֹוֶוה” נפש חסירה אל תפוח ואל תתעלם מִמְּדֻכְדָּך֯ נפש׃	^4:2 Do not pain a hungry heart; Do not anger a man in distress.
הט לעני אזנך והשיבהו שלום בענוה׃	^4:8 Listen to what a poor man has to say, And give him a peaceful and gentle answer.
אל תאחר לשוב אליו ואל תתעבר מיום אל יום׃	^5:7 Do not put off turning to the Lord; Do not postpone it from day to day.
אל תקרא בעל שתים ובלשונך אל תרגל רע׃	^5:14 Do not be known as a whisperer; Do not set an ambush with your tongue.
	^18:30 Do not follow your impulses, But refrain from your longings.
אל תשמח אל שמץ תענוג אשר פי שנים רישו׃	^18:32 Do not spend a small earning for your pleasure, for that will bring a double poverty.^[2] This is the text found in C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto). Birnbaum’s 18:32 follows most English editions of Ecclesiasticus: “Do not indulge in too much luxury, and do not be tied to its expense.”
	^21:2 Flee from sin as from a serpent, For it will bite you when you come near it.
	^28:7 Do not be angry with your neighbor, And overlook men’s ignorance.
	^28:2 Forgive your fellow man his wrongdoings, Then your sins will be forgiven when you pray.

Hebrew verses via The Book of ben Sira website. For example, ben Sira 18:32 is attested in C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto). In Ben Sira 4:2, we have followed the reading in the Maagarim Database (Thanks Isaac!).

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	או “רֹוֶוה”
2	This is the text found in C V Recto (Beentjes: C IV Recto). Birnbaum’s 18:32 follows most English editions of Ecclesiasticus: “Do not indulge in too much luxury, and do not be tied to its expense.”

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“Wise Counsel: Selected verses from the Book of ben Sira for a Seliḥot Service by Paltiel Birnbaum” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Paltiel Birnbaum (translation)

Paltiel Philip Birnbaum (1904–1988) was an American religious author and translator, best known for his translation and annotation of the prayerbook Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem ([Complete] Daily Prayer Book), first published in 1949, and widely used in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues until the late 1980s. Birnbaum was born in Kielce, Poland and emigrated to the United States in 1923. He attended Howard College and received his Ph.D. from Dropsie College. He served for several years as the principal of a Jewish day school in Wilmington, Delaware, and directed Jewish schools in Birmingham, Alabama, and Camden, New Jersey. He was a regular columnist and book reviewer for the Hebrew-language weekly, Hadoar. He also served on the board of directors of the Histadrut Ivrit b'America, an American association for the promotion of Hebrew language and culture.

Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira

Ben Sira, or Ben Sirach (Hebrew: בן סירא‬), also known as Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira (fl. 2nd century BCE) was a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, sage, and allegorist from Jerusalem. He is the author of the Book of Sirach, also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus. He wrote his work in Hebrew, possibly in Alexandria, Egypt ca. 180–175 BCE, where he is thought to have established a school.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

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Works of related interest:

💬 מזמור לבן סירא על זכות אבותינו (פרקים מד-נ)‏ | Paean of Ben Sira on the Merit of the Ancestors (ch. 44-50), vocalized and cantillated with the Poetic Masoretic System

Appendix of Psalms 51 (DSS Plate 978, Frag 1, B-314640)

💬 ילקוט מזמורים לבן סירא פרק נ״א | An Appendix of Psalms of Ben Sira chapter 51, vocalized, cantillated, and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

💬 בן סירא מב:כא-מג:לא | ben Sira 42:21-43:31, a hymn of creation translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan

לוח 4Q218-819/1, JUBILEES C באדיבות רשות העתיקות. צילום: צילה שגיב

📖 ספר היובלים | መጽሐፈ ኩፋሌ | Sefer haYovelim (the book of Jubilees, in Ge’ez)

💬 סדר מגילת אסתר עם פסוקים שנאמרו על אסתר ומרדכי | Seder Megillat Esther (with verses to be said for Esther and Mordekhai)

"Baruch writing Jeremiah's prophecies" by
Gustave Doré (1832-83) and A. Doms, engraver (1866)

Βαροὺχ | Sefer Barukh (3:9-5:8), a poem of wisdom in exile and its ultimate liberation

The Outcast (Despair) c. 1496. [Disperazione di Mardocheo La derelitta già attribuita a Sandro Botticelli)]

קרובות לתענית אסתר | Ḳerovot for Taanit Esther by Yosef ibn Abitur (ca. 10th c.) with other seliḥot arranged by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17