Musar su Proverbi 20:11

This too did Solomon say: "Even a child is known by his doing, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right" (Prov. 20:11). This verse was said concerning the ability of the young to distinguish values, for their qualities or traits can be recognized in their youth. You can discern in some youths the quality of modesty and embarrassment, while in others impudence is apparent, and some incline themselves toward lust while some incline themselves towards good qualities. And know concerning all the qualities that you see in a man in the days of young manhood and in old age that they were there in the days of his childhood and dawning youth, except that in those days he did not have the strength to show them and to exhibit them in deeds. And as for the youths with whom folly has become great, it is still possible for a man to swerve them to the good path, for it is easy for youth to learn and they have not the strength or the wisdom to depart or to flee from beneath the hand of the one that corrects them, and so they must bear it. But in the days of old age, people cannot be swerved from their paths easily or from those traits which were in them in the days of their youth. And they are like a silver tray that was hidden in the soil and became coated with a thick tarnish during the long time that it was hidden there. Such silver needs to be polished and repolished until the silver returns to its original beautiful appearance. Thus is it with a man who has followed his own way and his habit and has become deeply sunk in the depths of inferior qualities, it becomes necessary to polish his intelligence so that he can distinguish between that which is unclean and that which is clean and to continue this task until the good qualities are impressed and bound in his heart.

Know thou that all the qualities of man, of the possession of which he gives evidence at the period of his youth and manhood, are in him during his infancy and boyhood: though it be not in his power to manifest them, they are nevertheless within him in potential, (if) not in actu. Thou wilt observe that in some boys the quality of prudency manifests itself, and in others impudence; some incline to enjoyment, others aspire to virtue, and still others are disposed to vices; these qualities above mentioned and others similar to them being among those of the animal soul; and when men reach unto the stage of maturity, the strength of the rational soul displays its activity and it directs him that possesses it to a proper understanding with regard to the improvement of the qualities, since it is not the practice of the animal soul to improve these. Now in addition to this proposition being susceptible of proof, it has been handed down to us by tradition in the words of the Saint (Prov. xx. 11), "Even a child is known by his doings." As to the youths whom baseness overcomes, it is possible to transform them into a noble state as long as the limits of childhood have not been passed; but if they overstep the boundaries of youth and reach maturity, and continue to remain in this condition, it becomes difficult to set them along a good course, just as a sprig may be made to stand erect before it is full grown; but when it has become a tree, it is difficult to bend or move it. From this thou seest that most men when they have reached maturity cannot be turned aside from the course which in their youth they pursued, whereas most men can be directed between the periods of childhood and youth unto good habits.¹Rosin ("Maimonides," p. 5, note 4, and p. 65, note 3) suggests the following parallels: "Ueber die ethische Bildungsfahigkeit der Jugend," "Arist., N. E., ii. 2, im Xamen Plato's nach dessen De Leg. ii.; aber auch Aristot. ohne Nennung Plato's, N. E. ii. i. Schl. und x. 10; dazu vgl. Maim, zu Abot i. 14." This is the simple meaning of (Prov. xxii. 6), "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old," etc.