Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 44

_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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 subst.i.tutes for the first-born of Israel."

_Bechoroth_, fol. 5, col. 1.

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

x.x.xii. 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 a.s.syria, 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?" G.o.d answered him, "Go and disguise thyself."

"How can I disguise myself?" said he. G.o.d 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 G.o.d said unto him, "Go and fetch some fire." This also he did, but while blowing the embers his beard was singed. Upon which G.o.d 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 ma.s.sacred 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 a.s.si 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 G.o.d! 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 G.o.d? 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, p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.sing 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 Pa.s.sover 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. x.x.xiii. 6), "And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount h.o.r.eb." Resh Lakish says, "The Holy One--blessed be He!--will, in the future, return them to us; for it is said (Isa. x.x.xv. 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 Sat.u.r.days, 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 ma.s.sacred 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 ill.u.s.tration: "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."