2. A merchant whilst travelling, is asked by an innkeeper to be allowed to go with him. Near a town they meet a blind man. The merchant gives him something; the other refuses saying he does not know him. The angel of death meets them, spares the merchant fifty years longer because of charity, and allows the other to live because he wishes to recount the adventure for the glory of God. If a man be saved by giving once, how much more will he be saved by making a habit of it ?
*) From shorter recension B. ed. Jellinek. vide p. 7, § 19.
388.3- Rabbi Gamliel, R. Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua travelling were hospitably received by a man. At the table he first carried every dish into an adjoining room. They asked him what it meant and whether he bewitched the food. He replied that in the adjoining room lived his father who had taken an oath never to leave it before he had seen some of the Jewish sages. Told that they were the sages, the father explained that the son had been married for twelve years but had been bewitched and therefore had no child. He begged the sages to save him. Rabbi Joshua asked for some black seed; he sowed it there, it grew up at once; he pulled out the stalks and a woman came up. He got hold of her by her locks and asked her to break the spell. She replied that she had sunk it into the depths of the sea. No one present saw the witch but they heard the conversation. Rabbi Joshua conjured up the demon of the sea who cast up the spell. A year afterwards a child was born and this was Judah ben Batira.