Hebraic Literature (1901) Reader

Ten things are said about Jerusalem: — ( 1.) No mortgaged house was eventually alienated from its original owner (which was the case elsewhere in Jewry). (2.) Jerusalem never had occasion to behead a heifer by way of expiation for an unproved murder (see Deut. xxi. 1-9). (3.) She never could be regarded as a repudiated city (Deut. xiii. 12, etc.). (4.) No appearance of plagues in any house at Jerusalem rendered the house unclean, because the words of Lev. xiv. 34, are "your possession, }> an expression which could not apply to Jerusalem, as it had never been portioned among the ten tribes. (5.)

Projecting cornices and balconies were not to be built in the city. (6.) Limekilns were not to be erected there. (7.) No refuse heaps were allowed in any quarter. (8.) No orchards or gardens were permitted, excepting certain flower-gardens, which had been there from the times of the earlier prophets. (9.)

No cocks were reared in Jerusalem. (10.) No corpse ever remained over night within its walls; the funeral had to take place on the day of the decease

Once when Israel went up by pilgrimages to one of the three annual feasts at Jerusalem (see Exod. xxxiv. 23, 24), it so happened that there was no water to drink. Nicodemon ben Gorion therefore hired of a friendly neighbor twelve huge reservoirs of water promising to have them replenished against a given time, or failing this to forfeit twelve talents of silver. The appointed day came and still the drought continued, and therewith the scarcity of water; upon which the creditor appeared and demanded payment of the forfeit.

The answer of Nicodemon to the demand was, " There's time yet; the day is not over." The other chuckled to himself, inwardly remarking, " There's no chance now; there's been no rain all the season,8 and off he went to enjoy his bath. But Nicodemon sorrowful at heart, wended his way to the Temple. After putting on his prayer scarf, as he prayed, he pleaded, " Lord of the Universe! Thou knowest that I have not entered into this obligation for my own sake, but for Thy glory and for the

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

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.

Rabbi Ishmael, sou 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!"

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."

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 ("*. e., the 365th day) he cannot accuse."

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

Abba Benjamin says, " If our eye were permitted to see the malignant sprites that beset us, we could not rest on account of them. n Abaii has said, " They out-number us, they surround us as the earthed-up soil on our gardenbeds. Rav Hunna says, " Every one has a thousand at his left side and ten thousand at his right® (Ps. xci. 7). Rava adds, " The crowding at the schools is caused by their pushing in; they cause the weariness which the Rabbis experience in their knees, and even tear their clothes by hustling against them.

If one would discover traces of their presence, let him sift some ashes upon the floor at his bedside, and next morning he will see, as it were, the footmarks of fowls on the surface. But if one would see the demons themselves, he must burn to ashes the afterbirth of a first-born black kitten, the offspring of a firstborn black cat, and then put a little of the ashes into his eyes, and he will not fail to see them,® etc., etc

The Holy One — blessed be He! — said unto Abraham, What should I tell thee? and with what shall I bless thee? Shall I tell thee to be perfectly righteous, or that thy wife Sarah be righteous before me? That ye both are already. Or shall I say that thy children shall be righteous? They are so already. But I will bless thee so that all thy children which shall in future ages come forth from thee shall be just like thee.w Whence do we learn this? From Gen xv. 5: " And he said unto him, So (like thee) shall thy seed be.w

Thou wilt find that whithersoever the righteous go a blessing goes with them. Isaac went down to Gerar, and a blessing followed him. "Then Isaac sowed, etc. (Gen. xx vi. 12), Jacob went down to Laban (Gen. xxx. 27), and Laban said, " I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.* Joseph went down to Potiphar, and " the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake (Gen. xxxix. 5). Thus also thou wilt find it was with the ark which came down to the house of Obed-edom, etc. (2 Sam. vi. 11). Our forefathers came into the land and a blessing followed at their heels, as it is said (Deut. vi. n)," And houses full of good things,* etc

imparting of his knowledge to the ignorant, he shall be punished by transmigration into a woman.... Know thou that Sarah, Hannah, the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 8), and the widow of Zarepta were each in turn possessed by the soul of Eve.... The soul of Rahab transmigrated into Heber the Kenite, and afterward into Hannah; and this is the mystery of her words, " I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit }) (1 Sam. i. 15), for there still lingered in her soul a sorrowful sense of inherited defilement....

Eli possessed the soul of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.... Sometimes the souls of pious Jews pass by metempsychosis into Gentiles, in order that they may plead on behalf of Israel and treat them kindly. For this reason have our Rabbis of blessed memory said, " The pious of the nations of the world have a portion in the world to come.*

the inheritance of Jacob, thy father. Not as it was promised to Abraham, ( Arise and walk through the land to its length and breadth. Not as it was promised to Isaac, ( I will give thee all that this land contains; but as it was promised to Jacob, ( And thou shalt spread abroad, to the West, and to the Bast, to the North, and to the South. > Rabbi Jehudah said that if the Israelites had strictlyobserved the first Sabbath, after the command to sanctify the seventh day had been given, they would have been spared captivity; as it is written, " And it came to pass on the seventh day, that there went out some of the people to gather (the Mannah), but they found nothing. And in the next chapter we find, Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim."

Open not thy mouth to speak evil. To be patient is sometimes better than to have much wealth. The horse fed too liberally with oats becomes unruly. Happy the pupil whose teacher approves his words. When the cucumbers are young we may tell whether they will become good for food. Poverty cometh from God, but not dirt. (33i). Our kindly deeds and our generous gifts go to heaven as messengers, and plead for us before our Heavenly Father. The noblest of all charities is in enabling the poor to earn a livelihood. The camel wanted to have horns and they took away his ears. The egg of to-day is better than the hen of to-morrow. The world is a wedding. Youth is a wreath of roses. A myrtle even in the desert remains a myrtle. Teach thy tongue to say, " I do not know.*.

" What wood? ■ returned the proprietor; " I ordered no wood.". "No," answered the woodcutter, "but the man who follows me did; I will enter and wait for him. Thus the son had provided for himself a welcome when he should reach the inn, which was his first wise act. The landlord said to him, "Who art thou?". "The son of the merchant who died in thy house," he replied. They prepared for him a dinner, and placed upon the table five pigeons and a chicken. The master of the house, his wife, two sons, and two daughters sat with him at the table. "Serve the food," said the landlord. "Nay," answered the young man; "thou art master, it is thy privilege.". " I desire thee to do this thing; thou art my guest, the merchant's son; pray help the food.".

A certain noble lady, Miriam, the daughter of Baythus, sent her servant to purchase some flour for household use. The servant found that all the flour had been sold, but there was still some meal which he might have purchased. Hurrying home, however, to learn his mistress's wishes in regard to this, he discovered on his return that this too had been sold, and he could obtain nothing save some coarse barley meal.

Not wishing to purchase this without orders he returned home again, but when he returned to the storehouse to secure the barley meal, that was gone also. Then his mistress started out herself to purchase food, but she could find nothing. Suffering from the pangs of hunger she picked from the street the skin of a fig and ate it; this sickened her and she died. But previous to her death she cast all her gold and silver into the street, saying, "What use is this wealth to me when I can obtain no food for it? Thus were the words of Ezekiel fulfilled: —

The Lord said unto Moses, " Thus say unto Aaron. In the generations to come, there will be another dedication and lighting of the lamps, and through thy descendants shall the service be performed. Miracles and wonders will accompany this dedication. Fear not for the greatness of the princes of thy tribe; during the existence of the Temple thou shalt sacrifice, but the lighting of the lamps shall be forever, and the blessing with which I have charged thee to bless the people shall also exist forever. Through the destruction of the Temple the sacrifices will be abolished, but the lighting of the dedication of the Hashmoneans will never cease.0

The Sadducees (Zadokim), so called after Zadok their master, as is known, stood rigidly by the original Mosaic code, and set themselves determinedly against all traditional developments. To the Talmudists, therefore, they were especially obnoxious, and their bald, cold creed is looked upon by them with something like horror. It is thus the Talmud warns against them — " Believe not in thyself till the day of thy death, for, behold, Yochanan, after officiating in the High Priesthood for eighty years, became in the end a Sadducee.* (Berachoth, fol. 29, col. 1.) In Derech Eretz Zuta, chap, i., a caution is given which might well provoke attention — " Learn or inquire nothing of the Sadducees, lest thou be drawn into hell.*

(Isa. i. 21), "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" Jeremiah said (Lam. i. 1), "How doth the city sit solitary! Rabbi Levi saith, " The thing is like to a matron who has three friends; one saw her in her prosperity, another saw her in her dissipation, and the third saw her in her pollution. So Moses saw Israel in their glory and prosperity, and he said, " How can I myself bear your cumbrance! Isaiah saw them in their dissipation, and he said, "How is the faithful city,* etc.; and Jeremiah saw them in their pollution, and he said, " How doth the city sit solitary! B Midrash Rabbah Eicha.

As a set-off we append here a romantic story paraphrased from the Midrash Shir Hashirim. A certain Israelite of Sidon, having lived many years with his wife without being blessed with offspring, made up his mind to give her a bill of divorcement. They went accordingly together to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, that legal effect might be given to the act of separation. Upon presenting themselves before him, the Rabbi addressed them in these fatherly accents: — " My children,8 said he, "your divorce must not take place in pettishness or anger, lest people should surmise something guilty or disgraceful as the motive for the action.

Let your parting, therefore, be like your meeting, friendly and cheerful. Go home, make a feast, and invite your friends to share it with you; and then to-morrow return and I will ratify the divorce you seek for.* Acting upon this advice, they went home, got ready a feast, invited their friends, and made merry together. " My dear,n said the husband at length to his wife, " we have lived for many a long year lovingly together, and now that

we are about to be separated, it is not because there is any ill-will between us, but simply because we are not blessed with a family. In proof that my love is unchanged, and that I wish thee all good, I give thee leave to choose whatever thou likest best in the house and carry it away with thee.* The wife with true womanly wit promptly replied, " Well and good, my dear! • The evening thereafter glided pleasantly by, the wine-cup went round freely and without stint, and all passed off well, till first the guests one by one, and then the master of the house himself, fell asleep, and lay buried in unconscionsness.

The lady, who had planned this result, and only waited its denouement, immediately summoned her confidential handmaids and had her lord and master gently borne away as he was to the house of her father. On the following morning, as the stupor wore off, he awoke, rubbing his eyes with astonishment. " Where am I?* he cried. "Be easy, husband dear,* responded the wife in his presence. "I have only done as thou allowedst me.

Dost thou remember permitting me last night, in the hearing of our guests, to take away from our house whatever best pleased me? There was nothing there I cared for so much as thyself; thou art all in all to me, so I brought thee with me here. Where I am there shalt thou be; let nothing but death part us.* The two thereupon went back to Rabbi Shimon as appointed, and reported their change of purpose, and that they had made up their minds to remain united.

So the Rabbi prayed for them to the Lord, who couples and setteth the single in families. He then spoke his blessing over the wife, who became thenceforth as a fruitful vine, and honored her husband with children and children's children.

" Every man... by his own standard w (Num. ii. 2). The several princes of Israel selected the colors for their banners from the color of the stones that were upon the breastplate of Aaron. From them other princes have learned to adorn their standards with different distinguishing colors. Reuben had his flag red, and leaves of mandrakes upon it. Issachar had his flag blue, and the sun and moon upon it. Naphtali had on his flag an olive tree, for this reason that (Gen. xlix. 20) " Out of Asher his bread shall be fat.w

" Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy " (Lam. i. 5). Rabbi Isaac saith, " Come and see how greatly beloved are the children! " The Sanhedrin were exiled, but the Shechiuah was not exiled with them. The Temple guards were exiled, but the Shechinah was not exiled with them. But with the children the Shechinah also was exiled. This is that which is written (Lam. i. 5, 6), " Her children are gone,... and from the daughter of Zion all her beauty (**. <?., the Shechinah) is departed." Midrash Rabbah Eicha.

Know thou that the 613 Precepts of the Law form a compact with the Holy One — blessed be He! — and with Israel, as it is often explained in the Zohar. It is written (Exod. iii. 15), a This is My name, and this is My memorial." " My name," in the Hebrew characters, together with " Yeho," amounts numerically to 365; "Vah,* together with " My memorial," amounts to 248. Here we have the number 613 in the Holy One — blessed be He!

The soul is a portion of God from above, and this is mystically intimated by the degrees of " breath, spirit, soul," the initial and final letters of which amount to 613, while the middle letters of these amount to the number of " Lord, Almighty, God." The soul of Moses our Rabbi — peace be on him! — embraced all the souls of Israel; as it is said, Moses was equivalent to all Israel. " Moses our Rabbi" amounts to 613; and "Lord God of Israel" also amounts to 613.

and so did all other customers, who underwent a similar inquisition. Once an old woman brought a measure of fine flour and wished to present it as an offering to the gods. This so enraged Abraham that he took a staff and broke all the images, excepting the largest, into whose hands he fixed the staff. When his father came and questioned him about the destruction of the gods, he replied, "An old woman placed an offering of flour before them, which immediately set them all by the ears, for every one was hungrier than another, but the biggest god killed all the rest with this staff which thou now seest he still holds in his hands.* Superstition, especially when combined with mercenary motives, knows neither reason nor human affection, therefore the father handed over his son Abraham to the inquisition of Nimrod, who threw him into the fiery furnace, as recorded elsewhere in this Miscellany.

This is an historical fact, to the truth of which the whole orthodox Jewish world will bear testimony, and is solemnly recorded in

No man in Israel despised himself more than David when the precepts of the Lord were concerned, and this is what he said before God (Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2), " ( Lord, my heart was not haughty } when Samuel anointed me king. Nor were mine eyes lofty > when I slew Goliath. ( Neither did I exercise myself in matters too great and wonderful for me > when I brought up the ark. ( Have I not behaved myself, and hushed my soul, as a babe that is weaned of his mother? As a child which is not ashamed to uncover himself before his mother, so have I likened myself before Thee, in not being ashamed to depreciate myself before Thee for Thy glory, w etc. (See 2 Sam. vi. 20, 21.)

" When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as He hath promised thee (Deut. xii. 20). Rabbi Yitzchak said, " This scroll no man knows how long and how broad it is, but when unrolled it speaks for itself, and shows how large it is. It is so with the land of Israel, which, for the most part, consists of hills and mountains; but when the Holy One — blessed be He! — shall level it, as it is said (Isa. xl. 4), ( Every valley shall be raised and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth/ then shall that land speak, as it were, for herself, and its extent stand revealed.*

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

• An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, etc. (Deut. xxiii. 4). One day Yehuda, an Ammonite prophet, came into the academy and asked, " May I enter the congregation (if I marry a Jewess)? Rabban Gamliel said unto him, " Thou art not at liberty to do so; but Rabbi Joshua interposed and maintained, " He is at libert3r to do so.w Then Rabban Gamliel appealed to Scripture, which saith, An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

To this Rabbi Joshua retorted and asked, "Are then these nations still in their own native places? Did not Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, transplant the nations? as it is said (Isa. x. 13), (I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and have put down the valor of the inhabitants. Rabban Gamliel replied, "Scripture saith (Jer. xlix. 6), ( Afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon/ and so,* he argued, "they must have already returned."

Rabbi Joshua then promptly rejoined, "Scripture saith (Jer. xxx. 3), (I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,* and these have not returned yet.M And on this reasoning the proselyte was permitted to enter the congregation. Yadayim, chap. 4, mish. 4.

Tradition teaches that Rabbi Yossi said: — The Shechinah has never descended below, nor did Moses and Elijah ever ascend on high; for it is said (Ps. cxv. 16), " The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lords; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.w True, it is written, he admitted (Exod. xix. 20), "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai; but that, he remarked, was ten handbreadths above the summit. And true, too, is it written (Zech. xiv. 4), " And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives; ■ but that, too, he added, is ten handbreadths above it. And so, in like manner,

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.

Even as a fox is man; as a fox which seeing a fine vineyard lusted after its grapes. But the palings were placed at narrow distances, and the fox was too bulky to creep between them. For three days he fasted, and when he had grown thin he entered into the vineyard. He feasted upon the grapes, forgetful of the morrow, of all things but his enjoyment; and lo, he had again grown stout and was unable to leave the scene of his feast. So for three days more he fasted, and when he had again grown thin, he passed through the palings and stood outside the vineyard, meagre as when he entered.

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.

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."

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.

" 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 idolator. " 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,w 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 beginning was good.* My own life proves the soundness of this explanation. On the day when I was admitted into the covenant of Abraham, my father made a great feast. Some of his visitors sang, some of them danced, but the Rabbis conversed upon God's wisdom and His laws. This latter pleased my father, Abuyah, and he said, c When my son grows up ye shall teach him and he shall become like ye; he did not cause me to study for God's sake but only to make his name famous through me. Therefore, in my latter days have I become wicked and an apostate; and now, return home.9

During the terrible times which followed the fall of the Holy City, Hannah and her seven sons were cast into prison. According to their ages they were brought before the tyrant conqueror, and commanded to pay homage to him and his gods. "God forbid, exclaimed the eldest lad, athat I should bow to thy image. Our commandments say to us, ( I am the Lord thy God; to no other will I bow.

He was immediately led out to execution, and the same demand made of his brother, the second son. " My brother bowed not,* he answered, "and no more will I.w. " Wherefore not? B asked the tyrant. " Because, replied the lad, " the second commandment of the Decalogue tells us, < Thou shalt have no other God but me. '. His death followed immediately his brave words. " My religion teaches me, ( Thou shalt worship no other God," said the third son, "and I welcome the fate accorded to my brothers rather than bow to thee or thy images.

The same homage was demanded of the fourth son, but brave and faithful as his brethren, he replied, " ( He that. sacrificeth unto any God save unto the Lord only,* and was slain pitilessly. "'Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God, the Lord is One,* exclaimed the fifth lad, yielding up his young life with the watchword of Israel's hosts. " Why art thou so obstinate? was asked of the sixth brother, when he, too, was brought before the tyrant and scorned the propositions made him. " 'The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty and terrible God/ he said; and died for the principles he proclaimed.

Then the seventh and youngest boy was brought before the murderer of his relatives, who addressed him kindly, saying: —.

Although the reading of the Book of Esther (Megilah) on Purim is not a precept of the Pentateuch, 'tis nevertheless binding upon us and our descendants. Therefore the day is appointed as one of feasting and gladness, and interchange of presents, and also of gifts to the poor, that they too may rejoice. As in the decree of Haman, no distinction was made between rich and poor, as all alike were doomed to destruction, it is proper that all should have equal cause to feel joyful, and therefore in all generations the poor should be liberally remembered on this day.

"And it repented the Lord that He had made man (Adam) on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart (Gen. vi. 6). Rabbi Berachiah says that when God was about to create Adam, He foresaw that both righteous people and wicked people would come forth from him. He reasoned therefore with Himself thus: " If I create him, then will the wicked proceed from him; but if I do not create him, how then shall the righteous come forth?* What then did God do?

He separated the ways of the wicked from before Him, and assuming the attribute of mercy, so He created him. This explains what is written (Ps. i. 6), " For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall be lost.* The way of the wicked was lost before Him, but assuming to Himself the attribute of mercy, He created him. Rabbi Chanina says, " It was not so! But when God was about to create Adam, He consulted the ministering angels and said unto them (Gen. i. 26), ( Shall we make man in our image after our likeness V They replied, ( For what good wilt thou create him?* He responded, (That the righteous may rise out of him.* This explains what is written, For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall be lost.

God informed them only about the righteous, but He said nothing about the wicked, otherwise the ministering angels would not have given their consent that man should be created.*