Till ten generations have passed speak thou not contemptuously of the Gentiles in the hearing of a proselyte.
The ten tribes will never be restored, for it is said (Deut. xxiii. 28), "God cast them into another land, as it is this day." As this day passes away without return, so also they have passed away never more to return. So says Rabbi Akiva, but Rabbi Eleazar says, "'As it is this day' implies that, as the day darkens and lightens up again, so the ten tribes now in darkness shall in the future be restored to light." The Rabbis have thus taught that the ten tribes will have no portion in the world to come; for it is said (Deut. xxix. 28), "And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation." "And he rooted them out of their land," that is, from this world, "and cast them into another land," that is, the World to come. So says Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda says, "If their designs continue as they are at this day, they will not return, but if they repent they will return." Rabbi (the Holy) says, "They will enter the world to come, for it is said (Isa. xxvii. 13), 'And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish.'"
Ten things are detrimental to study:--Going under the halter of a camel, and still more passing under its body; walking between two camels or between two women; to be one of two men that a woman passes between; to go where the atmosphere is tainted by a corpse; to pass under a bridge beneath which no water has flowed for forty days; to eat with a ladle that has been used for culinary purposes; to drink water that runs through a cemetery. It is also dangerous to look at the face of a corpse, and some say also to read inscriptions on tombstones.
Ten strong things were created in the world (of which the one that comes after is stronger than that which preceded). A mountain is strong, but iron can hew it in pieces; the fire weakens the iron; the water quenches the fire; the clouds carry off the water; the wind disperses the clouds; the living body resists the wind; fear enervates the body; wine abolishes fear; sleep overcomes wine, and death is stronger than all together; yet it is written (Prov. x. 2), "And alms delivereth from death" (the original word has two meanings, righteousness and alms).