Tradition teaches that Rabbi Yossi said:--The Shechinah has never descended below, nor did Moses and Elijah ever ascend on high; for it is said (Ps. cxv. 16), "The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lords; but the earth hath he given to the children of men." True, it is written, he admitted (Exod. xix. 20), "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai;" but that, he remarked, was ten handbreadths above the summit. And true, too, is it written (Zech. xiv. 4), "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives;" but that, too, he added, is ten handbreadths above it. And so, in like manner, Moses and Elijah halted ten handbreadths from heaven. _Succah_, fol. 5, col. 1. What entitles a place to rank as a large town? When there are in it ten unemployed men. Should there be fewer than that number, it is to be looked upon as a village. _Meggillah_, fol. 3, col. 2. In places where there are not ten Batlanim, men of leisure, that is, men always free to be present at every synagogue service, a minyan (number) has to be hired for the purpose. The notion that ten constitutes a congregation is based on the authority of Num. xiv, 27, "How long shall I bear with this congregation?" As the term "congregation" here refers to the ten spies who brought the evil report, it is concluded forsooth that ten men, and never less, is the orthodox minimum for a congregation. Ten lights, said he, could not extinguish one; how shall one extinguish ten? Ibid., fol. 16, col. 2. These words are said to have been spoken by Joseph to his brethren, who, after the death of their father Jacob, feared lest Joseph should revenge himself upon them (Gen. l. 21). The Midrash and the Targums as usual furnish much additional information. Rav Assi said:--Nowadays, if a Gentile should betroth a Jewess, there is reason for regarding the betrothal as not therefore invalid, for he may be a descendant of the ten tribes, and so one of the seed of Israel. _Yevamoth_, fol. 16, col. 2. Rabbi Yochanan said:--If, after the death of her husband, a woman should remain unmarried for ten years and then marry again, she will have no children. Rav Nachman added:--Provided she have not thought of marrying all the while; but if she had thought of marrying again, in that case she will have children. Rava once said to Rav Chisda's daughter (who bore children to Rava, though she did not marry him until ten years after her first husband's death), "The Rabbis have their doubts about you." She replied, "I had always set my heart upon thee." A woman once said to Rav Yoseph, "I waited ten years before I married again, and then I had children." "Daughter," said he, "do not bring the words of the wise into discredit. It is thou, not they, that are mistaken." Then the woman confessed that she had been a transgressor. Ibid., fol. 34, col. 2.