LEV209 Elisha b. Abuyah, a contemporary of R. Akiba and R. Tarfon, is chiefly remembered as the scholar who eventually became an apostate. Nevertheless, his accepted teachings are duly recorded in the Talmud: "A man who has good deeds to his credit and has also studied much Torah, is like one who builds a structure and lays stones below it as its foundation, and clay bricks above it for the structure. Then even should much water collect, the building will not wash away. But a man who has no good deeds to his credit, though he has also studied much Torah, is like one who builds a structure and lays down a foundation of clay bricks and puts the stones above that. Then even a little water will undermine the building" (Avot deRabbi Natan 24). Using language that belies the timidity we often associated with mystics, the thirteenth-century Franco-German adept, Judah the Pious, boldly states: "Better is a little done out of awe for God than a pack of rascals who sits all day studying but does not do much else" (Judah Hehasid, Sefer Hasidim, 17). For "doing Torah" forms the basis of Jewish character, shaping our lives by guiding our actions: [this and preceding verse]. The next chapter in Leviticus deals with stealing and defrauding, with respecting laborers, not taking advantage of the deaf or blind, showing no partiality in a court of law, and calling for love, not grudges, between neighbors. These injunctions are not solely for analysis or intellectual musing. They demand doing. "Wherever you go, mitzvot accompany you. 'When you build a new house, make a railing for your roof' (Deuteronomy 22:8). When you make a door for it, a mitzvah accompanies you. 'And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house' (Deuteronomy 6:9) When you go to cut your hair, a mitzvah accompanies you. 'Do not round off the corners of your head' (Leviticus 19:27). And so with plowing, sowing, and harvesting, and so with everything! (Deuteronomy R. 6:3). Nahmanides, the great medieval Spanish commentator, directs us to learn so as to observe mitzvot: "Take care to study Torah always so that you will be able to fulfill its commands. When you rise from study, ponder carefully what you have learned; see what there is in it which you can put into practice" (Letter of Nahmanides in Feuer, A Letter for the Ages). (Continued at [[EXOD191]] Exodus 13:19 bones BOROJMV 258-9.)