What avails it to refrain oneself, and who can refrain himself from speaking? Who shall comfort us in the grief of our heart, even though Ithiel and Ucal[199] stood before us? Shall Calcol, and Darda, and Heman[199] be able to heal the proud waters and the afflicted of the time? Unto whom of the holy ones shall we turn, and who is the faithful of the generation to bring the balsam from Gilead for the tottering foot and for the wound of long continuance? It is in the place of judgment and in the place of righteousness that we have seen many cracks, but there is none to repair the breaches. O land, land, land, where the men of renown were born, in whose midst was the Law of God, and upon whose heart was the breastplate of judgment; there thrones for judgment had been set, attended by the holy seed, the judge and the litigant. And even up till this day all the congregation, with the exception of a few men, are holy; they are the elect of the congregation, and because of their excellence are chiefs over all the people. But their children who arise after them have created a waster to destroy; and as a band of prophets, with harp and lute, they go about the city, and pursue vanity. When they spoke their fearful words, they thought that they were exalted in Israel; and at the head of every street they said concerning false gods: ‘These are thy gods, O Israel.’ It is now some time since our attention has been drawn by people from the land of Provence, the chosen remnant, who were jealous for the faith of Moses and the Jews, to the fact that there are men there who falsify the Law, and that he is regarded wise who sits down to demolish the walls and who destroys the words of the Law. They hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, and they impute unto the words of the Law and the words of the sages things which are not right. Concerning the two Laws they expound in the synagogues and in the houses of study words by which none can live. To provoke the eyes of the Glory of all Israel they break down all the fences of the Law; and even against our holy fathers they put forth their tongue, a thing which the worshippers of idols have not done. For they say that Abraham and Sarah represent matter and form, and that the twelve tribes of Israel are the twelve constellations. Has a nation ever heard such an evil thing since the world was divided into territories? Or has such a thing ever been heard, that men should reduce everything to chaos? The blasphemers of God further say that the holy vessels which were sanctified, the Urim and the Thummin, are the instrument known as astrolabe, which men make for themselves. Have such false children ever been found before? They in truth bite the people more dangerously than do the fiery serpents. Without any benefit and without any cause they commit the sin of slander, and say that the four who fought against the five[200] are the four elements and the five senses. May the souls of