The Talmud gives a great number of practical good advice, and often they contain hidden spiritual lessons. These often come in lists. Here are some examples.
There are three categories of people about whom God declares His good opinion every day: a bachelor who lives in a metropolis and does not sin; a poor man who finds a lost item and returns it to its owner; a wealthy man who gives charity in private. Rav Safra was a bachelor who lived in a metropolis. When he heard this statement, his face lit up. Rava told him, “Not like you, who anyway spends days and night in the study hall, but someone like Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Oshaya.” They were cobblers in the Land of Israel and worked in a marketplace of harlots, making shoes. When the harlots would come, they would look at these Rabbis, but the Rabbis never raised their eyes at them (some version read, “The Rabbis would put shoes on the harlots’ feet.”) Whenever the harlots needed to swear, their oath was “I swear by the lives of the holy Rabbis who are in the Land of Israel.”
There are three whom God loves: one who does not get angry, one who does not get drunk, and one who is forgiving, does not insist on his rights, and does not keep the grudge.
There are three whom God hates: one who says one thing but has another in his heart; one who knows a testimony that could help his friend but does not testify; and one who sees a fellow commit an immoral act and, being the only witness, still testifies against him. The latter is because one witness cannot establish a fact, so he becomes just a talebearer and does it for his own purpose.
Art: The Village Shoemaker by David Fulton
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