A certain Cuthite said: ‘I will go and see a certain Jewish elder40Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yosei. who mocks people.’ He came and sat near him. He said to him: ‘I saw in my dream four cedars, four sycamores, and a bundle of straw, and a bull was riding upon them.’ Rabbi Yishmael said: ‘May the soul of that man expire; the four cedars are four cedar bedposts, the four sycamores are four bed sideboards, the bundle of straw, those are its ropes.41Beds commonly consisted of a frame composed of four boards with posts at the corners, held together by ropes. A leather covering would be stretched over the frame, and served as the mattress. A bull riding upon them, that is the leather of the bed upon which you sleep. This man will climb onto it and never come down.’ And so it was for him.Another came and said to him: ‘I saw in my dream an olive tree at the time of its planting.’ He said to him: ‘This man will see great light.’ Another came and said to him: ‘I saw an olive tree at the time of its beating.’42During harvesting, workers would beat the olive tree so that its fruit would fall from the tree. He said to him: ‘This man should prepare his loins for lashes.’ He said to him: ‘Rabbi, to that one you said that and to me you said this?’ He said to him: ‘May the soul of this man expire; that man saw at the time of planting and this one at the time of beating.’