Hebraic Literature 17

Hebraic Literature 17

11. When an exception to a general rule is made to substantiate

extraneous matter, that matter cannot be classed under the said

general rule, unless the scripture expressly says so.

 

12. The ruling is to be according to the context, or to the

general drift of the argument.

 

13. When two texts are contradictory, a third is to be sought

that reconciles them.

 

Rabbi Akiva was forty years of age when he began to study, and after

thirteen years of study he began publicly to teach.

 

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan._

 

Thirteen treasurers and seven directors were appointed to serve in the

Temple. (More there might be, never less.)

 

_Tamid_, fol. 27, col. 1.

 

Thirteen points of law regulate the decisions that require to be made

relative to the carcass of a clean bird.

 

_Taharoth_, chap. i, mish. 1.

 

A man must partake of fourteen meals in the booth during the Feast of

Tabernacles.

 

_Succah_, fol. 27, col. 1.

 

Traditional chronology records that the Israelites killed the Paschal

lamb on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the month on which they came out of

Egypt. They came out on the fifteenth; that day was a Friday.

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 1.

 

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 there, each having four golden bowls on the top, four

ladders reaching to them, and four of the young priests with cruses of

oil ready to supply them, each cruse holding one hundred and twenty logs

of oil. The lamp-wicks were made of the worn-out drawers and girdles of

the priests. There was not a court in all Jerusalem that was not lit up

by the illumination of the "water-drawing." Holy men, and men of

dignity, with flaming torches in their hands, danced before the people,

rehearsing songs and singing praises. The Levites, with harps, lutes,

cymbals, trumpets, and innumerable musical instruments, were stationed

on the fifteen steps which led from the ante-court of Israel to the

women's court; the Levites stood upon the steps and played and sang. Two

priests stood at the upper gate which led from the ante-court for Israel

to that for the women, each provided with a trumpet, and as soon as the

cock crew they blew one simple blast, then a compound or fragmentary

one, and then a modulated or shouting blast. This was the preconcerted

signal for the drawing of the water. As soon as they reached the tenth

step, they blew again three blasts as before. When they came to the

ante-court for women, they blew another three blasts, and after that

they continued blowing till they came to the east gate. When they

arrived at the east gate, they turned their faces westward (i.e., toward

the Temple), and said, "Our fathers, who were in this place, turned

their backs toward the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the

East, for they worshiped the sun in the East; but we turn our eyes to

God!" Rabbi Yehudah says, "These words were repeated, echoing, 'We are

for God, and unto God are our eyes directed!'"

 

_Succah_, fol. 51, col. 1, 2.

 

Rabbon Shimon ben Gamliel has said there were no such gala-days for

Israel as the fifteenth of Ab and the Day of Atonement, when the young

maidens of Jerusalem used to resort to the vineyard all robed in white

garments, that were required to be borrowed, lest those should feel

humiliated who had none of their own. There they danced gleefully,

calling to the lookers-on and saying, "Young men, have a care; the

choice you now make may have consequences."

 

_Taanith_, fol. 26, col. 2.

 

Rabbi Elazar the Great said, "From the fifteenth of Ab the influence of

the sun declines, and from that day they leave off cutting wood for the

altar fire, because it could not be properly dried (and green wood might

harbor vermin, which would make it unfit for use)."

 

_Taanith_, fol. 31, col. 1.

 

He who eats turnips to beef, and sleeps out in the open air during the

night of the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the months of summer (that

is, when the moon is full), will most likely bring on an ague fever.

 

_Gittin_, fol. 70, col. 1.

 

A lad should, at the age of fifteen, begin to apply himself to the

Gemara.

 

_Avoth_, chap. 5.

 

"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 versà_; 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.

 

_Chullin_, fol. 92, col. 1.

 

Rabbi Cheyah bar Abba says, "I once visited a house-holder at Ludkia,

and they placed before him a golden table so loaded with silver plate,

basins, cups, bottles and glasses, besides all sorts of dishes,

delicacies, and spices, that it took sixteen men to carry it. When they

set the table in its place they said (Ps. xxiv. 1), 'The earth is the

Lord's and the fullness thereof,' and upon removing it, they said (Ps.

cxv. 16), 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth

hath He given to the children of men.' I said, 'Son, how hast thou come

to deserve all this?' 'I was,' replied he, 'a butcher by trade, and I

always set apart for the Sabbath the best of the cattle.' 'How happy art

thou,' I remarked (adds Rabbi Cheyah), 'to have merited such a reward,

and blessed be God who has thus rewarded thee.'"

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 119, col. 1.

 

Rash Lakish said, "I have seen the flow of milk and honey at Tzipori; it

was sixteen miles by sixteen miles."

 

_Meggillah_, fol. 6, col. 1.

 

Rashi explains the above as follows:--The goats fed upon figs

from which honey distilled, and this mingled with the milk which

dropped from the goats as they walked along. On the spot arose a

lake which covered an area of sixteen miles square. (See also

Kethuboth, fol. iii, col. 2.)

 

A cedar tree once fell down in our place, the trunk of which was so wide

that sixteen wagons were drawn abreast upon it.

 

_Bechoroth_, fol. 57, col. 2.

 

Who can estimate the loss the world sustains in its ignorance of

the trees of the Talmud? What a sapling in comparison with this

giant cedar of Lebanon must the far-famed Mammoth tree have been

which was lately cut down in California, and was the largest

known to the present generation!

 

Rabbi Yochanan plaintively records, "I remember the time when a young

man and a young woman sixteen or seventeen years of age could walk

together in the streets and no harm came of it."

 

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 91, col. 2.

 

On the deposition of Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was

chosen as his successor to the presidential chair of the academy. On

being told of his elevation, he consulted with his wife as to whether or

not he should accept the appointment. "What if they should depose thee

also?" asked his wife. He replied, "Use the precious bowl while thou

hast it, even if it be broken the next." But she rejoined, "Thou art

only eighteen years old, and how canst thou at such an age expect folks

to venerate thee?" By a miracle eighteen of his locks turned suddenly

gray, so that he could say, "I am as one of seventy."

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 27, col. 2.

 

The Rabbis have taught that Shimon Happikoli had arranged the eighteen

benedictions before Rabbon Gamliel at Javneh. Rabbon Gamliel appealed to

the sages, "Is there not a man who knows how to compose an imprecation

against the Sadducees?" Then Samuel the Little stood up and extemporized

it.

 

Ibid., fol. 28, col. 2.

 

The "imprecation against the Sadducees" stands twelfth among the

collects of the Shemoneh Esreh. It is popularly known as

"Velama-leshinim" from its opening words, and is given thus in

modern Ashkenazi liturgies:--"Oh, let the slanderers have no

hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the

tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble

Thou them quickly in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who

destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants." There has been much

misconception with regard to this collect against heretics.

There is every reason to believe it was composed without any

reference whatever to the Christians. One point of interest,

however, in connection with it is worth relating here. Some have

sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the

Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew

name, Saul. They take Paulus as equal to _pusillus_, which means

"very little" or "the less," and answers to the word _Hakaton_,

a term of similar import. Samuel, however, died a good Jew (see

Semachoth, chap. 8), and Rabbon Gamliel Hazaken and Rabbi

Eleazar ben Azariah pronounced a funeral oration at his burial.

"His key and his diary were placed on his coffin, because he had

no son to succeed him." (See also Sanhedrin, fol. ii, col. 1.)

 

Eighteen denunciations did Isaiah make against the people of Israel, and

he recovered not his equanimity until he was able to add, "The child

shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against

the honorable" (Isa. iii. 5).

 

_Chaggigah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

 

The Rabbis have related that there was once a family in Jerusalem the

members of which died off regularly at eighteen years of age. Rabbi

Yochanan ben Zacchai shrewdly guessed that they were descendants of Eli,

regarding whom it is said (1 Sam. ii. 25), "And all the increase of

thine house shall die in the flower of their age;" and he accordingly

advised them to devote themselves to the study of the law, as the

certain and only means of neutralizing the curse. They acted upon the

advice of the Rabbi; their lives were in consequence prolonged; and they

thenceforth went by the name of their spiritual father.

 

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

 

Eighteen handbreadths was the height of the golden candlestick.

 

_Menachoth_, fol. 28, col. 2.

 

If a man remain unmarried after the age of twenty, his life is a

constant transgression. The Holy One--blessed be He!--waits until that

period to see if one enters the matrimonial state, and curses his bones

if he remain single.

 

_Kiddushin_, fol. 29, col. 2.

 

A woman marrying under twenty years of age will bear till she is sixty;

if she marries at twenty she will bear until she is forty; if she

marries at forty she will not have any family.

 

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 119, col. 2.

 

At twenty pursue the study of the law.

 

_Avoth_, chap. 5.

 

Rabbi Yehudah says the early Pietists used to suffer some twenty days

before death from diarrhoea, the effect of which was to purge and purify

them for the world to come; for it is said, "As the fining pot for

silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise" (Prov.

xxvii. 21).

 

_Semachoth_, chap. 3, mish. 10.

 

It may not be out of place to append two or three parallel

passages here by way of illustration:--"Bodily suffering purges

away sin" (_Berachoth_, fol. 5, col. 1). "He who suffers will

not see hell" (_Eiruvin_, fol. 41, col. 2). "To die of diarrhoea

is an augury for good, for most of the righteous die of that

ailment" (_Kethuboth_, fol. 103, col. 2, and elsewhere).

 

The bathing season at (the hot baths of) Dimsis lasted twenty-one days.

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 147, col. 2.

 

A fowl hatches in twenty-one days, and the almond tree ripens its fruit

in twenty-one days.

 

_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

 

Rabbi Levi says the realization of a good dream may be hopefully

expected for twenty-two years; for it is written (Gen. xxxvii. 2),

"These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being seventeen years old

when he had the dreams." And it is written also (Gen. xli. 46), "And

Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh," etc. From

seventeen to thirty are thirteen, to which add the seven years of plenty

and the two years of famine, which make the sum total of twenty-two.

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 55, col. 2.

 

In the pages which precede and follow the above quotation there

is much that is interesting on the subject of dreams and their

interpretation, and one is strongly tempted to append

selections, but we refrain in order to make room for a prayer

which occurs in the morning service for the various festivals,

and is given in the preceding context:--"Sovereign of the

Universe! I am thine, and my dreams are thine. I have dreamed a

dream, but know not what it portendeth. May it be acceptable in

Thy presence, O Lord my God, and the God of my fathers, that all

my dreams concerning myself and concerning all Israel may be for

my good. Whether I have dreamt concerning myself, or whether I

have dreamt concerning others, or whether others have dreamt

concerning me, if they be good, strengthen and fortify them,

that they may be accomplished in me, as were the dreams of the

righteous Joseph; and if they require cure, heal them as Thou

didst Hezekiah, king of Judah, from his sickness; as Miriam the

prophetess from her leprosy, and Naaman from his leprosy; as the

bitter waters of Marah by the hands of our legislator Moses, and

those of Jericho by the hands of Elisha. And as Thou wast

pleased to turn the curse of Balaam, the son of Beor, to a

blessing, be pleased to convert all my dreams concerning me and

all Israel to a good end. Oh, guard me; let me be acceptable to

Thee, and grant me life. Amen." (The translation of this prayer

is borrowed from the Jewish liturgy.)

 

Rabbi Levi said, "Come and see how unlike the character of the Holy

One--blessed be He!--is to that of those who inherit the flesh and blood

of humanity. God blessed Israel with twenty-two benedictions and cursed

them with eight curses (Lev. xxvi. 3-13, xv. 43). But Moses, our Rabbi,

blessed them with eight benedictions and cursed them with twenty-two

imprecations" (see Deut. xxviii. 1-4, xv. 68).

 

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 59, col. i.

 

Once as they were journeying to Chesib (in Palestine), some of Rabbi

Akiva's disciples were overtaken by a band of robbers, who demanded to

know where they were going to. "We are going to Acco," was the reply;

but on arriving at Chesib, they went no farther. The robbers then asked

them who they were? "Disciples of Rabbi Akiva," they replied. Upon

hearing this the robbers exclaimed, "Blessed surely is Rabbi Akiva and

his disciples too, for no man can ever do them any harm." Once as Rabbi

Menasi was traveling to Thurtha (in Babylonia), some thieves surprised

him on the road and asked him where he was bound for. "For Pumbeditha,"

was the reply; but upon reaching Thurtha, he stayed and went no farther.

The highwaymen, thus balked, retorted, "Thou art the disciple of Yehuda

the deceiver!" "Oh, you know my master, do you?" said the Rabbi. "Then

in the name of God be every one of you anathematized." For twenty-two

years thereafter they carried on their nefarious trade, but all their

attempts at violence ended only in disappointment. Then all save one of

them came to the Rabbi and craved his pardon, which was immediately

granted. The one who did not come to confess his guilt and obtain

absolution was a weaver, and he was eventually devoured by a lion. Hence

the proverbs, "If a weaver does not humble himself, he shortens his

life;" and, "Come and see the difference there is between the thieves of

Babylon and the banditti of the land of Israel."

 

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 26, col. 1.

 

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was twenty-two years of age when, contrary to

the wishes of his father, he went to Rabbon Yochanan ben Zaccai

purposing to devote himself to the study of the law. By the time he

arrived at Rabbon Yochanan's he had been without food four-and-twenty

hours, and yet, though repeatedly asked whether he had had anything to

eat, refused to confess he was hungry. His father having come to know

where he was, went one day to the place on purpose to disinherit him

before the assembled Rabbis. It so happened that Rabbon Yochanan was at

that time lecturing before some of the great men of Jerusalem, and when

he saw the father enter, he pressed Rabbi Eliezer to deliver an

exposition. So racy and cogent were his observations that Rabbon

Yochanan rose and styled him his own Rabbi, and thanked him in the name

of the rest for the instruction he had afforded them. Then the father of

Rabbi Eliezer said, "Rabbis, I came here for the purpose of

disinheriting my son, but now I declare him sole heir of all I have, to

the exclusion of his brothers."

 

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 6.

 

The father of Eliezer acts more magnanimously by his son than

does the father of St. Francis. Like the Rabbi, as Mr. Ruskin

relates in his "Mornings in Florence," St. Francis, one of whose

three great virtues was obedience, "begins his spiritual life by

quarreling with his father. He 'commercially invests' some of

his father's goods in charity. His father objects to that

investment, on which St. Francis runs away, taking what he can

find about the house along with him. His father follows to claim

his property, but finds it is all gone already, and that St.

Francis has made friends with the Bishop of Assisi. His father

flies into an indecent passion, and declares he will disinherit

him; on which St. Francis, then and there, takes all his clothes

off, throws them frantically in his father's face, and says he

has nothing more to do with clothes or father."

 

Not the same strict scrutiny is required in money matters as in cases of

capital punishment; for it is said (Lev. xxiv. 23), "Ye shall have one

manner of law." What distinction is there made between them? With regard

to money matters three judges are deemed sufficient, while in cases of

capital offense twenty-three are required, etc.

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 32, col. 1.

 

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, "In twenty-four cases doth the tribunal

excommunicate for the honor of a Rabbi, and all are explained in our

Mishna." Rabbi Elazer interposed and asked, "Where are they?" The reply

was, "Go and seek, and thou shalt find." He went accordingly and sought,

but found only three--the case of the man who lightly esteems the

washing of hands; of him who whispers evil behind the bier of a disciple

of the wise; and of him who behaves haughtily toward the Most High.

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 19, col. 1.