Take Words With You and Levi ben Sisi on the Rooftop

Take words with you (Hosea 14:3). Rabbi Yudah and Rabbi Nechemyah. Rabbi Yudah said: Did they not coax Him with mere words at Sinai? As it says, They deceived Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue (Psalms 78:36). And Rabbi Nechemyah said: Take words with you means, bring people of substance, good reciters, good expounders, such as Levi ben Sisi and his colleagues. As for Levi ben Sisi: troops came to his town. The troops entered, and he took a Torah scroll and went up to the roof. He said before Him, Master of the worlds, if I have neglected even a single word of this scroll, let the brigands come up against them; but if not, let them go away. At once they were sought and not found. His disciple did likewise, and his right hand withered, but the brigands went away. The disciple of his disciple did likewise, and his right hand did not wither, yet the brigands did not go away. They reasoned and said: If a fool is struck he does not feel it, and dead flesh does not feel the scalpel.