Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one

A golem
On a totally unrelated web search, I stumbled upon the term "golem" in some white paper. Inappropriate usage (why confuse your reader with unfamiliar terminology?? - don't get me started!!). Anyway, I initially thought "Gollum" but decided to look into it anyway.

Psalm 139:16 mentions the term golem - my unformed body. Means my light form, raw material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah (in the Hebrew bible) also relates the characteristics of an "unformed" person (dumb, helpless, uncultivated) as compared to a fully formed, learned, cultivated person.

A learned person:
(1) does not begin speaking before one who is greater than
      he in wisdom or in years
(2) does not interrupt the words of his fellow
(3) does not answer impetuously
(4) questions with relevance to the subject and replies accurately
(5) discusses first things first and last things last
(6) about something he has not heard he says, “I have not heard”
(7) acknowledges the truth.

Characteristics that we could all stand to adopt?

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