Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 46

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 36.

See also the previous quotation from the Midrash Rabbah. The Targum of Jonathan and also the Yerushalmi record the same fantastic tradition. In the latter it is given thus, "And Esau ran to meet him, and hugged him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him. Esau wept for the crushing of his teeth, and Jacob wept for the tenderness of his neck."

Abraham made a covenant with the people of the land, and when the angels presented themselves to him, he thought they were mere wayfarers, and he ran to meet them, purposing to make a banquet for them. This banquet he told Sarah to get prepared, just as she was kneading cakes. For this reason he did not offer them the cakes which she had made, but "ran to fetch a calf, tender and good." The calf in trepidation ran away from him and hid itself in the cave of Machpelah, into which he followed it.

Here he found Adam and Eve fast asleep, with lamps burning over their couches, and the place pervaded with a sweet-smelling odor. Hence the fancy he took to the cave of Machpelah for a "possession of a burying-place."

Ibid.

Shechem, the son of Hamor, a.s.sembled girls together playing on tambourines outside the tent of Dinah, and when she "went out to see them," he carried her off, ... and she bare him Osenath. The sons of Jacob wished to kill her, lest the people of the land should begin to talk scandal of the house of their father. Jacob, however, engraved the holy Name on a metal plate, suspended it upon her neck, and sent her away. All this being observed before the Holy One--blessed be He!--the angel Michael was sent down, who led her to Egypt, into the house of Potipherah; for Osenath was worthy to become the wife of Joseph.

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 48.

In Yalkut Yehoshua 9, Osenath is styled a proselyte; and indeed it might seem likely enough that Joseph induced her to worship the true G.o.d. The Targum of Jonathan agrees with the version of the Midrash above, while another tradition makes Joseph marry Zuleika, the virgin widow of Potiphar, and says that she was the same woman that is called Osenath (_Koran_, note to p. 193).

When Joseph's brethren recognized him, and were about to kill him, an angel came down and dispersed them to the four corners of the house.

Then Judah screamed with such a loud voice that all the walls of Egypt were leveled with the dust, all the beasts were smitten to the ground, and Joseph and Pharaoh, their teeth having fallen out, were cast down from their thrones; while all the men that stood before Joseph had their heads twisted round with their faces toward their backs, and so they remained till the day of their death; as it is said (Job iv. 10), "The roaring of the lion (Judah), and the voice of the fierce lion," etc.

_Vayegash_, chap. 5.

The tradition of a legend in our possession says that Judah killed Esau.

When? When Isaac died, Jacob and (the chiefs of) the twelve clans went to bury him; as it is written (Gen. x.x.xv. 29), "And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." In the Midrash it is, "And Esau and Jacob and his sons buried him," which fits the legend better. Arrived at the cave, they entered it, and they stood and wept. The (heads of the) tribes, out of respect to Jacob, left the cave, that Jacob might not be put to shame in their presence. Judah re-entered it, and finding Esau risen up as if about to murder Jacob, he instantly went behind him and killed him. But why did he not kill him from the front? Because the physiognomy of Esau was exactly like that of Jacob, and it was out of respect to the latter that he slew Esau from behind.

_Midrash Shochar Tov_, chap. 18.

Tradition varies respecting the tragic end of Esau. The Book of Jasher (chap. 56, v. 64) and the Targum of Jonathan (in Vayechi) both say that Cushim the son of Dan slew Esau at the burial, not of Isaac, but of Jacob, because he sought to hinder the funeral obsequies, disputing the t.i.tle to the sepulchre.

"Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away, and be at rest" (Ps. lv. 6). This is spoken of Abraham. But why like a dove? Rabbi Azariah, in the name of Rabbi Yudan, says, "Because all birds when tired rest on a rock or on a tree, but a dove, when tired of flying, draws in one wing to rest it, and continues her flight with the other."

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 39.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto Abraham, "What should I tell thee? and with what shall I bless thee? Shall I tell thee to be perfectly righteous, or that thy wife Sarah be righteous before me? That ye both are already. Or shall I say that thy children shall be righteous? They are so already. But I will bless thee so that all thy children which shall in future ages come forth from thee shall be just like thee." Whence do we learn this? From Gen xv. 5: "And he said unto him, So (like thee) shall thy seed be."

_Bamidbar Rabbah_, chap. 2.

"Every man ... by his own standard" (Num. ii. 2). The several princes of Israel selected the colors for their banners from the color of the stones that were upon the breastplate of Aaron. From them other princes have learned to adorn their standards with different distinguishing colors. Reuben had his flag red, and leaves of mandrakes upon it.

Issachar had his flag blue, and the sun and moon upon it. Naphtali had on his flag an olive tree, for this reason that (Gen. xlix. 20) "Out of Asher his bread shall be fat."

Ibid., chap. 7.

"And Abraham rose up early and saddled his a.s.s" (Gen. xxii. 3). This is the a.s.s on which Moses also rode when he came into Egypt; for it is said (Exod. iv. 20), "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an a.s.s." This is the a.s.s on which the Son of David also shall ride; as it is said (Zech, ix. 9), "Poor, and riding upon an a.s.s."

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 31.

In the morning service for Yom Kippur, there is an allusion to the Scripture pa.s.sage with which our quotation opens. It is said that Abraham in "his great joy perverted the usual order," which a footnote explains thus--"In the greatness of his joy, that he had thus an opportunity of showing his obedience to G.o.d, he set aside the usual order of things, which was that the servant should saddle the a.s.s, and saddled the a.s.s himself, as mentioned Gen. xxii. 3." The animal referred to in the above remarks is spoken of in Sanhedrin, fol. 98, col. 1, as being of a hundred colors.

When Joseph saw the signs of Judah's anger, he began to tremble, and said (to himself), "Woe is me, for he may kill me!" And what were these signs? Tears of blood rolling down from Judah's right eye, and the hair that grew on his chest rising and penetrating through the five garments that he wore. Joseph then kicked the marble seat on which he was sitting, so that it was instantly shattered into fragments. Upon this Judah observed, "He is a mighty man, like one of us."

_Yalkut Vayegash._

Abraham married three wives--Sarah, a daughter of Shem; Keturah, a daughter of j.a.pheth; and Hagar, a daughter of Ham.

_Yalkut, Job_, chap. 8.

Rashi supposes that Keturah was one and the same with Hagar--so the Midrash, the Targum Yerushalmi, and that of Jonathan. The latter says, "Keturah, she is Hagar, who had been bound to him from the beginning," but Aben Ezra and most of the commentators contend that Keturah and Hagar are two distinct persons, and the use of the plural concubines, in verse 6, bears them out in this a.s.sertion.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--daily proclaims a new law in the heavenly court, and even all these were known to Abraham.

Ibid., chap. 37.

A Gentile once asked Rabbi Yoshua ben Kapara, "Is it true that ye say your G.o.d sees the future?" "Yes," was the reply. "Then how is it that it is written (Gen. vi. 6), 'And it grieved Him at His heart'?" "Hast thou," replied the Rabbi, "ever had a boy born to thee?" "Yes," said the Gentile; "and I rejoiced and made others rejoice with me." "Didst thou not know that he would eventually die?" asked the Rabbi. "Yes," answered the other; "but at the time of joy is joy, and at the time of mourning, mourning." "So it is before the Holy One--blessed be He!--seven days He mourned before the deluge destroyed the world."

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 27.

All the strength of the soul's mourning is from the third to the thirtieth day, during which time she sits on the grave, still thinking her beloved might yet return (to the body whence she departed). When she notices that the color of the face is changed, she leaves and goes away; and this is what is written (Job. xiv. 22), "But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him." Then the mouth and the belly quarrel with one another, the former saying to the latter, "All I have robbed and taken by violence I deposited in thee;" and the latter, having burst three days after its burial, saying to the former, "There is all thou hast robbed and taken by violence! as it is written (Eccles. xii. 6), 'The pitcher is broken at the fountain.'"

Ibid., chap. 100.

Job said, "Even the devil shall not dissuade me from comforting those that mourn; for I would tell him that I am not better than my Creator, who comforts Israel; as it is said (Isa. li. 12), 'I, even I, am He that comforteth you.'"

_Psikta Nachmu._

Once Rabbi Shimon ben Yehozedek addressed Rabbi Sh'muel ben Nachman and said, "I hear that thou art a Baal Aggadah; canst thou therefore tell me whence the light was created?" "We learn," he replied in a whisper, "that G.o.d wrapped Himself with light as with a garment, and He has caused the splendor thereof to shine from one end of the world to the other." The other said, "Why whisperest thou, I wonder, since Scripture says so plainly (Ps. civ. 2) 'Who covereth Himself with light as with a garment'?" The reply was, "I heard it in a whisper, and in a whisper I have told it to thee."

_Beres.h.i.th Rabbah_, chap. 3.

"As the tents of Kedar" (Cant. i. 5). As the tents of the Ishmaelites are ugly without and comely within, so also the disciples of the wise, though apparently wanting in beauty, are nevertheless full of Scripture, and of the Mishnah and of the Talmud, of the Halacha and of the Aggadoth.

_Shemoth Rabbah_, chap. 23.

"Write thou these words" (Exod. x.x.xiv. 37). That applies to the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, which were given in writing, but not to the Halachoth, the Midrashim, the Aggadoth, and the Talmud, which were given by the mouth.

Ibid., chap. 47.

Rabbi Samlai said to Rabbi Yonathan, "Instruct me in the Aggada." The latter replied, "We have a tradition from our forefathers not to instruct either a Babylonian or a Daromean in the Aggada, for though they are deficient in knowledge they are haughty in spirit."

_Tal. Yerushalmi P'sachim_, v. fol. 32, col. 1.

He who transcribes the Aggada has no portion in the world to come; he who expounds it is excommunicated; and he who listens to the exposition of it shall receive no reward.

_Tal. Yerushalmi P'sachim, Shabbath_, xvi. fol. 30, col. 2.

"Day unto day uttereth speech" (Ps. xix. 2, 3, 4); this means the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. "And night unto night showeth knowledge;" this is the Mishnaioth. "There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard;" these are the Halachoth. "Their line is gone out through all the earth;" these are the Aggadoth, by which His great name is sanctified.

_T. debei Aliahu_, chap. 2.

Rabbi Yeremiah, the son of Elazar, said, "When the Holy One--blessed be He!--created Adam, He created him an androgyne, for it is written (Gen.

v. 2), 'Male and female created He them.'" Rabbi Sh'muel bar Nachman said, "When the Holy One--blessed be He!--created Adam, He created him with two faces; then He sawed him asunder, and split him (in two), making one back to the one-half, and another to the other."