Hebraic Literature 25

Hebraic Literature 25

Maccoth_, fol. 23, col. 2.

 

David, we are told, reduced these commandments here reckoned at

six hundred and thirteen, to eleven, and Isaiah still further to

six, and then afterward to two. "Thus saith the Eternal, Observe

justice and act righteously, for my salvation is near." Finally

came Habakkuk, and he reduced the number to one

all-comprehensive precept (chap. ii. 4), "The just shall live by

faith." (See _Maccoth_, fol. 24, col. 1.)

 

The precept concerning fringes is as weighty as all the other precepts

put together; for it is written, says Rashi (Num. xv. 39), "And remember

all the commandments of the Lord." Now the numerical value of the word

"fringes" is six hundred, and this with eight threads and five knots

makes six hundred and thirteen.

 

_Shevuoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.

 

"For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem

and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the

whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and

the prophet," etc. (Isa. iii. 1, 2). By "the stay" is meant men mighty

in the scriptures, and by "the staff" men learned in the Mishna; such,

for instance, as Rabbi Yehudah ben Tima and his associates. Rav Pappa

and the Rabbis differed as to the Mishna; the former said there were six

hundred orders of the Mishna, and the latter that there were seven

hundred orders. "The whole stay of bread" means men distinguished in the

Talmud; for it is said, "Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine

which I have mingled" (Prov. ix. 5). And "the whole stay of water" means

men skillful in the Haggadoth, who draw out the heart of man like water

by means of a pretty story or legend, etc.

 

_Chaggigah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

 

There are seven hundred species of fish, eight hundred of locusts,

twenty-four of birds that are unclean, while the species of birds that

are clean cannot be numbered.

 

_Chullin_, fol. 63, col. 2.

 

"The same was Adino the Eznite," etc. (2 Sam. xxiii. 8). This mighty man

when studying the law was as pliant as a worm; but when engaged in war

he was as firm and unyielding as a tree; and when he discharged an arrow

he killed eight hundred men at one shot.

 

_Moed Katon_, fol. 16, col. 2.

 

"Ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land" (Deut. iv. 26). The

term soon uttered by the Lord of the Universe means eight hundred and

fifty-two years.

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 38, col. 1.

 

There are nine hundred and three sorts of deaths in the world; for the

__EXPRESSION__ occurs (Ps. lxviii. 20), "Issues of death." The numerical

value of "issues" is nine hundred and three. The hardest of all deaths

is by quinsy, and the easiest is the Divine kiss (of which Moses, Aaron,

and Miriam died). Quinsy is like the forcible extraction of prickly

thorns from wool, or like a thick rope drawn through a small aperture;

the kiss referred to is like the extracting of a hair from milk.

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

 

When Moses went up on high, the ministering angels asked, "What has one

born of a woman to do among us?" "He has come to receive the law," was

the Divine answer. "What!" they remonstrated again, "that cherished

treasure which has lain with Thee for nine hundred and seventy-four

generations before the world was created, art Thou about to bestow it

upon flesh and blood? What is mortal man 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," 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."

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 2.

 

Nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created

the law was written and deposited in the bosom of the Holy One--blessed

be He!--and sang praises with the ministering angels.

 

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 31.

 

If one is sick and at the point of death, he is expected to confess, for

all confess who are about to suffer the last penalty of the law. When a

man goes to the market place, let him consider himself as handed over to

the custody of the officers of judgment. If he has a headache, let him

deem himself fastened with a chain by the neck. If confined to his bed,

let him regard himself as mounting the steps to be judged; for when this

happens to him, he is saved from death only if he have competent

advocates, and these advocates are repentance and good works. And if

nine hundred and ninety-nine plead against him, and only one for him, he

is saved; as it is said (Job xxxiii. 23), "If there be an interceding

angel, one among a thousand to declare for man his uprightness, then He

is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit."

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 32, col. 1.

 

Rav Hunna says, "A quarrel is like a breach in the bank of a river; when

it is once made it grows wider and wider." A certain man used to go

about and say, "Blessed is he who submits to a reproach and is silent,

for a hundred evils depart from him." Shemuel said to Rav Yehuda, "It is

written in scripture (Prov. xvii. 14), 'The beginning of strife is as

when one letteth out water.'" Strife is the beginning of a hundred

lawsuits.

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

 

When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, she introduced to him a

thousand different kinds of musical instruments, and taught him the

chants to the various idols.

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 56, col. 2.

 

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!" "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.

 

_Eiruvin_, fol. 86, col. 1.

 

Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom inherited from his father a thousand towns and

a thousand ships, and yet he went about with a leather sack of flour at

his back, roaming from town to town and from province to province in

order to study the law. This great Rabbi never once set eye on his

immense patrimony, for he was engaged in the study of the law all day

and all night long. And so strange was he to his own servants, that

they, on one occasion, not knowing who he was, pressed him against his

will to do a day's work as a menial; and though he pleaded with them as

a suppliant to be left alone to pursue his studies in the law, they

refused, and swore, saying, "By the life of Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom,

our master, we will not let thee go till thy task is completed." He then

let himself be enforced rather than make himself known to them.

 

_Yoma_, fol. 35, col. 2.

 

The wife of Potiphar coaxed Joseph with loving words, but in vain. She

then threatened to immure him in prison, but he replied (anticipating

Ps. cxlvi. 7), "The Lord looseth the prisoners." Then she said, "I will

bow thee down with distress; I will blind thine eyes." He only answered

(_ibid._, ver. 8), "The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind and raiseth

them that are bowed down." She then tried to bribe him with a thousand

talents of silver if he would comply with her request, but in vain.

 

Ibid.

 

A Midrash tells us that Potiphar's wife not only falsely accused

Joseph herself, but that she also suborned several of her female

friends to do likewise. The Book of Jasher, which embodies the

Talmudic story quoted above, tells us that an infant in the

cradle spoke up and testified to Joseph's innocence, and that

while Joseph was in prison his inamorata daily visited him. More

on this topic may be found in the Koran, chap. xii. The amours

of Joseph and Zulieka, as told by the glib tongue of tradition,

fitly find their consummation in marriage, and certain Moslems

affect to see in all this an allegorical type of Divine love, an

allegory which some other divines find in the Song of Solomon.

 

The thickness of the earth is a thousand paces or ells.

 

_Succah_, fol. 53, col. 2.

 

The crust of the earth as far as the abyss is a thousand ells,

and the abyss under the earth is fifteen thousand. There is an

upper and a lower abyss mentioned in Taanith, fol. 25, col. 2.

Riddia, the angel who has the command of the waters, and resides

between the two abysses, says to the upper, "disperse thy

waters," and to the lower, "let thy waters flow up."

 

Many may ask after thy peace, but tell thy secret only to one of a

thousand.

 

_Yevamoth_, fol. 63, col. 2.

 

The Rabbis have taught that if the value of stolen property is a

thousand, and the thief is only worth, say, five hundred, he is to be

sold into slavery twice. But if the reverse, he is not to be sold at

all.

 

_Kiddushin_, fol. 18, col. 2.

 

The Behemoth upon a thousand hills (Ps. l. 10), God created them male

and female, but had they been allowed to propagate they would have

destroyed the whole world. What did He do? He castrated the male and

spayed the female, and then preserved them that they might serve for the

righteous at the Messianic banquet; as it is said (Job xl. 16), "His

strength is in his loins (i.e., the male), and his force in the navel of

his belly" (i.e., the female).

 

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 74, col. 2.

 

This provision for the coming Messianic banquet is considered of

sufficient importance to be mentioned year after year in the

service for the Day of Atonement and also at the Feast of

Tabernacles. The remark of D. Levi, that the feast here referred

to is to be understood allegorically, involves rather sweeping

consequences, as it is open to any one to annihilate many other

expectations on the same principle.

 

The Holy One--blessed be He!--will add to Jerusalem gardens extending to

a thousand times their numerical value, which equals one hundred and

sixty-nine, etc.

 

Ibid., fol. 75, col. 2.

 

"Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much" (2 Kings xxi. 16).

Here (in Babylon) it is interpreted to mean that he murdered Isaiah, but

in the West (i.e., in Palestine) they say that he made an image of the

weight of a thousand men, which was the number he massacred every day

(as Rashi says, by the heaviness of its weight).

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 103, col. 2.

 

See Josephus, Antiq., Book X. chap, iii., sec. 1, for

corroborative evidence. Tradition says that Manasseh caused

Isaiah to be sawn asunder with a wooden saw. (See also Yevamoth,

fol. 49, col. 2; Sanhedrin, fol. 103, col. 2.)

 

Nowhere in the Talmud do we find the name of the great image

here referred to. What if we christen it the "Juggernaut of the

Talmud"? May the tradition not be a prelusion or a reflex of

that man-crushing monster? Anyhow, scholars are aware of a

community of no inconsiderable extent between the conceptions

and legends of the Hindoos and the Rabbis. One notable contrast,

however, between this Juggernaut and that of the Hindoos is,

that whereas in both cases the innocent suffered for the guilty,

in the former that sacrifices were exacted to propitiate Satan,

while in the latter they were freely offered in supposed

propitiation of the gods.

 

The food consumed by Og, king of Bashan, consisted of a thousand oxen

and as many of all sorts of other beasts, and his drink consisted of a

thousand measures, etc.

 

_Sophrim_, chap. 21, mish. 9.

 

Solomon made ten candelabra for the Temple; for each he set aside a

thousand talents of gold, which he refined in a crucible until they were

reduced to the weight of one talent.

 

_Menachoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.

 

There was an organ in the Temple which produced a thousand kinds of

melody.

 

_Eirchin_, fol. 11 col. 1.

 

The Magrepha, with its ten pipes and its ten-times-ten various

notes (Eirchin, fol. 10, col. 2, and fol. 11, col. 1), which was

said to have been used in the Temple service, must have been an

instrument far superior to any organ in use at the time

elsewhere.

 

If from a town numbering fifteen hundred footmen, such, for example, as

the village of Accho, nine people be borne forth dead in the course of

three successive days, it is a sure sign of the presence of the plague;

but if this happen in one day or in four, then it is not the plague.

 

_Taanith_, fol. 21, col. 1.

 

Seventeen hundred of the arguments and minute rules of the Scribes were

forgotten during the days of mourning for Moses. Othniel, the son of

Kenaz, by his shrewd arguing restored them all as if they had never

lapsed from the memory.

 

_Temurah_, fol. 16, col. 1.

 

There was a great court at Jerusalem called Beth Yaazek, where all

witnesses (who could testify to the time of the appearance of the new

moon) used to assemble, and where they were examined by the authorities.

Grand feasts were prepared for them as an inducement to them to come

(and give in their testimony). Formerly they did not move from the place

they happened to be in when overtaken by the Sabbath, but Rabbon Gamliel

the elder ordained that they might in that case move two thousand cubits

either way.

 

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 21, col. 2.

 

He that is abroad (on the Sabbath) and does not know the limit of the

Sabbath day's journey may walk two thousand moderate paces, and that is

a Sabbath day's journey.

 

_Eiruvin_, fol. 42, col. 1.

 

Rabbon Gamliel had a hollow tube, through which, when he looked, he

could distinguish a distance of two thousand cubits, whether by land or

sea. By the same tube he could ascertain the depth of a valley or the

height of a palm tree.

 

Ibid., fol. 43, col. 2.

 

He who observes carefully the precepts respecting fringes will, as a

reward, have two thousand eight hundred slaves to wait upon him; for it

is said (Zech. viii. 23), "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days

it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages

of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew,

saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 32, col. 2.

 

Rashi's explanation of this matter is very simple. The merit of

the fringes lies in their being duly attached to "the four

quarters" or skirts of the garments (Deut. xxii. 12). There are

seventy nations in the whole world, and ten of each nation will

take hold of each corner of the garment, which gives 70 x 10 x 4

= 2800. Rabbi B'chai, commenting on Num. xv. 39, 40, repeats the

same story almost word for word.

 

This passage (Zech. viii. 23) has lately been construed by some

into a prophecy of the recent Berlin Congress, and the ten men

mentioned are found in the representatives of the contracting

parties, i.e., England, France, Germany, Turkey, Russia,

Austria, Italy, Greece, Roumania, and Servia.

 

Rav Hamnunah said, "What is it that is written (1 Kings iv. 32), 'And he

spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five'?"

It is intended to teach that Solomon uttered three thousand proverbs

upon each and every word of the law, and for every word of the Scribes

he assigned a thousand and five reasons.

 

_Eiruvin_, fol. 21, col. 2.

 

When Rabbi Eliezer was sick he was visited by Rabbi Akiva and his

party.... "Wherefore have ye come?" he asked. "To learn the law," was

the reply. "And why did you not come sooner?" "Because we had no

leisure," said they. "I shall be much surprised," said he, "if you die a

natural death." Then turning to Rabbi Akiva he said, "Thy death shall be

the worst of all." Then folding his arms upon his breast, he exclaimed:

"Woe unto my two arms! for they are like two scrolls of the law rolled

up, so that their contents are hidden. Had they waited upon me, they

might have added much to their knowledge of the law, but now that

knowledge will perish with me. I have in my time learned much and taught

much, and yet I have no more diminished the knowledge of my Rabbis by

what I have derived from them than the waters of the sea are reduced by

a dog lapping them. Over and above this I expounded three hundred," some

allege he said three thousand, "Halachahs with reference to the growing

of Egyptian cucumbers, and yet no one except Akiva ben Yoseph has ever

proposed a single question to me respecting them. He and I were walking

along the road one day when he asked me to instruct him regarding the

cultivation of Egyptian cucumbers. I made but one remark, when the

entire field became full of them. Then at his request I made a remark

about cutting them, when lo! they all collected themselves together in

one spot." Thus Rabbi Eliezer kept on talking, when all of a sudden he

fell back and expired.

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 68, col. 1.

 

The last words of this eminent Rabbi derive a tragic interest

from the fact that he died while under sentence of

excommunication.

 

Three thousand Halachoth were forgotten at the time of mourning for

Moses, and among them the Halachah respecting an animal intended for a

sin-offering the owner of which died before sacrificing it.

 

_Temurah_, fol. 16, col. 1.

 

All the prophets were rich men. This we infer from the account of Moses,

Samuel, Amos, and Jonah. Of Moses, as it is written (Num. xvi. 15), "I

have not taken one ass from them." Of Samuel, as it is written (1 Sam.

xii. 3), "Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, and

before His anointed, whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken?"

Of Amos, as it is written (Amos vii. 14), "I was an herdsman and a

gatherer of sycamore fruit," i.e., I am proprietor of my herds and own

sycamores in the valley. Of Jonah, as it is written (Jonah i. 3), "So he

paid the fare thereof and went down into it." Rabbi Yochanan says he

hired the whole ship. Rabbi Rumanus says the hire of the ship amounted

to four thousand golden denarii.

 

_Nedarim_, fol. 38, col. 1.

 

Four thousand two hundred and thirty-one years after the creation of the

world, if any one offers thee for one single denarius a field worth a

thousand denarii, do not buy it.

 

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 2.

 

Rashi gives this as the reason of the prohibition: For then the

restoration of the Jews to their own land will take place, so

that the denarius paid for a field in a foreign land would be

money thrown away.

 

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 He may have mercy upon you.'"

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 97, col. 2.

 

It is related of Rabbi Tarphon (probably the Tryphon of polemic fame)

that he was very rich, but gave nothing to the poor. Once Rabbi Akiva

met him and said, "Rabbi, dost thou wish me to purchase for thee a town

or two?" "I do," said he, and at once gave him four thousand gold

denarii. Rabbi Akiva took this sum and distributed it among the poor.

Some time after Rabbi Tarphon met Rabbi Akiva and said, "Where are the

towns thou purchasedst for me?" The latter seized hold of him by the arm

and led him to the Beth Hamedrash, where, taking-up a psalter, they read

together till they came to this verse, "He hath dispersed, he hath given

to the poor, his righteousness endureth forever" (Ps. cxii. 9). Here

Rabbi Akiva paused and said, "This is the place I purchased for thee,"

and Rabbi Tarphon saluted him with a kiss.