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Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:27 AM At the end of the fifth chapter of Massechet Derekh Eretz Rabbah, we read: Let all men be forever considered thieves in your eyes and yet respect them as Rabban Gamliel did. The story is told of Rabbi Yehoshua: a man presented himself before him and he gave him food and drink and brought him up to the roof to lie down. He took away the ladder from beneath him. What did that man do, but get up in the middle of the night and take valuables and enfold them in his garment? When he sought to get down, he fell from the roof and his neck was broken. In the morning, Rabbi Yehoshua arose and came and found him fallen. He said to him, 'Scoundrel, is this how people like you behave?' He said to him, 'Rabbi, I didn't know that you took away the ladder from beneath me.' He said to him, 'Scoundrel, don't you know that as of last night we were suspicious of you?' Hence Rabbi Yehoshua (son of Levi) said, 'Let all men be forever considered thieves in your eyes, but respect them as Rabban Gamliel did.' Cordially, Howard Marblestone
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