잠언 27:2의 인용 해설

The Talmud says in tractate Nedarim. Scripture says here, “your servant has served the Lord” [18:12]. It says that Obadiah boasted that he was righteous. How appropriate is it that a righteous person should praise himself? It is written, “let the mouth of another praise you, not yours” [Proverbs, 27:2]. That is to say, let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth. The explanation is that in the city where a person is known, he should not praise himself. However, in the city where he is not known, he can make himself known, hoping to protect himself from death. This is what Obadiah did. He said before Elijah that he had done acts of lovingkindness for the prophets, in the expectation that he would be saved from death. One asks a question. Rabbi Tarfon was very anguished. Someone wanted to throw him in the water because he had eaten fruit from a garden. The owner came and did not recognize that this was Rabbi Tarfon. He put him in a sack in order to throw him into a large body of water. Rabbi Tarfon shouted, woe to Rabbi Tarfon that someone is trying to kill you. The owner immediately let him go. Rabbi Tarfon was very anguished all of his days that he had benefited from the Torah in this world. He was protected from death because he had said that he was Tarfon. Here one can ask. Did Obadiah boast that he had done acts of lovingkindness for the prophets and did he intend to protect himself on account of the acts of lovingkindness? Also, why was Rabbi Tarfon so troubled? The answer is that Rabbi Tarfon was a communal leader. He did not need to say that he was Tarfon. He could have given a large sum of money to save himself from death and did not need to say that he was Rabbi Tarfon. That is why Rabbi Tarfon was very anguished.⁵B. Nedarim, 62a; Yalkut Shimoni, I Kings, Remez, 212.