Hebraic Literature (1901) Reader

It is related by the Rabbis that Rabbon Yochanan ben Zacchai was once riding out of Jerusalem accompanied by his disciples, when he saw a young woman picking barley out of the dung on the road. On his asking her name, she told him that she was the daughter of Nikodemon ben Gorion. " What has become of thy father's riches? said he, " and what has become of thy dowry? >} " Dost thou not remember,® said she, " that charity is the salt of riches?8 (Her father had not been noted for this virtue.) " Dost thou not remember signing my marriage contract?

" And the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt w (Exod. viii. 1; A. V. viii. 6). "There was but one frog, said Rabbi Elazar, " and she so multiplied as to fill the whole laud of Egypt." "Yes, indeed," said Rabbi Akiva, "there was, as you say, but one frog, but she herself was so large as to fill all the land of Egypt." Whereupon Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said unto him, " Akiva, what business hast thou with Haggadah? Be off with thy legends, and get thee to the laws thou art familiar with about plagues and tents. Though thou sayest right in this matter, for there was only one frog, but she croaked so loud that the frogs came from everywhere else to her croaking."

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! B 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."

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 naively 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

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.**

Solomon thereupon sent Benaiab, the son of Jehoiada, provided with a magic chain and ring, upon both of which the name of God was engraved. He also provided him with a fleece of wool and sundry skins with wine. Then Benaiah went and sank a pit below that of Ashmedai, into which he drained off the water and plugged the duct between with the fleece. Then he set to and dug another hole higher up with a channel leading into the emptied pit of Ashmedia, by means of which the pit was filled with the wine he had brought.

After leveling the ground so as not to rouse suspicion, he withdrew to a tree close by, so as to watch the result and wait his opportunity. After a while Ashmedai came, and examined the seal, when, seeing it all right, he raised the stone, and to his surprise found wine in the pit. For a time he stood muttering and saying, it is written, " Wine is a mocker: strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."

And again, " Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart." Therefore at first he was unwilling to drink, but being thirsty, he could not long resist the temptation. He proceeded to drink therefore, when, becoming intoxicated, he lay down to sleep. Then Benaiah, came forth from his ambush, and stealthily approaching, fastened the chain round the sleeper's neck.

Ashmedai, when he awoke, began to fret and fume, and would have torn off the chain that bound him, had not Benaiah warned him, saying, "The name of

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; L,XX.). 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 out 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.

Having once acquired a power over Ashmedai, Solomon detained him till the building of the Temple was completed. One day after this, when they were alone, it is related that Solomon, adressing him, asked him, "What, pray, is your superiority over us, if it be true, as it is written (Num. xxiii. 22), (He has the strength of a unicorn,* and the word strength,1 as tradition alleges, means < ministering angels,* and the word ( unicorn" means ( devils *?** Ashmedai replied, " Just take this chain from my neck, and give me thy signetring, and I'll soon show thee my superiority.8 No sooner did Solomon comply with this request, than Ashmedai, snatching him up, swallowed him; then stretching forth his wings — one touching the heaven and the other the earth — he vomited him out again to a distance of four hundred miles.

It is with reference to this time that Solomon says (Eccl. i. 3; ii. 10), "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? This is my portion of all my labor.8 What does the word this mean? Upon this point Rav and Samuel are at variance, for the one says it means his staff, the other holds that it means his garment or water-jug; and that with one or other Solomon went about from door to door begging; and wherever he came he said (Eccl. i. 12), "I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerualem.8 When in his wanderings he came to the house of the Sanhedrin, the Rabbis reasoned and said, if he were mad he would

The Rabbis say that at first they used to communicate the Divine name of twelve letters to every one. But when the Antinomians began to abound, the knowledge of this name was imparted only to the more discreet of the priestly order, and they repeated it hastily while the other priests pronounced the benediction of the people. ( What the name was, says Rashi, is not known.) Rabbi Tarphon, the story goes on to say, once listened to the high priest, and overheard him hurriedly pronouncing this name of twelve letters while the other priests were blessing the people

The last day of the month is called, "The little Day of Atonement, w and it is fit and proper to do penance on that day. On the first day of the mouth it is a pious act to prepare an extra dish for dinner in honor of the day. God has given the first of the mouth (as a festival) more for women than for men, because the three annual festivals are according to the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and because the twelve months are according to the twelve tribes; and as the tribes sinned in the matter of the golden calf, and the women were unwilling to give up their golden earrings for that idolatrous purpose, therefore they deserved that God should give them as their reward the first days of the twelve months, according to the number of the tribes.

Rav Pinchas says, David in the Psalms calls five times upon the Holy One — blessed be He! — to arise. (1.) < Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God!* (Ps. iii. 7). (2.) ( Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger! (Ps. vii. 6). (3.) ( Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail!* (Ps. ix. 19). (4.) ( Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thine hand: forget not the humble! (Ps. x. 12). (5.) ( Arise, O Lord; disappoint him! y But the Holy One — blessed be He! — said unto David, My son, though thou call upon Me many a time to arise, I will not arise. But when do I arise? When thou seest the poor oppressed and the needy sighing, then will I arise. y This explains what is written (Ps. xii. 5), " For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord.®

Esau said, " I will not kill my brother Jacob with bow and arrow, but with my mouth I will suck his blood, as it is said (Gen. xxxiii. 4), "And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and they wept." Read not "and he kissed him," but read, " and he bit him.* The neck of Jacob, however, became as hard as ivory, and it is respecting him that Scripture says (Cant. vii. 5), "Thy neck is as a tower of ivory," — so that the teeth of Esau became blunted; and when he saw that his desire could not be gratified, he began to be angry, and gnashed his teeth, as it is said (Ps. cxii. 10), " The wicked shall see it and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth."

Rabbi Elazar, 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 da}', 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.

" Those passing through the valley of weeping make it a well; also blessings shall cover the teacher" (Ps. lxxxiv. 6, A. V.). "The valley of weeping is Gehenna. " Make it a well,* for their tears are like a well or spring. "Also blessings shall cover the teacher.* Rabbi Yochanan saith, "The praises of God that ascend from Gehenna are more than those that ascend from Paradise, for each one that is a step higher than his neighbor praises God, and says, ( Happy am I that I am a step higher than the one below me.* ( Also blessings shall cover the teacher,* for they will acknowledge and say, ( Ye have taught well, and ye have instructed well, but we have not obeyed.

Here is a companion picture from Yoma, fol. 84, col. 1. — " Rabbi Yochanan was suffering from scurvy, and he applied to a Gentile woman, who prepared a remedy for the fifth and then the sixth day of the week. ( But what shall I do to-morrow? said he; ( I must not walk so far on the Sabbath.* (Thou wilt not require any more,* she answered. <But suppose I do,* he replied. (Take an oath,* she answered, (that thou wilt not reveal it, and I will tell thee how to compound the remedy.

This he did in the following words: ( By the God of Israel, I swear I will not divulge it.* Nevertheless, when he learned the secret, he went and revealed it. <But was not that profaning the name of God?* asks one. (No,* pleads another Rabbi, < for, as he told her afterward, that what he meant was that he would not tell it to the God of Israel.* The remedy was yeast, water, oil, and salt."

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 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.

"And let him dip his foot in oil (Deut. xxxiii. 24), the Rabbis say, refers to the portion of Asher, which produces oil like a well. Once on a time, they relate, the Laodiceans sent an agent to Jerusalem with instructions to purchase a hundred myriads' worth of oil. He proceeded first to Tyre, and thence to Gush-halab, where he met with the oil merchant earthing up his olive trees, and asked him whether he could supply a hundred myriads' worth of oil. " Stop till I have finished my work," was the reply.

The other, when he saw the business-like way in which he set to work, could not help incredulously exclaiming, " What! hast thou really a hundred myriads' worth of oil to sell? Surely the Jews have meant to make game of me." However he went to the house with the oil merchant, where a female slave brought hot water for him to wash his hands and feet, and a golden bowl of oil to dip them in afterward, thus fulfilling Deut. xxxiii. 24 to the very letter.

After they had eaten together, the merchant measured out to him the hundred myriads' worth of oil, and then asked whether he would purchase more from him. "Yes," said the agent, "but I have no more money here with me." "Never mind," said the merchant; "buy it and I will go with thee to thy home for the money." Then he measured out eighteen myriads' worth more.

It is said that he hired every horse, mule, camel, and ass he could find in all Israel to carry the oil, and that on nearing his city the people turned out to meet him and compliment him for the service he had done them. "Don't praise me," said the agent, " but this, my companion, to whom I owe eighteen myriads." This, says the narrator, illustrates what is said (Prov. xiii. 7), "There is that maketh himself (appear to be) rich, yet hath nothing; there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches."

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! B "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.

before him with one cup only on it, and thus the even number would become odd, and his face would return to its natural position. They did so, and it was as the Rabbi had said. The official then remarked to his host, " I know the man I want is here," and he hastened and found him. " If I knew for certain, he said to the Rabbi, that thy escape would cost my life only, I would let thee go, but I fear bodily torture, and therefore I must secure thee."

And thereupon he locked him up. Upon this the Rabbi prayed, till the prison walls miraculously giving way he made his escape to Agma, where he seated himself at the root of a tree and gave himself up to meditation. While thus engaged he all at once heard a discussion in the academy of heaven on the subject of the hair mentioned in Lev. xiii. 25. The Holy One — blessed be He! — declared the case to be " clean," but the whole academy were of a different opinion, and declared the case to be "unclean."

The question then arose, " Who shall decide? " " Ravah bar Nachmaini shall decide," was the unanimous reply, " for he said, ' I am one in matters of leprosy; I am one in questions about tents; and there is none to equal me. ' " Then the angel of death was sent for to bring him up, but he was unable to approach him, because the Rabbi's lips never ceased repeating the law of the Lord. The angel of death thereupon assumed the appearance of a troop of cavalry, and the Rabbi, apprehesive] of being seized and carried off, exclaimed, " I would rather die through that one (meaning the angel of death) than be delivered into the hands of the Government! " At that very instant he was asked to decide the question in dispute, and just as the verdict " clean " issued from his lips his soul departed from his body, and a voice was heard from heaven proclaiming, " Blessed art thou, Ravah bar Nachmaini, for thy body is clean. ( Clean was the word on thy lips when thy spirit departed."

Then a scroll fell down from heaven into Pumbeditha announcing that Ravah bar Nachmaini was admitted into the academy of heaven. Apprised of this, Abaii, in company with many other Rabbis, went in search of the body to inter it, but not knowing the spot where he lay, they went to Agma, where they noticed a

great number of birds hovering in the air, and concluded that the shadow of their wings shielded the body of the departed. There, accordingly, they found and buried him; and after mourning three days and three nights over his grave, they arose to depart, when another scroll descended threatening them with excommunication if they did so. They therefore continued mourning for seven days and seven nights, when, at the end of these, a third scroll descended and bade them go home in peace.

On the day of the death of this Rabbi there arose, it is said, such a mighty tempest in the air that an Arab merchant and the camel on which he was riding were blown bodily over from one side of the river Pappa to the other. What meaneth such a storm as this? cried the merchant, as he lay on the ground. A voice from heaven answered, " Ravah bar Nachmaini is dead. Then he prayed and fled, " Lord of the universe, the whole world is Thine, and Ravah bar Nachmaini is Thine!

Thou art Ravah 's and Ravah is Thine; but wherefore wilt Thou destroy the world? On this the storm immediately abated, and there was a perfect calm.

On the day when Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a great feast, to which he invited all the people of the land. Not all of those who came to enjoy the feast believed in the alleged occasion of its celebration, for some said contemptuousl}r, "This old couple have adopted a foundling, and provided a feast to persuade us to believe that the child is their own offspring. What did Abraham do? He invited all the great men of the day, and Sarah invited their wives, who brought their infants, but not their nurses, along with them.

On this occasion Sarah's breasts became like two fountains, for she supplied, of her own body, nourishment to all the children. Still some were unconvinced, and said, " Shall a child be born to one that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?w (Gen. xvii. 17.) Whereupon, to silence this objection, Isaac's face was changed, so that it became the very picture of Abraham's; then one and all exclaimed, "Abraham begat Isaac.

At the time when Israel in their eagerness first said, "We will do," and then, " We will hear (Exod. xxix. 7), there came sixty myriads of ministering angels to crown each Israelite with two crowns, one for " we will do and one for "we will hear.® But when after this Israel sinned, there came down a hundred and twenty myraids of destroying angels and took the crowns away from them, as it is said (Exod. xxxiii. 6), "And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.w Resh Lakish says, " The Holy One — blessed be He! — will, in the future, return them to us; for it is said (Isa. xxxv. 10), (The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads,* i. e.t the joy they had in days of yore, upon their heads.*

The land of Israel was not destroyed till the seven courts of judgment had fallen into idolatry, and these are they: — Jeroboam, the son of Nebat; Baasha, the son of Ahijah; Ahab, the son of Omri; Jehu, the son of Nimshi; Pekah, the son of Remaliah; Menahem, the son of Gadi; and Hoshea, the son of Elah; as it is written (Jer. xv. 9), • She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it is yet day; she hath been ashamed and confounded

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,8 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.*

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, I<ord 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

Once upon a time the people of Egypt appeared before Alexander of Macedon to complain of Israel. " It is said (Exod. xii. 36), they argued, (The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them/ etc.; and they prayed, " Give us now back the gold and the silver that ye took from us. Givia ben Pesisa said to the wise men (of Israel), " Give me permission to plead against them before Alexander.

If they overcome me, say, (You have overcome a plebeian only,* but if I overcome them, say, ( The law of Moses our master has triumphed over you.} • They accordingly gave him leave, and he went and argued thus, " Whence do ye produce your proof?* " From the law," said they. Then said he, " I will bring no other evidence but from the law. It is said (Exod. xii. 40), ^he sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years/ Pay us now the usufruct of the labor of the sixty myriads whom ye enslaved in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.8 Alexander gave the Egyptians three days' grace to prepare a reply, but they never put in an appearance. In fact, they fled away and left both their fields and vineyards.

"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 versd; 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.

The Rabbis have taught, a man should not sell to his neighbor shoes made from the hide of a beast that has died of disease, as if of a beast that had been slaughtered in the shambles, for two reasons: first, because he imposes on him (for the skin of a beast that dies of itself is not so durable as the hide of a slaughtered animal); second, because there is danger (for the beast that died of itself might have been stung by a serpent, and the poison remaining in the leather might prove fatal to the wearer of shoes made of that leather).

A man should not send his neighbor a barrel of wine with oil floating upon its surface; for it happened once that a man did so, and the recipient went and invited his friends to a feast, in the preparation of which oil was to form a chief ingredient; but when the guests assembled, it was found out that the cask contained wine, and not oil; and because the host had nothing else in preparation for a worthy feast, he went and committed suicide.

Neither should guests give anything from what is set before them to the son or daughter of their host, unless the host himself give them leave to do so; for it once happened during a time of scarcity that a man invited three of his friends to dine, and he had nothing but three eggs to place before them. Meanwhile, as the guests were seated at the board, the son of the host came into the room, and first one of the guests gave him his share, and then the other two followed his example.

Shortly afterward the host himself came in, and seeing the child with his mouth full and both hands, he knocked him down to the ground, so that he died on the instant. The mother, seeing this, went and threw herself headlong, from the housetop, and the father followed her example. Thus Rabbi Eliezar ben Yacob said, There perished in this affair three souls of Israel.*

Sennacherib the wicked invaded Jewry with forty-five thousand princes in golden coronets, and they had with them their wives and odalisques; also eighty thousand mighty men clad in mail and sixty thousand swordsmen ran before him, and the rest were cavalry. With a similar army they came against r Abraham, and a like force is to come up with Gog and Magog. A tradition teaches that the extent of his camp was four hundred parsaes or leagues, the extent of the horses' necks were forty parsaes. The total muster of his army was two hundred and sixty myriads of thousands, less one. Abaii asked, " Less one myriad, or one thousand, or one hundred? or more literally less one?"

In the immediate context of the above extract we have the following legend concerning Sennacherib: — As Rabbi Abhu has said, " Were it not for this Scripture text it would be impossible to repeat what is written (Isa. vii. 20), ( In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.*" The story is this: — The Holy One — blessed be He! — once disguised Himself as an elderly man and came to Sennacherib, and said, " When thou comest to the kings of the East and of the West, to force their sons into thine army, what wilt thou say unto them? " He replied, " On that very account I am in fear.

What shall I do? " God answered him, " Go and disguise thyself." " How can I disguise myself? " said he, God replied, " Go and fetch me a pair

of scissors and I will cut thy hair." Sennacherib asked, " Whence shall I fetch them? " Go to yonder house and bring them." He went accordingly and observed a pair, but there he met the ministering angels disguised as men, grinding date-stones. He asked them for the scissors, but they said " Grind thou first a measure of date-stones, and then thou shalt have the scissors."

He did as he was told, and so obtained the scissors. It was dark before he returned, and God said unto him, "Go and fetch some fire." This also he did, but while blowing the embers his beard was singed. Upon which God came and shaved his head and his beard, and said, "This is it which is written (Isa. vii. 20), ( It shall also consume the beard.) " Rav Pappa says this is the proverb current among the people, " Singe the face of a Syrian, and, if it pleases him, also set his beard in fire, and thou wilt not be able to laugh enough." Sanhedrin, fol. 95, col. 2, and fol. 96, col. 1.

The anecdote that follows is from Sanhedrin, fol. 97, col 1: — "In reference to the remark of Ravina, who said, ( I used to think that there was no truth in the world,* one of the Rabbis, Toviah (or Tavyoomah, as some say), would protest and say, <If all the riches of the world were offered me, I would not tell a falsehood.* And he used to clench his protestation with the following apologue: (I once went to a place called Kushta, where the people never swerve from the truth, and where (as a reward for their integrity) they do not die until old age; and there I married and settled down, and had two sons born unto me.

One day as my wife was sitting and combing her hair, a woman who dwelt close by came to the door and asked to see her. Thinking that it was a breach of etiquette (that any one should see her at her toilet), I said she was not in. Soon after this my two children died, and the people came to inquire into the cause

Four thousand two hundred and ninety-one years after the creation of the world the wars of the dragons and the wars of Gog and Magog will cease, and the rest of the time will be the days of the Messiah; and the Holy One — blessed be He! — will not renew His world till after seven thousand years.... Rabbi Jonathan said, " May the bones of those who compute the latter days (when the Messiah shall appear) be blown; for some say, ( Because the time (of Messiah) has come and Himself has not, therefore He will never come! ' But wait thou for Him, as it is said (Hab. ii. 3), ( Though He tarry, wait for Him.* Perhaps you will say, ( We wait, but He does not wait; ' learn rather to say (Isa. xxx. 18), (And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you; and therefore will He be exalted, that

Among those who have no portion in the world to come is he who read.' 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,

"Yes," answered Akiba. "< Twelve years old was Manassah when he became king, and fifty-and-five years did he reign in Jerusalem, and he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord" (Kings). Now, how was this? Did Hezekiah teach the law to the whole world and not to his son Manassah? Assuredly not; but Manassah paid no attention to his precepts, and neglected the word of God until he was afflicted with bodily pain, as it is written, ( And the Lord spoke to Manassah and to his people, but they listened not, wherefore the Lord brought over them the captains of the armies belonging to the king of Assyria, and they took Manassah prisoner with chains, and bound him with fetters, and led him off to Babylon; and when he was in distress he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

And he prayed to Him, and He permitted Himself to be entreated by him and heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem unto his kingdom. Then did Manassah feel conscious that the Lord is indeed the (true) God.*

Rava relates the following in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: — " Two Jewish slaves were one day walking along, when their master, who was following, overheard the one saying to the other, ( There is a camel ahead of us, as I judge — for I have not seen — that is blind of one eye and laden with two skin-bottles, one of which contains wine and the other oil, while two drivers attend it, one of them an Israelite, and the other a Gentile. ' You perverse men/ said their master, i how can you fabricate such a story as that?* The slave answered, and gave this as his reason, ( The grass is cropped only on one side of the track, the wine, that must have dripped, has soaked into the earth on the right, and the oil has trickled down, and may be seen on the left; while one of the drivers turned aside from the track to ease himself, but the other has not even left the road for the purpose.'

Upon this the master stepped on before them in order to verify the correctness of their inferences, and found the conclusion true in every particular. He then turned back, and... after complimenting the two slaves for their shrewdness, he at once gave them their liberty."

For six months David was afflicted with leprosy; for it is said (Ps. li. 7), "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. At that time the Shechinah departed from him; for it is said (Ps. li. 12), " Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and the Sanhedrin kept aloof from him, for it is said (Ps. cxix. 79), " Let those that fear thee turn unto me." That this ailment lasted six months is proved from 1 Kings ii. 11, where it is said, " And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem; whereas in 2 Sam. v. 5, it is said, " In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months.

Ravah bar Nachmaini was impeached for depriving the revenue of the poll-tax on twelve thousand Jews, by detaining them annually at his academy for one month in the spring, and for another month in the autumn; for great multitudes from various parts of the country were wont, at the two seasons of the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, to come to hear him preach, so that when the king's officers came to collect the taxes they found none of them at home.

A royal messenger was accordingly despatched to apprehend him, but he failed to find him, for the Rabbi fled to Pumbeditha, and from thence to Akra, to Agmi, Sichin, Zeripha, Ein d'Maya, and back again to Pumbeditha. Arrived at this place, both the royal messenger and the fugitive Rabbi happened to put up at the same inn. Two cups were placed before the former on a table, when, strange to say, after he had drunk and the table was removed, his face was forcibly turned round to his back. (This was done by evil spirits because he drank even numbers — against which we are earnestly warned in P'sachim, fol. no, col. 1.)

The inn-keeper, fearing the consequences of such a misfortune happening to so high an official at his inn, sought advice of the lurking Rabbi, when the latter suggested that the table be placed again

"And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel,... ye shall carry up my bones from hence (Gen. 1. 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."