ור"ש האי שופטיך מאי עביד ליה ההוא מיבעי ליה למיוחדין שבשופטיך ור' יהודה מזקני זקניך נפקא
When the Rabbis ordained R. Ammi and R. Assi, they sang thus of them: Only such men, only such men ordain ye for us, but ordain not for us any of the 'sarmitin' and 'sarmisin', or as some say, 'hamisin' or 'termisin'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Interpretations of these words are varied. Jastrow says that it was a jest at Talmudic scholars using foreign words, and translates: Do not ordain for us any of those using words like 'sermis' (semis), 'sermit', (prob. distortion of 'tremis') 'hemis' and 'tremis'. Krupnik-Silberman translate, 'superficial scholars' (halbwisser). Dalman suggests, 'half-wits' and 'third-wits' (idiots and madmen).
');"><sup>24</sup></span> When R. Abbahu arrived at the Emperor's Court<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' At Caesarea where his academy was.
');"><sup>25</sup></span>
Shemirat HaLashon
This, too, shall he see [to do]. Not to take upon himself any appointments, if not for mitzvah matters. For [if he does] he is very likely to stumble into the sin of lashon hara. And he should fulfill in himself the dictum of Chazal (Sanhedrin 14a): "Be lowly and live." In general, one who wishes to be "complete" in his ways should avoid the company of men as much as he can. And even if he is a businessman, who sometimes must meet with men who are not reputable at all, to do business with them, still, so long as it is not absolutely essential to join them, he should distance himself from them.
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Shenei Luchot HaBerit
According to the Kabbalists the Heavenly objective was to wipe out the residual guilt of the brothers which had not been atoned for when they sold Joseph. We can find numerous allusions in our פרשה, which relate to the manner in which these Ten Martyrs were killed. According to tradition, Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava had three hundred לונכיות, lances, stuck into his body. The word ויתנכלו להמיתו, in 37, 18 is an allusion to this; the letters are simply a re-arrangement of the word לונכיות.
