book iii

.)

Among the many legends that have clustered round the memory of Solomon, there is one which reads very much like an adaptation of this classic story. The version the Talmud gives of this story is quoted in another part of this Miscellany (chap. vi. No. 8, note), but in Emek Hammelech, fol. 14, col. 4, we have the legend in another form, with much amplitude and variety of detail, of which we can give here only an outline. When the building of the Temple was finished, the king of the demons begged Solomon to set him free from his service, and promised in return to teach him a secret he would be sure to value. Having cajoled Solomon out of possession of his signet-ring, he first flung the ring into the sea, where it was swallowed by a fish, and then taking up Solomon himself, he cast him into a foreign land some four hundred miles away, where for three weary long years he wandered up and down like a vagrant, begging his bread from door to door. In the course of his rambles he came to Mash Kemim, and was so fortunate as to be appointed head cook at the palace of the king of Ammon (Ana Hanun, see 1 Kings xii. 24; LXX.). While employed in this office, Naama, the king's daughter (see 1 Kings xiv. 21, 31, and 2 Chron. xii. 13), fell in love with him, and, determining to marry him, eloped with him for refuge to a distant land. One day as Naama was preparing a fish for dinner, she found in it a ring, and this turned cut to be the very ring which the king of the demons had flung into the sea, and the loss of which had bewitched the king out of his power and dominion. In the recovery of the ring the king both recovered himself and the throne of his father David.

The occurrence of a fish and a ring on the arms of the city of Glasgow memorializes a legend in which we find the same singular combination of circumstances. A certain queen of the district one day gave her paramour a golden ring which the king her husband had committed to her charge as a keepsake. By some means or other the king got to know of the whereabouts of the ring, and cleverly contriving to secure possession of it, threw it into the sea. He then went straight to the queen and demanded to know where it was and what she had done with it. The queen in her distress repaired to St. Kentigern, and both made full confession of her guilt and her anxiety about the recovery of the ring, that she might regain the lost favor of her husband. The saint set off at once to the Clyde, and there caught a salmon and the identical ring in the mouth of it. This he handed over to the queen, who returned it to her lord with such expressions of penitence that the restoration of it became the bond and pledge between them of a higher and holier wedlock.

There were thirteen horn-shaped collecting-boxes, and thirteen tables, and thirteen devotional bowings in the Temple service. Those who belonged to the houses of Rabbi Gamliel and of Rabbi Chananiah, the president of the priests, bowed fourteen times. This extra act of bowing was directed to the quarter of the wood store, in consequence of a tradition they inherited from their ancestors that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in that locality. The origin of the tradition was this:--A priest, being once engaged near the wood store, and observing that part of the plaster differed from the rest, went to tell his companions, but died before he had time to relate his discovery. Thus it became known for certain that the Ark was hidden there.

_Shekalim_ chap. 3, hal, 1.

It is more than probable that the Chananiah, mentioned above, is the person alluded to in the Acts, chap, xxiii. 2, as "the high priest Ananias." For the tradition about the Ark. see also 2 Macc. ii. 4, 5.

There were thirteen horn-shaped collecting-boxes in the Temple, and upon them were inscribed new shekels, old shekels, turtle-dove offerings, young-pigeon offerings, fire-wood, contributions for Galbanus, gold for the mercy-seat; and six boxes were inscribed for voluntary contributions. New shekels were for the current year, old shekels were for the past one.

_Yoma_, fol. 55, col, 2.

Once on account of long-continued drought Rabbi Eliezer proclaimed thirteen public fasts, but no rain came. At the termination of the last fast, just as the congregation was leaving the synagogue, he cried aloud, "Have you then prepared graves for yourselves?" Upon this all the people burst into bitter cries, and rain came down directly.

_Taanith_, fol. 25, col. 2.

A boy at thirteen years of age is bound to observe the usual fasts in full, i.e., throughout the whole day. A girl is bound to do so when only twelve. Rashi gives this as the reason:--A boy is supposed to be weaker than a girl on account of the enervating effect of much study.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 5, col. 1.

A poor man once came to Rava and begged for a meal. "On what dost thou usually dine?" asked Rava. "On stuffed fowl and old wine," was the reply. "What!" said Rava, "art thou not concerned about being so burdensome to the community?" He replied, "I eat nothing belonging to them, only what the Lord provides; as we are taught (Ps. cxlv. 15), 'The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in his season.' It is not said in their season, for so we learn that God provides for each individual in his season of need." While they were thus talking, in came Rava's sister, who had not been to see him for thirteen years, and she brought him as a present a stuffed fowl and some old wine also. Rava marveled at the coincidence, and turning to his poor visitor said, "I beg thy pardon, friend; rise, I pray thee, and eat."

Ibid., fol. 67, col. 2.

So great is circumcision that thirteen covenants were made concerning it. Tosafoth says that covenant is written thirteen times in the chapter of circumcision.

_Nedarim_, fol. 31, col. 2.

Rabbi (the Holy) says sufferings are to be borne with resignation. He himself bore them submissively for thirteen years; for six he suffered from lithiasis, and for seven years from stomatitis (or, as some say, six years from the former and seven from the latter). His groans were heard three miles off.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 85, col. 1.

The Rabbis have taught thirteen things respecting breakfast (morning-morsel):--It counteracts the effects of heat, cold or draught; it protects from malignant demons; it makes wise the simple by keeping the mind in a healthy condition; it enables a man to come off clear from a judicial inquiry; it qualifies him both to learn and to teach the law; it makes him eagerly listened to, to have a retentive memory, etc.

Ibid. fol. 107, col. 2.

The land of Israel is in the future to be divided among thirteen tribes, and not, as at first, among twelve.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 122, col. 1.

Rabbi Abhu once complimented Rav Saphra before the Minim by singling him out in their hearing as a man distinguished by his learning, and this led them to exempt him from tribute for thirteen years. It so happened that these Minim once posed Saphra about that which is written in Amos iii. 2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." "Ye say you are God's friends, but when one has a friend does he pour out his wrath upon him?" To this Rav Saphra make no reply. They then put a rope round his neck and tormented him. When he was in this sorry plight, Rabbi Abhu came up and inquired why they tormented him thus. To this they made answer, "Didst thou not tell us that he was a very learned man, and he does not even know how to explain a text of Scripture?" "Yes, I did so say," replied Rabbi Abhu; "he is an adept in the Talmud only, but not in the Scriptures." "Thou knowest the Scriptures;" they replied, "and why ought he not to know them as well?" "I have daily intercourse with you," said the Rabbi, "and therefore I am obliged to study the Scriptures, but he, having no intercourse with you, has no need to trouble himself, and does not at all care about them."

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 4, col. 1.

In order to understand aright the grounds on which Rabbi Abhu would fain excuse Rav Saphra for not caring at all about the Scriptures, certain passages from both Talmuds should be read, which, in the usual metaphorical style of the Rabbis, set forth the respective merits of Scripture and Tradition. The three times three in Sophrim (chap. 15), in which the Scripture is compared to water, the Mishna to wine, and the Gemara to mulled wine, and that in which the Scripture is likened to salt, the Mishna to pepper, and the Gemara to spice, and so on, are too well known to need more than passing mention; but far less familiar and much more explicit is the exposition of Zech. viii. 10, as given in T.B. Chaggigah, fol. 10, col. 1, where, commenting on the Scripture text, "Neither, was there any peace to him that went out or came in," Rav expressly says, "He who leaves a matter of Halachah for a matter of Scripture shall never more have peace;" to which Shemuel adds, "Aye, and he also who leaves the Talmud for the Mishna;" Rabbi Yochanan chiming in with "even from Talmud to Talmud;" as if to say, "And he who turns from the Babli to the Yerushalmi, even he shall have no peace." If we refer to the Mishna (chap. 1, hal. 7) of Berachoth in the last-named Talmud, we read there that Rabbi Tarphon, bent, while on a journey, on reading the Shema according to the school of Shammai, ran the risk of falling into the hands of certain banditti whom he had not noticed near him. "It would have served you right," remarked one, "because you did not follow the rule of Hillel." In the Gemara to this passage Rabbi Yochanan says, "The words of the scribes are more highly valued than the words of the law, for, as Rabbi Yuda remarks, 'If Rabbi Tarphon had not read the Shema at all he would only have broken a positive command,' but since he transgressed the rule of Hillel he was guilty of death, for it is written, 'He who breaks down a hedge (the Rabbinic hedge to the law, of course), a serpent shall bite him'" (Eccles. x. 8). Then Rabbi Chanina, the son of Rabbi Ana, in the name of Rabbi Tanchum, the son of Rabbi Cheyah, says, "The words of the elders are more important than the words of the prophets." A prophet and an elder, whom do they resemble? They are like two ambassadors sent by a king to a province. About the one he sends word saying, "If he does not present credentials with my signature and seal, trust him not;" whereas the other is accredited without any such token; for in regard to the prophet it is written (Deut. xiii. 2), "He giveth thee a sign or token;" while in reference to the elders it is written (Deut. xvii. 11), "According to the decision which they may say unto thee shalt thou do; thou shalt not depart from the sentence which they may tell thee, to the right or to the left." Rashi's comment on this text is worth notice: "Even when they tell thee that right is left and left is right." In a word, a wise man (i.e., a Rabbi) is better than a prophet. (_Bava Bathra_ fol. 12, col. 1.)

Oved, the Galilean, has expounded that there are thirteen _vavs_ (i.e., the letter _vav_ occurs thirteen times) in connection with wine. _Vav_ in Syriac means woe.

_Sanhedrin_ fol. 70, col. 1.

The Rabbis have a curious Haggada respecting the origin of the culture of the vine. Once while Noah was hard at work breaking up the fallow ground for a vineyard, Satan drew near and inquired what he was doing. On ascertaining that the patriarch was about to cultivate the grape, which he valued both for its fruit and its juice, he at once volunteered to assist him at his task, and began to manure the soil with the blood of a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. "Now," said he, when his work was done, "of those who taste the juice of the grape, some will become meek and gentle as the lamb, some bold and fearless as the lion, some foul and beastly as the pig, and others frolicsome and lively as the monkey." This quaint story may be found more fully detailed in the Midrash Tanchuma (see Noah) and the Yalkut on Genesis. The Mohammedan legend is somewhat similar. It relates how Satan on the like occasion used the blood of a peacock, of an ape, of a lion, and of a pig, and it deduces from the abuse of the vine the curse that fell on the children of Ham, and ascribes the color of the purple grape to the dark hue which thenceforth tinctured all the fruit of their land as well as their own complexions.

At thirteen years of age, a boy becomes bound to observe the (613) precepts of the law.

_Avoth_, chap. 5.

Rabbi Ishmael says the law is to be expounded according to thirteen logical rules.

_Chullin_, fol. 63, col. 1.

The thirteen rules of Rabbi Ishmael above referred to are not to be found together in any part of the Talmud, but they are collected for repetition in the Liturgy, and are as follows:--

1. Inference is valid from minor to major.

2. From similar phraseology.

3. From the gist or main point of one text to that of other passages.

4. Of general and particular.

5. Of particular and general.

6. From a general, or a particular and a general, the ruling both of the former and the latter is to be according to the middle term, i.e., the one which is particularized.

7. From a general text that requires a particular instance, and _vice versà_.

8. When a particular rule is laid down for something which has already been included in a general law, the rule is to apply to all.

9. When a general rule has an exception, the exception mitigates and does not aggravate the rule.

10. When a general rule has an exception not according therewith, the exception both mitigates and aggravates.

11. When an exception to a general rule is made to substantiate extraneous matter, that matter cannot be classed under the said general rule, unless the Scripture expressly says so.

12. The ruling is to be according to the context, or to the general drift of the argument.

13. When two texts are contradictory, a third is to be sought that reconciles them.

Rabbi Akiva was forty years of age when he began to study, and after thirteen years of study he began publicly to teach.

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan._

Thirteen treasurers and seven directors were appointed to serve in the Temple. (More there might be, never less.)

_Tamid_, fol. 27, col. 1.

Thirteen points of law regulate the decisions that require to be made relative to the carcass of a clean bird.

_Taharoth_, chap. i, mish. 1.

A man must partake of fourteen meals in the booth during the Feast of Tabernacles.

_Succah_, fol. 27, col. 1.

Traditional chronology records that the Israelites killed the Paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the month on which they came out of Egypt. They came out on the fifteenth; that day was a Friday.

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 1.

The fifteen steps were according to the number of the Songs of Degrees in the Psalms. It is related that whosoever has not seen the joy at the annual ceremony of the water-drawing, has not seen rejoicing in his life. At the conclusion of the first part of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Priests and Levites descended into the women's ante-court, where they made great preparations (such as erecting temporary double galleries, the uppermost for women, and those under for men). There were golden candelabra there, each having four golden bowls on the top, four ladders reaching to them, and four of the young priests with cruses of oil ready to supply them, each cruse holding one hundred and twenty logs of oil. The lamp-wicks were made of the worn-out drawers and girdles of the priests. There was not a court in all Jerusalem that was not lit up by the illumination of the "water-drawing." Holy men, and men of dignity, with flaming torches in their hands, danced before the people, rehearsing songs and singing praises. The Levites, with harps, lutes, cymbals, trumpets, and innumerable musical instruments, were stationed on the fifteen steps which led from the ante-court of Israel to the women's court; the Levites stood upon the steps and played and sang. Two priests stood at the upper gate which led from the ante-court for Israel to that for the women, each provided with a trumpet, and as soon as the cock crew they blew one simple blast, then a compound or fragmentary one, and then a modulated or shouting blast. This was the preconcerted signal for the drawing of the water. As soon as they reached the tenth step, they blew again three blasts as before. When they came to the ante-court for women, they blew another three blasts, and after that they continued blowing till they came to the east gate. When they arrived at the east gate, they turned their faces westward (i.e., toward the Temple), and said, "Our fathers, who were in this place, turned their backs toward the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the East, for they worshiped the sun in the East; but we turn our eyes to God!" Rabbi Yehudah says, "These words were repeated, echoing, 'We are for God, and unto God are our eyes directed!'"

_Succah_, fol. 51, col. 1, 2.

Rabbon Shimon ben Gamliel has said there were no such gala-days for Israel as the fifteenth of Ab and the Day of Atonement, when the young maidens of Jerusalem used to resort to the vineyard all robed in white garments, that were required to be borrowed, lest those should feel humiliated who had none of their own. There they danced gleefully, calling to the lookers-on and saying, "Young men, have a care; the choice you now make may have consequences."

_Taanith_, fol. 26, col. 2.

Rabbi Elazar the Great said, "From the fifteenth of Ab the influence of the sun declines, and from that day they leave off cutting wood for the altar fire, because it could not be properly dried (and green wood might harbor vermin, which would make it unfit for use)."

_Taanith_, fol. 31, col. 1.

He who eats turnips to beef, and sleeps out in the open air during the night of the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the months of summer (that is, when the moon is full), will most likely bring on an ague fever.

_Gittin_, fol. 70, col. 1.

A lad should, at the age of fifteen, begin to apply himself to the Gemara.

_Avoth_, chap. 5.

"So I bought her to me for fifteen" (Hosea iii. 2), that is, on the fifteenth day of Nisan, when Israel was redeemed from the bondage of Egypt. "Silver;" this refers to the righteous. "An homer and a half-homer;" these equal forty-five measures, and are the forty-five righteous men for whose sake the world is preserved. I don't know whether there are thirty here (that is, in Babylon), and fifteen in the land of Israel, or _vice versà_; as it is said (Zech. xi. 13), "I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." It stands to reason that there are thirty in the land of Israel, and, therefore, fifteen here. Abaii says that the greater part are to be found under the gable end of the synagogue. Rav Yehudah says the reference is to the thirty righteous men always found among the nations of the world for whose sake they are preserved (but see No. 103 _infra_). Ulla says it refers to the thirty precepts received by the nations of the world, of which, however, they keep three only; i.e. they do not enter into formal marriage-contracts with men; they do not expose for sale the bodies of such animals as have died from natural causes; and they have regard for the law.

_Chullin_, fol. 92, col. 1.

Rabbi Cheyah bar Abba says, "I once visited a house-holder at Ludkia, and they placed before him a golden table so loaded with silver plate, basins, cups, bottles and glasses, besides all sorts of dishes, delicacies, and spices, that it took sixteen men to carry it. When they set the table in its place they said (Ps. xxiv. 1), 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,' and upon removing it, they said (Ps. cxv. 16), 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men.' I said, 'Son, how hast thou come to deserve all this?' 'I was,' replied he, 'a butcher by trade, and I always set apart for the Sabbath the best of the cattle.' 'How happy art thou,' I remarked (adds Rabbi Cheyah), 'to have merited such a reward, and blessed be God who has thus rewarded thee.'"

_Shabbath_, fol. 119, col. 1.

Rash Lakish said, "I have seen the flow of milk and honey at Tzipori; it was sixteen miles by sixteen miles."

_Meggillah_, fol. 6, col. 1.

Rashi explains the above as follows:--The goats fed upon figs from which honey distilled, and this mingled with the milk which dropped from the goats as they walked along. On the spot arose a lake which covered an area of sixteen miles square. (See also Kethuboth, fol. iii, col. 2.)

A cedar tree once fell down in our place, the trunk of which was so wide that sixteen wagons were drawn abreast upon it.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 57, col. 2.

Who can estimate the loss the world sustains in its ignorance of the trees of the Talmud? What a sapling in comparison with this giant cedar of Lebanon must the far-famed Mammoth tree have been which was lately cut down in California, and was the largest known to the present generation!

Rabbi Yochanan plaintively records, "I remember the time when a young man and a young woman sixteen or seventeen years of age could walk together in the streets and no harm came of it."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 91, col. 2.

On the deposition of Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was chosen as his successor to the presidential chair of the academy. On being told of his elevation, he consulted with his wife as to whether or not he should accept the appointment. "What if they should depose thee also?" asked his wife. He replied, "Use the precious bowl while thou hast it, even if it be broken the next." But she rejoined, "Thou art only eighteen years old, and how canst thou at such an age expect folks to venerate thee?" By a miracle eighteen of his locks turned suddenly gray, so that he could say, "I am as one of seventy."

_Berachoth_, fol. 27, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that Shimon Happikoli had arranged the eighteen benedictions before Rabbon Gamliel at Javneh. Rabbon Gamliel appealed to the sages, "Is there not a man who knows how to compose an imprecation against the Sadducees?" Then Samuel the Little stood up and extemporized it.

Ibid., fol. 28, col. 2.

The "imprecation against the Sadducees" stands twelfth among the collects of the Shemoneh Esreh. It is popularly known as "Velama-leshinim" from its opening words, and is given thus in modern Ashkenazi liturgies:--"Oh, let the slanderers have no hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble Thou them quickly in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants." There has been much misconception with regard to this collect against heretics. There is every reason to believe it was composed without any reference whatever to the Christians. One point of interest, however, in connection with it is worth relating here. Some have sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew name, Saul. They take Paulus as equal to _pusillus_, which means "very little" or "the less," and answers to the word _Hakaton_, a term of similar import. Samuel, however, died a good Jew (see Semachoth, chap. 8), and Rabbon Gamliel Hazaken and Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah pronounced a funeral oration at his burial. "His key and his diary were placed on his coffin, because he had no son to succeed him." (See also Sanhedrin, fol. ii, col. 1.)

Eighteen denunciations did Isaiah make against the people of Israel, and he recovered not his equanimity until he was able to add, "The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable" (Isa. iii. 5).

_Chaggigah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

The Rabbis have related that there was once a family in Jerusalem the members of which died off regularly at eighteen years of age. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacchai shrewdly guessed that they were descendants of Eli, regarding whom it is said (1 Sam. ii. 25), "And all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age;" and he accordingly advised them to devote themselves to the study of the law, as the certain and only means of neutralizing the curse. They acted upon the advice of the Rabbi; their lives were in consequence prolonged; and they thenceforth went by the name of their spiritual father.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

Eighteen handbreadths was the height of the golden candlestick.

_Menachoth_, fol. 28, col. 2.

If a man remain unmarried after the age of twenty, his life is a constant transgression. The Holy One--blessed be He!--waits until that period to see if one enters the matrimonial state, and curses his bones if he remain single.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 29, col. 2.

A woman marrying under twenty years of age will bear till she is sixty; if she marries at twenty she will bear until she is forty; if she marries at forty she will not have any family.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 119, col. 2.

At twenty pursue the study of the law.

_Avoth_, chap. 5.

Rabbi Yehudah says the early Pietists used to suffer some twenty days before death from diarrhoea, the effect of which was to purge and purify them for the world to come; for it is said, "As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise" (Prov. xxvii. 21).

_Semachoth_, chap. 3, mish. 10.

It may not be out of place to append two or three parallel passages here by way of illustration:--"Bodily suffering purges away sin" (_Berachoth_, fol. 5, col. 1). "He who suffers will not see hell" (_Eiruvin_, fol. 41, col. 2). "To die of diarrhoea is an augury for good, for most of the righteous die of that ailment" (_Kethuboth_, fol. 103, col. 2, and elsewhere).

The bathing season at (the hot baths of) Dimsis lasted twenty-one days.

_Shabbath_, fol. 147, col. 2.

A fowl hatches in twenty-one days, and the almond tree ripens its fruit in twenty-one days.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

Rabbi Levi says the realization of a good dream may be hopefully expected for twenty-two years; for it is written (Gen. xxxvii. 2), "These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being seventeen years old when he had the dreams." And it is written also (Gen. xli. 46), "And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh," etc. From seventeen to thirty are thirteen, to which add the seven years of plenty and the two years of famine, which make the sum total of twenty-two.

_Berachoth_, fol. 55, col. 2.

In the pages which precede and follow the above quotation there is much that is interesting on the subject of dreams and their interpretation, and one is strongly tempted to append selections, but we refrain in order to make room for a prayer which occurs in the morning service for the various festivals, and is given in the preceding context:--"Sovereign of the Universe! I am thine, and my dreams are thine. I have dreamed a dream, but know not what it portendeth. May it be acceptable in Thy presence, O Lord my God, and the God of my fathers, that all my dreams concerning myself and concerning all Israel may be for my good. Whether I have dreamt concerning myself, or whether I have dreamt concerning others, or whether others have dreamt concerning me, if they be good, strengthen and fortify them, that they may be accomplished in me, as were the dreams of the righteous Joseph; and if they require cure, heal them as Thou didst Hezekiah, king of Judah, from his sickness; as Miriam the prophetess from her leprosy, and Naaman from his leprosy; as the bitter waters of Marah by the hands of our legislator Moses, and those of Jericho by the hands of Elisha. And as Thou wast pleased to turn the curse of Balaam, the son of Beor, to a blessing, be pleased to convert all my dreams concerning me and all Israel to a good end. Oh, guard me; let me be acceptable to Thee, and grant me life. Amen." (The translation of this prayer is borrowed from the Jewish liturgy.)

Rabbi Levi said, "Come and see how unlike the character of the Holy One--blessed be He!--is to that of those who inherit the flesh and blood of humanity. God blessed Israel with twenty-two benedictions and cursed them with eight curses (Lev. xxvi. 3-13, xv. 43). But Moses, our Rabbi, blessed them with eight benedictions and cursed them with twenty-two imprecations" (see Deut. xxviii. 1-4, xv. 68).

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 59, col. i.

Once as they were journeying to Chesib (in Palestine), some of Rabbi Akiva's disciples were overtaken by a band of robbers, who demanded to know where they were going to. "We are going to Acco," was the reply; but on arriving at Chesib, they went no farther. The robbers then asked them who they were? "Disciples of Rabbi Akiva," they replied. Upon hearing this the robbers exclaimed, "Blessed surely is Rabbi Akiva and his disciples too, for no man can ever do them any harm." Once as Rabbi Menasi was traveling to Thurtha (in Babylonia), some thieves surprised him on the road and asked him where he was bound for. "For Pumbeditha," was the reply; but upon reaching Thurtha, he stayed and went no farther. The highwaymen, thus balked, retorted, "Thou art the disciple of Yehuda the deceiver!" "Oh, you know my master, do you?" said the Rabbi. "Then in the name of God be every one of you anathematized." For twenty-two years thereafter they carried on their nefarious trade, but all their attempts at violence ended only in disappointment. Then all save one of them came to the Rabbi and craved his pardon, which was immediately granted. The one who did not come to confess his guilt and obtain absolution was a weaver, and he was eventually devoured by a lion. Hence the proverbs, "If a weaver does not humble himself, he shortens his life;" and, "Come and see the difference there is between the thieves of Babylon and the banditti of the land of Israel."

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 26, col. 1.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was twenty-two years of age when, contrary to the wishes of his father, he went to Rabbon Yochanan ben Zaccai purposing to devote himself to the study of the law. By the time he arrived at Rabbon Yochanan's he had been without food four-and-twenty hours, and yet, though repeatedly asked whether he had had anything to eat, refused to confess he was hungry. His father having come to know where he was, went one day to the place on purpose to disinherit him before the assembled Rabbis. It so happened that Rabbon Yochanan was at that time lecturing before some of the great men of Jerusalem, and when he saw the father enter, he pressed Rabbi Eliezer to deliver an exposition. So racy and cogent were his observations that Rabbon Yochanan rose and styled him his own Rabbi, and thanked him in the name of the rest for the instruction he had afforded them. Then the father of Rabbi Eliezer said, "Rabbis, I came here for the purpose of disinheriting my son, but now I declare him sole heir of all I have, to the exclusion of his brothers."

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 6.

The father of Eliezer acts more magnanimously by his son than does the father of St. Francis. Like the Rabbi, as Mr. Ruskin relates in his "Mornings in Florence," St. Francis, one of whose three great virtues was obedience, "begins his spiritual life by quarreling with his father. He 'commercially invests' some of his father's goods in charity. His father objects to that investment, on which St. Francis runs away, taking what he can find about the house along with him. His father follows to claim his property, but finds it is all gone already, and that St. Francis has made friends with the Bishop of Assisi. His father flies into an indecent passion, and declares he will disinherit him; on which St. Francis, then and there, takes all his clothes off, throws them frantically in his father's face, and says he has nothing more to do with clothes or father."

Not the same strict scrutiny is required in money matters as in cases of capital punishment; for it is said (Lev. xxiv. 23), "Ye shall have one manner of law." What distinction is there made between them? With regard to money matters three judges are deemed sufficient, while in cases of capital offense twenty-three are required, etc.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 32, col. 1.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, "In twenty-four cases doth the tribunal excommunicate for the honor of a Rabbi, and all are explained in our Mishna." Rabbi Elazer interposed and asked, "Where are they?" The reply was, "Go and seek, and thou shalt find." He went accordingly and sought, but found only three--the case of the man who lightly esteems the washing of hands; of him who whispers evil behind the bier of a disciple of the wise; and of him who behaves haughtily toward the Most High.

_Berachoth_, fol. 19, col. 1.

There are three degrees of excommunication, i.e., separation, exclusion, and execration. That mentioned in the above extract is of the lowest degree, and lasts never less than thirty days. The second degree of excommunication is a prolongation of the first by thirty days more. The third or highest degree lasts for an indefinite time. See Moed Katon, fol. 17, col. 1; Shevuoth, fol. 36, col. 1; and consult Index II. appended.

A certain matron once said to Rabbi Yehuda ben Elaei, "Thy face is like that of one who breeds pigs and lends money on usury." He replied, "These offices are forbidden me by the rules of my religion, but between my residence and the academy there are twenty-four latrinæ; these I regularly visit as I need."

_Berachoth_, fol. 55, col. 1.

The Rabbi meant to say that paying attention to the regular action of his excretory organs was the secret of his healthy looks, and to imply that a disordered stomach is the root of most diseases,--a physiological opinion well worthy of regard by us moderns.

Rav Birim says that the venerable Rav Benaah once went to all the interpreters of dreams in Jerusalem, twenty-four in number. Every one of them gave a different interpretation, and each was fulfilled; which substantiates the saying that it is the interpretation and not the dream that comes true.

Ibid., fol. 55, col. 2.

Twenty-four fasts were observed by the men of the Great Synagogue, in order that the writers of the books, phylacteries, and Mezuzahs might not grow rich, lest in becoming rich they might be tempted not to write any more.

_P'sachim_, fol. 50, col. 2.

When Solomon was desirous of conveying the Ark into the Temple, the doors shut themselves of their own accord against him. He recited twenty-four psalms, yet they opened not. In vain he cried, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates" (Ps. xxiv. 9). But when he prayed, "O Lord God, turn not Thy face away from Thine anointed; remember the mercies of David, Thy servant" (2 Chron. vi. 42), then the gates flew open at once. Then the enemies of David turned black in the face, for all knew by this that God had pardoned David's transgression with Bathseheba.

_Moed Katon_, fol. 9, col. 1.

In the Midrash Rabbah (Devarim, chap. 15) the same story is told, with this additional circumstance among others, that a sacred respect was paid to the gates when the Temple was sacked at the time of the Captivity. When the glorious vessels and furniture of the Temple were being carried away into Babylon, the gates, which were so zealous for the glory of God, were buried on the spot (see Lam. ii. 9), there to await the restoration of Israel. This romantic episode is alluded to in the closing service for the Day of Atonement.

There are twenty-four species of unclean birds, but the clean birds are innumerable.

_Chullin_, fol. 63, col. 2.

In twenty-four places priests are called Levites, and this is one of them (Ezek. xliv. 15), "But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok."

_Tamid_, fol. 27, col. 1.

There are twenty-four extremities of members in the human body which do not suffer defilement in the case of diseased flesh (see Lev. xiii. 10, 24). The tip-ends of the fingers and toes, the edges of the ears, the tip of the nose, etc.

_Negaim_, chap. 6, mish. 7.

Twenty-five children is the highest number there should be in a class for elementary instruction. There should be an assistant appointed, if there be forty in number; and if fifty, there should be two competent teachers. Rava says, "If there be two teachers in a place, one teaching the children more than the other, the one that teaches less is not to be dismissed, because if so, the other is liable to lapse into negligence also." Rav Deimi of Nehardaa, on the other hand, thinks the dismissal of the former will make the latter all the more eager to teach more, both out of fear lest he also be dismissed, and out of gratitude that he has been preferred to the other. Mar says, "The emulation of the scribes (or teachers) increaseth wisdom." Rava also says, "When there are two teachers, one teaching much but superficially, and one teaching thoroughly but not so much, the former is to be preferred, for the children will, in the long run, improve most by learning much." Rav Deimi of Nehardaa, however, thinks the latter is to be preferred, for a mistake or an error once learned is difficult to unlearn; as it is written in 1 Kings xi. 16, "For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he cut off every male in Edom." When David asked Joab why he killed only the males and not the females, he replied, "Because it is written in Deut. xxv. 19, 'Thou shalt blot out the male portion of Amalek.'" "But," said David, "we read 'the remembrance of Amalek.'" To this Joab replied, "My teacher taught me to read zachar and not zeichar," i.e., male, and not remembrance. The teacher of Joab was sent for; and being found guilty of having taught his pupil in a superficial manner, he was condemned to be beheaded. The poor teacher pleaded in vain for his life, for the king's judgment was based on Scripture (Jer. xlviii. 10), "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 21, col. 1.

The Romans faithfully observed their compact with Israel for twenty-six years. After that time they began to oppress them.

_Avoda Zarah_, fol. 8, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that a small salt fish will cause death if partaken of after seven, seventeen, or twenty-seven days; some say after twenty-three days. This is said with reference to half-cooked fish, but when properly cooked there is no harm in it. Neither does any harm result from eating half-cooked fish, if strong drink be taken after it.

_Berachoth_, fol. 44, col. 2.

On the twenty-eighth day of Adar there came good news to the Jews. The Roman Government had passed a decree ordaining that they should neither study the law, nor circumcise their children, nor observe the Sabbath-days. Yehudah ben Shamua and his associates went to consult a certain matron, whom all the magnates of Rome were in the habit of visiting. She advised them to come at night and raise a loud outcry against the decree they complained of. They did so, and cried, "O heavens! are we not your brethren? are we not the children of one mother?" (Alluding to Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.) "Wherein are we worse than all other nations and tongues, that you should oppress us with such harsh decrees?" Thereupon the decrees were revoked; to commemorate which the Jews established a festival.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 19, col. 1.

The renewal of the moon comes round in not less than twenty-nine days and a half and forty minutes.

Ibid., fol. 25, col. 1.

Rav Mari reports that Rabbi Yochanan had said, "He who indulges in the practice of eating lentils once in thirty days keeps away quinsy, but they are not good to be eaten regularly because by them the breath is corrupted." He used also to say that mustard eaten once in thirty days drives away sickness, but if taken every day the action of the heart is apt to be affected.

_Berachoth_, fol. 40, col. 1.

He who eats unripe dates and does not wash his hands will for thirty day be in constant fear, without knowing why, of something untoward happening.

_P'sachim_, fol. 111, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that the lighter kind of excommunication is not to last less than thirty days, and censure not less than seven. The latter is inferred from what is said in Num. xii. 14, "If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?"

_Moed Katon_, fol. 16, col. 1.

If we meet a friend during any of the thirty days of his mourning for a deceased relative, we must condole with him but not salute him; but after that time he may be saluted but not condoled with. If a man (because he has no family) re-marries within thirty days of the death of his wife, he should not be condoled with at home (lest it might hurt the feelings of his new partner); but if met with out of doors, he should be addressed in an undertone of voice, accompanied with a slight inclination of the head.

Ibid., fol. 21, col. 2.

During the thirty days of mourning for deceased friends or relatives, the bereaved should not trim their hair; but if they have lost their parents, they are not to attend to such matters until their friends force them to do so.

Ibid., fol. 22, col. 2.

"And Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children" (Esth. v. 11). And how many children were there? Rav said thirty; ten had died, ten were hanged, and ten went about begging from door to door. The Rabbis say, "Those that went about begging from door to door were seventy; for it is written (1 Sam. ii. 5), 'They that were full have hired themselves for bread.'"

_Meggillah_, fol. 15, col. 2.

When Rabbi Chanena bar Pappa was about to die, the Angel of Death was told to go and render him some friendly service. He accordingly went and made himself known to him. The Rabbi requested him to leave him for thirty days, until he had repeated what he had been learning; for it is said, "Blessed is he who comes here with his studies in his hand." He accordingly left, and at the expiration of thirty days returned to him. The Rabbi then asked to be shown his place in Paradise, and the Angel of Death consented to show him while life was still in him. Then said the Rabbi, "Lend me thy sword, lest thou surprise me on the road and cheat me of my expectation." To this the Angel of Death said, "Dost thou mean to serve me as thy friend Rabbi Yoshua did?" and he declined to intrust the sword to the Rabbi.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 77, col. 2.

If a man says to a woman, "Thou art betrothed to me after thirty days," and in the interim another comes and betroths her, she is the second suitor's.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 58, col 2.

If one finds a scroll, he may peruse it once in thirty days, but he must not teach out of it, nor may another join him in reading it; if he does not know how to read, he must unroll it. If a garment be found, it should be shaken and spread out once in thirty days, for its own sake (to preserve it), but not for display. Silver and copper articles should be used to take care of them, but not for the sake of ornament. Gold and glass vessels he should not meddle with--till the coming of Elijah.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 29, col. 2.

Rabbi Zira so inured his body (to endurance) that the fire of Gehenna had no power over it. Every thirty days he experimented on himself, ascending a fiery furnace, and finally sitting down in the midst of it without being affected by the fire. One day, however, as the Rabbis fixed their eyes upon him, his hips became singed, and from that day onward he was noted in Jewry as the little man with the singed hips.

Ibid., fol. 85, col. 1.

An Arab once said to Rabbah bar Channah, "Come and I will show thee the place where Korah and his accomplices were swallowed up." "There," says the Rabbi, "I observed smoke coming out from two cracks in the ground. Into one of these he inserted some wool tied on to the end of his spear, and when he drew it out again it was scorched. Then he bade me listen. I did so, and as I listened heard them groan out, 'Moses and his law are true, but we are liars.' The Arab then told me that they come round to this place once in every thirty days, being stirred about in the hell-surge like meat in the boiling caldron."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 74, col. 1.

Rabbi Yochanan, in expounding Isa. liv. 12, said, "The Holy One--blessed be He!--will bring precious stones and pearls, each measuring thirty cubits by thirty, and polishing them down to twenty cubits by ten, will place them in the gates of Jerusalem." A certain disciple contemptuously observed, "No one has ever yet seen a precious stone as large as a small bird's egg, and is it likely that such immense ones as these have any existence?" He happened one day after this to go forth on a voyage, and there in the sea he saw the angels quarrying precious stones and pearls like those his Rabbi had told him of, and upon inquiry he learned that they were intended for the gates of Jerusalem. On his return he went straight to Rabbi Yochanan and told him what he had seen and heard.

"Raca!" said the latter, "hadst thou not seen them thou wouldst have kept on deriding the words of the wise!" Then fixing his gaze intently upon him, he with the glance of his eye reduced to a heap of bones the carcass of his body.

Ibid., fol. 75, col. 1.

He who lends unconditionally a sum of money to his neighbor is not entitled to demand it back within thirty days thereafter.

_Maccoth_, fol. 3, col. 2.

If a man has lost a relative, he is forbidden to engage in business until thirty days after the death. In the case of the decease of a father or a mother, he is not to resume work until his friends rebuke him and urge him to return.

_Semachoth_, chap. 9.

It is unlawful for one to enter a banqueting-house for thirty days after the death of a relative; but he must refrain from so doing for twelve months after the demise of either father or mother, unless on the behest of some higher requirement of piety.

Ibid.

But I know not whether there are thirty righteous men here and fifteen in the land of Israel, or _vice versâ_.

_Chullin_, fol. 92, col. 1.

Thirty days in a year are equivalent to a whole year.

_Niddah_, fol. 44, col. 2.

"Moses, thou didst say unto me, 'What is Thy name?' And now thou dost say, 'Neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all.' Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh (Exod. v. 23, vi. 1), but not what I am about to do to the thirty-one kings."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. III, col. 1.

When Rav Deimi arrived at Babylon, he reported that the Romans had fought thirty-two battles with the Greeks without once conquering them, until they allied themselves with Israel, on the stipulation that where Rome appointed the commanding officers the Jews should appoint the governors, and _vice versâ_.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 8, col. 2.

Manasseh did penance thirty-three years.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 103, col. 1.

Balaam was thirty-three years of age when Phineas, the robber, slew him.

Ibid., fol. 106, col. 2.

For thirty-four years the kingdom of Persia lasted contemporaneously with the Temple.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 1.

Abaii has said, "There are never fewer than thirty-six righteous men in every generation who receive the presence of the Shechinah; for it is said (Isa. xxx. 18), 'Blessed are all those who wait upon Him.'" The numerical value (by Gematria) of Him, is thirty-six.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 97, col. 2.

The sons of Esau, of Ishmael, and of Keturah went on purpose to dispute the burial (of Jacob); but when they saw that Joseph had placed his crown upon the coffin, they did the same with theirs. There were thirty-six crowns in all, tradition says. "And they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation." Even the very horses and asses joined in it, we are told. On arriving at the Cave of Machpelah, Esau once more protested, and said, "Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, are all buried here. Jacob disposed of his share when he buried Leah in it, and the remaining one belongs to me." "But thou didst sell thy share with thy birthright," remonstrated the sons of Jacob. "Nay," rejoined Esau, "that did not include my share in the burial-place." "Indeed it did," they argued, "for our father, just before he died, said (Gen. l. 5), 'In my grave which I have bought for myself.'" "Where are the title-deeds?" demanded Esau. "In Egypt," was the answer. And immediately the swift-footed Naphthali started for the records. ("So light of foot was he," says the Book of Jasher, "that he could go upon the ears of corn without crushing them.") Hushim, the son of Dan, being deaf, asked what was the cause of the commotion. On being told what it was, he snatched up a club and smote Esau so hard that his eyes dropped out and fell upon the feet of Jacob; at which Jacob opened his eyes and grimly smiled. This is that which is written (Ps. lviii. 10), "The righteous shall rejoice when he sees vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." Then Rebekah's prophecy came to pass (Gen. xxvii. 45), "Why shall I be deprived also of you both in one day?" For although they did not both die on the same day, they were both buried on the same day.

_Soteh_, fol. 13, col. 1.

This story slightly varied, is repeated in the Book of Jasher and in the Targum of Ben Uzziel.

The principal works of the hand are forty save one:--To sow, to plow, to reap, to bind in sheaves, to thrash, to winnow, to sift corn, to grind, to bolt meal, to knead, to bake, to shear, to wash wool, to comb wool, to dye it, to spin, to warp, to shoot two threads, to weave two threads, to cut and tie two threads, to tie, to untie, to sew two stitches, to tear two threads with intent to sew, to hunt game, to slay, to skin, to salt a hide, to singe, to tan, to cut up a skin, to write two letters, to scratch out two letters with intent to write, to build, to pull down, to put out a fire, to light a fire, to smite with a hammer, to convey from one Reshuth [a private property in opposition to a public] to another.

_Shabbath_, fol. 73, col. 1.

King Yanai had a single tree on the royal mound, whence once a month they collected forty seahs (about fifteen bushels) of young pigeons of three different breeds.

_Berachoth_, fol. 44, col. 1.

Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the Sanhedrin were exiled, and they sat in the Halls of Commerce.

_Shabbath_, fol. 15, col. 1.

Until one is forty eating is more advantageous than drinking. After that age the rule is reversed.

Ibid., fol. 152, col. 1.

The Rabbis have taught that during the forty years in which Simeon the Just officiated in the Temple the lot always fell on the right (see Lev. xvi. 8-10). After that time it sometimes fell on the right and sometimes on the left. The crimson band also, which in his time had always turned white, after that period sometimes turned white, and at others it did not change color at all.

_Yoma_, fol. 39, col. 1.

The Rabbis have taught:--Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot did not fall on the right, and the crimson band did not turn white; the light in the west did not burn, and the gates of the Temple opened of themselves, so that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacchai rebuked them, and said, "O Temple! Temple! why art thou dismayed? I know thy end will be that thou shalt be destroyed, for Zachariah the son of Iddo has already predicted respecting thee (Zech. xi. i), 'Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.'"

Ibid., fol. 39, col. 2.

During the forty years that Israel were in the wilderness there was not a midnight in which the north wind did not blow.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 71, col. 1.

Rabbi Zadok fasted forty years that Jerusalem might not be destroyed, and so emaciated was he, that when he ate anything it might be seen going down his throat.

_Gittin_, fol. 56, col. 1.

Forty days before the formation of a child a Bath Kol proclaims, "The daughter of so-and-so shall marry the son of so-and-so; the premises of so-and-so shall be the property of so-and-so."

_Soteh_, fol. 2, col. 1.

Rav Hunna and Rav Chasda were so angry with one another that they did not meet for forty years. After that Rav Chasda fasted forty days for having annoyed Rav Hunna, and Rav Hunna forty days for having suspected Rav Chasda.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 33, col. 1.

A female who marries at forty will never have any children.

He who eats black cummin the weight of a denarius will have his heart torn out; so also will he who eats forty eggs or forty nuts, or a quarter of honey.

_Tract Calah._

He that cooks in milk the nerve Nashe on a yearly festival, and then eats it, receives five times forty stripes save one, etc.

_Baitza_, fol. 12, col. 1.

He who passes forty consecutive days without suffering some affliction has received his good reward in his lifetime (_cf._ Luke xvi. 25).

_Erachin_, fol. 16, col. 2.

If a bath contain forty measures of water and some mud, people may, according to Rabbi Elazar, immerse themselves in the water of it, but not in the mud; while Rabbi Yehoshua says they may do so in both.

_Mikvaoth_, chap. ii. 10.

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav:--The Divine name, which consists of forty-two letters, is revealed only to him who is prudent and meek, who has reached the meridian of life, is not prone to wrath, not given to drink, and not revengeful. He that knows that name, and acts circumspectly in regard to it, and retains it sacredly, is beloved in heaven and esteemed on earth; He inspires men with reverence, and is heir both to the world that now is and that which is to come.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 71, col. 1.

A man should always devote himself to the study of the law and to the practice of good deeds, even if he does not do so for their own sake, as self-satisfied performance may follow in due course. Thus, in recompense for the forty-two sacrifices he offered, Balak was accounted worthy to become the ancestor of Ruth. Rav Yossi bar Hunna has said, Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, the grandson of Balak, king of Moab.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 105, col. 2.

These are the forty-five righteous men for whose sake the world is preserved.

_Chullin_, fol. 92, col. 1.

Rabbi Meir had a disciple named Sumchus, who in every case assigned forty-eight reasons why one thing should be called clean and why another should be called unclean, though Scripture declared the contrary. (A striking illustration of Rabbinical ingenuity!)

_Eiruvin_, fol. 13, col. 2.

Forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied unto Israel, and they have neither diminished nor added to that which is written in the law, except the reading of the Book of Esther.

_Megillah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

The Rabbis teach that in future (in the days of the Messiah) all Scripture will be abolished except the Book of Esther, also all festivals except the feast of Purim. (See _Menorath Hamaor_, fol. 135, col. 1.)

By forty-eight things the law is acquired. These are study, attention, careful conversation, mental discernment, solicitude, reverential fear, meekness, geniality of soul, purity, attention to the wise, mutual discussion, debating, sedateness, learning in the Scripture and the Mishna, not dabbling in commerce, self-denial, moderation in sleep, aversion to gossip, etc., etc.

_Avoth_, chap. 6.

When God gave the law to Moses, He assigned forty-nine reasons in every case for pronouncing one thing unclean and as many for pronouncing other things clean.

_Sophrim_, chap. 16, mish. 6.

He that has fifty zouzim, and trades therewith, may not glean what is left in the corner of the field (Lev. xix. 9). He that takes it, and has no right to it, will come to want before the day of his departure. And if one who is entitled to it leaves it to others more needy, before he dies he will not only be able to support himself, but be a stay to others.

_Peah_, chap. 8, mish. 9.

Fifty measures of understanding were created in the world, and all except one were given to Moses; as it is said (Ps. viii. 5), "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 21, col, 2.

Poverty in a house is harder to bear than fifty plagues.

_Bava Bathra_, fol 116, col. 1.

The above saying is based on Job xix. 21, compared with Exod. viii. 19.

For fifty-two years no man traveled through the land of Judea.

_Yoma_. fol. 54, col. 1.

Black cummin is one of the sixty deadly drugs.

_Berachoth_, fol. 40, col. 1.

Ulla and Rav Chasda were once traveling together, when they came up to the gate of the house of Rav Chena bar Chenelai. At sight of it Rav Chasda stooped and sighed. "Why sighest thou?" asked Ulla, "seeing, as Rav says, sighing breaks the body in halves; for it is said (Ezek. xxi. 6), 'sigh, therefore, O son of man, with the breaking of thy loins;' and Rabbi Yochanan says a sigh breaks up the whole constitution; for it is said (Ezek. xxi. 7), 'And it shall be when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings because it cometh, and the whole heart shall melt,'" etc. To this Rav Chasda replied, "How can I help sighing over this house, where sixty bakers used to be employed during the day, and sixty during the night, to make bread for the poor and needy; and Rav Chena had his hand always at his purse, for he thought the slightest hesitation might cause a poor but respectable man to blush; and besides he kept four doors open, one to each quarter of the heavens, so that all might enter and be satisfied? Over and above this, in time of famine he scattered wheat and barley abroad, so that they who were ashamed to gather by day might do so by night; but now this house has fallen into ruin, and ought I not to sigh?"

Ibid., fol. 58, col. 2.

Egypt is a sixtieth of Ethiopia, Ethiopia a sixtieth of the world, the world is a sixtieth part of the garden of Eden, the garden itself is but a sixtieth of Eden, and Eden a sixtieth of Gehenna. Hence the world in proportion to Gehenna is but as the lid to a caldron.

_P'sachim_, fol. 94, col. 1.

They led forth Metatron and struck him sixty bastinadoes with a cudgel of fire.

_Chaggigah_, fol. 15, col. 1.

In the context of the foregoing quotation occurs an anecdote of Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah which is too racy to let pass, and too characteristic to need note or comment. One day Elisha ben Abuyah was privileged to pry into Paradise, where he saw the recording angel Metatron on a seat registering the merits of the holy of Israel. Struck with astonishment at the sight, he exclaimed, "Is it not laid down that there is no sitting in heaven, no shortsightedness or fatigue?" Then Metatron, thus discovered, was ordered out and flogged with sixty lashes from a fiery scourge. Smarting with pain, the angel asked and obtained leave to cancel the merits of the prying Rabbi. One day--it chanced to be on Yom Kippur and Sabbath--as Elisha was riding along by the wall where the Holy of Holies once stood, he heard a Bath Kol proclaiming, "Return, ye backsliding children, but Acher abide thou in thy sin" (Acher was the Rabbi's nickname). A faithful disciple of his hearing this, and bent on reclaiming and reforming him, invited him to go and hear the lads of a school close by repeat their lessons. The Rabbi went, and from that to another and another, until he had gone the round of a dozen seminaries, in the last of which he called up a lad to repeat a verse who had an impediment in his speech. The verse happened to be Ps. l. 16, "But unto the wicked, God saith, Why dost thou declare my law?" Acher fancied the boy said, and to Elisha (his own name), instead of and to Rasha, that is, the wicked. This roused the Rabbi into such fury of passion, that he sprang to his feet, exclaiming, "If I only had a knife at hand I would cut this boy into a dozen pieces, and send a piece to each school I have visited!"

A woman of sixty runs after music like a girl of six.

_Moed Katon_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Rabba, who only studied the law, lived forty years; Abaii, who both studied the law and exercised benevolence, lived sixty.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

The manna which came down upon Israel was sixty ells deep.

_Yoma_, fol. 76, col. 1.

It is not right for a man to sleep in the daytime any longer than a horse sleeps. And how long is the sleep of a horse? Sixty respirations.

_Succah_, fol. 26, col. 2.

Abaii says, "When I left Rabbah, I was not at all hungry; but when I arrived at Meree, they served up before me sixty dishes, with as many sorts of viands, and I ate half of each, but as for hotch-potch, which the last dish contained, I ate up all of it, and would fain have eaten up the dish too." Abaii said, "This illustrates the proverb, current among the people, 'The poor man is hungry, and does not know when he has eaten enough; or, there is always room for a tit-bit.'"

_Meggillah_, fol. 7, col. 2.

There are sixty kinds of wine; the best of all is the red aromatic wine, and bad white wine is the worst.

_Gittin_, fol. 70, col. 1.

Samson's shoulders were sixty ells broad.

_Soteh_, fol. 10, col. 1.

Ebal and Gerizim were sixty miles from Jordan.

Ibid., fol. 36, col. 1.

One who makes a good breakfast can outstrip sixty runners in a race (who have not).

_Bava Kama_, fol. 92, col. 2.

A (hungry) person who looks on while another eats, experiences sixty unpleasant sensations in his teeth.

Ibid.

His wife made him daily sixty sorts of dainties, and these restored him again.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 84, col. 2.

Rabbi Blazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon, once vindictively caused a man to be put to death, merely because he had spoken of him as Vinegar the son of Wine, a round-about way of reproaching him that he was the bad son of a good father, though it turned out afterward that the condemned man deserved death for a crime that he was not known to be guilty of at the time of his execution; yet the mind of the Rabbi was ill at ease, and he voluntarily did penance by subjecting himself in a peculiar fashion to great bodily suffering. Sixty woolen cloths were regularly spread under him every night, and these were found soaked in the morning with his profuse perspiration. The result of this was greater and greater bodily prostration, which his wife strove, as related above, day after day to repair, detaining him from college, lest the debates there should prove too much for his weakened frame. When his wife found that he persisted in courting these sufferings, and that her tender care, as well as her own patrimony, were being lavished on him in vain, she tired of her assiduity, and left him to his fate. And now, waited on by some sailors, who believed they owed to him deliverance from a watery grave, he was free to do as he liked. One day, being ministered to by them after a night's perspiration of the kind referred to, he went straight to college, and there decided sixty doubtful cases against the unanimous dissent of the assembly. Providential circumstances, which happened afterward, both proved that he was right in his judgment and that his wife was wrong in suffering her fondness for him to stand in the way of the performance of his public duties.

Elijah frequently attended the Rabbi's seat of instruction, and once, on the first of a month, he came in later than usual. Rabbi asked what had kept him so late. Elijah answered, "I have to wake up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob one after the other, to wash the hands of each, and to wait until each has said his prayers and retired to rest again." "But," said Rabbi, "why do they not all get up at the same time?" The answer was, "Because if they prayed all at once, their united prayers would hurry on the coming of the Messiah before the time appointed." Then said Rabbi, "Are there any such praying people among us?" Elijah mentioned Rabbi Cheyah and his sons. Then Rabbi announced a fast, and the Rabbi Cheyah and his sons came to celebrate it. In the course of repeating the Shemoneh Esreh [a prayer consisting of eighteen Collects, which is repeated three times each day] they were about to say, "Thou restoreth life to the dead" when the world was convulsed, and the question was asked in heaven, "Who told them the secret?" So Elijah was bastinadoed sixty strokes with a cudgel of fire. Then he came down like a fiery bear, and dashing in among the people, scattered the congregation.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 85, col. 2.

When love was strong, we could lie, as it were, on the edge of a sword; but now, when love is diminished, a bed sixty ells wide is not broad enough for us.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

The pig bears in sixty days.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

Sixty iron mines are suspended in the sting of a gnat.

_Chullin_, fol. 58, col. 2.

An egg once dropped out of the nest of a bird called Bar-Yuchnei, which deluged sixty cities and swept away three hundred cedars. The question therefore arose, "Does the bird generally throw out its eggs?" Rav Ashi replied, "No; that was a rotten one."

_Bechoroth_, fol. 57, col. 2.

Everybody knows why a bride enters the nuptial chamber, but against him who sullies his lips by talking about it, the decree for good, though of seventy years' standing, shall be reversed into a decree for evil. Rav Chasda says, "Whosoever disgraces his mouth (by evil communication), Gehenna shall be deepened for him; for it is said in Prov. xxii. 14, 'A deep pit for the mouth of strange words (immoral talk).'" Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says, "The same punishment will be inflicted on him who listens to it and is silent; for it is said (Prov. xxii. 14), 'And he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.'"

_Shabbath_, fol. 33, col. 1.

(Jer. xxiii. 29), "Like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces," so is every utterance which proceedeth from the mouth of God, divided though it be into seventy languages.

Ibid., fol. 88, col. 2.

Rabbi Eliezer asked, "For whose benefit were those seventy bullocks intended?" See Num. xxix. 12-36. For the seventy nations into which the Gentile world is divided; and Rashi plainly asserts that the seventy bullocks were intended to atone for them, that rain might descend all over the world, for on the Feast of Tabernacles judgment is given respecting rain, etc. Woe to the Gentile nations for their loss, and they know not what they have lost! for as long as the Temple existed, the altar made atonement for them; but now, who is to atone for them?

_Succah_, fol. 55, col. 2.

Choni, the Maagol, once saw in his travels an old man planting a carob-tree, and he asked him when he thought the tree would bear fruit. "After seventy years," was the reply. "What!" said Choni, "dost thou expect to live seventy years and eat the fruit of thy labor?" "I did not find the world desolate when I entered it," said the old man; "and as my fathers planted for me before I was born, so I plant for those that will come after me."

_Taanith_, fol. 23, col. 1.

Mordecai was one of those who sat in the hall of the Temple, and he knew seventy languages.

_Megillah_, fol. 13, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught:--During a prosperous year in Israel, a place that is sown with a single measure of seed produces five myriad cors of grain. In the tilled districts of Zoan, one measure of seed produces seventy cors; for we are told that Rabbi Meir said he himself had witnessed in the vale of Bethshean an instance of one measure of seed producing seventy cors. And there is no better land anywhere than the land of Egypt; for it is said, "As the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." And there is no better land in ail Egypt than Zoan, where several kings have resided; for it is written (Isa. xxx. 4), "His princes were in Zoan." In all Israel there was no more unsuitable soil than Hebron, for it was a burying-place, and yet Hebron was seven times more prolific than Zoan; for it is written (Num. xiii. 22), "Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." For it is said (Gen. x. 6), "And the sons of Ham, Cush, Mizraim (that is, Egypt), Phut, and Canaan" (that is, Israel). It must, therefore, mean that it was seven times more prolific (the verb meaning both to build and to produce) than Zoan. This is only in the unsuitable soil of the land of Israel, Hebron, but in the suitable soil (the increase) is five hundred times. All this applies to a year of average return, but in one of special prosperity, it is written (Gen. xxvi. 12), "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him." (The word years, is conveniently overlooked in working out the argument.)

_Kethuboth_, fol. 112, col. 1.

The astrologers in Egypt said to Pharaoh, "What! shall a slave whose master bought him for twenty pieces of silver rule over us?" Pharaoh replied, "But I find him endowed with kingly qualities." "If that is the case," they answered, "he must know seventy languages." Then came the angel Gabriel, and taught him seventy languages.

_Soteh_, fol. 36, col. 2.

When the leviathan makes the deep boil, the sea does not recover its calm for seventy years; for it is said (Job xli. 32), "One would think the deep is to be hoary," and we cannot take the word "hoary" to imply a term of less than seventy years.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 75, col. 1.

Abba Chalepha Keruya once remarked to Rav Cheyah bar Abba, "The sum total of Jacob's family thou findest reckoned at seventy, whereas the numbers added up make only sixty-nine. How is that?" Rav Cheyah made answer that the particle in verse 15, implies that Dinah must have been one of twin-sisters. "But," objected the other, "the same particle occurs also in connection with Benjamin, to say nothing of other instances." "Alas!" said Rav Cheyah, "I am possessed of a secret worth knowing, and thou art trying to worm it out of me." Then interposed Rav Chama bar Chanena, "The number may be made up by reckoning Jochebed in, for of her it is said (Num. xxvi. 59) 'that her mother bare her to Levi in Egypt;' her birth took place in Egypt, though she was conceived on the journey."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 123, cols, 1, 2.

Rav Yehudah says in the name of Shemuel:--There is yet another festival in Rome, which is observed only once in seventy years, and this is the manner of its celebration. They take an able-bodied man, without physical defect, and cause him to ride upon the back of a lame one. They dress up the former in the garments of Adam (such as God made for him in Paradise), and cover his face with the skin of the face of Rabbi Ishmael, the high priest, and adorn his neck with a precious stone. They illuminate the streets, and then lead the two men through the city, a herald proclaiming before them, "The account of our Lord was false; it is the brother of our Lord that is the deceiver! He that sees this festival sees it, and he that does not see it now will never see it. What advantage to the deceiver is his deception, and to the crafty his craftiness?" The proclamation finishes up thus--"Woe to this one when the other shall rise again!"

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 11, col. 2.

The Targum Yarushalmi informs us that the Lord God wrought for Adam and his wife robes of honor from the cast-off skin of the serpent. We learn elsewhere that Nimrod came into possession of Adam's coat through Ham, who stole it from Noah while in the Ark. The glib tongue of tradition also tells how Esau slew Nimrod and appropriated the garment, and wore it for luck when hunting; but that on the day when he went to seek venison at the request of his dying parent, in his hurry he forgot the embroidered robe of Adam, and had bad luck in consequence. Then Jacob borrowed the left-off garment, and kept it for himself. The mask alluded to is accounted for thus:--The daughter of a Roman emperor took a fancy to have the skin of Rabbi Ishmael's face, and it accordingly, when he was dead, was taken off, and so embalmed as to retain its features, expression, and complexion, and the Jews say that it is still preserved among the relics at Rome. The able-bodied man in this prophetic mystery-play represents Esau, and the limping man is intended for Jacob. Rome (or Esau) is uppermost in that ceremonial, but the time is coming when Jacob will rise and invest himself in the blessings he so craftily obtained the reversion of.

Rabbi Yochanan said:--None were elected to sit in the High Council of the Sanhedrin except men of stature, of wisdom, of imposing appearance, and of mature age; men who knew witchcraft and seventy languages, in order that the High Council of the Sanhedrin should have no need of an interpreter.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 17, col. 1.

Yehudah and Chiskiyah, the sons of Rabbi Cheyah, once sat down to a meal before Rabbi (the Holy) without speaking a word. "Give the boys some wine," said Rabbi, "that they may have boldness to speak." When they had partaken of the wine, they said, "The son of David will not come until the two patriarchal houses of Israel are no more," that is, the head of the Captivity in Babylon and the Prince in the land of Israel; for it is written (Isa. viii. 14), "And he shall be for a sanctuary, and for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel." "Why, children," said Rabbi (who was patriarch of Tiberias), "you are thrusting thorns into my eyes." Rabbi Cheyah said, "Do not be offended at them. Wine is given with seventy, and so is a secret (the numerical value of each of these words is seventy); when wine enters the secret oozes out."

Ibid., fol. 38, col. 1.

A certain star appears once in seventy years and deceives the sailors (who guide their vessels by the position of the heavenly bodies; and this star appears sometimes in the north and sometimes in the south.--_Rashi_.)

_Horayoth_, fol. 10, col. 1.

As eating olive berries causes one to forget things that he has known for seventy years, so olive oil brings back to the memory things which happened seventy years before.

Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2,

The outside of the shell of the purple mollusk resembles the sea in color; its bodily conformation is like that of a fish; it rises once in seventy years; its blood is used to dye wool purple, and therefore this color is dear.

_Menachoth_, fol. 44, col. 1.

The bearing-time of the flat-headed otter lasts seventy years; a parallel may be found in the carob-tree, from the planting to the ripening of the pods of which is seventy years.

_Berachoth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

The Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-one members. It is recorded that Rabbi Yossi said, "Seldom was there contention in Israel, but the judicial court of seventy-one sat in the Lishkath-hagazith, i.e., Paved Hall, and two (ordinary) courts of justice consisting of twenty-three, one of which sat at the entrance of the Temple-Mount, and the other at the entrance of the ante-court; and also (provincial) courts of justice, also comprising twenty-three members, which held their sessions in all the cities of Israel. When an Israelite had a question to propose, he asked it first of the court in his own city. If they understood the case, they settled the matter; but if not, they applied to the court of the next city. If the neighboring justices could not decide, they went together and laid the case in debate before the court which held its session at the entrance of the Temple-Mount. If these courts, in turn, failed to solve the problem, they appealed to the court that sat in the entrance of the ante-court, where a discussion was entered into upon the moot points of the case; if no decision could be arrived at, they all referred to the (supreme) court of seventy-one, where the matter was finally decided by the majority of votes."

As the disciples of Shammai and Hillel multiplied who had not studied the law thoroughly, contentions increased in Israel to such an extent that the law lost its unity and became as two.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 88, col. 2.

The Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle, in order that they might see one another; and two notaries stood before them, the one on the right and the other on the left, to record the pros and cons in the various processes. Rabbi Yehudah says there were three such notaries, one for the pros, one for the cons, and one to record both the pros and the cons.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 36, col. 2.

The witnesses (in capital cases) were questioned on seven points, as follows:--In what Shemitah (or septennial cycle) did it occur? In which year (of the cycle)? In what month? Upon what day? At what hour? In what place? ... The more one questioned the more he was commended. (See Deut. xiii. 15; A.V., ver. 14.)

Ibid., fol. 40, col. 1.

In connection with the foregoing subject, let us string together some of the gems of forensic wisdom to be met with in the Talmud. A score or so of bona fide quotations, respecting judges, criminals and criminal punishment, and witnesses, will serve to illustrate this part of our subject.

JUDGES.

The judge, says the Scripture, who for but one hour administers justice according to true equity, is a partner, as it were, with God in His work of creation.

_Shabbath_, fol. 10, col. 1.

Despicable is the judge who judges for reward; yet his judgment is law, and must, as such, be respected.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 105, col. 1.

The judge who accepts a bribe, however perfectly righteous otherwise, will not leave this world with sane mind.

Ibid., fol. 105, col. 2.

A judge will establish the land if, like a king, he want nothing; but he will ruin it if, like a priest, he receive gifts from the threshing-floor.

Ibid.

Once when Shemuel was crossing a river in a ferryboat, a man lent a sustaining hand to prevent him from falling. "What," said the Rabbi, "have I done for thee, that thou art so attentive with thy services?" The man replied, "I have a lawsuit before thee." "In that case," said Shemuel, "thy attention has disqualified me from judging in thy lawsuit."

Ameimar was once sitting in judgment, when a man stepped forward and removed some feathers that were clinging to his hair. Upon this the judge asked, "What service have I done thee?" The man replied, "I have a case to bring up before thee, my lord." The Rabbi replied, "Thou hast disqualified me from being judge in the matter."

Mar Ukva once noticed a man politely step up and cover some saliva which lay on the ground before him. "What have I done for thee?" said the Rabbi. "I have a case to bring before thee," said the man. "Thou hast bribed me with thy kind attention," said the Rabbi; "I cannot be thy judge."

Rabbi Ishmael, son of Rabbi Yossi, had a gardener who regularly brought him a basket of grapes every Friday. Bringing it once on a Thursday, the Rabbi asked him the reason why he had come a day earlier. "My lord," said the gardener, "having a lawsuit to come off before thee to-day, I thought by so doing I might save myself the journey to-morrow." Upon this the Rabbi both refused to take the basket of grapes, though they were really his own, and declined to act as judge in the process. He, however, appointed two Rabbis to judge the case in his stead, and while they were investigating the evidence in the litigation he kept pacing up and down, and saying to himself, if the gardener were sharp he might say so-and-so in his own behalf. He was at one time on the point of speaking in defense of his gardener, when he checked himself and said, "The receivers of bribes may well look to their souls. If I feel partial who have not even taken a bribe of what was my own, how perverted must the disposition of those become who receive bribes at the hands of others!"

_Kethuboth_, fol. 105, col. 1.

The judge who takes a bribe only provokes wrath, instead of allaying it; for is it not said (Prov. xxi. 14), "A reward in the bosom bringeth strong wrath"?

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Let judges know with whom and before whom they judge, and who it is that will one day exact account of their judgments; for it is said (Ps. lxxxii. 1), "God standeth in the assembly of God, and judgeth with the judges."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 6, col. 2.

A judge who does not judge justly causeth the Shechinah to depart from Israel; for it is said (Ps. xii. 5), "For the oppression of the poor, the sighing of the needy, now will I depart, saith the Lord."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

The judge should ever regard himself as if he had a sword laid upon his thigh, and Gehenna were yawning near him; as it is said (Solomon's Song, iii. 7, 8), "Behold the bed of Solomon (the judgment-seat of God), threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert in war (with injustice). Every one has his sword upon his thigh, for fear of the night" (the confusion that would follow).

_Yevamoth_, fol. 109, col. 2; _Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

Seven have, in the popular regard, no portion in the world to come: a notary, a schoolmaster, the best of doctors, a judge in his native place, a conjuror, a congregational reader, and a butcher.

_Avoth d' Rabbi Nathan_, chap. 36.

WITNESSES.

An ignoramus is ineligible for a witness.

The following are ineligible as witnesses of the appearance of the new moon:--Dice-players, usurers, pigeon-fliers, sellers of the produce of the year of release, and slaves. This is the general rule; in any case in which women are inadmissible as witnesses, they also are inadmissible here.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 22, col. 1.

Two disciples of the wise happened to be shipwrecked with Rabbi Yossi ben Simaii, and the Rabbi allowed their widows to re-marry on the testimony of women. Even the testimony of a hundred women is only equal to the evidence of one man (and that only in a case like the foregoing; it is inadmissible in any other matter).

_Yevamoth_, fol. 115, col. 1.

"Whosoever is not instructed in Scripture, in the Mishna, and in good manners," says Rabbi Yochanan, "is not qualified to act as a witness." "He who eats in the street," say the Rabbis, "is like a dog;" and some add that such a one is ineligible as a witness, and Rav Iddi bar Avin says the Halachah is as "some say."

_Kiddushin_, fol. 40, col. 2.

Even when a witness is paid, his testimony is not thereby invalidated.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 58, col. 2.

Testimony that is invalidated in part is invalidated entirely.

_Bava Kama_, fol, 73, col. 1.

Let witnesses know with whom and before whom they bear testimony, and who will one day call them to account; for it is said (Deut. xix. 17), "Both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 6, col. 2.

Those that eat another thing (i.e., not pork, but those who receive charity from a Gentile.--Rashi and Tosefoth) are disqualified from being witnesses. When is this the case? When done publicly; but if in secret, not so.

Ibid., fol. 26, col. 2.

He who swears falsely in a capital case is unreliable as a witness in any other suit at law; but if he has perjured himself in a civil case only, his evidence may be relied upon in cases where life and death are concerned.

Ibid., fol. 27, col. 1.

He who disavows a loan is fit to be a witness; but he who disowns a deposit in trust is unfit.

_Shevuoth_, fol. 40, col. 2.

Shimon ben Shetach says, "Fully examine the witnesses; be careful with thy words, lest from them they learn to lie."

_Avoth_, chap. 1.

CRIMINALS AND CRIMINAL PUNISHMENTS.

Four kinds of capital punishment were decreed by the court of justice:--Stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling; or as Rabbi Shimon arranges them--Burning, stoning, strangling, and beheading. As soon as the sentence of death is pronounced, the criminal is led out to be stoned, the stoning-place being at a distance from the court of justice; for it is said (Lev. xxiv. 14), "Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp." Then one official stands at the door of the court of justice with a flag in his hand, and another is stationed on horseback at such a distance as to be able to see the former. If, meanwhile, one comes and declares before the court, "I have something further to urge in defense of the prisoner," the man at the door waves his flag, and the mounted official rides forward and stops the procession. Even if the criminal himself says, "I have yet something to plead in my defense," he is to be brought back, even four or five times over, provided there is something of importance in his deposition. If the evidence is exculpatory, he is discharged; if not, he is led out to be stoned. As he proceeds to the place of execution, a public crier goes before him and proclaims, "So-and-so, the son of So-and-so, goes out to be stoned because he has committed such-and-such a crime, and So-and-so and So-and-so are the witnesses. Let him who knows of anything that pleads in his defense come forward and state it." When about ten yards from the stoning-place, the condemned is called upon to confess his guilt. (All about to be executed were urged to confess, as by making confession every criminal made good a portion in the world to come; for so we find it in the case of Achan, when Joshua said unto him (Josh. vii. 19), "My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him," etc. "And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned." But where are we taught that his confession was his atonement? Where it is said (Ibid., v. 25), "And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day;" as if to say, "This day thou shalt be troubled, but in the world to come thou shalt not be troubled.") About four yards from the stoning-place they stripped off the criminal's clothes, covering a male in front, but a female both before and behind. These are the words of Rabbi Yehudah; but the sages say a man was stoned naked, but not a female.

The stoning-place was twice the height of a man, and this the criminal ascended. One of the witnesses then pushed him from behind, and he tumbled down upon his chest. He was then turned over upon his back: if he was killed, the execution was complete; but if not quite dead, the second witness took a heavy stone and cast it upon his chest; and if this did not prove effectual, then the stoning was completed by all present joining in the act; as it is said (Deut. xvii. 7), "The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people."

"Criminals who were stoned dead were afterward hanged." These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say none were hanged but the blasphemer and the idolater. "They hanged a man with his face toward the people, but a woman with her face toward the gallows." These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say a man is hanged, but no woman is hanged.... How then did they hang the man? A post was firmly fixed into the ground, from which an arm of wood projected, and they tied the hands of the corpse together and so suspended it. Rabbi Yossi says, "The beam simply leaned against a wall, and so they hung up the body as butchers do an ox or a sheep, and it was soon afterward taken down again, for if it remained over night a prohibition of the law would have been thereby transgressed." For it is said (Deut. xxi. 23), "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God," etc. That is to say, people would ask why this one was hanged; and as the reply would needs be, "Because he blasphemed God," this would lead to the use of God's name under circumstances in which it would be blasphemed.

The sentence of burning was carried out thus:--They fixed the criminal up to his knees in manure, and a hard cloth wrapped in a softer material was passed round his neck. One of the witnesses, taking hold of this, pulled it one way, and another the other, until the criminal was forced to open his mouth; then a wick of lead was lighted and thrust into his mouth, the molten lead running down into his bowels and burning them. Rabbi Yehudah asks, "If the criminal should die in their hands, how would that fulfill the commandment respecting burning?" But they forcibly open his mouth with a pair of tongues and the lighted wire (the molten lead) is thrust into his mouth, so that it goes down into his bowels and burns his inside.

The sentence of beheading was executed thus:--They sometimes cut off the criminal's head with a sword, as is done among the Romans. But Rabbi Yehudah says this was degrading, and in some cases they placed the culprit's head upon the block and struck it off with an ax. Some one remarked to him that such a death is more degrading still.

The sentence of strangling was carried out thus:--They fixed the criminal up to his knees in manure, and having twined a hard cloth within a soft one round his neck, one witness pulled one way and the other pulled in an opposite direction till life was extinct.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 42, col. 2; fol. 49, col. 2; fol. 52, cols. 1, 2.

The above, which has been translated almost literally from the Talmud, may serve to remove many misconceptions now current as to the modes of capital punishment that obtained in Jewry.

In further illustration of this topic, we will append some of the legal decisions that are recorded in the Talmud, authenticating each by reference to folio and column. Examples might be multiplied by the score, but a sufficient number will be quoted to give a fair idea of Rabbinic jurisprudence.

If one who intends to kill a beast (accidentally) kill a man; or if, purposing to kill a Gentile, he slay an Israelite; or if he destroy a foetus in mistake for an embryo, he shall be free; i.e., not guilty.

Ibid., fol. 78, col. 2.

He who has been flogged and exposes himself again to the same punishment is to be shut up in a narrow cell, in which he can only stand upright, and be fed with barley till he burst.

Ibid., fol. 81, col. 2.

If one commits murder, and there is not sufficient legal evidence, he is to be shut up in a narrow cell and fed with "the bread of adversity and the water of affliction" (Isa. xxx. 20). They give him this diet till his bowels shrink, and then he is fed with barley till (as it swells in his bowels) his intestines burst.

Ibid.

A woman who is doomed, being _enceinte_, to suffer the extreme penalty of the law, is first beaten, about the womb, lest a mishap occur at the execution.

_Erachin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

If a woman who has vowed the vow of a Nazarite drink wine or defile herself by contact with a dead body (see Num. vi. 2-6), she is to undergo the punishment of forty stripes.

_Nazir_, fol. 23, col. 1.

The Rabbis teach that when the woman has to be flogged, the man has only to bring a sacrifice; and that if she is not to be flogged, the man is not required to bring a sacrifice. (This is in reference to Lev. xix. 20, 21.)

_Kerithoth_, fol. 11, col. 1.

Rav Yehudah says, "He that eats a certain aquatic insect, the swallowing of which while drinking would involve no penalty whatever--Tosefoth, receives forty stripes save one (the penalty for transgressing the negative precepts), for it belongs to the class of 'creeping things that do creep upon the earth' (Lev. xi. 29)." Rav Yehudah once gave a practical exemplification of this ruling of his.

Abaii says, "He that eats a particular animalcule found in stagnant water, receives four times forty stripes save one. For eating an ant this penalty is five times repeated, and for eating a wasp it is inflicted six times."

_Maccoth_, fol. 16, col. 2.

When one is ordered to construct a booth, or to prepare a palm-branch for the Feast of Tabernacles, or to make fringes, and does not do so, he is to be flogged till his soul comes out of him.

_Chullin_, fol. 132, col. 2.

Once on a time, as the Rabbis relate, the wicked Government sent two officers to the wise men of Israel, saying, "Teach us your law." This being put into their hands, three times over they perused it; and when about to leave they returned it, remarking, "We have carefully studied your law, and find it equitable save in one particular. You say: When the ox of an Israelite gores to death the ox of an alien, its owner is not liable to make compensation; but if the ox of an alien gore to death the ox of an Israelite, its owner must make full amends for the loss of the animal; whether it be the first or second time that the ox has so killed another (in which case an Israelite would have to pay to another Israelite only half the value of the loss), or the third time (when he would be fined to the full extent of his neighbor's loss). Either 'neighbor' (in Exod. xxi. 35, for such the word signifies in the original Hebrew, though the Authorized Version has another) is taken strictly as referring to an Israelite only, and then an alien should be exempted as well; or if the word 'neighbor' is to be taken in its widest sense, why should not an Israelite be bound to pay when his ox gores to death the ox of an alien?" "This legal point," was the answer, "we do not tell the Government." As Rashi says in reference to the preceding Halacha, "an alien forfeits the right to his own property in favor of the Jews."

_Bava Kama_, fol. 38, col. 1.

Ptolemy, the king (of Egypt), assembled seventy-two elders of Israel and lodged them in seventy-two separate chambers, but did not tell them why he did so. Then he visited each one in turn and said, "Write out for me the law of Moses your Rabbi." The Holy One--blessed be He!--went and counseled the minds of every one of them, so that they all agreed, and wrote, "God created in the beginning," etc.

_Megillah_, fol. 9, col. 1.

The Talmudic story of the origin of the Septuagint agrees in the main with the account of Aristeas and Josephus, but Philo gives the different version. Many of the Christian fathers believed it to be the work of inspiration.

Abraham was as tall as seventy-four people; what he ate and drank was enough to satisfy seventy-four ordinary men, and his strength was proportionate.

_Sophrim_, chap. 21, 9.

The venerable Hillel had eighty disciples, thirty of whom were worthy that the Shechinah should rest upon them, as it rested upon Moses our Rabbi; and thirty of them were worthy that the sun should stand still (for them), as it did for Joshua the son of Nun; and twenty of them stood midway in worth. The greatest of all of them was Jonathan ben Uzziel, and the least of all was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacchai. It is said of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacchai that he did not leave unstudied the Bible, the Mishna, the Gemara, the constitutions, the legends, the minutiae of the law, the niceties of the scribes, the arguments _à fortìori_ and from similar premises, the theory of the change of the moon, the Gematria, the parable of the unripe grapes and the foxes, the language of demons, of palm-trees, and of ministering angels.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 134, col. 1.

A male criminal is to be hanged with his face toward the people, but a female with her face toward the gibbet. So says Rabbi Eliezer; but the sages say the man only is hanged, not the woman. Rabbi Eliezer retorted, "Did not Simeon the son of Shetach hang women in Askelon?" To this they replied, "He indeed caused eighty women to be hanged, though two criminals are not to be condemned in one day."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 45, col. 2.

We may here repeat the story of the execution of the eighty women here alluded to, as that is told by Rashi on the preceding page of the Talmud. Once a publican, an Israelite but a sinner, and a great and good man of the same place, having died on the same day, were about to be buried. While the citizens were engaged with the funeral of the latter, the relations of the other crossed their path, bearing the corpse to the sepulchre. Of a sudden a troop of enemies came upon the scene and caused them all to take to flight, one faithful disciple alone remaining by the bier of his Rabbi. After a while the citizens returned to inter the remains they had so unceremoniously left, but by some mistake they took the wrong bier and buried the publican with honor, in spite of the remonstrance of the disciple, while the relatives of the publican buried the Rabbi ignominiously. The poor disciple felt inconsolably distressed, and was anxious to know for what sin the great man had been buried with contempt, and for what merit the wicked man had been buried with such honor. His Rabbi then appeared to him in a dream, and said, "Comfort thou thy heart, and come I will show thee the honor I hold in Paradise, and I will also show thee that man in Gehenna, the hinge of the door of which even now creaks in his ears. (Which were formed into sockets for the gates of hell to turn in.) But because once on a time I listened to contemptuous talk about the Rabbis and did not check it, I have suffered an ignoble burial, while the publican enjoyed the honor that was intended for me because he once distributed gratuitously among the poor of the city a banquet he had prepared for the governor, but of which the governor did not come to partake." The disciple having asked the Rabbi how long this publican was to be thus severely treated, he replied, "Until the death of Simeon the son of Shetach, who is to take the publican's place in Gehenna." "Why so?" "Because, though he knows there are several Jewish witches in Askelon, he idly suffers them to ply their infernal trade and does not take any steps to extirpate them." On the morrow the disciple reported this speech to Simeon the son of Shetach, who at once proceeded to take action against the obnoxious witches. He engaged eighty stalwart young men, and choosing a rainy day, supplied each with an extra garment folded up and stowed away in an earthern vessel. Thus provided, they were each at a given signal to snatch up one of the eighty witches and carry her away, a task they would find of easy execution, as, except in contact with the earth, these creatures were powerless. Then Simeon the son of Shetach, leaving his men in ambush, entered the rendezvous of the witches, who, accosting him, asked, "Who art thou?" He replied, "I am a wizard, and am come to experiment in magic." "What trick have you to show?" they said. He answered, "Even though the day is wet, I can produce eighty young men all in dry clothes." They smiled incredulously and said, "Let us see!" He went to the door, and at the signal the young men took the dry clothes out of the jars and put them on, then starting from their ambush, they rushed into the witches' den, and each seizing one, lifted her up and carried her off as directed. Thus overpowered, they were brought before the court, convicted of malpractices and led forth to execution.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 44, col. 2.

(Exod. xxiii. 35), "And I will take away sickness from the midst of thee." It is taught that sickness (Machlah) means the bile. But why is it termed Machlah? Because eighty-three diseases are in it. Machlah by Gematria equals eighty-three; and all may be avoided by an early breakfast of bread and salt and a bottle of water.

_Bava Kama_, fol. 92, col. 2.

If in a book of the law the writing is obliterated all but eighty-five letters--as, for instance, in Num. x. 35, 36, "And it came to pass when the ark set forward," etc.,--it may be rescued on the Sabbath from a fire, but not otherwise.

_Shabbath_, fol. 116, col. 1.

Elijah said to Rabbi Judah the brother of Rav Salla the Pious, "The world will not last less than eighty-five jubilees, and in the last jubilee the son of David will come."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 97, col 2.

There was not a single individual in Israel who had not ninety Lybian donkeys laden with the gold and silver of Egypt.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 5, col. 2.

(2 Sam. xix. 35), "Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink?" From this we learn that in the aged the sense of taste is destroyed.... Rav says, "Barzillai the Gileadite reports falsely, for the cook at the house of Rabbi (the Holy) was ninety-two years old, and yet could judge by taste of what was cooking in the pot."

_Shabbath_, fol. 152, col. 1.

Rava said, "Life, children, and competency do not depend on one's merit, but on luck; for instance, Rabbah and Rav Chasda were both righteous Rabbis; the one prayed for rain and it came, and the other did so likewise with the like result; yet Rav Chasda lived ninety-two years and Rabbah only forty. Rav Chasda, moreover, had sixty weddings in his family during his lifetime, whereas Rabbah had sixty serious illnesses in his during the short period of his life. At the house of the former even the dogs refused to eat bread made of the finest wheat flour, whereas the family of the latter were content to eat rough bread of barley and could not always obtain it." Rava also added, "For these three things I prayed to Heaven, two of which were and one was not granted unto me. I prayed for the wisdom of Rav Hunna and for the riches of Rav Chasda, and both these were granted unto me; but the humility and meekness of Rabbah, the son of Rav Hunna, for which I also prayed, was not granted."

_Moed Katon_, fol. 28, col. 1.

The judges who issued decrees at Jerusalem received for salary ninety-nine manahs from the contributions of the chamber.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 105, col. 1.

Ninety-nine die from an evil eye for one who dies in the usual manner.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 107, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught us who they are that are to be accounted rich. "Every one," says Rabbi Meir, "who enjoys his riches." But Rabbi Tarphon says, "Every one who has a hundred vineyards and a hundred fields, with a hundred slaves to labor in them." Rabbi Akiva pronounces him well off who has a wife that is becoming in all her ways.

_Shabbath_, fol. 25, col. 2.

A light for one is a light for a hundred.

Ibid., fol. 122, col. 1.

When a Gentile lights a candle or a lamp on the Sabbath-eve for his own use, an Israelite is permitted to avail himself of its light, as a light for one is a light for a hundred; but it is unlawful for an Israelite to order a Gentile to kindle a light for his use.

A hundred Rav Papas and not one (like) Ravina!

A hundred zouzim employed in commerce will allow the merchant meat and wine at his table daily, but a hundred zouzim employed in farming will allow their owner only salt and vegetables.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 63, col. 1.

A hundred women are equal to only one witness (compare Deut. xvii. 6 and xix. 15).

Ibid., fol. 88, col. 2.

If song should cease, a hundred geese or a hundred measures of wheat might be offered for one zouz, and even then the buyer would refuse paying such a sum for them.

_Soteh_, fol. 48, col. 1.

Rav says, "The ear that often listens to song shall be rooted out." Music, according to the idea here, raises the price of provisions. Do away with music and provisions will be so abundant that a goose would be considered dear at a penny. Theatres and music-halls are abominations to orthodox Jews, and the Talmud considers the voice of a woman to be immoral.

When Rabbi Zira returned to the land of Israel he fasted a hundred times in order that he might forget the Babylonian Talmud.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 85, col. 1.

This passage, as also that on another page, will appear surprising to many a reader, as we confess it does to ourselves. We must, however, give the Talmud great credit for recording such passages, and also the custodians of the Talmud for not having expunged them from its pages.

"Ye shall hear the small as well as the great" (Deut. i. 17). Resh Lakish said, "A lawsuit about a prutah (the smallest coin there is) should be esteemed of as much account as a suit of a hundred manahs."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 8, col. 1.

Rav Yitzchak asks, "Why was Obadiah accounted worthy to be a prophet?" Because, he answers, he concealed a hundred prophets in a cave; as it is said (1 Kings xviii. 4), "When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave." Why by fifties? Rabbi Eliezer explains, "He copied the plan from Jacob, who said, 'If Esau come to one company and smite it, then the other company which is left may escape.'" Rabbi Abuhu says, "It was because the caves would not hold any more."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 39, col. 2.

"And it came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham" (Gen. xxii. 1). After what things? Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Rabbi Yossi ben Zimra, replies, "After the words of Satan, who said, 'Lord of the Universe! Thou didst bestow a son upon that old man when he was a hundred years of age, and yet he spared not a single dove from the festival to sacrifice to Thee.' God replied, 'Did he not make this festival for the sake of his son? and yet I know he would not refuse to sacrifice that son at my command.' To prove this, God did put Abraham to the test, saying unto him, 'Take now thy son;' just as an earthly king might say to a veteran warrior who had conquered in many a hard-fought battle, 'Fight, I pray thee, this severest battle of all, lest it should be said that thy previous encounters were mere haphazard skirmishes.' Thus did the Holy One--blessed be He!--address Abraham, 'I have tried thee in various ways, and not in vain either; stand this test also, for fear it should be insinuated that the former trials were trivial and therefore easily overcome. Take thy son.' Abraham replied, 'I have two sons.' 'Take thine only son.' Abraham answered, 'Each is the only son of his mother.' 'Take him whom thou lovest.' 'I love both of them,' said Abraham. 'Take Isaac.' Thus Abraham's mind was gradually prepared for this trial. While on the way to carry out this Divine command Satan met him, and (parodying Job iv. 2-5) said, 'Why ought grievous trials to be inflicted upon thee? Behold thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have supported him that was falling, and now this sore burden is laid upon thee.' Abraham answered (anticipating Ps. xxvi. 11), 'I will walk in my integrity.' Then said Satan (see Job iv. 6), 'Is not the fear (of God) thy folly? Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent?' Then finding that he could not persuade him, he said (perverting Job iv. 12), 'Now a word came to me by stealth. I overheard it behind the veil (in the Holy of Holies above). A lamb will be the sacrifice, and not Isaac.' Abraham said, 'It is the just desert of a liar not to be believed even when he speaks the truth.'"

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 89, col. 2.

It is better to have ten inches to stand upon than a hundred yards to fall.

_Avoth d' Rab. Nathan_, chap. 1.

When Israel went up to Jerusalem to worship their Father who is in heaven, they sat so close together that no one could insert a finger between them, yet when they had to kneel and to prostrate themselves there was room enough for them all to do so. The greatest wonder of all was that even when a hundred prostrated themselves at the same time there was no need for the governor of the synagogue to request one to make room for another.

Ibid., chap. 35.

A man is bound to repeat a hundred blessings every day.

_Menachoth_, fol. 43, col. 2.

This duty, as Rashi tells us, is based upon Deut. x. 12, altering the word what into a hundred, by the addition of a letter.

This is what the so-called Pagan Goethe, intent on self-culture as the first if not the final duty of man, makes Serlo in his "Meister" lay down as a rule which one should observe daily. "One," he says, "ought every day to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." The contrast between this advice and that of the Talmud here and elsewhere is suggestive of reflections.

He who possesses one manah may buy, in addition to his bread, a litra of vegetables; the owner of ten manahs may add to his bread a litra of fish; he that has fifty manahs may add a litra of meat; while the possessor of a hundred may have pottage every day.

_Chullin_, fol. 84, col. 1.

Ben Hey-Hey said to Hillel, "What does this mean that is written in Mal. iii. 18, 'Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not'? Does the righteous here mean him that serveth God, and the wicked him that serveth Him not? Why this repetition?" To this Hillel replied, "The expressions, 'he that serveth God, and he that serveth Him not,' are both to be understood as denoting 'perfectly righteous,' but he who repeats his lesson a hundred times is not to be compared with one who repeats it a hundred and one times." Then said Ben Hey-Hey, "What! because he has repeated what he has learned only one time less than the other, is he to be considered as 'one who serveth Him not'?" "Yes!" was the reply; "go and learn a lesson from the published tariff of the donkey-drivers--ten miles for one zouz, eleven for two."

_Chaggigah_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Hillel was great and good and clever, but his exposition of Scripture, as we see from the above, is not always to be depended upon. If, indeed, he was the teacher of Jesus, as some suppose him to have been, then Jesus must, even from a Rabbinical stand-point, be regarded as greater than Hillel the Great, for He never handled the Scriptures with such irreverence.

One hundred and three chapters (or psalms) were uttered by David, and he did not pronounce the word Hallelujah until he came to contemplate the downfall of the wicked; as it is written (Ps. civ. 35), "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Hallelujah!" Instead of one hundred and three we ought to say a hundred and four, but we infer from this that "Blessed is the man," etc., and "Why do the heathen rage?" etc., are but one psalm.

_Berachoth_, fol. 9, col. 2.

One of the most charming women that we find figuring in the Talmud was the wife of Rabbi Meir, Beruriah by name; and as we meet with her in the immediate context of the above quotation, it may be well to introduce her here to the attention of the reader. The context speaks of a set of ignorant fellows (probably Greeks) who sorely vexed the soul of Rabbi Meir, her husband, and he ardently prayed God to take them away. Then Beruriah reasoned with her husband thus:--"Is it, pray, because it is written (Ps. civ. 35), 'Let the sinners be consumed'? It is not written 'sinners,' but 'sins.' Besides, a little farther on in the text it is said, 'And the wicked will be no more;' that is to say, 'Let sins cease, and the wicked will cease too.' Pray, therefore, on their behalf that they may be led to repentance, and these wicked will be no more." This he therefore did, and they repented and ceased to vex him. Of this excellent and humane woman it may well be said, "She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness" (Prov. xxxi. 26). Her end was tragic. She was entrapped by a disciple of her husband, and out of shame she committed suicide. See particulars by Rashi in Avodah Zarah, fol. 18, col. 2.

The Hasmoneans ruled over Israel during the time of the second Temple a hundred and three years; and for a hundred and three the government was in the hands of the family of Herod.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 1.

Rabbi Yochanan the son of Zacchai lived a hundred and twenty years; forty he devoted to commerce, forty to study, and forty to teaching.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 30, col. 2.

One hundred and twenty elders, and among them several prophets, bore a part in composing the Eighteen Blessings (the Shemonah Esreh).

_Meggillah_, fol. 17, col. 2.

A similar tradition was current among the early Christians, with reference to the composition of the Creed. Its different sentences were ascribed to different apostles. However fitly this tradition may represent the community of faith with which the prophets on the one hand and the apostles on the other were inspired, it is not recommended by the critic as a proceeding calculated to ensure unity in a work of art.

Rabbi Shemuel says advantage may be taken of the mistakes of a Gentile. He once bought a gold plate as a copper one of a Gentile for four zouzim, and then cheated him out of one zouz into the bargain. Rav Cahana purchased a hundred and twenty vessels of wine from a Gentile for a hundred zouzim, and swindled him in the payment out of one of the hundred, and that while the Gentile assured him that he confidently trusted to his honesty. Rava once went shares with a Gentile and bought a tree, which was cut up into logs. This done, he bade his servant go to pick him out the largest logs, but to be sure to take no more than the proper number, because the Gentile knew how many there were. As Rav Ashi was walking abroad one day he saw some grapes growing in a roadside vineyard, and sent his servant to see whom they belonged to. "If they belong to a Gentile," he said, "bring some here to me; but if they belong to an Israelite, do not meddle with them." The owner, who happened to be in the vineyard, overheard the Rabbi's order and called out, "What! is it lawful to rob a Gentile?" "Oh, no," said the Rabbi evasively; "a Gentile might sell, but an Israelite would not."

_Bava Kama_, fol. 113, col. 2.

This is given simply as a sample of the teaching of the Talmud on the subject both by precept and example. There is no intention to cast a slight on general Jewish integrity, or suggest distrust in regard to their ethical creed.

Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eliezer ben Azaryah, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva once went on a journey to Rome, and at Puteoli they already heard the noisy din of the city, though at a distance of a hundred and twenty miles. At the sound all shed tears except Akiva, who began to laugh. "Why laughest thou?" they asked. "Why do you cry?" he retorted. They answered, "These Romans, who worship idols of wood and stone and offer incense to stars and planets, abide in peace and quietness, while our Temple, which was the footstool of our God, is consumed by fire; how can we help weeping?" "That is just the very reason," said he, "why I rejoice; for if such be the lot of those who transgress His laws, what shall the lot of those be who observe and do them?"

_Maccoth_, fol. 24, col. 2.

When Adam observed that his sin was the cause of the decree which made death universal he fasted one hundred and thirty years, abstained all that space from intercourse with his wife, and wore girdles of fig-leaves round his loins. All these years he lived under divine displeasure, and begat devils, demons, and spectres; as it is said (Gen. v. 3), "And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat in his own likeness, after his image," which implies that, until the close of those years, his offspring were not after his own image.

_Eiruvin_, fol. 18, col. 2.

There is a tradition that there was once a disciple in Yabneh who gave a hundred and fifty reasons to prove a reptile to be clean (which the Scripture regards as unclean.--Compare Lev. xi. 29).

Ibid., fol 13, col 2.

The ablutionary tank made by Solomon was as large as a hundred and fifty lavatories.

Ibid., fol. 14, col. 1.

A hundred and eighty years before the destruction of the Temple, the empire of idolatry (Rome) began the conquest of Israel.

_Shabbath_, fol. 15, col. 1.

The empire of Rome was, some think, so designated, because it strove with all its might to drag down the worship of God to the worship of man, and resolve the cause of God into the cause of the Empire.

During the time of the second Temple Persia domineered over Israel for thirty-four years and the Greeks held sway a hundred and eighty.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 1.

Foolish saints, crafty villains, sanctimonious women, and self-afflicting Pharisees are the destroyers of the world. What is it to be a foolish saint? To see a woman drowning in the river and refrain from trying to save her because of the look of the thing. Who is to be regarded as a crafty villain? Rabbi Yochanan says, "He who prejudices the magistrates by prepossessing them in favor of his cause before his opponent has had time to make his appearance." Rabbi Abhu says, "He who gives a denarius to a poor man to make up for him the sum total of two hundred zouzim; for it is enacted that he who possesses two hundred zouzim is not entitled to receive any gleanings, neither what is forgotten in the field, nor what is left in the corner of it (see Lev. xxiii. 22), nor poor relief either. But if he is only one short of the two hundred zouzim, and a thousand people give anything to him, he is still entitled to the poor man's perquisites."

_Soteh_, fol. 21, col. 2.

The cup of David in the world to come will contain two hundred and twenty-one logs; as it is said (Ps. xxiii. 5), "My cup runneth over," the numerical value of the Hebrew word, "runneth over," being two hundred and twenty-one.

_Yoma_, fol. 76, col. 2.

In the world to come the Holy One will make a grand banquet for the righteous from the flesh of the leviathan. _Bava Bathra_, fol. 75, col. 1. (See the Morning Service for the middle days of the Feast of Tabernacles.) God will make a banquet for the righteous on the day when He shows His mercy to the posterity of Isaac. After the meal the cup of blessing will be handed to Abraham, in order that he may pronounce the blessing, but he will plead excuse because he begat Ishmael. Then Isaac will be told to take the cup and speak the benediction of grace, but he also will plead his unworthiness because he begat Esau. Next Jacob also will refuse because he married two sisters. Then Moses, on the ground that he was unworthy to enter the land of promise, or even to be buried in it; and finally Joshua will plead unworthiness because he had no son. David will then be called upon to take the cup and bless, and he will respond, "Yea, I will bless, for I am worthy to bless, as it is said (Ps. cxvi. 13), 'I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.'" P'sachim, fol. 119, col. 2. This cup, as we are told above, will contain two hundred and twenty-one logs (which the Rabbis tell us, is the twenty-fourth part of a seah, therefore this cup will hold rather more than one-third of a hogshead of wine).

Beruriah once found a certain disciple who studied in silence. As soon as she saw him she spurned him and said, "Is it not thus written (2 Sam. xxiii. 5), 'Ordered in all and sure'? If ordered with all the two hundred and forty-eight members of thy body, it will be sure; if not, it will not be sure." It is recorded that Rabbi Eliezer had a disciple who also studied in silence, but that after three years he forgot all that he had learned.

_Eiruvin_, fol. 53, col. 2, and fol. 54, col. 1.

In continuation of the above we read that Shemuel said to Rav Yehudah, "Shrewd fellow, open thy mouth when thou readest, etc., so that thy reading may remain and thy life may be lengthened; as it is written in Prov. iv. 22, 'For they are life unto those that find them;' read not, 'that find them,' but read, 'that bring them forth by the mouth,' i.e., that read them aloud." It was and is still a common custom in the East to study aloud.

As an anathema enters all the two hundred and forty-eight members of the body, so does it issue from them all. Of the entering-in of the anathema it is written (Josh. vi. 17), "And the city shall be accursed;" by Gematria amounting to two hundred and forty-eight. Of the coming-out of the anathema it is written (Hab. iii. 2), "In wrath remember mercy;" a transposition of the letters of the word for accursed, also amounting by Gematria to two hundred and forty-eight. Rabbi Joseph says, "Hang an anathema on the tail of a dog and he will still go on doing mischief."

_Moed Katon_, fol. 17, col. 1.

The human body has two hundred and forty-eight members:--Thirty in the foot--that is, six in each toe--ten in the ankle, two in the thigh, five in the knee, one in the hip, three in the hip-ball, eleven ribs, thirty in the hand--that is, six in each finger--two in the fore-arm, two in the elbow, one in the upper arm, four in the shoulder. Thus we have one hundred and one on each side; to this add eighteen vertebrae in the spine, nine in the head, eight in the neck, six in the chest, and five in the loins.

_Oholoth_, chap. I, mish. 8.

See also Eiruvin, fol. 53, col. 2, and the Musaph for the second day of Pentecost. In the Musaph for the New Year there is a prayer that runs thus, "Oh, deign to hear the voice of those who glorify Thee with all their members, according to the number of the two hundred and forty-eight affirmative precepts. In this month they blow thirty sounds, according to the thirty members of the soles of their feet; the additional offerings of the day are ten, according to the ten in their ankles; they approach the altar twice, according to their two legs; five are called to the law, according to the five joints in their knees; they observe the appointed time to sound the cornet on the first day of the month, according to the one in their thigh; they sound the horn thrice, according to the three in their hips; lo! with the additional offering of the new moon they are eleven, according to their eleven ribs; they pour out the supplication with nine blessings, according to the muscles in their arms, and which contain thirty verses, according to the thirty in the palms of their hands; they daily repeat the prayer of eighteen blessings, according to the eighteen vertebrae in the spine; at the offering of the continual sacrifice they sound nine times, according to the nine muscles in their head," etc., etc.

It is related of Rabbi Ishmael's disciples that they dissected a low woman who had been condemned by the Government to be burned, and upon examination they found that her body contained two hundred and fifty-two members.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 45, col. 1.

The regular period of gestation is either two hundred and seventy-one, two hundred and seventy-two, or two hundred and seventy-three days.

_Niddah_, fol. 38, col. 1.

Revere the memory of Chananiah ben Chiskiyah, for had it not been for him the Book of Ezekiel would have been suppressed, because of the contradictions it offers to the words of the law. By the help of three hundred bottles of oil, which were brought up into an upper chamber, he prolonged his lucubrations, till he succeeded in reconciling all the discrepancies.

_Shabbath_, fol. 13, col. 2.

It is related of Johanan, the son of Narbai, that he used to eat three hundred calves, and to drink three hundred bottles of wine, and to consume forty measures of young pigeons by way of dessert. (Rashi says this was because he had to train many priests in his house.)

_P'sachim_, fol. 57, col. 1.

The keys of the treasury of Korah were so many that it required three hundred white mules to carry them. These, with the locks, were said to be made of white leather.

Ibid., fol. 119, col. 1.

The Midrash repeats the same story, and adds, "His wealth was his ruin." "He is as rich as Korah" is now a Jewish proverb.

Rav Chiya, the son of Adda, was tutor to the children of Resh Lakish, and once absented himself from his duties for three days. On his return he was questioned as to the reason of his conduct, and he gave the following reply: "My father bequeathed to me a vine, trained on high trellis-work as a bower, from which I gathered the first day three hundred bunches, each of which yielded a gerav of wine (a gerav is a measure containing as much as 288 egg-shells would contain). On the second day I again gathered three hundred bunches of smaller size, two only producing one gerav (one bunch yielding the quantity of wine 144 egg-shells would contain). The third day I also gathered three hundred bunches, but only three bunches to the gerav, and have yet left more than half of the grapes free for any one to gather them." Thereupon Resh Lakish observed to him, "If thou hadst not been so negligent (losing time in the instruction of my children), it would have yielded still more."

_Kethuboth_, fol. 111, col. 2.

There were three hundred species of male demons in Sichin, but what the female demon herself was like is known to no one.

_Gittin_, fol. 68, col. 1.

"Now, when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came each from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildah the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him" (Job ii. 11). What is meant when it is said, "They had made an appointment together"? Rab. Yehudah says in the name of Rav, "This is to teach that they all came in by one gate." But there is a tradition that each lived three hundred miles away from the other. How then came they to know of Job's sad condition? Some say they had wreaths, others say trees (each representing an absent friend), and when any friend was in distress the one representing him straightway began to wither. Rava said, "Hence the proverb, 'Either a friend as the friends of Job, or death.'"

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 16, col. 2.

Rashi tenders this explanation, that Job and his friends had each wreaths with their names engraved on them, and if affliction befell any one his name upon the wreath would change color.

Rabbi Yochanan says that Rabbi Meir knew three hundred fables about foxes, but we have only three of them, viz, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezek. xviii. 2); "Just balances and just weights" (Lev. xix. 36); "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead" (Prov. xi. 8).

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 38, col. 2, and fol. 39, col. 1.

Quite apropos to this we glean the following from Rashi:--A fox once induced a wolf to enter a Jewish dwelling to help the inmates to get ready the Sabbath meal. No sooner did he enter than the whole household set upon him, and so belabored him with cudgels that he was obliged to flee for his life. For this trick the wolf was indignant at the fox, and sought to kill him, but he pacified him with the remark, "They would not have beaten thee if thy father had not on a former occasion belied confidence, and eaten up the choicest pieces that were set aside for the meal." "What!" rejoined the wolf, "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and shall the children's teeth be set on edge?" "Well," interrupted the fox, "come with me now and I will show thee a place where thou mayest eat and be satisfied." He thereupon took him to a well, across the top of which rested a transverse axle with a rope coiled round it, to each extremity of which a bucket was attached. The fox, entering the bucket, which happened to be at the top, soon descended by his own weight to the bottom of the well, and thereby raised the other bucket to the top. On the wolf inquiring at the fox why he had gone down there, he replied, because he knew there was meat and cheese to eat and be satisfied, in proof of which he pointed to a cheese, which happened to be the reflection of the moon on the water. Upon which the wolf inquired, "And how am I to get down beside you?" The fox replied, "By getting into the bucket at the top." He did as directed, and as he descended the bucket with the fox rose to the top. The wolf in this plight again appealed to the fox. "But how am I to get out?" The reply was, "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead;" and is it not written, "Just balances just weights?"

When Rabbi Eliezer, on his deathbed, taught Rabbi Akiva three hundred particulars to be observed in regard to the white spot covered with hair which was the sign of leprosy, the former lifted up his arms and placed them on his chest and exclaimed, "Woe is me, because of these my two arms, these two scrolls of the law, that are about to depart from this world; for if all the seas were ink, and all the reeds were quills, and all the men were scribes, they could not record all I have learned and all I have taught, and how much I have heard at the lips of sages in the schools. And what is more, I also taught three hundred laws based on the text, 'A witch shall not live.'"

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 25.

This truly Oriental exaggeration, which Rabbi Eliezer ben Azariah so complacently applies to himself, was spoken also of Rabbi Yochanan before him (Bereshith Rabba); an acrostic poem in the Morning Service for Pentecost adopts the same hyperbole almost word for word, and turns it to very pious account. It is interesting to note how contemporary sacred literature abounds in similar hyperbolic expressions. In John xxi 25 it is said, "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." Cicero, too, speaks of a glory of such a weight that even heaven itself is scarcely able to contain it; and Livy, on one occasion, describes the power of Rome as with difficulty restrained within the limits of the world.

Here it may not be out of place if we introduce a few of the many passages in the Talmud that treat of enchantment and witchcraft, as well as magic, charms, and omens. The list of quotations might be extended to a hundred, but we must confine ourselves to a score or so.

The daughters of Israel burn incense for (purposes of) sorcery.

_Berachoth_, fol. 53, col. 1.

Ben Azai (son of impudence), says, "... he who seats himself and then feels ... (which must not be explained), the effects of witchcraft, even when practiced in Spain, will come upon him. What is the remedy when one forgets and first sits down and then feels?.... When he rises let him say, 'Not these and not of these; not the witchcraft of sorcerers and not the sorcery of witches.'"

_Berachoth_, fol. 62, col. 1.

The daughters of Israel in later generations lapsed into the practice of witchcraft.

_Eiruvin_ fol. 64, col. 2.

Ameimar says, "The superior of the witches told me that when a person meets any of them he should mutter thus, 'May a potsherd of boiling dung be stuffed into your mouths, you ugly witches! may the hair with which you perform your sorcery be torn from your heads, so that ye become bald. May the wind scatter the crumbs wherewith ye do your divinations. May your spices be scattered and may the wind blow away the saffron you hold in your hands for the practicing of sorcery.'"

_P'sachim_, fol. 110, cols, 1, 2.

Yohanna, the daughter of Ratibi, was a widow, who bewitched women in their confinement. See Rashi on _Soteh_, fol. 22, col. 1.

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua, says, "Since the destruction of the Temple a day has not passed without a curse; the dew does not come down with a blessing, and the fruits have lost their proper taste." Rabbi Yossi adds, "Also the lusciousness of the fruit is gone." Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says, "With the decay of purity the taste and aroma (of the fruit) has disappeared, and with the tithes and richness of the corn." The sages say, "Lewdness and witchcraft ruin everything."

_Soteh_, fol. 48, col. 1.

A certain magician used to strip the dead of their shrouds. Once when he came to the tomb of Rav Tovi bar Mathna he was seized and held fast by the beard, but Abaii having interceded on behalf of his friend, the grip was let go and he was set at liberty. Next year he came again on the same errand, and again he was seized by the beard. This time Abaii's intercession was of no avail, and he was not liberated until they brought a pair of scissors and cut off his beard.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 58, col. 1

None were allowed to sit in the Sanhedrin unless they had a knowledge of magic.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 17, col. 1.

Rabbi Shimon said, "An enchanter is one who passeth the exudation of seven different sorts of male creatures over the eye." The sages say he is one who practices and palms off optical illusions. Rabbi Akiva says, "He is one who calculates times and hours, and says To-day is good to start on a journey, To-morrow will be a lucky day for selling, The year before the Sabbatical year is generally good for growing wheat, The pulling up of pease will preserve them from being spoiled." According to the Rabbis, "An enchanter is he who augurs ill when his bread drops from his mouth, or if he drops the stick that supports him from his hand, or if his son calls after him, or a crow caws in his hearing, or a deer crosses his path, or he sees a serpent at his right hand or a fox on his left, or if he says to the tax-gatherer, 'Do not begin with me the first in the morning'; or, 'It is the first of the month'; or, 'It is the exit of the Sabbath,' i.e., the commencement of a new week."

Ibid., fol. 65, col. 2.

"By the term witch," the Rabbis say, "we are to understand either male or female." "If so," it is asked, "why the term 'witch,' in Exod. xxii. 18, in the Hebrew verse 17, is in the feminine gender?" "Because," it is answered, "most women are witches."

Ibid., fol. 67, col. 1.

If the proud (in Israel) were to cease, the magicians would also cease; as it is written (Isa. i. 25), "I will purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin."

Ibid., fol. 98, col. 1.

Among those who have no portion in the world to come is he who reads the books of the strangers, foreign books, books of outsiders. See also Sanhedrin, fol. 90, col. 1. Now Rav Yoseph says, "It is unlawful to read the Book of the Son of Sirach, ... because it is written therein (Ecclesiasticus xlii. 9, etc., as quoted, or rather misquoted, in the Talmud), 'A daughter is a false treasure to her father: because of anxiety for her he cannot sleep at night; when she is young, for fear she should be seduced; in her virginity lest she play the harlot; in her marriageable age, lest she should not get married; and when married, lest she should be childless; and when grown old, lest she practice witchcraft.'"

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 100, col. 2.

He who multiplieth wives multiplieth witchcraft.

_Avoth_, chap. 2.

Most donkey-drivers are wicked, but most sailors are pious. The best physicians are destined for hell, the most upright butcher is a partner of Amalek. Bastards are mostly cunning, and servants mostly handsome. Those who are well-descended are bashful, and children mostly resemble their mother's brother. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai bids us "kill the best of Gentiles" (modern editions qualify this by adding, in time of war), "and smash the head of the best of serpents." "The best among women," he says, "is a witch." Blessed is he who does the will of God!

_Sophrim_, chap. 15, hal. 10.

On the Sabbath one may carry a grasshopper's egg as a charm against earache, the tooth of a living fox to promote sleep, the tooth of a dead fox to prevent sleep, and the nail of one crucified (as a remedy) for inflammation or swelling. For cutaneous disorders he is to repeat Baz Baziah, Mass Massiah, Cass Cassiah, Sharlaii, and Amarlaii (names of angels), etc.... As the mules do not increase and multiply, so may the skin disease not increase and spread upon the body of N., the son of the woman N., etc.

_Shabbath_, fol. 67, col. 1.

"For night-blindness, let a man take a hair-rope and bind one end of it to his own leg and the other to a dog's, then let children clatter a potsherd after him, and call out, 'Old man! dog! fool! cock!' Let him now collect seven pieces of meat from seven (different) houses; let him set them on the cross-bar of the threshold, then let him eat them on the town middens; and after that let him undo the hair-rope, then let him say thus: 'Blindness of So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, leave So-and-so, son of Mrs. So-and-so, and be brushed into the pupil of the eye of the dog.'" (Quoted from "The Fragment," by Rev. W.H. Lowe of Cambridge.)

_Gittin_, fol. 69, col. 1.

According to the Rabbis, a man should not drink water by night, for thus he exposes himself to the power of Shavriri, the demon of blindness. What then should he do if he is thirsty? If there be another man with him, let him rouse him up and say, "I am thirsty;" but if he be alone, let him tap upon the lid of the jug (to make the demon fancy there's some one with him), and addressing himself by his own name and the name of his mother, let him say, "Thy mother has bid thee beware of Shavriri, vriri, riri, iri, ri," in a white cup. Rashi says by this incantation the demon gradually contracts and vanishes as the sounds of the word Shavriri decrease.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 12, col. 2.

A python is a familiar spirit who speaks from his armpits; a wizard is one who speaks with the mouth. As the Rabbis have taught, a familiar spirit is one who speaks from his joints and his wrists; a wizard is one who, putting a certain bone into his mouth, causes it to speak.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 65, cols, 1, 2.

He who says to a raven "Croak," and to a hen raven, "Droop thy tail and turn it this way as a lucky sign," is an imitator of the ways of the Amorites (Lev. xviii. 3).

_Shabbath_, fol. 67, col. 2.

Women going out on the Sabbath-day are allowed, as the Rabbis teach, to carry with them a certain stone believed to counteract abortion.

Abaii interrupts his exposition of this Halachah in order to enumerate certain antidotes to chronic fever which, he says, he had learned from his mother. Take a new zouz and then procure its weight in sea-salt; hang this round the neck, suspended by a papyrus fibre, so that it may rest just in the hollow in front. If this does not answer, go where two or more roads meet and watch for the first big ant that is going home loaded; lay hold of it and place it in a brass tube; stop up the end of the tube with lead, putting as many seals upon it as possible; then shake it, saying the while, "My load be upon thee, and thine upon me." To this Rav Acha, the son of Rav Hunna, objected to Rav Ashi, and asked, "Might not the ant have been already laden with another man's fever?" "True," observed the other; "nevertheless let him say, 'My load be upon thee as well as thine own.'" If this be not effective, then take a new earthenware pot, and going to the nearest stream, say, "Stream, stream, lend me a pot full of water for one who is on a visit to me." Wave it seven times round thy head and then throw the water back again, saying, "Stream, stream, take back thy borrowed water for my guest came and went the same day."

Rav Hunna then adds a prescription for a tertian fever, and Rabbi Yochanan gives the following as effective against a burning fever:--Take an iron knife, and having fastened a papyrus fibre to the nearest bramble, cut off a piece and say, "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire," etc., as in Exod. iii. 2. On the morrow cut off another piece and say, "The Lord saw that he (the fever) turned aside;" then upon the third day say, "Draw not hither," and stooping down, pray, "Bush, bush! the Holy One--blessed be He!--caused His Shechinah to lodge upon thee, not because thou art the loftiest, for thou art the lowest of all trees; and as when thou didst see the fire of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, thou didst flee therefrom, so see the fire (fever) of this sufferer and flee from it."

_Shabbath_, fol. 66, col. 2, etc.

Rabba once created a man (out of dust) and sent him to Rabbi Zira, who having addressed the figure and received no answer, said, "Thou art (made) by witchcraft; return to thy native dust." Rav Chaneanah and Rav Oshayah sat together every Sabbath-eve studying the book Yetzirah (i.e., the book of Creation), until they were able to create for themselves a calf (as large as a) three-year old, and they did eat thereof.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 65, col, 2.

Yannai once turned in to a certain inn, and asked for water to drink, when they gave him (Shethitha, i.e., water mixed with flour). He noticed that the lips of the woman who brought it moved (and so suspecting that something was wrong), he poured out a little of it and it became scorpions. He then said, "I have drunk of thine, now thou shalt drink of mine." The woman drank and was transformed into an ass, which he mounted and rode to the market-place. One of her companions having come up, broke the spell, and the ass he had ridden was on the spot transformed back again into a woman. In reference to the above, Rashi naïvely remarks that "we are not to suppose that Yannai was a Rabbi, for he was not held in esteem, because he practiced witchcraft." But Rashi is mistaken; see Sophrim, chap. 16, hal. 6.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 67, col. 2.

Ten measures of witchcraft came into the world; Egypt received nine measures, and the rest of the world one.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 49, col. 2.

The Rabbis say that on the Sabbath serpents and scorpions may be tamed by charming; that a metal ring, such as may be carried on the Sabbath, may be applied as a remedy to a sore eye; but that demons may not be consulted on that day about lost property. Rabbi Yossi has said, "This ought not to be done even on week-days." Rav Hunna says, "The Halachah does not enjoin as Rabbi Yossi says, and even he prohibits it only because of the risk there is in consulting demons. For instance, Rav Yitzchak bar Yoseph was once desperately delivered from the attacks of a vicious demon by a cedar-tree opening of its own accord and enclosing him in its trunk."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 101, col. 1.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zachai acquired a knowledge of the language of angels and demons for purposes of incantation.

_Bava Bathira_, fol. 134, col. 1.

"Neither shall ye use enchantments" ... (Lev. xix. 26). Such, for instance, as those practiced with cats, fowls, and fishes.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 66, col. 1.

Rav Ketina happened once, in his travels, to hear the noise of an earthquake just as he came opposite to the abode of one who was wont to conjure with human bones. Happening to mutter aloud to himself as he passed, "Does the conjurer really know what that noise is?" a voice answered, "Ketina, Ketina, why shouldn't I know? When the Holy One--blessed be He!--thinks of His children who dwell in sorrowful circumstances among the nations of the earth, He lets fall two tears into the great sea, and His voice is heard from one end of the world to the other, and that is the rumbling noise we hear." Upon which Rav Ketina protested, "The conjurer is a liar, his words are not true; they might have been true, had there been two rumbling noises." The fact was, two such noises were heard, but Rav Ketina would not acknowledge it, lest, by so doing, he should increase the popularity of the conjurer. Rav Ketina is of the opinion that the rumbling noise is caused by God clapping His hands together, as it is said (Ezek. xxi, 22; A.V., ver. 17), "I will also smite My hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest."

_Berachoth_, fol. 59, col. 1.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah proclaimed this anathema with the blast of three hundred trumpets:--"Whoever shall take drink from the hand of a bride, no matter whether she be the daughter of a disciple of the wise or the daughter of an Amhaaretz, it is all one as if he drunk it from the hand of a harlot." Again, it is said, "He who receives a cup from the hands of a bride and drinks it therefrom, has no portion whatever in the world to come."

_Tract Calah._

There was a place for collecting the ashes in the middle of the altar, and there were at times in it nearly as much as three hundred cors (equal to about 2830 bushels) of ashes. On Rava remarking that this must be an exaggeration, Rav Ammi said the law, the prophets, and the sages are wont to use hyperbolical language. Thus the law speaks of "Cities great and walled up to heaven" (Deut. i. 28); the prophets speak of "the earth rent with the sound of them" (1 Kings i. 40); the sages speak as above and also as follows. There was a golden vine at the entrance of the Temple, trailing on crystals, on which devotees who could used to suspend offerings of fruit and grape clusters. "It happened once," said Rabbi Elazer ben Rabbi Zadoc, "that three hundred priests were counted off to clear the vine of the offerings."

_Chullin_, fol. 90, col. 2.

Three hundred priests were told off to draw the veil (of the Temple) aside; for it is taught that Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel declared in the name of Rabbi Shimon the Sagan (or high priest's substitute), that the thickness of the veil was a handbreadth. It was woven of seventy-two cords, and each cord consisted of twenty-four strands. It was forty cubits long and twenty wide. Eighty-two myriads of damsels worked at it, and two such veils were made every year. When it became soiled, it took three hundred priests to immerse and cleanse it.

_Chullin._

When Moses was about to enter Paradise he turned to Joshua and said, "If any doubtful matters remain, ask me now and I will explain them." To this Joshua replied, "Have I ever left thy side for an hour and gone away to any other? Hast thou not thyself written concerning me (Exod. xxxiii. 11), 'His servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tabernacle?'" As a punishment for this pert reply, which must have distressed and confounded his master, Joshua's power of brain was immediately weakened, so that he forgot three hundred Halachahs, and seven hundred doubts sprang up to perplex him. All Israel then rose up to murder him, but the Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto him, "To teach thee the Halachahs and their explanation is impossible, but go and trouble them with work; as it is said (Josh. i. 1), 'Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua,'" etc.

_Temurah_, fol. 16, col. 1.

In the future God will assign to each righteous man three hundred and ten worlds as an inheritance; for it is said (Prov. viii. 21), "That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures." By Gematria equals three hundred and ten.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 100, col. 1, and _Okitzin_, chap. 3, mish. 12.

An old woman once complained before Rav Nachman that the Head of the Captivity and certain Rabbis with him were enjoying themselves in her booth, which they had surreptitiously taken possession of and would not surrender, but Rav Nachman gave no heed to her remonstrance. Then she raised her voice and cried aloud, "A woman whose father had three hundred and eighteen slaves is now pleading before you, and you paying no heed to her!" Upon which Rav Nachman turned to his associates and said, "She is a bawling woman, but she has no right to claim the booth, only the value of its timber."

_Succah_, fol. 31, col. 1.

Elijah the Tishbite once said to Rav Yehudah, the brother of Rav Salla the Holy, "You ask why the Messiah does not come, even though it is just now the Day of Atonement." "And what," asked the Rabbi, "does the Holy One--blessed be He!--say to that?" "He says, 'Sin lieth at the door'" (Gen. iv. 7). "And what has Satan to say?" "He has no permission to accuse any one on the Day of Atonement." "How do we know this?" Ramma bar Chamma replied, "Satan by Gematria equals three hundred and sixty-four, therefore on that number of days only has he permission to accuse; but on the Day of Atonement (i.e., the 365th day) he cannot accuse."

_Yoma_, fol. 20, col. 1.

Rav Yitzchak said, "What is the meaning of that which is written (Ps. cxl. 8), 'Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; further not his wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. Selah?'" It is the prayer of Jacob to the Lord of the universe that He would not grant to Esau, "the wicked, the desires of his heart." "Further not his wicked device," this refers to Germamia of Edom (i.e., Rome), for if they (the Romans) were suffered to go forward they would destroy the whole world! Rav Chama bar Chanena said, "There are three hundred crowned heads in Germamia of Edom, and there are three hundred and sixty-five dukes in Babylon. These encounter each other daily, and one of them commits murder, and they strive to set up a king."

_Meggillah_, fol. 6, col. 2.

In the great city (of Rome) there were three hundred and sixty-five streets, and in each street there were three hundred and sixty-five palaces, and in every one of these there were three hundred and sixty-five steps, each of which palaces contained sufficient store to maintain the whole world.

_P'sachim_, fol. 118, col. 2.

There are three hundred and sixty-five negative precepts.

There were three hundred and ninety-four courts of law in Jerusalem, and as many synagogues; also the same number of high schools, colleges, and academies, and as many offices for public notaries.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 105, col. 1.

Rav Hunna had four hundred casks of wine which had turned into vinegar. On hearing of his misfortune, Rav Yehudah, the brother of Rav Salla the Holy, or, as some say, Rav Adda bar Ahavah, came and visited him, accompanied by the Rabbis. "Let the master," said they, "examine himself carefully." "What!" said he, "do you suppose me to have been guilty of wrong-doing?" "Shall we then," said they, "suspect the Holy One--blessed be He!--of executing judgment without justice?" "Well," said Rav Hunna, "if you have heard anything against me, don't conceal it." "It has been reported to us," said they, "that the master has withheld the gardener's share of the prunings." "What else, pray, did he leave me?" retorted Rav Hunna; "he has stolen all the produce of my vineyard." They replied, "There is a saying that whoever steals from a thief smells of theft." "Then," said he, "I hereby promise to give him his share." Thereupon, according to some, the vinegar turned to wine again; and, according to others, the price of vinegar rose to the price of wine.

_Berachoth_, fol. 5, col. 2.

Rav Adda bar Ahavah once saw a Gentile woman in the market-place wearing a red head-dress, and supposing that she was a daughter of Israel, he impatiently tore it off her head. For this outrage he was fined a fine of four hundred zouzim. He asked the woman what her name was, and she replied, "My name is Mathan." "Methun, Methun," he wittily rejoined, "is worth four hundred zouzim."

Ibid., fol. 20, col. 1.

Methun means patience and Mathan two hundred. The point lies either in the application of the term Methun, which means patience, as if to say, had he been so patient as to have first ascertained what the woman was, he would have saved his four hundred zouzim; or in the identity of the sound Mathan, i.e., two hundred, which doubled, equals four hundred. This has long since passed into a proverb, and expresses the value of patience.

From the foregoing extract it would seem that it was not the fashion among Jewish females to wear head-dresses of a red color, as it was presumed to indicate a certain lightness on the part of the wearer; so Rav Adda in his pious zeal thought he was doing a good work in tearing it off from the head of the supposed Jewess. "Patience, patience is worth four hundred zouzim."

Custom among the Jews had then, as now, the force of religion. The Talmud says, "A man should never deviate from a settled custom. Moses ascended on high and did not eat bread (for there it is not the custom); angels came down to earth and did eat bread (for here it is the custom so to do)." Bava Metzia, fol. 86, col. 2.

In the olden time it was not the fashion for a Jew to wear black shoes (Taanith, fol. 22, col. 1). Even now, in Poland, a pious Jew, or a Chasid, would on no account wear polished boots or a short coat, or neglect to wear a girdle. He would at once lose caste and be subjected to persecution, direct or indirect, were he to depart from a custom. Custom is law, is an oft-quoted Jewish proverb, one among the most familiar of their household words, as "Custom is a tyrant," is among ours. Another saying we have is, "Custom is the plague of wise men, but is the idol of fools."

The following anecdotes are related by way of practically illustrating Ps. ii. 11, "Rejoice with trembling." Mar, the son of Ravina, made a grand marriage-feast for his son, and when the Rabbis were at the height of their merriment on the occasion, he brought in a very costly cup, worth four hundred zouzim, and broke it before them, and this occasioned them sorrow and trembling. Rav Ashi made a grand marriage-feast for his son, and when he noticed the Rabbis in high jubilation, he brought in a costly cup of white glass and broke it before them, and this made them sorrowful. The Rabbis challenged Rav Hamnunah on the wedding of his son Ravina, saying, "Give us a song, sir," and he sung, "Woe be to us, for we must die! Woe be to us, for we must die!" "And what shall we sing?" they asked in chorus by way of response. He replied, "Sing ye, 'Alas! where is the law we have studied? where the good works we have done? that they may protect us from the punishment of hell!'" Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, says, "It is unlawful for a man to fill his mouth with laughter in this world, for it is said in Ps. cxxvi., 'Then (but not now) will our mouth be filled with laughter,'" etc. It is related of Resh Lakish that he never once laughed again all the rest of his life from the time that he heard this from Rabbi Yochanan, his teacher.

_Berachoth_, fol. 30, col. 2, and fol. 31, col. 1.

A man once laid a wager with another that he would put Hillel out of temper. If he succeeded he was to receive, but if he failed he was to forfeit, four hundred zouzim. It was close upon Sabbath-eve, and Hillel was washing himself, when the man passed by his door, shouting, "Where is Hillel? where is Hillel?" Hillel wrapped his mantle round him and sallied forth to see what the man wanted. "I want to ask thee a question," was the reply. "Ask on, my son," said Hillel. Whereupon the man said, "I want to know why the Babylonians have such round heads?" "A very important question, my son," said Hillel; "the reason is because their midwives are not clever." The man went away, but after an hour he returned, calling out as before, "Where is Hillel? where is Hillel?" Hillel again threw on his mantle and went out, meekly asking, "What now, my son?" "I want to know," said he, "why the people of Tadmor are weak-eyed?" Hillel replied, "This is an important question, my son, and the reason is this, they live in a sandy country." Away went the man, but in another hour's time he returned as before, crying out, "Where is Hillel? where is Hillel?" Out came Hillel again, as gentle as ever, blandly requesting to know what more he wanted. "I have a question to ask," said the man. "Ask on, my son," said Hillel. "Well, why have the Africans such broad feet?" said he. "Because they live in a marshy land," said Hillel. "I have many more questions to ask," said the man, "but I am afraid that I shall only try thy patience and make thee angry." Hillel, drawing his mantle around him, sat down and bade the man ask all the questions he wished. "Art thou Hillel," said he, "whom they call a prince in Israel?" "Yes," was the reply. "Well," said the other, "I pray there may not be many more in Israel like thee!" "Why," said Hillel, "how is that?" "Because," said the man, "I have betted four hundred zouzim that I could put thee out of temper, and I have lost them all through thee." "Be warned for the future," said Hillel; "better it is that thou shouldst lose four hundred zouzim, and four hundred more after them, than it should be said of Hillel he lost his temper!"

_Shabbath_, fol. 31, col. 1.

Rabbi Perida had a pupil to whom he had to rehearse a lesson four hundred times before the latter comprehended it. One day the Rabbi was hurriedly called away to perform some charitable act, but before he went he repeated the lesson in hand the usual four hundred times, but this time his pupil failed to learn it. "What is the reason, my son," said he to his dull pupil, "that this time my repetitions have been thrown away?" "Because, master," naively replied the youth, "my mind was so pre-occupied with the summons you received to discharge another duty." "Well, then," said the Rabbi to his pupil, "let us begin again." And he repeated the lesson a second four hundred times.

_Eiruvin_, fol. 54, col. 2.

Between Azel and Azel (1 Chron. viii. 38 and ix. 44), there are four hundred camel-loads of critical researches due to the presence of manifold contradictions.

_Psachim_. fol. 62, col. 2.

Egypt has an area of four hundred square miles.

Ibid., fol. 94, col. 1.

The Targum of the Pentateuch was executed by Onkelos the proselyte at the dictation of Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, and the Targum of the prophets was executed by Jonathan ben Uzziel at the dictation of Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi (!), at which time the land of Israel was convulsed over an area of four hundred square miles.

_Meggillah_, fol. 3, col. 1.

Mar Ukva was in the habit of sending on the Day of Atonement four hundred zouzim to a poor neighbor of his. Once he sent the money by his own son, who returned bringing it back with him, remarking, "There is no need to bestow charity upon a man who, as I myself have seen, is able to indulge himself in expensive old wine." "Well," said his father, "since he is so dainty in his taste, he must have seen better days. I will therefore double the amount for the future." And this accordingly he at once remitted to him.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 67, col. 2.

"And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, ... ye shall carry up my bones from hence" (Gen. l. 25). Rabbi Chanena said, "There is a reason for this oath. As Joseph knew that he was perfectly righteous, why then, if the dead are to rise in other countries as well as in the land of Israel, did he trouble his brethren to carry his bones four hundred miles?" The reply is, "He feared lest, if buried in Egypt, he might have to worm his way through subterranean passages from his grave into the land of Israel."

Ibid., fol. 111, col. 1.

To this day among the Polish Jews the dead are provided for their long subterranean journey with little wooden forks, with which, at the sound of the great trumpet, they are to dig and burrow their way from where they happen to be buried till they arrive in Palestine. To avoid this inconvenience there are some among them who, on the approach of old age, migrate to the Holy Land, that their bones may rest there against the morning of the resurrection.

Rav Cahana was once selling ladies' baskets when he was exposed to the trial of a sinful temptation. He pleaded with his tempter to let him off and he promised to return, but instead of doing so he went up to the roof of the house and threw himself down headlong. Before he reached the ground, however, Elijah came and caught him, and reproached him, as he caught him up, with having brought him a distance of four hundred miles to save him from an act of willful self-destruction. The Rabbi told him that it was his poverty which had given to the temptation the power of seduction. Thereupon Elijah gave him a vessel full of gold denarii and departed.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 40, col. 1.

"Pashur, the son of Immer the priest" (Jer. xx. 1) had four hundred servants, and every one of them rose to the rank of the priesthood. One consequence was that an insolent priest hardly ever appeared in Israel but his genealogy could be traced to this base-born, low-bred ancestry. Rabbi Elazar said, "If thou seest an impudent priest, do not think evil of him, for it is said (Hos, iv. 4), 'Thy people are as they that strive with the priest.'"

Ibid., fol. 70, col. 2.

David had four hundred young men, handsome in appearance and with their hair cut close upon their foreheads, but with long flowing curls behind, who used to ride in chariots of gold at the head of the army. These were men of power (men of the fist, in the original), the mighty men of the house of David, who went about to strike terror into the world.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 76, col. 2.

Four hundred boys and as many girls were once kidnapped and torn from their relations. When they learned the purpose of their capture, they all exclaimed, "Better drown ourselves in the sea; then shall we have an inheritance in the world to come." The eldest then explained to them the text (Ps. lxviii. 22), "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan; I will bring again from the depths of the sea." "From Bashan," i.e., from the teeth of the lion; "from the depths of the sea," i.e., those that drown themselves in the sea. When the girls heard this explanation they at once jumped all together into the sea, and the boys with alacrity followed their example. It is with reference to these that Scripture says (Ps. xliv. 22), "For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter."

_Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 2.

There were four hundred synagogues in the city of Byther, in each there were four hundred elementary teachers, and each had four hundred pupils. When the enemy entered the city they pierced him with their pointers; but when at last the enemy overpowered them, he wrapped them in their books and then set fire to them; and this is what is written (Lam. iii. 51), "Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city."

Ibid., fol. 58, col 1.

The total population of Byther must have been something enormous when the children in it amounted to 64,000,000! The elementary teachers alone came to 160,000.

Once when the Hasmonean kings were engaged in civil war it happened that Hyrcanus was outside Jerusalem and Aristobulus within. Every day the besieged let down a box containing gold denarii, and received in return lambs for the daily sacrifices. There chanced to be an old man in the city who was familiar with the wisdom of the Greeks, and he hinted to the besiegers in the Greek language that so long as the Temple services were kept up the city could not be taken. The next day accordingly, when the money had been let down, they sent back a pig in return. When about half-way up the animal pushed with its feet against the stones of the wall, and thereupon an earthquake was felt throughout the land of Israel to the extent of four hundred miles. At that time it was the saying arose, "Cursed be he that rears swine, and he who shall teach his son the wisdom of the Greeks." (See Matt. viii. 30.)

_Soteh_, fol. 49, col. 2.

If one strikes his neighbor with his fist, he must pay him one sela; if he slaps his face, he is to pay two hundred zouzim; but for a back-handed slap the assailant is to pay four hundred zouzim. If he pulls the ear of another, or plucks his hair, or spits upon him, or pulls off his mantle, or tears a woman's head-dress off in the street, in each of these cases he is fined four hundred zouzim.

_Bava Kama_, fol. 90, col. 1.

There was once a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and the Mishnic sages as to whether a baking-oven, constructed from certain materials and of a particular shape, was clean or unclean. The former decided that it was clean, but the latter were of a contrary opinion. Having replied to all the objections the sages had brought against his decision, and finding that they still refused to acquiesce, the Rabbi turned to them and said, "If the Halacha (the law) is according to my decision, let this carob-tree attest." Whereupon the carob-tree rooted itself up and transplanted itself to a distance of one hundred, some say four hundred, yards from the spot. But the sages demurred and said, "We cannot admit the evidence of a carob-tree." "Well, then," said Rabbi Eliezer, "let this running brook be a proof;" and the brook at once reversed its natural course and flowed back. The sages refused to admit this proof also. "Then let the walls of the college bear witness that the law is according to my decision;" upon which the walls began to bend, and were about to fall, when Rabbi Joshuah interposed and rebuked them, saying, "If the disciples of the sages wrangle with each other in the Halacha, what is that to you? Be ye quiet!" Therefore, out of respect to Rabbi Joshuah, they did not fall, and out of respect to Rabbi Eliezer they did not resume their former upright position, but remained toppling, which they continue to do to this day. Then said Rabbi Eliezer to the sages, "Let Heaven itself testify that the Halacha is according to my judgment." And a Bath Kol or voice from heaven was heard, saying, "What have ye to do with Rabbi Eliezer? for the Halacha is on every point according to his decision!" Rabbi Joshuah then stood up and proved from Scripture that even a voice from heaven was not to be regarded, "For Thou, O God, didst long ago write down in the law which Thou gavest on Sinai (Exod. xxiii. 2), 'Thou shalt follow the multitude.'" (See context.) We have it on the testimony of Elijah the prophet, given to Rabbi Nathan, on an oath, that it was with reference to this dispute about the oven God himself confessed and said, "My children have vanquished me! My children have vanquished me!"

_Bava Metzia_ fol. 59, col. 1.

In the sequel to the above we are told that all the legal documents of Rabbi Eliezer containing his decisions respecting things "clean" were publicly burned with fire, and he himself excommunicated. In consequence of this the whole world was smitten with blight, a third in the olives, a third in the barley, and a third in the wheat; and the Rabbi himself, though excommunicated, continued to be held in the highest regard in Israel.

The Rabbis said to Rabbi Hamnuna, "Rav Ami has written or copied four hundred copies of the law." He replied to them, "Perhaps only (Deut. xxxiii. 4) 'Moses commanded us a law.'" (He meant he did not imagine that any one man could possibly write out four hundred complete copies of the Pentateuch.)

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 14, col. 1.

Rabbi Chanena said, "If four hundred years after the destruction of the Temple one offers thee a field worth a thousand denarii for one denarius, don't buy it."

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 2.

We know by tradition that the treatise "Avodah Zarah," which our father Abraham possessed, contained four hundred chapters, but the treatise as we now have it contains only five.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 14, col. 2.

The camp of Sennacherib was four hundred miles in length.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 95, col. 2.

"Curse ye Meroz," etc. (Judges v. 23). Barak excommunicated Meroz at the blast of four hundred trumpets (lit. horns or cornets).

_Shevuoth_, fol. 36, col. 1.

What is the meaning where it is written (Ps. x. 27), "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened;" "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days" alludes to the four hundred and ten years the first Temple stood, during which period the succession of high priests numbered only eighteen. But "the years of the wicked shall be shortened" is illustrated by the fact that during the four hundred and twenty years that the second Temple stood the succession of high priests numbered more than three hundred. If we deduct the forty years during which Shimon the Righteous held office, and the eighty of Rabbi Yochanan, and the ten of Rabbi Ishmael ben Rabbi, it is evident that not one of the remaining high priests lived to hold office for a whole year.

_Yoma_, fol. 9, col. 1.

"The souls which they had gotten in Haran" (Gen. xii. 5). From this time to the giving of the law was four hundred and forty-eight years.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 1.

A young girl and ten of her maid-servants were once kidnapped, when a certain Gentile bought them and brought them to his house. One day he gave a pitcher to the child and bade her fetch him water, but one of her servants took the pitcher from her, intending to go instead. The master, observing this, asked the maid why she did so. The servant replied, "By the life of thy head, my lord, I am one of no less than five hundred servants of this child's mother." The master was so touched that he granted them all their freedom.

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 17.

Cæsar once said to Rabbi Yoshua ben Chananja, "This God of yours is compared to a lion, as it is written (Amos iii. 8), 'The lion hath roared, who will not fear?' Wherein consists his excellency? A horseman kills a lion." The Rabbi replied, "He is not compared to an ordinary lion, but to a lion of the forest Ilaei." "Show me that lion at once," said the Emperor. "But thou canst not behold him," said the Rabbi. Still the Emperor insisted on seeing the lion; so the Rabbi prayed to God to help him in his perplexity. His prayer was heard; the lion came forth from his lair and roared, upon which, though it was four hundred miles away, all the walls of Rome trembled and fell to the ground. Approaching three hundred miles nearer, he roared again, and this time the teeth of the people dropped out of their mouths and the Emperor fell from his throne quaking. "Alas! Rabbi, pray to thy God that He order the lion back to his abode in the forest."

_Chullin_, fol. 59, col. 2.

All this is as nothing compared to the voice of Judah, which made all Egypt quake and tremble, and Pharaoh fall from his throne headlong, etc., etc. See Jasher, chap. 64, verses 46, 47.

The distance from the earth to the firmament is five hundred years' journey, and so it is from each successive firmament to the next, throughout the series of the seven heavens.

_P'sachim_, fol. 94, col. 2.

"Now, as I beheld the living creatures, behold, one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures" (Ezek. i. 15). Rabbi Elazar says it was an angel who stood upon the earth, and his head reached to the living creatures. It is recorded in a Mishna that his name is Sandalphon, who towers above his fellow-angels to a height of five hundred years' journey; he stands behind the chariot and binds crowns on the head of his Creator.

_Chaggigah_, fol. 13, col. 2.

In the Liturgy for the Feast of Tabernacles it is said that Sandalphon gathers in his hands the prayers of Israel, and, forming a wreath of them, he adjures it to ascend as an orb for the head of the supreme King of kings.

The mount of the Temple was five hundred yards square.

_Middoth_, chap. 2.

One Scripture text (1 Chron. xxi. 25) says, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight." And another Scripture (2 Sam. xxiv. 24) says, "So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver." How is this? David took from each tribe fifty shekels, and they made together the total six hundred, i.e., he took silver to the value of fifty shekels of gold.

_Zevachim_, fol. 116, col. 2.

Rabbi Samlai explains that six hundred and thirteen commandments were communicated to Moses; three hundred and sixty-five negative, according to the number of days in the year, and two hundred and forty-eight positive, according to the number of members in the human body. Rav Hamnunah asked what was the Scripture proof for this. The reply was (Deut. xxxiii. 4), "Moses commanded us a law" (Torah), which by Gematria answers to six hundred and eleven. "I am," and "Thou shalt have no other," which we heard from the Almighty Himself, together make up six hundred and thirteen.

_Maccoth_, fol. 23, col. 2.

David, we are told, reduced these commandments here reckoned at six hundred and thirteen, to eleven, and Isaiah still further to six, and then afterward to two. "Thus saith the Eternal, Observe justice and act righteously, for my salvation is near." Finally came Habakkuk, and he reduced the number to one all-comprehensive precept (chap. ii. 4), "The just shall live by faith." (See _Maccoth_, fol. 24, col. 1.)

The precept concerning fringes is as weighty as all the other precepts put together; for it is written, says Rashi (Num. xv. 39), "And remember all the commandments of the Lord." Now the numerical value of the word "fringes" is six hundred, and this with eight threads and five knots makes six hundred and thirteen.

_Shevuoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.

"For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet," etc. (Isa. iii. 1, 2). By "the stay" is meant men mighty in the Scriptures, and by "the staff" men learned in the Mishna; such, for instance, as Rabbi Yehudah ben Tima and his associates. Rav Pappa and the Rabbis differed as to the Mishna; the former said there were six hundred orders of the Mishna, and the latter that there were seven hundred orders. "The whole stay of bread" means men distinguished in the Talmud; for it is said, "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled" (Prov. ix. 5). And "the whole stay of water" means men skillful in the Haggadoth, who draw out the heart of man like water by means of a pretty story or legend, etc.

_Chaggigah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

There are seven hundred species of fish, eight hundred of locusts, twenty-four of birds that are unclean, while the species of birds that are clean cannot be numbered.

_Chullin_, fol. 63, col. 2.

"The same was Adino the Eznite," etc. (2 Sam. xxiii. 8). This mighty man when studying the law was as pliant as a worm; but when engaged in war he was as firm and unyielding as a tree; and when he discharged an arrow he killed eight hundred men at one shot.

_Moed Katon_, fol. 16, col. 2.

"Ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land" (Deut. iv. 26). The term soon uttered by the Lord of the Universe means eight hundred and fifty-two years.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 38, col. 1.

There are nine hundred and three sorts of deaths in the world; for the expression occurs (Ps. lxviii. 20), "Issues of death." The numerical value of "issues" is nine hundred and three. The hardest of all deaths is by quinsy, and the easiest is the Divine kiss (of which Moses, Aaron, and Miriam died). Quinsy is like the forcible extraction of prickly thorns from wool, or like a thick rope drawn through a small aperture; the kiss referred to is like the extracting of a hair from milk.

_Berachoth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

When Moses went up on high, the ministering angels asked, "What has one born of a woman to do among us?" "He has come to receive the law," was the Divine answer. "What!" they remonstrated again, "that cherished treasure which has lain with Thee for nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created, art Thou about to bestow it upon flesh and blood? What is mortal man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of earth that Thou thus visitest him? O Lord! our Lord! is not Thy name already sufficiently exalted in the earth? Confer Thy glory upon the heavens" (Ps. viii. 4, 6). The Holy One--blessed be He!--then called upon Moses to refute the objection of the envious angels. "I fear," pleaded he, "lest they consume me with the fiery breath of their mouth." Thereupon, by way of protection, he was bid approach and lay hold of the throne of God; as it is said (Job xxvi. 9), "He lays hold of the face of His throne and spreads His cloud over him." Thus encouraged, Moses went over the Decalogue, and demanded of the angels whether they had suffered an Egyptian bondage and dwelt among idolatrous nations, so as to require the first commandment; or were they so hardworked as to need a day of rest, etc., etc. Then the angels at once confessed that they were wrong in seeking to withhold the law from Israel, and they then repeated the words, "O Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" (Ps. viii. 9), omitting the words, "Confer Thy glory upon the heavens." And not only so, but they positively befriended Moses, and each of them revealed to him some useful secret; as it is said (Ps. lxviii. 18), "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast captured spoil, thou hast received gifts; because they have contemptuously called thee man."

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 2.

Nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created the law was written and deposited in the bosom of the Holy One--blessed be He!--and sang praises with the ministering angels.

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 31.

If one is sick and at the point of death, he is expected to confess, for all confess who are about to suffer the last penalty of the law. When a man goes to the market place, let him consider himself as handed over to the custody of the officers of judgment. If he has a headache, let him deem himself fastened with a chain by the neck. If confined to his bed, let him regard himself as mounting the steps to be judged; for when this happens to him, he is saved from death only if he have competent advocates, and these advocates are repentance and good works. And if nine hundred and ninety-nine plead against him, and only one for him, he is saved; as it is said (Job xxxiii. 23), "If there be an interceding angel, one among a thousand to declare for man his uprightness, then He is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit."

_Shabbath_, fol. 32, col. 1.

Rav Hunna says, "A quarrel is like a breach in the bank of a river; when it is once made it grows wider and wider." A certain man used to go about and say, "Blessed is he who submits to a reproach and is silent, for a hundred evils depart from him." Shemuel said to Rav Yehuda, "It is written in Scripture (Prov. xvii. 14), 'The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water.'" Strife is the beginning of a hundred lawsuits.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, she introduced to him a thousand different kinds of musical instruments, and taught him the chants to the various idols.

_Shabbath_, fol. 56, col. 2.

When Buneis, the son of Buneis, called on Rabbi (the Holy), the latter exclaimed, "Make way for one worth a hundred manahs!" Presently another visitor came, and Rabbi said, "Make way for one worth two hundred manahs." Upon which Rabbi Ishmael, the son of Rabbi Yossi, remonstrated, saying, "Rabbi, the father of the first-comer, owns a thousand ships at sea and a thousand towns ashore!" "Well," replied Rabbi, "when thou seest his father, tell him to send his son better clad next time." Rabbi paid great respect to those that were rich, and so did Rabbi Akiva.

_Eiruvin_, fol. 86, col. 1.

Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom inherited from his father a thousand towns and a thousand ships, and yet he went about with a leather sack of flour at his back, roaming from town to town and from province to province in order to study the law. This great Rabbi never once set eye on his immense patrimony, for he was engaged in the study of the law all day and all night long. And so strange was he to his own servants, that they, on one occasion, not knowing who he was, pressed him against his will to do a day's work as a menial; and though he pleaded with them as a suppliant to be left alone to pursue his studies in the law, they refused, and swore, saying, "By the life of Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom, our master, we will not let thee go till thy task is completed." He then let himself be enforced rather than make himself known to them.

_Yoma_, fol. 35, col. 2.

The wife of Potiphar coaxed Joseph with loving words, but in vain. She then threatened to immure him in prison, but he replied (anticipating Ps. cxlvi. 7), "The Lord looseth the prisoners." Then she said, "I will bow thee down with distress; I will blind thine eyes." He only answered (_ibid._, ver. 8), "The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind and raiseth them that are bowed down." She then tried to bribe him with a thousand talents of silver if he would comply with her request, but in vain.

Ibid.

A Midrash tells us that Potiphar's wife not only falsely accused Joseph herself, but that she also suborned several of her female friends to do likewise. The Book of Jasher, which embodies the Talmudic story quoted above, tells us that an infant in the cradle spoke up and testified to Joseph's innocence, and that while Joseph was in prison his inamorata daily visited him. More on this topic may be found in the Koran, chap. xii. The amours of Joseph and Zulieka, as told by the glib tongue of tradition, fitly find their consummation in marriage, and certain Moslems affect to see in all this an allegorical type of Divine love, an allegory which some other divines find in the Song of Solomon.

The thickness of the earth is a thousand paces or ells.

_Succah_, fol. 53, col. 2.

The crust of the earth as far as the abyss is a thousand ells, and the abyss under the earth is fifteen thousand. There is an upper and a lower abyss mentioned in Taanith, fol. 25, col. 2. Riddia, the angel who has the command of the waters, and resides between the two abysses, says to the upper, "disperse thy waters," and to the lower, "let thy waters flow up."

Many may ask after thy peace, but tell thy secret only to one of a thousand.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 63, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that if the value of stolen property is a thousand, and the thief is only worth, say, five hundred, he is to be sold into slavery twice. But if the reverse, he is not to be sold at all.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 18, col. 2.

The Behemoth upon a thousand hills (Ps. l. 10), God created them male and female, but had they been allowed to propagate they would have destroyed the whole world. What did He do? He castrated the male and spayed the female, and then preserved them that they might serve for the righteous at the Messianic banquet; as it is said (Job xl. 16), "His strength is in his loins (i.e., the male), and his force in the navel of his belly" (i.e., the female).

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 74, col. 2.

This provision for the coming Messianic banquet is considered of sufficient importance to be mentioned year after year in the service for the Day of Atonement and also at the Feast of Tabernacles. The remark of D. Levi, that the feast here referred to is to be understood allegorically, involves rather sweeping consequences, as it is open to any one to annihilate many other expectations on the same principle.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--will add to Jerusalem gardens extending to a thousand times their numerical value, which equals one hundred and sixty-nine, etc.

Ibid., fol. 75, col. 2.

"Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much" (2 Kings xxi. 16). Here (in Babylon) it is interpreted to mean that he murdered Isaiah, but in the West (i.e., in Palestine) they say that he made an image of the weight of a thousand men, which was the number he massacred every day (as Rashi says, by the heaviness of its weight).

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 103, col. 2.

See Josephus, Antiq.,