Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
Religion
Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
Hebrew literature -- Translations into English
Elijah frequently attended the Rabbi's seat of instruction, and once, on
the first of a month, he came in later than usual. Rabbi asked what had
kept him so late. Elijah answered, "I have to wake up Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob one after the other, to wash the hands of each, and to wait
until each has said his prayers and retired to rest again." "But," said
Rabbi, "why do they not all get up at the same time?" The answer was,
"Because if they prayed all at once, their united prayers would hurry on
the coming of the Messiah before the time appointed." Then said Rabbi,
"Are there any such praying people among us?" Elijah mentioned Rabbi
Cheyah and his sons. Then Rabbi announced a fast, and the Rabbi Cheyah
and his sons came to celebrate it. In the course of repeating the
Shemoneh Esreh [a prayer consisting of eighteen Collects, which is
repeated three times each day] they were about to say, "Thou restoreth
life to the dead" when the world was convulsed, and the question was
asked in heaven, "Who told them the secret?" So Elijah was bastinadoed
sixty strokes with a cudgel of fire. Then he came down like a fiery
bear, and dashing in among the people, scattered the congregation.
_Bava Metzia_, fol. 85, col. 2.
When love was strong, we could lie, as it were, on the edge of a sword;
but now, when love is diminished, a bed sixty ells wide is not broad
enough for us.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.
The pig bears in sixty days.
_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 1.
Sixty iron mines are suspended in the sting of a gnat.
_Chullin_, fol. 58, col. 2.
An egg once dropped out of the nest of a bird called Bar-Yuchnei, which
deluged sixty cities and swept away three hundred cedars. The question
therefore arose, "Does the bird generally throw out its eggs?" Rav Ashi
replied, "No; that was a rotten one."
_Bechoroth_, fol. 57, col. 2.
Everybody knows why a bride enters the nuptial chamber, but against him
who sullies his lips by talking about it, the decree for good, though of
seventy years' standing, shall be reversed into a decree for evil. Rav
Chasda says, "Whosoever disgraces his mouth (by evil communication),
Gehenna shall be deepened for him; for it is said in Prov. xxii. 14, 'A
deep pit for the mouth of strange words (immoral talk).'" Rav Nachman
bar Yitzchak says, "The same punishment will be inflicted on him who
listens to it and is silent; for it is said (Prov. xxii. 14), 'And he
that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.'"
_Shabbath_, fol. 33, col. 1.
(Jer. xxiii. 29), "Like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces," so
is every utterance which proceedeth from the mouth of God, divided
though it be into seventy languages.
Ibid., fol. 88, col. 2.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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