Note 153 — Chapter I · HEBREW WISDOM, ITS NATURE, SCOPE, AND IMPORTANCE.

Ewald infers from xvii. 16 that even in early times it was customary to fee the ‘wise men’ for their advice (comp. Saul and Samuel). At a later time Sirach says, ‘Buy (instruction) for yourselves without money’ (Ecclus. li. 25, but comp. 28). The Rabbis were not allowed to receive fees from their pupils. R. Zadok said, ‘Make not (the Tora) a crown to glory in, nor an axe to live by’ (Pirke Aboth, iv. 9). So the Moslem teachers at the great Cairo ‘university’ (el Azhar).