Toseftá sobre Provérbios 10:7

Agadim ben Levi knew a chapter of song and did not want to impart his knowledge [to others] (see Yoma 3:11). The Sages said to him, "What did you see that you did not want to impart your knowledge?" He said to them, "It was known in the house of my fathers that in the future the Holy Temple would be destroyed, and they did not want to impart their knowledge, so that [songs would not be] recited before objects of idolatry in the same way that they are recited before the Place." Ben Kamtzar knew the art of writing and did not want to impart his knowledge [to others]. They said to him, "What did you say that you did not want to impart these things to them?" [As to all of the aforementioned,] they found an answer to the words of the [Sages], [but] Ben Kamtzar [and his associates] did not find an answer to their words. The sought to increase their honor and to diminish the honor of Heaven; therefore, their honor was diminished and the honor of Heaven was increased. And there is not found among them a good name or a good remembrance. On the first ones, it is said (Prov. 10:7), "The righteous is remembered for a blessing," and on these ones, it is said (ibid.), "And the name of the wicked shall rot."

What is the meaning of the "children of Salmai, the Netophatite"?^*בני סלמאי הנטופתי. Per Lieberman, this refers to the genealogical list at I Chron. 2:54, "The children of Salma: Bethlehem, the Netophatites, etc." (בני שלמא בית לחם ונטופתי). But note the different orthography (סלמאי vs. שלמא). Also notably, while the previous Tosefta (expounding on the "children of the pestle-stealers" and "children of the fig-cutters") relates directly to families who are identified in the Mishnah as being designated to bring the wood offering, the "children of Salmai" are not referenced. It was at the time that the kings of Greece stationed border guards on the roads so that [the pilgrims] would not ascend to Jerusalem, in the same way that Jeroboam ben Nebat had stationed them. Whoever was sin-fearing and fit [to enter the Temple] in that generation would bring two logs of wood and fashion them into a type of ladder (sulam), and place them on his shoulder, and ascend. When he arrived to that same guard-post, he said to him, "Where are you going?" He said, "To take two doves from that dovecote over there that is before me, with this ladder that is on my shoulder." As soon as he passed that same guard-post, he broke up [the logs of wood] and brought them up to Jerusalem, and according to how they delivered themselves on account of the Torah and on account of the commandments, therefore it turned out that they had a good name and a good remembrance for all time. And about them it says (Prov. 10:7), "The memory of the righteous shall be for a blessing," and about Jeroboam ben Nebat and his colleagues it says (ibid.), "And the name of the wicked shall rot."