A Talmudic Miscellany

A Thousand and One Extracts from The Talmud The Midrashim and the Kabbalah

Paul Isaac Hershon

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136373848
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Studi sull'etnia

This is Volume III of six in a series on the Ancient Near East. Originally published in 1880, this is a succinct account of the Talmud with its siz orders (Sedarim), seventy-one Massictoth and 633 Perakim, and 4187 Mishnaoith. A considerable part of the Mishna has been at different times translated into English and other modern languages, and to many theologians it has been known as a whole by the magnificent work of Surenhusius.

Chapter I.

The ‘Ones’ of the Talmud.

1. WHERE do we learn that the Shechinah rests even upon one who studies the law? In Exodus xx. 24, where it is written, “In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.”

Berachoth, fol. 6, col. 1.

NOTE.—The Chaldee Targums on the Pentateuch strike the same keynote of broad Catholicity, and variously but very beautifully modulate the same sentiment. One example must suffice here. The Targum Yerushalmi says, “In every place in which ye shall memorialize my holy name, my word shall be revealed unto yon, and bless you.” The same sentiment has its echo in Matt, xviii. 20.

2. One pang of remorse at a man’s heart is of more avail than many stripes applied to him. (See Prov. xvii. 10.)

Ibid., fol. 7, col. 1.

3. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!” (Deut. vi. 4). Whosoever prolongs the utterance of the word (

) one; shall have his days and years prolonged to him. So also Zohar, syn. tit, ii.

Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2.

4. Once, as the Rabbis tell us, the Roman Government issued a decree forbidding Israel to study the law. Whereupon Pappus, the son of Yehudah, one day found Rabbi Akiva teaching it openly to multitudes, whom he had gathered round him to hear it. “Akiva,” said he, “art thou not afraid of the Government?” “List,” was the reply, “and I will tell thee how it is by a parable. It is with me as with the fishes whom a fox, walking once by a river’s side, saw darting distractedly to and fro in the stream; and, addressing, inquired, ‘From what, pray, are ye fleeing?‘ ‘From the nets,’ they replied, ‘which the children of men have set to ensnare us.’ ‘Why, then,’ rejoined the fox, ‘not try the dry land with me, where you and I can live together, as our fathers managed to do before us?’ ‘Surely,’ exclaimed they, ‘thou art not he of whom we have heard so much as the most cunning of animals, for herein thou art not wise, but foolish. For if we have cause to fear where it is natural for us to live, how much more reason have we to do so where we needs must die!’ Just so,” continued Akiva, “is it with us who study the law, in which (Deut. xxx. 20) it is written, ‘He is thy life and the length of thy days;’ for if we suffer while we study the law, how much more shall we if we neglect it?” Not many days after, it is related, this Rabbi Akiva was apprehended and thrown into prison. As it happened, they led him out for execution just at the time when “Hear, O Israel!” fell to be repeated, and as they tore his flesh with currycombs, and as he was with long-drawn breath sounding forth the word (דחא) one, his soul departed from him. Then came forth a voice from heaven (

), which said, “Blessed art thou, Rabbi Akiva, for thy soul and the word one left thy body together.”

Berachoth, fol. 61, col. 2.

NOTE.—

, Bath Kol, lit. the echo or daughter of a voice. In this case it is the echo of the voice of God in those who by obeying hear.

5. The badger, as it existed in the days of Moses, was an animal of unique type, and the learned are not agreed whether it was a wild one or a domestic. It had only one horn on its forehead; and was assigned for the time to Moses, who made a covering of its skin for the tabernacle; after which it became extinct, having served the purpose of its existence. Rabbi Yehudah says, “The ox, also, which the first man, Adam, sacrificed, had but one horn on its forehead.”

Shabbath, fol. 28, col. 2.

6. Once a Gentile came to Shamai, and said, “Proselytise me, but on condition that thou teach me the whole law, even the whole of it, whilst I stand upon one leg.” Shamai drove him off with the builder’s rod which he held in his hand. When he came to Hillel with the same challenge, Hillel converted him by answering him on the spot, “That which is hateful to thyself, do not do to thy neighbour. This is the whole law, and the rest is its commentary” (Tobit, iv. 15; Matt. vii. 12).

Ibid., fol. 31, col. 1.

7. When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, came out of their cave on a Friday afternoon, they saw an old man hurrying along with two bunches of myrtle in his hand. “What,” said they, accosting him, “dost thou want with these?” “To smell them in honour of the Sabbath,” was the reply. “Would not one bunch,” they remarked, “be enough for that purpose?” “Nay,” the old man replied; “one is in honour of רוכז, ‘Remember’ (Exod. xxii. 28); and one in honour of רומש, ‘Keep’ (Deut. v. 8).” Thereupon Rabbi Shimon remarked to his son, “Behold how the commandments are regarded by Israel!”

Ibid., fol. 33, col. 2.

8. Not one single thing has God created in vain. He created the snail as a remedy for a blister; the fly for the sting of a wasp; the gnat for the bite of a serpent; the serpent itself for healing the itch (or the scab); and the lizard (or the spider) for the sting of a scorpion.

Ibid., fol. 77, col. 2.

9. When a man is dangerously ill, the law grants dispensation, for it says, “You may break one Sabbath on his behalf, that he may be preserved to keep many Sabbaths.”

Shabbath, fol. 151, col. 2.

10. Once when Rabbi Ishmael paid a visit to Rabbi Shimon, he was offered a cup of wine, which he at once, without being asked twice, accepted, and drained at one draught. “Sir,” said his host, “dost thou not know the proverb, that he who drinks off a cup of wine at a draught is a greedy one?” “Ah!” was the answer, “that fits not this case; for thy cup is small, thy wine is sweet, and my stomach is capacious.”

P’sachim, fol. 86, col. 2.

11. At the time when Nimrod the wicked had cast our Father Abraham into the fiery furnace, Gabriel stood forth in the presence of the Holy One—blessed be He!—and said, “Lord of the universe, let me, I pray thee, go down and cool the furnace, and deliver that righteous one from it.” Then the Holy One—blessed be He!—said unto him, “I am One in my world and he is one in his world; it is more becoming that He who is one should deliver him who is one.” But as God does not withhold His reward from any creature, He said to Gabriel, “For this thy good intention, be thine the honour of rescuing three of his descendants.” At the time when Nebuchadnezzar the wicked cast Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace, Your-kami, the prince of hail, arose before God and said, “Lord of the universe, let me, I pray thee, go down and cool the fiery furnace, and rescue these righteous men from its fury.” Whereupon Gabriel interposed, and said, “God’s power is not to be demonstrated thus, for thou art the prince of hail, and everybody knows that water quenches fire; but I, the prince of fire, will go down and cool the flame within and intensify it without (so as to consume the executioners), and thus will I perform a miracle within a miracle.” Then the Holy One—blessed be He!—said to him, “Go down.” Upon which Gabriel exclaimed, “Verily the truth of the Lord endureth for ever! “(Ps. cxvii. 2).

P’sachim, fol. 118, col. 1.

12. One peppercorn to-day is better than a basketful of pumpkins to-morrow.

Chaggigah, fol. 10, col. 1.

13. One day of a year is counted for a whole year.

Rosh Hashanah, fol. 2, col. 2.

NOTE.—If a king be crowned on the twenty-ninth of Adar (the last month of the sacred year), on the morrow—the first of Nissan—it is reckoned that he commences his second year, that being the new year’s day for royal and ecclesiastical affairs.

14. For the sake of one righteous man the whole world is preserved in existence, as it is written (Prov. x. 25), “The righteous man is an everlasting foundation.”

Yoma, fol. 38, col. 2.

15. Rabbi Meyer saith, “Great is repentance, because for the sake of one that truly repenteth the whole world is pardoned; as it is written (Hosea xiv. 4), ‘I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him.’” It is not said, “from them” but “from him”

Ibid., fol. 86, col. 2.

16. He who observes one precept, in addition to those which, as originally laid upon him, he has discharged, shall receive favour from above, and is equal to him who has fulf...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter I. The ‘Ones’ of the Talmud
• Chapter II. The ‘Twos’ of the Talmud
• Chapter III. The ‘Threes’ of the Talmud
• Chapter IV. The ‘Fours’ of the Talmud
• Chapter V. The ‘Fives’ of the Talmud
• Chapter VI. The ‘Sixes’ of the Talmud
• Chapter VII. The ‘Sevens’ of the Talmud
• Chapter VIII. The ‘Eights’ of the Talmud
• Chapter IX. The ‘Nines’ of the Talmud
• Chapter X. The ‘Tens’ of the Talmud
• Chapter XI. Talmudic Numbers Ranging from ‘Eleven’ to ‘Ninety-Nine’ Inclusive
• Chapter XII. Talmudic Numbers, Ranging from ‘One Hundred’ to ‘Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine’ Inclusive
• Chapter XIII. Talmudic Numbers, Ranging from ‘One Thousand’ to ‘Millions.’
• Chapter XIV. Talmudic Numbers from ‘One Million’ and Upwards
• A Century of Extracts from the Midrashim
• Selections from the Kabbalah
• Index I
• Index II