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 [ p. 137 ] 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 antecourt 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 Fast, 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.
[ p. 138 ]
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 him self 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 versâ; 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 householder 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, [ p. 139 ] that it took sixteen men to carry it. When they set the table in its place they said (Ps. xxiv. i), ‘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. 111, 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 [ p. 140 ] 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 “Velamaleshinim” 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. 11, col. 1.)
Eighteen denunciations did Isaiah make against the people of Israel, and he recovered not his equanimity until he was able to add, “The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable” (Isa. iii. 5).
Chaggigah, fol. 14, col. 1.
The Rabbis have related that there was once a family in Jerusalem the members of which died off regularly at eighteen years of age. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zacchai shrewdly guessed that they were descendants of Eli, regarding whom it is said (1 Sam. ii. 25), “And all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age;” [ p. 141 ] and he accordingly advised them to devote themselves to the study of the law, as the certain and only means of neutralizing the curse. They acted upon the advice of the Rabbi; their lives were in consequence prolonged; and they thenceforth went by the name of their spiritual father.
Rosh Hashanah, fol. 18, col. 1.
Eighteen handbreadths was the height of the golden candlestick.
Menachoth, fol. 28, col. 2.
If a man remain unmarried after the age of twenty, his life is a constant transgression. The Holy One—blessed be He!—waits until that period to see if one enters the matrimonial state, and curses his bones if he remain single.
Kiddushin, fol. 29, col. 2.
A woman marrying under twenty years of age will bear till she is sixty; if she marries at twenty she will bear until she is forty; if she marries at forty she will not have any family.
Bava Bathra, fol. 119, col. 2.
At twenty pursue the study of the law.
Avoth, chap. 5.
Rabbi Yehudah says the early Pietists used to suffer some twenty days before death from diarrhœa, the effect of which was to purge and purify them for the world to come; for it is said, “As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise” (Prov. xxvii. 21).
Semachoth, chap. 3, mish, 10.
It may not be out of place to append two or three parallel passages here by way of illustration:—“Bodily suffering purges away sin” (Berachoth, fol. 5, col. 1). “He who suffers will not see hell” (Eiruvin, fol. 41, col. 2). “To die of diarrhœa is an augury for good, for most of the righteous die of that ailment” (Kethuboth, fol. 103, col. 2, and elsewhere).