Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 32

If a bath contain forty measures of water and some mud, people may, according to Rabbi Elazar, immerse themselves in the water of it, but not in the mud; while Rabbi Yehoshua says they may do so in both.

_Mikvaoth_, chap. ii. 10.

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav:--The Divine name, which consists of forty-two letters, is revealed only to him who is prudent and meek, who has reached the meridian of life, is not p.r.o.ne to wrath, not given to drink, and not revengeful. He that knows that name, and acts circ.u.mspectly in regard to it, and retains it sacredly, is beloved in heaven and esteemed on earth; He inspires men with reverence, and is heir both to the world that now is and that which is to come.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 71, col. 1.

A man should always devote himself to the study of the law and to the practice of good deeds, even if he does not do so for their own sake, as self-satisfied performance may follow in due course. Thus, in recompense for the forty-two sacrifices he offered, Balak was accounted worthy to become the ancestor of Ruth. Rav Yossi bar Hunna has said, Ruth was the daughter of Eglon, the grandson of Balak, king of Moab.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 105, col. 2.

These are the forty-five righteous men for whose sake the world is preserved.

_Chullin_, fol. 92, col. 1.

Rabbi Meir had a disciple named Sumchus, who in every case a.s.signed forty-eight reasons why one thing should be called clean and why another should be called unclean, though Scripture declared the contrary. (A striking ill.u.s.tration of Rabbinical ingenuity!)

_Eiruvin_, fol. 13, col. 2.

Forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses prophesied unto Israel, and they have neither diminished nor added to that which is written in the law, except the reading of the Book of Esther.

_Megillah_, fol. 14, col. 1.

The Rabbis teach that in future (in the days of the Messiah) all Scripture will be abolished except the Book of Esther, also all festivals except the feast of Purim. (See _Menorath Hamaor_, fol. 135, col. 1.)

By forty-eight things the law is acquired. These are study, attention, careful conversation, mental discernment, solicitude, reverential fear, meekness, geniality of soul, purity, attention to the wise, mutual discussion, debating, sedateness, learning in the Scripture and the Mishna, not dabbling in commerce, self-denial, moderation in sleep, aversion to gossip, etc., etc.

_Avoth_, chap. 6.

When G.o.d gave the law to Moses, He a.s.signed forty-nine reasons in every case for p.r.o.nouncing one thing unclean and as many for p.r.o.nouncing other things clean.

_Sophrim_, chap. 16, mish. 6.

He that has fifty zouzim, and trades therewith, may not glean what is left in the corner of the field (Lev. xix. 9). He that takes it, and has no right to it, will come to want before the day of his departure. And if one who is ent.i.tled to it leaves it to others more needy, before he dies he will not only be able to support himself, but be a stay to others.

_Peah_, chap. 8, mish. 9.

Fifty measures of understanding were created in the world, and all except one were given to Moses; as it is said (Ps. viii. 5), "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 21, col, 2.

Poverty in a house is harder to bear than fifty plagues.

_Bava Bathra_, fol 116, col. 1.

The above saying is based on Job xix. 21, compared with Exod.

viii. 19.

For fifty-two years no man traveled through the land of Judea.

_Yoma_. fol. 54, col. 1.

Black c.u.mmin is one of the sixty deadly drugs.

_Berachoth_, fol. 40, col. 1.

Ulla and Rav Chasda were once traveling together, when they came up to the gate of the house of Rav Chena bar Chenelai. At sight of it Rav Chasda stooped and sighed. "Why sighest thou?" asked Ulla, "seeing, as Rav says, sighing breaks the body in halves; for it is said (Ezek. xxi.

6), 'sigh, therefore, O son of man, with the breaking of thy loins;' and Rabbi Yochanan says a sigh breaks up the whole const.i.tution; for it is said (Ezek. xxi. 7), 'And it shall be when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings because it cometh, and the whole heart shall melt,'" etc. To this Rav Chasda replied, "How can I help sighing over this house, where sixty bakers used to be employed during the day, and sixty during the night, to make bread for the poor and needy; and Rav Chena had his hand always at his purse, for he thought the slightest hesitation might cause a poor but respectable man to blush; and besides he kept four doors open, one to each quarter of the heavens, so that all might enter and be satisfied? Over and above this, in time of famine he scattered wheat and barley abroad, so that they who were ashamed to gather by day might do so by night; but now this house has fallen into ruin, and ought I not to sigh?"

Ibid., fol. 58, col. 2.

Egypt is a sixtieth of Ethiopia, Ethiopia a sixtieth of the world, the world is a sixtieth part of the garden of Eden, the garden itself is but a sixtieth of Eden, and Eden a sixtieth of Gehenna. Hence the world in proportion to Gehenna is but as the lid to a caldron.

_P'sachim_, fol. 94, col. 1.

They led forth Metatron and struck him sixty bastinadoes with a cudgel of fire.

_Chaggigah_, fol. 15, col. 1.

In the context of the foregoing quotation occurs an anecdote of Rabbi Elisha ben Abuyah which is too racy to let pa.s.s, and too characteristic to need note or comment. One day Elisha ben Abuyah was privileged to pry into Paradise, where he saw the recording angel Metatron on a seat registering the merits of the holy of Israel. Struck with astonishment at the sight, he exclaimed, "Is it not laid down that there is no sitting in heaven, no shortsightedness or fatigue?" Then Metatron, thus discovered, was ordered out and flogged with sixty lashes from a fiery scourge. Smarting with pain, the angel asked and obtained leave to cancel the merits of the prying Rabbi. One day--it chanced to be on Yom Kippur and Sabbath--as Elisha was riding along by the wall where the Holy of Holies once stood, he heard a Bath Kol proclaiming, "Return, ye backsliding children, but Acher abide thou in thy sin" (Acher was the Rabbi's nickname). A faithful disciple of his hearing this, and bent on reclaiming and reforming him, invited him to go and hear the lads of a school close by repeat their lessons. The Rabbi went, and from that to another and another, until he had gone the round of a dozen seminaries, in the last of which he called up a lad to repeat a verse who had an impediment in his speech. The verse happened to be Ps. l. 16, "But unto the wicked, G.o.d saith, Why dost thou declare my law?" Acher fancied the boy said, and to Elisha (his own name), instead of and to Rasha, that is, the wicked. This roused the Rabbi into such fury of pa.s.sion, that he sprang to his feet, exclaiming, "If I only had a knife at hand I would cut this boy into a dozen pieces, and send a piece to each school I have visited!"

A woman of sixty runs after music like a girl of six.

_Moed Katon_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Rabba, who only studied the law, lived forty years; Abaii, who both studied the law and exercised benevolence, lived sixty.

_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

The manna which came down upon Israel was sixty ells deep.

_Yoma_, fol. 76, col. 1.

It is not right for a man to sleep in the daytime any longer than a horse sleeps. And how long is the sleep of a horse? Sixty respirations.

_Succah_, fol. 26, col. 2.

Abaii says, "When I left Rabbah, I was not at all hungry; but when I arrived at Meree, they served up before me sixty dishes, with as many sorts of viands, and I ate half of each, but as for hotch-potch, which the last dish contained, I ate up all of it, and would fain have eaten up the dish too." Abaii said, "This ill.u.s.trates the proverb, current among the people, 'The poor man is hungry, and does not know when he has eaten enough; or, there is always room for a t.i.t-bit.'"

_Meggillah_, fol. 7, col. 2.

There are sixty kinds of wine; the best of all is the red aromatic wine, and bad white wine is the worst.

_Gittin_, fol. 70, col. 1.

Samson's shoulders were sixty ells broad.

_Soteh_, fol. 10, col. 1.