Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Midrash for Sanhedrin 200:3

רבי עקיבא אומר אף הקורא בספרים החיצונים וכו': תנא בספרי מינים רב יוסף אמר בספר בן סירא נמי אסור למיקרי א"ל אביי מאי טעמא אילימא משום דכתב [ביה] לא תינטוש גילדנא מאודניה דלא ליזיל משכיה לחבלא אלא צלי יתיה בנורא ואיכול ביה תרתין גריצים

— But just as the Holy One, blessed be He, gives the wicked the strength to receive punishment, so does he give the righteous the capacity to receive reward.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., in both cases they are endowed with abnormal receptiveness. ');"><sup>5</sup></span> R. AKIBA SAID: ALSO <font>HE WHO READS UNCANONICAL BOOKS</font> etc. A Tanna taught: <font>[This means], the books of the Sadducees</font>.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This probably refers to the works of the Judeo-Christians, i.e., the New Testament. There were no Sadducees after the destruction of the Temple, and so 'Sadducees' is probably a censor's emendation for sectarians or Gentiles (Herford, Christianity in the Talmud, p. 333.) [MS.M. reads, Minim.] ');"><sup>6</sup></span>

Otzar Midrashim

The Alphabet is apparently the work of a late author who pored over the book of Ben Sira and selected from it several sayings and several other things that were said in his name in the Aramaic language which was then the common language among the masses, and organized them alphabetically as a mnemonic aid. And after him came a second author who made a second alphabet, in the Holy Tongue, because he found some Talmudic and Midrashic content, and appended it to them in order to complete the alphabet. And after him came a third author, and appended to these a commentary
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