קאווע שטיבל

Some of these books [Sefarim Chitzonim] our Rabbis were quite crazy about - [for instance] the Book of Ben-Sira. Because as I am sure some of you know, it is cited in the Talmud by name a number of times and cited anonymously more and it had a clear influence on our prayers. But Ben-Sira couldn’t be part of the canonized scripture because he was too late and he was not a scribe, an inspired prophet - he was just Ben-Sira; if only he had had the sense to identify himself as King Solomon there’s no doubt that we would have him