Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala Part 5

Adonijah was deprived of life for no other reason than that he was given to quarreling. It is lawful to slander one so evil disposed as he was.

_Perek Hashalom._

G.o.d will say to the prince of h.e.l.l, "I from above and thou from below shall judge and condemn the slanderer."

_Erchin_, fol. 15, col. 2.

The third tongue (i.e., slander) hurts three parties: the slanderer himself, the receiver of slander, and the person slandered.

Ibid.

Four cla.s.ses do not receive the presence of the Shechinah: scorners, liars, flatterers, and slanderers.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 103, col. 1.

Where are we told that when two sit together and study the law the Shechinah is with them? In Mal. iii. 16, where it is written, "They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it."

_Berachoth_, fol. 6, col. 1.

Why did Elijah employ two invocations, saying twice over, "Hear me! hear me!" (1 Kings xviii. 37.) Elijah first prayed before G.o.d, "O Lord, King of the universe, hear me!" that He might send fire down from heaven and consume all that was upon the altar; and again he prayed, "Hear me!"

that they might not imagine that the result was a matter of sorcery; for it is said, "Thou hast turned their heart back again."

_Berachoth_, fol. 9, col. 2.

The twofold invocation of Elijah, which betokens his intense earnestness, anagrammatically expressed, is echoed in the words of the bystanders, "The Lord He is the G.o.d, the Lord He is the G.o.d."

"I dreamed," said Bar Kappara one day to Rabbi (the Holy), "that I beheld two pigeons, and they flew away from me." "Thy dream is this,"

replied Rabbi, "thou hast had two wives, and art separated from them both without a bill of divorcement."

Ibid., fol. 56, col. 2.

The Rabbis teach concerning the two kidneys in man, that one counsels him to do good and the other to do evil; and it appears that the former is situated on the right side and the latter on the left. Hence it is written (Eccl. x. 2), "A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart is at his left."

Ibid., fol. 61, col. 1.

For two sins the common people perish: they speak of the holy ark as a box and the synagogue as a resort for the ignorant vulgar.

_Shabbath_, fol. 32, col. 1.

On the self-same day when Jeroboam introduced the two golden calves, the one into Bethel and the other into Dan, a hut was erected in a part of Italy which was then subject to the Greeks.

Ibid., fol. 56, col. 2.

In the context where the above tradition occurs, which, as is obvious, relates to the founding of Rome, we meet with another on the same subject as follows:--When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, the Angel Gabriel thrust a reed into the sea, stirring up therewith the sand and mud from the bottom.

This, gradually collecting, first shaped itself into an island and then expanded so as to unite itself with the continent. And thus was the land created for the erection of the hut which should one day swell into the proportion of a proud imperial city.

If Israel kept only two Sabbaths, according to the strict requirement of the law, they would be freed at once from their compelled dispersion; for it is written (Isa. lvi. 4, 7), "Thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, Even them will I bring to my holy mountain."

_Shabbath_, fol. 118, col. 2.

Adam had two faces; for it is said (Ps. cx.x.xix. 5), "Thou hast made me behind and before."

_Eiruvin_, fol. 18, col. 1.

There is a notion among the Rabbis that Adam was possessed originally of a bis.e.xual organization, and this conclusion they draw from Gen. i. 27, where it is said, "G.o.d created man in his own image; male-female created He them." These two natures, it was thought, lay side by side; according to some, the male on the right and the female on the left; according to others, back to back; while there were those who maintained that Adam was created with a tail, and that it was from this appendage Eve was fashioned. Other Jewish traditions tell us that Eve was made from "the thirteenth rib of the right side" (Targ. Jonath.), and that "she was not drawn out by the head, lest she should be vain; nor by the eyes, lest she should be wanton; nor from the mouth, lest she should be given to garrulity; nor by the ears, lest she should be an eavesdropper; nor by the hands, lest she should be intermeddling; nor by the feet, lest she be a gadder; nor by the heart, for fear she should be jealous; but she was taken out from the side. Yet, in spite of all these precautions, she had all the faults so carefully provided against."

If in time of national calamity a man withdraw himself from his kindred and refuse to share in their sorrow, his two guardian angels come and lay their hands upon his head and say, "This man has isolated himself from his country in the day of its need, let him not live to see and enjoy the day when G.o.d shall restore its prosperity." When the community is in trouble, let no man say, "I will go home and eat and drink, and say, Peace be unto thee, oh my soul!" (Luke xii. 19); for to him Scripture hath solemnly said (Isa. xxii. 13, 14), "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die."

_Taanith_, fol. 11, col. 1.

An infant that has died under a month old is (to be) carried to the grave in the arms (not in a coffin), and buried by one woman and two men, but not by one man and two women.

_Moed Katan_, fol. 24, col. 1.

Both Rashi and the Tosephoth allude to a case which justifies the rule given here, where a woman actually carried a living child in a coffin, in order to avoid the suspicion of an a.s.signation she had made with a man, who set out to join her.

But the Tosephoth, after noticing this version of Rashi, gives another more to the point. The story in the Tosephoth is to this effect:--A woman was once weeping and groaning over the grave of her husband, and not very far away was a man who was guarding the corpse of a person who had been crucified. In the moment of mourning an affection sprung up between the two, and in the engrossment of it the corpse which the man guarded was stolen.

He was in great trepidation for fear of the king's command. The woman said, "Don't be afraid; exhume my husband, and hang him up instead." This was accordingly done. (See _Kiddushin_, fol. 80, col. 2.)

There were two date trees in the Valley of Hinnom from between which smoke ascended, and this is the gate of h.e.l.l.

_Succah_, fol. 32, col. 2.

According to Jewish tradition, there are three gates to Gehinnom, one in the desert, one in the sea, and one in Jerusalem: In the desert, as it is written (Numb. xvi. 33), "They went down, and all that belonged to them, alive into h.e.l.l." In the sea, as it is written (Jonah ii. 2), "Out of the belly of h.e.l.l have I called," etc. In Jerusalem, as it is written (Isa. x.x.xi. 9), "Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem."

When two women are seen sitting on opposite sides of a cross road facing each other, it is to be presumed that they are up to witchcraft and contemplate mischief. What in that case must you do? Go by another road, if there is one, and if not, with a companion, should such turn up, pa.s.sing the crones arm-in-arm with him; but should there be no other road and no other man, then walk straight on repeating the counter-charm, as you pa.s.s them--

Agrath is to Asia gone, And Blussia's killed in battle.

_P'sachim_, fol. 111, col. 2.

Agrath and Blussia are two Amazons well known to those familiar with Rabbinic demonology.

"If Mordecai, before whom thou hast began to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, expect not to prevail against him, but thou shalt fall" (Esth. vi.

13). Wherefore these two fallings? They told Haman, saying, "This nation is likened to the dust, and is also likened to the stars; when they are down, they are down even to the dust, but when they begin to rise, they rise to the stars."

_Meggillah_, fol. 16, col. 1.

If any two disciples of the wise, dwelling in the same city, have a difference respecting the Halachah, let them remember what Scripture denounces against them, "And also I gave them statutes that are not good, and judgments by which they shall not live" (Ezek. xx. 25).

Ibid., fol. 32, col. 1.

If a man espouse one of two sisters, and does not know which he has espoused, he must give both a bill of divorce. If two men espouse two sisters, and neither of them know which he has espoused, then each man must give two bills of divorce, one to each woman.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 23, col. 2.

There is a time coming (i.e., in the days of the Messiah), when a grain of wheat will be as large as the two kidneys of the great ox.

_Kethuboth_, fol. 111, col. 1.