60
CHRISTIANITY IN TALMUD
to refuse. He who does not refuse is like food
without salt. He who refuses too much is like food
of which the salt has burnt (or spoiled) it.' " The
meaning of this is clear. One who refuses too much
is
open to the suspicion of heresy,
and he is like food
that is spoiled or burnt by too much salt. The point
of the comparison may perhaps be that as too much
salt spoils good food, so the disciple, by too much
self-will and conceit in his own wisdom, spoils the
sound teaching that is given to him, which would
have been his mental food.' When, therefore, it is
said a son or disciple who burns his food," that
means
11
one who is open to the suspicion of heresy."
It has already been mentioned that the phrase,
a son or disciple who burns his food' occurs in two
passages, b. Ber. 17b, and b. Sanh. 1038 (translated
above). In the former, the Gemara, in an exposition
of Ps. cxliv. 14: 1 There is no breaking in and no
going forth, and no outcry in the streets,'
says :
There is no breaking in,'
that our company be not
as the company of David from which Ahitophel went
out, and
' there is no going forth'
that our company
be not as the company of Saul, from which Doeg,
the Edomite, went forth, and
' no outcry,'
that our
company be not as the company of Elisha from which
Gehazi went out, and
' in our streets'
that there be
not to us a son or disciple who burns his food in
public like Jeshu the Nazarene.2 Now we shall see,
1 With this figurative meaning of 'salt,' denoting 'independence of
mind,' may be compared Mark ix. 49, 50,
"For every one shall be
salted
with fire. . .
Have salt in yourselves.
. "
2
The printed text does not mention ' Jeshu ha-Notzri.' The reading,
however, is found in all the older editions and the MSS. See Rabbinowicz
on the passage. Note that this exposition of the Psalm is said to have been
 |  |  |