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,8 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, B 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.w