If one is sick and at the point of death, he is expected to confess, for all confess who are about to suffer the last penalty of the law. When a man goes to the market place, let him consider himself as handed over to the custody of the officers of judgment. If he has a headache, let him deem himself fastened with a chain by the neck. If confined to his bed, let him regard himself as mounting the steps to be judged; for when this happens to him, he [ p. 211 ] is saved from death only if he have competent advocates, and these advocates are repentance and good works. And if nine hundred and ninety-nine plead against him, and only one for him, he is saved; as it is said (Job xxxiii, 23), “If there be an interceding angel, one among a thousand to declare for man his uprightness, then He is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit.”
Shabbath, fol. 32, col. 1.
Rav Hunna says, “A quarrel is like a breach in the bank of a river; when it is once made it grows wider and wider. . . . ”A certain man used to go about and say, “Blessed is he who submits to a reproach and is silent, for a hundred evils depart from him.” Shemuel said to Rav Yehuda, “It is written in Scripture (Prov. xvii. 14), ‘The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water.’” Strife is the beginning of a hundred lawsuits.
Sanhedrin, fol. 7, col. 1.
When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, she introduced to him a thousand different kinds of musical instruments, and taught him the chants to the various idols.
Shabbath, fol. 56, col. 2.
When Buneis, the son of Buneis, called on Rabbi (the Holy), the latter exclaimed, “Make way for one worth a hundred manahs!” Presently another visitor came, and Rabbi said, “Make way for one worth two hundred manahs.” Upon which Rabbi Ishmael, the son of Rabbi Yossi, remonstrated, saying, “Rabbi, the father of the first-comer, owns a thousand ships at sea and a thousand towns ashore!” “Well,” replied Rabbi, “when thou seest his father, tell him to send his son better clad next time.” Rabbi paid great respect to those that were rich, and so did Rabbi Akiva.
Eiruvin, fol. 86, col. 1.
Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom inherited from his father a thousand towns and a thousand ships, and yet he went about with a leather sack of flour at his back, roaming from town to town and from province to province in order to study the law. This great Rabbi never once set eye on his immense patrimony, for he was engaged in the study of the law all day and all night long. And so strange was he to [ p. 212 ] his own servants, that they, on one occasion, not knowing who he was, pressed him against his will to do a day’s work as a menial; and though he pleaded with them as a suppliant to be left alone to pursue his studies in the law, they refused, and swore, saying, “By the life of Rabbi Elazer ben Charsom, our master, we will not let thee go till thy task is completed.” He then let himself be enforced rather than make himself known to them.
Yoma, fol. 35, col. 2.
The wife of Potiphar coaxed Joseph with loving words, but in vain. She then threatened to immure him in prison, but he replied (anticipating Ps. cxlvi. 7), “The Lord looseth the prisoners.” Then she said, “I will bow thee down with distress; I will blind thine eyes.” He only answered (ibid., ver. 8), “The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind and raiseth them that are bowed down.” She then tried to bribe him with a thousand talents of silver if he would comply with her request, but in vain.
Ibid.
A Midrash tells us that Potiphar’s wife not only falsely accused Joseph herself, but that she also suborned several of her female friends to do likewise. The Book of Jasher, which embodies the Talmudic story quoted above, tells us that an infant in the cradle spoke up and testified to Joseph’s innocence, and that while Joseph was in prison his inamorata daily visited him. More on this topic may be found in the Koran, chap. xii. The amours of Joseph and Zulieka, as told by the glib tongue of tradition, fitly find their consummation in marriage, and certain Moslems affect to see in all this an allegorical type of Divine love, an allegory which some other divines find in the Song of Solomon.
The thickness of the earth is a thousand paces or ells.
Succah, fol. 53, col. 2.
The crust of the earth as far as the abyss is a thousand ells, and the abyss under the earth is fifteen thousand. There is an upper and a lower abyss mentioned in Taanith, fol. 25, col. 2. Riddia, the angel who has the command of the waters, and resides between the two abysses, says to the upper, “disperse thy waters,” and to the lower, “let thy waters flow up.”
Many may ask after thy peace, but tell thy secret only to one of a thousand.
Yevamoth, fol. 63, col. 2.
The Rabbis have taught that if the value of stolen property is a thousand, and the thief is only worth, say, five [ p. 213 ] hundred, be is to be sold into slavery twice. But if the reverse, he is not to be sold at all.
Kiddushin, fol. 18, col. 2.
The Behemoth upon a thousand hills (Ps. 1. 10), God created them male and female, but had they been allowed to propagate they would have destroyed the whole world. What did He do? He castrated the male and spayed the female, and then preserved them that they might serve for the righteous at the Messianic banquet; as it is said (Job xl. 16), “His strength is in his loins (i. e., the male), and his force in the navel of his belly” (i. e., the female).
Bava Bathra, fol. 74, col. 2.
This provision for the coming Messianic banquet is considered of sufficient importance to be mentioned year after year in the service for the Day of Atonement and also at the Feast of Tabernacles. The remark of D. Levi, that the feast here referred to is to be understood allegorically, involves rather sweeping consequences, as it is open to any one to annihilate many other expectations on the same principle.
The Holy One—blessed be He!—will add to Jerusalem gardens extending to a thousand times their numerical value, which equals one hundred and sixty-nine, etc.
Ibid., fol. 75, col. 2.
Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much" (2 Kings xxi. 16). Here (in Babylon) it is interpreted to mean that he murdered Isaiah, but in the West (i. e., in Palestine) they say that he made an image of the weight of a thousand men, which was the number he massacred every day (as Rashi says, by the heaviness of its weight).
Sanhedrin, fol. 103, col. 2.
See Josephus, Antiq., Book X. chap. iii., see. i, for corroborative evidence. Tradition says that Manasseh caused Isaiah to be sawn asunder with a wooden saw. (See also Yevamoth, fol. 49, col. 2; Sanhedrin, fol. 103, col. 2.)
Nowhere in the Talmud do we find the name of the great image here referred to. What if we christen it the “Juggernaut of the Talmud”? May the tradition not be a prelusion or a reflex of that man-crushing monster? Anyhow, scholars are aware of a community of no inconsiderable extent between the conceptions and legends of the Hindoos and the Rabbis. One notable contrast, however, between this juggernaut and that of the Hindoos is, that whereas in [ p. 214 ] both cases the innocent suffered for the guilty, in the former the sacrifices were exacted to propitiate Satan, while in the latter they were freely offered in supposed propitiation of the gods.
The food consumed by Og, king of Bashan, consisted of a thousand oxen and as many of all sorts of other beasts, and his drink consisted of a thousand measures, etc.
Sophrim, chap. 21, mish. 9.
Solomon made ten candelabra for the Temple; for each he set aside a thousand talents of gold, which he refined in a crucible until they were reduced to the weight of one talent.
Menachoth, fol. 29, col. 1.
There was an organ in the Temple which produced a thousand kinds of melody.
Eirchin, fol. 11, col. 1.
The Magrepha, with its ten pipes and its ten-times-ten various notes (Erchin, fol. 10, col. 2, and fol. 11, col. 1), which was said to have been used in the Temple service, must have been an instrument far superior to any organ in use at the time elsewhere.
If from a town numbering fifteen hundred footmen, such, for example, as the village of Accho, nine people be borne forth dead in the course of three successive days, it is a sure sign of the presence of the plague; but if this happen in one day or in four, then it is not the plague.
Taanith, fol. 21, col. 1.
Seventeen hundred of the arguments and minute rules of the Scribes were forgotten during the days of mourning for Moses. Othniel, the son of Kenaz, by his shrewd arguing restored them all as if they had never lapsed from the memory.
Temurah, fol. 16, col. 1.
There was a great court at Jerusalem called Beth Yaazek, where all witnesses (who could testify to the time of the appearance of the new moon) used to assemble, and where they were examined by the authorities. Grand feasts were prepared for them as an inducement to them to come (and give in their testimony). Formerly they did not move from the place they happened to be in when overtaken by the Sabbath, but Rabbon Gamliel the elder ordained that they might in that case move two thousand cubits either way.
Rosh Hashanah, fol. 21, col. 2.
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He that is abroad (on the Sabbath) and does not know the limit of the Sabbath day’s journey may walk two thousand moderate paces, and that is a Sabbath day’s journey.
Eiruvin, fol. 42, col. 1.
Rabbon Gamliel had a hollow tube, through which, when he looked, he could distinguish a distance of two thousand cubits, whether by land or sea, By the same tube he could ascertain the depth of a valley or the height of a palm tree.
Ibid., fol. 43, col. 2.
He who observes carefully the precepts respecting fringes will, as a reward, have two thousand eight hundred slaves to wait upon him; for it is said (Zech. viii. 23), “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
Shabbath, fol. 32, col. 2.
Rashi’s explanation of this matter is very simple. The merit of the fringes lies in their being duty attached to “the four quarters” or skirts of the garments (Deut. xxii. 12). There are seventy nations in the whole world, and ten of each nation will take hold of each corner of the garment, which gives 70 x 10 x 4 = 2800. Rabbi B’chai, commenting on Num. xv. 39, 40, repeats the same story almost word for word.
This passage (Zech. Viii. 23) has lately been construed by some into a prophecy of the recent Berlin Congress, and the ten men mentioned are found in the representatives of the contracting parties, i. e., England, France, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Austria, Italy, Greece, Roumania, and Servia.
Rav Hamnunah said, “What is it that is written (1 Kings iv. 32), ‘And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five’?” It is intended to teach that Solomon uttered three thousand proverbs upon each and every word of the law, and for every word of the Scribes he assigned a thousand and five reasons.
Eiruvin, fol. 21, col. 2.
When Rabbi Eliezer was sick he was visited by Rabbi Akiva and his party. . . . “Wherefore have ye come?” he asked. “To learn the law,” was the reply. “And why did you not come sooner?” “Because we had [ p. 216 ] no leisure,“ said they. ”I shall be much surprised,“ said he, ”if you die a natural death.“ Then turning to Rabbi Akiva he said, ”Thy death shall be the worst of all.“ Then folding his arms upon his breast, he exclaimed: ”Woe unto my two arms! for they are like two scrolls of the law rolled up, so that their contents are hidden. Had they waited upon me, they might have added much to their knowledge of the law, but now that knowledge will perish with me. I have in my time learned much and taught much, and yet I have no more diminished the knowledge of my Rabbis by what I have derived from them than the waters of the sea are reduced by a dog lapping them. Over and above this I expounded three hundred,“ some allege he said three thousand, ”Halachahs with reference to the growing of Egyptian cucumbers, and yet no one except Akiva ben Yoseph has ever proposed a single question to me respecting them. He and I were walking along the road one day when he asked me to instruct him regarding the cultivation of Egyptian cucumbers. I made but one remark, when the entire field became full of them. Then at his request I made a remark about cutting them, when lo! they all collected themselves together in one spot.” Thus Rabbi Eliezer kept on talking, when all of a sudden he fell back and expired.
Sanhedrin, fol. 68, col. 1.
The last words of this eminent Rabbi derive a tragic interest from the fact that he died while under sentence of excommunication.
Three thousand Halachoth were forgotten at the time of mourning for Moses, and among them the Halachah respecting an animal intended for a sin-offering the owner of which died before sacrificing it.
Temurah, fol. 16, col. 1.
All the prophets were rich men. This we infer from the account of Moses, Samuel, Amos, and Jonah. Of Moses, as it is written (Num. xvi. 15), “I have not taken one ass from them.” Of Samuel, as it is written (1 Sam. xii. 3), “Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, and before His anointed, whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken?” Of Amos, as it is written (Amos vii. 14), “I was an herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit,”
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i. e., I am proprietor of my herds and own sycamores in the valley. Of Jonah, as it is written (Jonah i. 3), “So he paid the fare thereof and went down into it.” Rabbi Yochanan says he hired the whole ship. Rabbi Rumanus says the hire of the ship amounted to four thousand golden denarii.
Nedarim, fol. 38, col. 1.
Four thousand two hundred and thirty-one years after the creation of the world, if any one offers thee for one single denarius a field worth a thousand denarii, do not buy it.
Avodah Zarah, fol. 9, col. 2.
Rashi gives this as the reason of the prohibition: For then the restoration of the Jews to their own land will take place, so that the denarius paid for a field in a foreign land would be money thrown away.
Four thousand two hundred and ninety-one years after the creation of the world the wars of the dragons and the wars of Gog and Magog will cease, and the rest of the time will be the days of the Messiah; and the Holy One—blessed be He!—will not renew His world till after seven thousand years. . . . Rabbi Jonathan said, “May the bones of those who compute the latter days (when the Messiah shall appear) be blown; for some say, ”Because the time (of Messiah) has come and Himself has not, therefore He will never come!“ But wait thou for Him, as it is said (Hab. ii. 3), ‘Though He tarry, wait for Him.’ Perhaps you will say, ‘We wait, but He does not wait;’ learn rather to say (Isa. xxx. 18), ‘And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you; and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you.’”
Sanhedrin, fol. 97, col. 2.
It is related of Rabbi Tarphon (probably the Tryphon of polemic fame) that he was very rich, but gave nothing to the poor. Once Rabbi Akiva met him and said, “Rabbi, dost thou wish me to purchase for thee a town or two?” “I do,” said he, and at once gave him four thousand gold denarii. Rabbi Akiva took this sum and distributed it among the poor. Some time after Rabbi Tarphon met Rabbi Akiva and said, “Where are the towns thou purchasedst for me?” The latter seized hold of him by the [ p. 218 ] arm and led him to the Beth Hamedrash, where, taking up a psalter, they read together till they came to this verse, “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness endureth forever” (Ps. cxii. 9). Here Rabbi Akiva paused and said, “This is the place I purchased for thee,” and Rabbi Tarphon saluted him with a kiss.
Tract. Callah.
The Pentateuch contains five thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight verses. The Psalms have eight verses more than, and the Chronicles eight verses short of, that number.
Kiddushin, fol. 30, col. 1.
The number of verses in the Pentateuch is usually stated at 5845, the mnemonic sign of which is a word in Isaiah XXX. 26, the letters of which stand for 5845. The verse reads, “Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun.” The Masorites tell us that the number of verses in the Psalms is 2527, and in the two Books of Chronicles 1656.