Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala

Shabbath, fol. 119, col. 1.

This story cannot fail to remind those who are conversant with Herodotus or Schiller of the legend of King Polycrates, which dates back five or six centuries before the present era. Polycrates, the king of Samos, was one of the most fortunate of men, and everything he took in hand was fabled to prosper. This unbroken series of successes caused disquietude to his friends, who saw in the circumstance foreboding of some dire disaster; till Amasis, king of Egypt, one of the number advised him to spurn the favor of fortune by throwing away what he valued dearest. The most valuable thing he possessed was an emerald signet-ring, and this accordingly he resolved to sacrifice. So, manning a galley, he rowed out to the sea, and threw the ring away into the waste of the waters. Some five or six days after this, a fisherman came to the palace and made the king a present of a very fine fish that he had caught. This the servants proceeded to open, when, to their surprise, they came upon a ring, which on examination proved to be the very ring which had been cast away by the king their master. (See Herodotus, book iii.)

Among the many legends that have clustered round the memory of Solomon, there is one which reads very much like an adaptation of this classic story. The version the Talmud gives of this story is quoted in another part of this Miscellany (chap. vi. No. 8, note), but in Emek Hammelech, fol. 14, col. 4, we have the legend in another form, with much amplitude and variety of detail, of which we can give here only an outline. When the building of the Temple was finished, the king of the demons begged Solomon to set him free from his service, and promised in return to teach him a secret he would be sure to value. Having cajoled Solomon out of possession of his signet-ring, he first flung the ring into the sea, where it was swallowed by a fish, and then taking up Solomon himself, he cast him into a foreign land some four hundred miles away, where for three weary long years he wandered up and down like a vagrant, begging his bread from door to door. In the course of his rambles he came to Mash Kemim, and was so fortunate as to be appointed head cook at the palace of the king of Ammon (Ana Hanun, see 1 Kings xii. 24; LXX.). While employed in this office, Naama, the king's daughter (see 1 Kings xiv. 21, 31, and 2 Chron. xii. 13), fell in love with him, and, determining to marry him, eloped with him for refuge to a distant land. One day as Naama was preparing a fish for dinner, she found in it a ring, and this turned cut to be the very ring which the king of the demons had flung into the sea, and the loss of which had bewitched the king out of his power and dominion. In the recovery of the ring the king both recovered himself and the throne of his father David.

The occurrence of a fish and a ring on the arms of the city of Glasgow memorializes a legend in which we find the same singular combination of circumstances. A certain queen of the district one day gave her paramour a golden ring which the king her husband had committed to her charge as a keepsake. By some means or other the king got to know of the whereabouts of the ring, and cleverly contriving to secure possession of it, threw it into the sea. He then went straight to the queen and demanded to know where it was and what she had done with it. The queen in her distress repaired to St. Kentigern, and both made full confession of her guilt and her anxiety about the recovery of the ring, that she might regain the lost favor of her husband. The saint set off at once to the Clyde, and there caught a salmon and the identical ring in the mouth of it. This he handed over to the queen, who returned it to her lord with such expressions of penitence that the restoration of it became the bond and pledge between them of a higher and holier wedlock.

There were thirteen horn-shaped collecting-boxes, and thirteen tables, and thirteen devotional bowings in the Temple service. Those who belonged to the houses of Rabbi Gamliel and of Rabbi Chananiah, the president of the priests, bowed fourteen times. This extra act of bowing was directed to the quarter of the wood store, in consequence of a tradition they inherited from their ancestors that the Ark of the Covenant was hidden in that locality. The origin of the tradition was this:—A priest, being once engaged near the wood store, and observing that part of the plaster differed from the rest, went to tell his companions, but died before he had time to relate his discovery. Thus it became known for certain that the Ark was hidden there.

Shekalim chap. 3, hal, 1.

It is more than probable that the Chananiah, mentioned above, is the person alluded to in the Acts, chap, xxiii. 2, as "the high priest Ananias." For the tradition about the Ark. see also 2 Macc. ii. 4, 5.

There were thirteen horn-shaped collecting-boxes in the Temple, and upon them were inscribed new shekels, old shekels, turtle-dove offerings, young-pigeon offerings, fire-wood, contributions for Galbanus, gold for the mercy-seat; and six boxes were inscribed for voluntary contributions. New shekels were for the current year, old shekels were for the past one.

Yoma, fol. 55, col, 2.

Once on account of long-continued drought Rabbi Eliezer proclaimed thirteen public fasts, but no rain came. At the termination of the last fast, just as the congregation was leaving the synagogue, he cried aloud, "Have you then prepared graves for yourselves?" Upon this all the people burst into bitter cries, and rain came down directly.

Taanith, fol. 25, col. 2.

A boy at thirteen years of age is bound to observe the usual fasts in full, i.e., throughout the whole day. A girl is bound to do so when only twelve. Rashi gives this as the reason:—A boy is supposed to be weaker than a girl on account of the enervating effect of much study.

Kethuboth, fol. 5, col. 1.

A poor man once came to Rava and begged for a meal. "On what dost thou usually dine?" asked Rava. "On stuffed fowl and old wine," was the reply. "What!" said Rava, "art thou not concerned about being so burdensome to the community?" He replied, "I eat nothing belonging to them, only what the Lord provides; as we are taught (Ps. cxlv. 15), 'The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in his season.' It is not said in their season, for so we learn that God provides for each individual in his season of need." While they were thus talking, in came Rava's sister, who had not been to see him for thirteen years, and she brought him as a present a stuffed fowl and some old wine also. Rava marveled at the coincidence, and turning to his poor visitor said, "I beg thy pardon, friend; rise, I pray thee, and eat."

Ibid., fol. 67, col. 2.

So great is circumcision that thirteen covenants were made concerning it. Tosafoth says that covenant is written thirteen times in the chapter of circumcision.

Nedarim, fol. 31, col. 2.

Rabbi (the Holy) says sufferings are to be borne with resignation. He himself bore them submissively for thirteen years; for six he suffered from lithiasis, and for seven years from stomatitis (or, as some say, six years from the former and seven from the latter). His groans were heard three miles off.

Bava Metzia, fol. 85, col. 1.

The Rabbis have taught thirteen things respecting breakfast (morning-morsel):—It counteracts the effects of heat, cold or draught; it protects from malignant demons; it makes wise the simple by keeping the mind in a healthy condition; it enables a man to come off clear from a judicial inquiry; it qualifies him both to learn and to teach the law; it makes him eagerly listened to, to have a retentive memory, etc.

Ibid. fol. 107, col. 2.

The land of Israel is in the future to be divided among thirteen tribes, and not, as at first, among twelve.

Bava Bathra, fol. 122, col. 1.

Rabbi Abhu once complimented Rav Saphra before the Minim by singling him out in their hearing as a man distinguished by his learning, and this led them to exempt him from tribute for thirteen years. It so happened that these Minim once posed Saphra about that which is written in Amos iii. 2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." "Ye say you are God's friends, but when one has a friend does he pour out his wrath upon him?" To this Rav Saphra make no reply. They then put a rope round his neck and tormented him. When he was in this sorry plight, Rabbi Abhu came up and inquired why they tormented him thus. To this they made answer, "Didst thou not tell us that he was a very learned man, and he does not even know how to explain a text of Scripture?" "Yes, I did so say," replied Rabbi Abhu; "he is an adept in the Talmud only, but not in the Scriptures." "Thou knowest the Scriptures;" they replied, "and why ought he not to know them as well?" "I have daily intercourse with you," said the Rabbi, "and therefore I am obliged to study the Scriptures, but he, having no intercourse with you, has no need to trouble himself, and does not at all care about them."

Avodah Zarah, fol. 4, col. 1.

In order to understand aright the grounds on which Rabbi Abhu would fain excuse Rav Saphra for not caring at all about the Scriptures, certain passages from both Talmuds should be read, which, in the usual metaphorical style of the Rabbis, set forth the respective merits of Scripture and Tradition. The three times three in Sophrim (chap. 15), in which the Scripture is compared to water, the Mishna to wine, and the Gemara to mulled wine, and that in which the Scripture is likened to salt, the Mishna to pepper, and the Gemara to spice, and so on, are too well known to need more than passing mention; but far less familiar and much more explicit is the exposition of Zech. viii. 10, as given in T.B. Chaggigah, fol. 10, col. 1, where, commenting on the Scripture text, "Neither, was there any peace to him that went out or came in," Rav expressly says, "He who leaves a matter of Halachah for a matter of Scripture shall never more have peace;" to which Shemuel adds, "Aye, and he also who leaves the Talmud for the Mishna;" Rabbi Yochanan chiming in with "even from Talmud to Talmud;" as if to say, "And he who turns from the Babli to the Yerushalmi, even he shall have no peace." If we refer to the Mishna (chap. 1, hal. 7) of Berachoth in the last-named Talmud, we read there that Rabbi Tarphon, bent, while on a journey, on reading the Shema according to the school of Shammai, ran the risk of falling into the hands of certain banditti whom he had not noticed near him. "It would have served you right," remarked one, "because you did not follow the rule of Hillel." In the Gemara to this passage Rabbi Yochanan says, "The words of the scribes are more highly valued than the words of the law, for, as Rabbi Yuda remarks, 'If Rabbi Tarphon had not read the Shema at all he would only have broken a positive command,' but since he transgressed the rule of Hillel he was guilty of death, for it is written, 'He who breaks down a hedge (the Rabbinic hedge to the law, of course), a serpent shall bite him'" (Eccles. x. 8). Then Rabbi Chanina, the son of Rabbi Ana, in the name of Rabbi Tanchum, the son of Rabbi Cheyah, says, "The words of the elders are more important than the words of the prophets." A prophet and an elder, whom do they resemble? They are like two ambassadors sent by a king to a province. About the one he sends word saying, "If he does not present credentials with my signature and seal, trust him not;" whereas the other is accredited without any such token; for in regard to the prophet it is written (Deut. xiii. 2), "He giveth thee a sign or token;" while in reference to the elders it is written (Deut. xvii. 11), "According to the decision which they may say unto thee shalt thou do; thou shalt not depart from the sentence which they may tell thee, to the right or to the left." Rashi's comment on this text is worth notice: "Even when they tell thee that right is left and left is right." In a word, a wise man (i.e., a Rabbi) is better than a prophet. (Bava Bathra fol. 12, col. 1.)

Oved, the Galilean, has expounded that there are thirteen vavs (i.e., the letter vav occurs thirteen times) in connection with wine. Vav in Syriac means woe.

Sanhedrin fol. 70, col. 1.

The Rabbis have a curious Haggada respecting the origin of the culture of the vine. Once while Noah was hard at work breaking up the fallow ground for a vineyard, Satan drew near and inquired what he was doing. On ascertaining that the patriarch was about to cultivate the grape, which he valued both for its fruit and its juice, he at once volunteered to assist him at his task, and began to manure the soil with the blood of a lamb, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. "Now," said he, when his work was done, "of those who taste the juice of the grape, some will become meek and gentle as the lamb, some bold and fearless as the lion, some foul and beastly as the pig, and others frolicsome and lively as the monkey." This quaint story may be found more fully detailed in the Midrash Tanchuma (see Noah) and the Yalkut on Genesis. The Mohammedan legend is somewhat similar. It relates how Satan on the like occasion used the blood of a peacock, of an ape, of a lion, and of a pig, and it deduces from the abuse of the vine the curse that fell on the children of Ham, and ascribes the color of the purple grape to the dark hue which thenceforth tinctured all the fruit of their land as well as their own complexions.

At thirteen years of age, a boy becomes bound to observe the (613) precepts of the law.

Avoth, chap. 5.

Rabbi Ishmael says the law is to be expounded according to thirteen logical rules.

Chullin, fol. 63, col. 1.

The thirteen rules of Rabbi Ishmael above referred to are not to be found together in any part of the Talmud, but they are collected for repetition in the Liturgy, and are as follows:—

1. Inference is valid from minor to major.

2. From similar phraseology.

3. From the gist or main point of one text to that of other passages.

4. Of general and particular.

5. Of particular and general.

6. From a general, or a particular and a general, the ruling both of the former and the latter is to be according to the middle term, i.e., the one which is particularized.

7. From a general text that requires a particular instance, and vice versà.

8. When a particular rule is laid down for something which has already been included in a general law, the rule is to apply to all.

9. When a general rule has an exception, the exception mitigates and does not aggravate the rule.

10. When a general rule has an exception not according therewith, the exception both mitigates and aggravates.

11. When an exception to a general rule is made to substantiate extraneous matter, that matter cannot be classed under the said general rule, unless the Scripture expressly says so.

12. The ruling is to be according to the context, or to the general drift of the argument.

13. When two texts are contradictory, a third is to be sought that reconciles them.

Rabbi Akiva was forty years of age when he began to study, and after thirteen years of study he began publicly to teach.

Avoth d'Rab. Nathan.

Thirteen treasurers and seven directors were appointed to serve in the Temple. (More there might be, never less.)

Tamid, fol. 27, col. 1.

Thirteen points of law regulate the decisions that require to be made relative to the carcass of a clean bird.

Taharoth, chap. i, mish. 1.

A man must partake of fourteen meals in the booth during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Succah, fol. 27, col. 1.

Traditional chronology records that the Israelites killed the Paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the month on which they came out of Egypt. They came out on the fifteenth; that day was a Friday.

Shabbath, fol. 88, col. 1.

The fifteen steps were according to the number of the Songs of Degrees in the Psalms. It is related that whosoever has not seen the joy at the annual ceremony of the water-drawing, has not seen rejoicing in his life. At the conclusion of the first part of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Priests and Levites descended into the women's ante-court, where they made great preparations (such as erecting temporary double galleries, the uppermost for women, and those under for men). There were golden candelabra there, each having four golden bowls on the top, four ladders reaching to them, and four of the young priests with cruses of oil ready to supply them, each cruse holding one hundred and twenty logs of oil. The lamp-wicks were made of the worn-out drawers and girdles of the priests. There was not a court in all Jerusalem that was not lit up by the illumination of the "water-drawing." Holy men, and men of dignity, with flaming torches in their hands, danced before the people, rehearsing songs and singing praises. The Levites, with harps, lutes, cymbals, trumpets, and innumerable musical instruments, were stationed on the fifteen steps which led from the ante-court of Israel to the women's court; the Levites stood upon the steps and played and sang. Two priests stood at the upper gate which led from the ante-court for Israel to that for the women, each provided with a trumpet, and as soon as the cock crew they blew one simple blast, then a compound or fragmentary one, and then a modulated or shouting blast. This was the preconcerted signal for the drawing of the water. As soon as they reached the tenth step, they blew again three blasts as before. When they came to the ante-court for women, they blew another three blasts, and after that they continued blowing till they came to the east gate. When they arrived at the east gate, they turned their faces westward (i.e., toward the Temple), and said, "Our fathers, who were in this place, turned their backs toward the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the East, for they worshiped the sun in the East; but we turn our eyes to God!" Rabbi Yehudah says, "These words were repeated, echoing, 'We are for God, and unto God are our eyes directed!'"

Succah, fol. 51, col. 1, 2.

Rabbon Shimon ben Gamliel has said there were no such gala-days for Israel as the fifteenth of Ab and the Day of Atonement, when the young maidens of Jerusalem used to resort to the vineyard all robed in white garments, that were required to be borrowed, lest those should feel humiliated who had none of their own. There they danced gleefully, calling to the lookers-on and saying, "Young men, have a care; the choice you now make may have consequences."

Taanith, fol. 26, col. 2.

Rabbi Elazar the Great said, "From the fifteenth of Ab the influence of the sun declines, and from that day they leave off cutting wood for the altar fire, because it could not be properly dried (and green wood might harbor vermin, which would make it unfit for use)."

Taanith, fol. 31, col. 1.

He who eats turnips to beef, and sleeps out in the open air during the night of the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the months of summer (that is, when the moon is full), will most likely bring on an ague fever.

Gittin, fol. 70, col. 1.

A lad should, at the age of fifteen, begin to apply himself to the Gemara.

Avoth, chap. 5.

"So I bought her to me for fifteen" (Hosea iii. 2), that is, on the fifteenth day of Nisan, when Israel was redeemed from the bondage of Egypt. "Silver;" this refers to the righteous. "An homer and a half-homer;" these equal forty-five measures, and are the forty-five righteous men for whose sake the world is preserved. I don't know whether there are thirty here (that is, in Babylon), and fifteen in the land of Israel, or vice versà; as it is said (Zech. xi. 13), "I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." It stands to reason that there are thirty in the land of Israel, and, therefore, fifteen here. Abaii says that the greater part are to be found under the gable end of the synagogue. Rav Yehudah says the reference is to the thirty righteous men always found among the nations of the world for whose sake they are preserved (but see No. 103 infra). Ulla says it refers to the thirty precepts received by the nations of the world, of which, however, they keep three only; i.e. they do not enter into formal marriage-contracts with men; they do not expose for sale the bodies of such animals as have died from natural causes; and they have regard for the law.

Chullin, fol. 92, col. 1.

Rabbi Cheyah bar Abba says, "I once visited a house-holder at Ludkia, and they placed before him a golden table so loaded with silver plate, basins, cups, bottles and glasses, besides all sorts of dishes, delicacies, and spices, that it took sixteen men to carry it. When they set the table in its place they said (Ps. xxiv. 1), 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,' and upon removing it, they said (Ps. cxv. 16), 'The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men.' I said, 'Son, how hast thou come to deserve all this?' 'I was,' replied he, 'a butcher by trade, and I always set apart for the Sabbath the best of the cattle.' 'How happy art thou,' I remarked (adds Rabbi Cheyah), 'to have merited such a reward, and blessed be God who has thus rewarded thee.'"

Shabbath, fol. 119, col. 1.

Rash Lakish said, "I have seen the flow of milk and honey at Tzipori; it was sixteen miles by sixteen miles."

Meggillah, fol. 6, col. 1.

Rashi explains the above as follows:—The goats fed upon figs from which honey distilled, and this mingled with the milk which dropped from the goats as they walked along. On the spot arose a lake which covered an area of sixteen miles square. (See also Kethuboth, fol. iii, col. 2.)

A cedar tree once fell down in our place, the trunk of which was so wide that sixteen wagons were drawn abreast upon it.

Bechoroth, fol. 57, col. 2.

Who can estimate the loss the world sustains in its ignorance of the trees of the Talmud? What a sapling in comparison with this giant cedar of Lebanon must the far-famed Mammoth tree have been which was lately cut down in California, and was the largest known to the present generation!

Rabbi Yochanan plaintively records, "I remember the time when a young man and a young woman sixteen or seventeen years of age could walk together in the streets and no harm came of it."

Bava Bathra, fol. 91, col. 2.

On the deposition of Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was chosen as his successor to the presidential chair of the academy. On being told of his elevation, he consulted with his wife as to whether or not he should accept the appointment. "What if they should depose thee also?" asked his wife. He replied, "Use the precious bowl while thou hast it, even if it be broken the next." But she rejoined, "Thou art only eighteen years old, and how canst thou at such an age expect folks to venerate thee?" By a miracle eighteen of his locks turned suddenly gray, so that he could say, "I am as one of seventy."

Berachoth, fol. 27, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that Shimon Happikoli had arranged the eighteen benedictions before Rabbon Gamliel at Javneh. Rabbon Gamliel appealed to the sages, "Is there not a man who knows how to compose an imprecation against the Sadducees?" Then Samuel the Little stood up and extemporized it.

Ibid., fol. 28, col. 2.

The "imprecation against the Sadducees" stands twelfth among the collects of the Shemoneh Esreh. It is popularly known as "Velama-leshinim" from its opening words, and is given thus in modern Ashkenazi liturgies:—"Oh, let the slanderers have no hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble Thou them quickly in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants." There has been much misconception with regard to this collect against heretics. There is every reason to believe it was composed without any reference whatever to the Christians. One point of interest, however, in connection with it is worth relating here. Some have sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew name, Saul. They take Paulus as equal to pusillus, which means "very little" or "the less," and answers to the word Hakaton, a term of similar import. Samuel, however, died a good Jew (see Semachoth, chap. 8), and Rabbon Gamliel Hazaken and Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah pronounced a funeral oration at his burial. "His key and his diary were placed on his coffin, because he had no son to succeed him." (See also Sanhedrin, fol. ii, col. 1.)