Hebraic Literature 26

Hebraic Literature 26

Tract. Callah._

 

The Pentateuch contains five thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight

verses. The Psalms have eight verses more than, and the Chronicles eight

verses short of, that number.

 

_Kiddushin_, fol. 30, col. 1.

 

The number of verses in the Pentateuch is usually stated at

5845, the mnemonic sign of which is a word in Isaiah xxx. 26,

the letters of which stand for 5845. The verse reads, "Moreover,

the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun." The

Masorites tell us that the number of verses in the Psalms is

2527, and in the two Books of Chronicles 1656.

 

The world is to last six thousand years. Two thousand of these are

termed the period of disorder, two thousand belong to the dispensation

of the law, and two thousand are the days of the Messiah; but because of

our iniquities a large fraction of the latter term is already passed and

gone without the Messiah giving any sign of His appearing.

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 97, col. 1.

 

As the land of Canaan had one year of release in seven, so has the world

one millennium of release in seven thousand years; for it is said (Isa.

ii. 17), "And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day;" and again

(Ps. xcii. 1), "A psalm or song for the Sabbath day," which means a long

Sabbatic period; and again (Ps. xc. 4), "For a thousand years in Thy

sight are but as the day of yesterday."

 

Ibid.

 

Tradition records that the ladder (mentioned Gen. xxviii. 12) was eight

thousand miles wide, for it is written, "And behold the angels of God

ascending and descending upon it." Angels ascending, being in the

plural, cannot be fewer than two at a time, and so likewise must those

descending, so that when they passed they were four abreast at least. In

Daniel x. 6 it is said of the angel, "His body was like Tarshish," and

there is a story that Tarshish extended two thousand miles.

 

_Chullin_, fol. 91, col. 2.

 

The tithes from the herds of Elazer ben Azaryah amounted to twelve

thousand calves annually.

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 54, col. 2.

 

It is said that Rabbi Akiva had twelve thousand pairs of disciples

dispersed about between Gabbath and Antipatris, and all of them died

within a short period because they paid no honor to one another. The

land was then desolate until Rabbi Akiva came among our Rabbis of the

south and taught the law to Rabbis Meir, Yehudah, Yossi, Shimon, and

Elazer ben Shamua, who re-established its authority.

 

_Yevamoth_, fol. 26, col. 2.

 

After a lapse of twelve years, he returned accompanied by twelve

thousand disciples, etc.

 

Ravah bar Nachmaini was impeached for depriving the revenue of the

poll-tax on twelve thousand Jews, by detaining them annually at his

academy for one month in the spring, and for another month in the

autumn; for great multitudes from various parts of the country were

wont, at the two seasons of the Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles,

to come to hear him preach, so that when the king's officers came to

collect the taxes they found none of them at home. A royal messenger was

accordingly despatched to apprehend him, but he failed to find him, for

the Rabbi fled to Pumbeditha, and from thence to Akra, to Agmi, Sichin,

Zeripha, Ein d'Maya, and back again to Pumbeditha. Arrived at this

place, both the royal messenger and the fugitive Rabbi happened to put

up at the same inn. Two cups were placed before the former on a table,

when, strange to say, after he had drunk and the table was removed, his

face was forcibly turned round to his back. (This was done by evil

spirits because he drank even numbers--against which we are earnestly

warned in _P'sachim_, fol. 110, col. 1.) The inn-keeper, fearing the

consequences of such a misfortune happening to so high an official at

his inn, sought advice of the lurking Rabbi, when the latter suggested

that the table be placed again before him with one cup only on it, and

thus the even number would become odd, and his face would return to its

natural position. They did so, and it was as the Rabbi had said. The

official then remarked to his host, "I know the man I want is here," and

he hastened and found him. "If I knew for certain," he said to the

Rabbi, "that thy escape would cost my life only, I would let thee go,

but I fear bodily torture, and therefore I must secure thee." And

thereupon he locked him up. Upon this the Rabbi prayed, till the prison

walls miraculously giving way he made his escape to Agma, where he

seated himself at the root of a tree and gave himself up to meditation.

While thus engaged he all at once heard a discussion in the academy of

heaven on the subject of the hair mentioned in Lev. xiii. 25. The Holy

One--blessed be He!--declared the case to be "clean," but the whole

academy were of a different opinion, and declared the case to be

"unclean." The question then arose, "Who shall decide?" "Ravah bar

Nachmaini shall decide," was the unanimous reply, "for he said, 'I am

one in matters of leprosy; I am one in questions about tents; and there

is none to equal me.'" Then the angel of death was sent for to bring him

up, but he was unable to approach him, because the Rabbi's lips never

ceased repeating the law of the Lord. The angel of death thereupon

assumed the appearance of a troop of cavalry, and the Rabbi,

apprehensive of being seized and carried off, exclaimed, "I would rather

die through that one (meaning the angel of death) than be delivered into

the hands of the Government!" At that very instant he was asked to

decide the question in dispute, and just as the verdict "clean" issued

from his lips his soul departed from his body, and a voice was heard

from heaven proclaiming, "Blessed art thou, Ravah bar Nachmaini, for thy

body is clean. 'Clean' was the word on thy lips when thy spirit

departed." Then a scroll fell down from heaven into Pumbeditha

announcing that Ravah bar Nachmaini was admitted into the academy of

heaven. Apprised of this, Abaii, in company with many other Rabbis, went

in search of the body to inter it, but not knowing the spot where he

lay, they went to Agma, where they noticed a great number of birds

hovering in the air, and concluded that the shadow of their wings

shielded the body of the departed. There, accordingly, they found and

buried him; and after mourning three days and three nights over his

grave, they arose to depart, when another scroll descended threatening

them with excommunication if they did so. They therefore continued

mourning for seven days and seven nights, when, at the end of these, a

third scroll descended and bade them go home in peace. On the day of the

death of this Rabbi there arose, it is said, such a mighty tempest in

the air that an Arab merchant and the camel on which he was riding were

blown bodily over from one side of the river Pappa to the other. "What

meaneth such a storm as this?" cried the merchant, as he lay on the

ground. A voice from heaven answered, "Ravah bar Nachmaini is dead."

Then he prayed and fled, "Lord of the universe, the whole world is

Thine, and Ravah bar Nachmaini is Thine! Thou art Ravah's and Ravah is

Thine; but wherefore wilt Thou destroy the world?" On this the storm

immediately abated, and there was a perfect calm.

 

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 86, col. 1.

 

The above seems to be a Rabbinical satire on the Talmud itself

although the orthodox Jews believe that every word in it is

historically true. Well, perhaps it is so; and we outsiders are

ignorant, and without the means of judging.

 

Now we know what God does during the day, but how does He occupy Himself

in the night-time? We may say He does the same as at day-time; or that

during the night He rides on a swift cherub over eighteen thousand

worlds; as it is said (Ps. lxviii. 17), "The chariots of God are twenty

thousand," less two thousand Shinan; read not Shinan but She-einan,

i.e., two thousand less than twenty thousand, therefore eighteen

thousand.

 

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 3. col. 2.

 

Prince Contrukos asked Rabbon Yochanan ben Zacchai how, when the

detailed enumeration of the Levites amounted to twenty-two thousand

three hundred (the Gershonites, 7500; the Kohathites, 8600; the

Merarites, 6200, making in all 22,300), the sum total given is only

twenty-two thousand, omitting the three hundred. "Was Moses, your

Rabbi," he asked, "a cheat or a bad calculator?" He answered, "They were

first-borns, and therefore could not be substitutes for the first-born

of Israel."

 

_Bechoroth_, fol. 5, col. 1.

 

"And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death" (2 Chron.

xxxii. 33). This is Hezekiah, king of Judah, at whose funeral thirty-six

thousand people attended bare-shouldered, ... and upon his bier was laid

a roll of the law, and it was said, "This man has fulfilled what is

written in this book."

 

_Bava Kama_, fol. 17, col. 1.

 

Sennacherib the wicked invaded Jewry with forty-five thousand princes in

golden coronets, and they had with them their wives and odalisques; also

eighty thousand mighty men clad in mail and sixty thousand swordsmen ran

before him, and the rest were cavalry. With a similar army they came

against Abraham, and a like force is to come up with Gog and Magog. A

tradition teaches that the extent of his camp was four hundred parsaes

or leagues, the extent of the horses' necks were forty parsaes. The

total muster of his army was two hundred and sixty myriads of thousands,

less one. Abaii asked, "Less one myriad, or one thousand, or one

hundred? or more literally less one?"

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 95, col. 2.

 

In the immediate context of the above extract we have the following

legend concerning Sennacherib:--As Rabbi Abhu has said, "Were it not for

this scripture text it would be impossible to repeat what is written

(Isa. vii. 20), 'In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that

is hired, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head and

the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.'" The story

is this:--The Holy One--blessed be He!--once disguised Himself as an

elderly man and came to Sennacherib, and said, "When thou comest to the

kings of the East and of the West, to force their sons into thine army,

what wilt thou say unto them?" He replied, "On that very account I am in

fear. What shall I do?" God answered him, "Go and disguise thyself."

"How can I disguise myself?" said he. God replied, "Go and fetch me a

pair of scissors and I will cut thy hair." Sennacherib asked, "Whence

shall I fetch them?" "Go to yonder house and bring them." He went

accordingly and observed a pair, but there he met the ministering angels

disguised as men, grinding date-stones. He asked them for the scissors,

but they said "Grind thou first a measure of date-stones, and then thou

shalt have the scissors." He did as he was told, and so obtained the

scissors. It was dark before he returned, and God said unto him, "Go and

fetch some fire." This also he did, but while blowing the embers his

beard was singed. Upon which God came and shaved his head and his beard,

and said, "This is it which is written (Isa. vii. 20), 'It shall also

consume the beard.'" Rav Pappa says this is the proverb current among

the people, "Singe the face of a Syrian, and, if it pleases him, also

set his beard in fire, and thou wilt not be able to laugh enough."

 

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 95, col. 2, and fol. 96, col. 1.

 

"He hath cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel," etc. (Lam.

ii. 3). These are the eighty thousand war-horns or battering-rams that

entered the city of Byther, in which he massacred so many men, women,

and children, that their blood ran like a river and flowed into the

Mediterranean Sea, which was a mile away from the place.

 

_Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 1.

 

That mule had a label attached to his neck on which it was stated that

its breeding cost a hundred thousand zouzim.

 

_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 2.

 

Rabbi Yossi said, "I have seen Sepphoris (Cyprus) in the days of its

prosperity, and there were in it a hundred and eighty thousand marts for

sauces."

 

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 75, col. 2.

 

Rav Assi said three hundred thousand swordsmen went up to the Royal

Mount and there slaughtered the people for three days and three nights,

and yet while on the one side of the mount they were mourning, on the

other they were merry; those on the one side did not know the affairs of

those on the other.

 

_Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 1.

 

A certain disciple prayed before Rabbi Chanina, and said, "O God! who

art great, mighty, formidable, magnificent, strong, terrible, valiant,

powerful, real and honored!" He waited until he had finished, and then

said to him, "Hast thou ended all the praises of thy God? Need we

enumerate so many? As for us, even the three terms of praise which we

usually repeat, we should not dare to utter had not Moses, our master,

pronounced them in the law (Deut. x. 17), and had not the men of the

Great Synagogue ordained them for prayer; and yet thou hast repeated so

many and still seemest inclined to go on. It is as if one were to

compliment a king because of his silver, who is master of a thousand

thousands of gold denarii. Wouldst thou think that becoming?"

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 33, col. 2.

 

Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma relates, "I once met a man in my travels and we

saluted one another. In reply to a question of his I said, 'I am from a

great city of sages and scribes.' Upon this he offered me a thousand

thousand golden denarii, and precious stones and pearls, if I would

agree to go and dwell in his native place. But I replied, saying, 'If

thou wert to give me all the gold and silver, all the precious stones

and pearls in the world, I would not reside anywhere else than in the

place where the law is studied.'"

 

_Avoth_, chap. 6.

 

Thousands on thousands in Israel were named after Aaron; for had it not

been for Aaron these thousands of thousands would not have been born.

Aaron went about making peace between quarreling couples, and those who

were born after the reconciliation were regularly named after him.

 

_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 12.

 

It is related by the Rabbis that Rabbon Yochanan ben Zacchai was once

riding out of Jerusalem accompanied by his disciples, when he saw a

young woman picking barley out of the dung on the road. On his asking

her name, she told him that she was the daughter of Nikodemon ben

Gorion. "What has become of thy father's riches?" said he, "and what has

become of thy dowry?" "Dost thou not remember," said she, "that charity

is the salt of riches?" (Her father had not been noted for this virtue.)

"Dost thou not remember signing my marriage contract?" said the woman.

"Yes," said the Rabbi, "I well remember it. It stipulated for a million

gold denarii from thy father, besides the allowance from thy husband,"

etc.

 

_Kethuboth_, fol. 66, col. 2.

 

Abba Benjamin says, "If our eye were permitted to see the malignant

sprites that beset us, we could not rest on account of them." Abaii has

said, "They out-number us, they surround us as the earthed-up soil on

our garden-beds." Rav Hunna says, "Every one has a thousand at his left

side and ten thousand at his right" (Ps. xci. 7). Rava adds, "The

crowding at the schools is caused by their pushing in; they cause the

weariness which the Rabbis experience in their knees, and even tear

their clothes by hustling against them. If one would discover traces of

their presence, let him sift some ashes upon the floor at his bedside,

and next morning he will see, as it were, the footmarks of fowls on the

surface. But if one would see the demons themselves, he must burn to

ashes the after-birth of a first-born black kitten, the offspring of a

first-born black cat, and then put a little of the ashes into his eyes,

and he will not fail to see them," etc., etc.

 

_Berachoth_, fol. 6, col. 1.

 

In each camp there are suspended three hundred and sixty-five myriads of

stars, etc.

 

Agrippa, being anxious to ascertain the number of the male population of

Israel, instructed the priest to take accurate note of the Paschal

lambs. On taking account of the kidneys, it was found that there were

sixty myriad couples (which indicated) double the number of those that

came up out of Egypt, not reckoning those that were ceremonially unclean

and those that were out traveling. There was not a Paschal lamb in which

less than ten had a share, so that the number represented over six

hundred myriads of men.

 

_P'sachim_, fol. 64, col. 2.

 

"It is unlawful to enumerate Israel even with a view to a

meritorious deed" (_Yoma_, fol. 22, col. 2). From Rashi's

comment on the former text it seems that the priest merely held

up the duplicate kidneys, upon which the king's agent regularly

laid aside a pea or a pebble into a small heap, which were

afterwards counted up. See also Josephus, Book VI. chap. ix.

sec. 3.

 

It might not be amiss to remind the reader in passing that if

one were to reckon one hundred per minute for ten hours a day,

it would take no less than sixteen days six hours forty minutes

to count a million; and that it would take twenty men, reckoning

at the same rate, to sum up the total number stated in the text

in one day, so as to ascertain that there were 1,200,000

sacrifices at the Passover under notice, representing no less

than 12,000,000 celebrants.

 

At the time when Israel in their eagerness first said, "We will do," and

then, "We will hear" (Exod. xxix. 7), there came sixty myriads of

ministering angels to crown each Israelite with two crowns, one for "we

will do" and one for "we will hear." But when after this Israel sinned,

there came down a hundred and twenty myriads of destroying angels and

took the crowns away from them, as it is said (Exod. xxxiii. 6), "And

the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount

Horeb." Resh Lakish says, "The Holy One--blessed be He!--will, in the

future, return them to us; for it is said (Isa. xxxv. 10), 'The ransomed

of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy

upon their heads,' i.e., the joy they had in days of yore, upon their

heads."

 

_Shabbath_, fol. 88, col. 1.

 

Let no one venture out alone at night-time on Wednesdays and Saturdays,

for Agrath, the daughter of Machloth, roams about accompanied by

eighteen myriads of evil genii, each one of which has power to destroy.

 

_P'sachim_, fol. 112, col. 2.

 

It is related of Rabbi Elazar ben Charsom that his mother made him a

shirt which cost two myriads of manahs, but his fellow-priests would not

allow him to wear it, because he appeared in it as though he were naked.

 

_Yoma_, fol. 35, col. 2.

 

He who has not seen the double gallery of the Synagogue in Alexandria of

Egypt, has not seen the glory of Israel.... There were seventy-one seats

arranged in it according to the number of the seventy-one members of the

greater Sanhedrin, each seat of no less value than twenty-one myriads of

golden talents. A wooden pulpit was in the centre, upon which stood the

reader holding a Sudarium (a kind of flag) in his hand, which he waved

when the vast congregation were required to say Amen at the end of any

benediction, which, of course, it was impossible for all to hear in so

stupendous a synagogue. The congregation did not sit promiscuously, but

in guilds; goldsmiths apart, silversmiths apart, blacksmiths,

coppersmiths, embroiderers, weavers, etc., all apart from each other.

When a poor craftsman came in, he took his seat among the people of his

guild, who maintained him till he found employment. Abaii says all this

immense population was massacred by Alexander of Macedon. Why were they

thus punished? Because they transgressed the scripture, which says

(Deut. xvii. 16), "Ye shall henceforth return no more that way."

 

_Succah_, fol. 51, col. 2.

 

The Rabbis teach that during a prosperous year in the land of Israel, a

place sown with a measure of seed produces five myriad cors (a cor being

equal to thirty measures).

 

_Kethuboth_, fol. 112, col. 1.

 

Rav Ulla was once asked, "To what extent is one bound to honor his

father and mother?" To which he replied, "See what a Gentile of Askelon

once did, Dammah ben Nethina by name. The sages one day required goods

to the value of sixty myriads, for which they were ready to pay the

price, but the key of the store-room happened to be under the pillow of

his father, who was fast asleep, and Dammah would not disturb him."

Rabbi Eliezer was once asked the same question, and he gave the same

answer, adding an interesting fact to the illustration: "The sages were

seeking after precious stones for the high priest's breastplate, to the

value of some sixty or eighty myriads of golden denarii, but the key of

the jewel-chest happened to be under the pillow of his father, who was

asleep at the time, and he would not wake him. In the following year,

however, the Holy One--blessed be He!--rewarded him with the birth of a

red heifer among his herds, for which the sages readily paid him such a

sum as compensated him fully for the loss he sustained in honoring his

parent."

 

_Kiddushin_, fol. 31, col. 1.

 

"The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob" (Lam. ii. 2).

Ravin came to Babylon and said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, "These are

the sixty myriads of cities which King Yannai (Jannnæus) possessed on

the royal mount. The population of each equalled the number that went up

out of Egypt, except that of three cities in which that number was

doubled. And these three cities were Caphar Bish (literally, the village

of evil), so called because there was no hospice for the reception of

strangers therein; Caphar Shichlaiim (village of water-cresses), so

called because it was chiefly on that herb that the people subsisted;

Caphar Dichraya (the village of male children), so called, says Rabbi

Yochanan, because its women first gave birth to boys, and afterward to

girls, and then left off bearing." Ulla said, "I have seen that place,

and am sure that it could not hold sixty myriads of sticks." A Sadducee

upon this said to Rabbi Chanina, "Ye do not speak the truth." The

response was, "It is written (Jer. iii. 19), 'The inheritance of a

deer,' as the skin of a deer, unoccupied by the body of the animal,

shrinks, so also the land of Israel, unoccupied by its rightful owners, became contracted."