Midrash su Proverbi 22:6

R. Chisda lauded the greatness of R. Hamnuna before R. Huna. R. Huna said unto R. Chisda: "When you get hold of him, bring him to me." When R. Hamnuna visited him, R. Huna noticed that he did not, wear a marriage cloak. "Why do you not wear the marriage cloak?" asked R. Huna of him. "Because I am not married yet," came the reply. Whereupon R. Huna turned his face away, saying to him: "Thou shalt not see my face until thou shalt marry." R. Huna adheres to his own opinion, for he says: "If one is twenty years old and does not marry, all his days will he spent in sins." How is it possible to think that he will spend his days in sins? Say, therefore, that he will spend his days in thinking of committing sins. Said Raba: And so also are we taught in the school of R. Ishmael: "Until the age of twenty, the Holy One, praised be He, sits and waits for a man to become married; as soon as one reaches the age of twenty and does not marry. He says: 'The man who does not marry, may his bones decay.' " R. Chisda said": "The reason that 1 am smarter than my associates is because I have married at the age of sixteen, and had I married at the age of fourteen (Fol. 30) I would have said unto Satan, 'I defy thee.' " Raba said unto R. Nathan b. Ami: "While your hand is capable to take hold of the neck of thy son (while he listens to you), from sixteen to twenty-two years, and according to others from eighteen to twenty-four, try to marry him off." The Tannaim of the following Baraitha differ in the above: (Prov. 22, 6) Train up a child in the way he should go. R. Juda and R. Nechemia differ in the explanation of this passage; one says that it refers to the years of sixteen to twenty-two, while the other says it refers to the years of eighteen to twenty-four.

(Gen. 19:1:) IN THE EVENING. What is the meaning of IN THE EVENING? That the Sodomites were dark like the night.⁵⁷See below, 4:21. Another interpretation: IN THE EVENING (ba'erev). The evening of Sodom had arrived.⁵⁸The midrash understands ba‘erev (“in the evening”) as two words, ‘erev (“evening”) and ba (“has come”). See Gen. R. 50:3. (Ibid., cont.:) AND LOT WAS SITTING AT THE GATE OF SODOM, as he had learned from the practice of Abraham. What is written here (in Gen. 18:2) about Abraham? WHEN HE SAW THEM HE RAN < FROM > THE DOOR OF HIS TENT TO MEET THEM < AND BOWED DOWN TO THE EARTH >. Solomon has said in (Prov. 22:6): TRAIN A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO. Because Lot had grown up in Abraham's house, he had acquired < Abraham's > moral standards. < Thus > (in Gen. 19:1, cont.): AND HE BOWED DOWN WITH HIS FACE TO THE GROUND. Just as Abraham had done, he brought them into his house. What is written (in vss. 4-5)? BEFORE THEY LAY DOWN … AND THEY CALLED UNTO LOT … < BRING THEM OUT UNTO US THAT WE MAY KNOW THEM >. The angels began to be astonished, saying: The matter has reached us! Now < there is > much on the subject < that is being passed over > merely in order not to bother you. What did they finally do? One of them rescued Lot, and one of them destroyed Sodom.⁵⁹See Gen. R. 50:2. Now perhaps you will say: He destroyed it with one of his hands. No, < it was > merely with one finger, which is one of five on the hand. Thus it is stated (in Job 28:9): HE PUT OUT HIS HAND BAHALLAMISH.⁶⁰The midrash has interpreted bahallamish (“against the hard rock”) as bahamishi (“with the fifth”). In the world to come the Holy One will heal it (i.e., Sodom);⁶¹So below, 4:22; Exod R. 15:21. and Israel will divide it up, as stated (in Ps. 60:8ff. [6ff.]): I WILL DISTRIBUTE SHECHEM < AND MEASURE OUT THE VALLEY OF SUCCOTH>….⁶²So below, 4:22. Cf. PRK 29(suppl. 2):3. According to Gen. R. 42:5, the valley of Succoth is identified with the valley of Siddim at the Dead Sea (Gen. 14:3).

(Gen. 19:1:) AND LOT WAS SITTING AT THE GATE OF SODOM.⁸²Gen. R. 50:3. The written text has SAT (with a vowel letter missing from the Hebrew). There were five judges in Sodom. Now Lot was inferior to all of them, but they had him sit among them, for such is the written text: AND LOT SAT AT THE GATE OF SODOM.⁸³In other words, the written text refers, not to Lot’s continuing to sit at the gate, but to his taking his seat as judge there. (Prov. 22:6:) TRAIN A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO. Since < Lot > had grown up in Abraham's house and had seen him receive travelers, he had learned from him. He therefore brought the angels home with him. What is written there (in Gen. 19:4)? BEFORE THEY HAD LAIN DOWN, < THE MEN OF THE CITY, THE MEN OF SODOM, HAD SURROUNDED THE HOUSE >…. The angels began to be astonished, saying: This matter has reached even us! Lot said to the angels: What have you come here to do? They said to him (in Gen. 19:13): FOR WE ARE DESTROYING < THIS PLACE >.⁸⁴Gen. R. 19:9; 68:2. They revealed their mysterion⁸⁵The word is Greek. {i.e., secret} to him. For that reason they were banished one hundred and thirty-eight years from their precincts. R. Tanhuma said one hundred and thirty years according to the number of the sacred ladder < as reckoned > by gematria.⁸⁶Gk.: geometria or grammateis. The sacred ladder, seen in Jacob’s dream, bridged heaven and earth. The Hebrew word for “ladder” is SLM. By gematria S = 60, L = 30, and M = 40, for a total of 130.