commandment; for it is written (Deut. iv. 9), "Take heed to thyself ...
lest thou forget the things."
_Menachoth_, fol. 99, col. 2.
A proselyte who has taken it upon himself to observe the law, but is
suspected of neglecting one point, is to be suspected of being guilty of
neglecting the whole law, and therefore regarded as an apostate
Israelite, and to be punished accordingly.
_Bechoroth_, fol. 30, col. 2.
It is written (Gen. xxviii. ii), "And he took from the stones of the
place;" and again it is written (ver. 18), "And he took the stone."
Rabbi Isaac says this teaches that all these stones gathered themselves
together into one place, as if each were eager that the saint should lay
his head upon it. It happened, as the Rabbis tell us, that all the
stones were swallowed up by one another, and thus merged into one stone.
_Chullin_, fol. 91, col. 2.
Though the Midrash and two of the Targums, that of Jonathan and
the Yerushalmi, tell the same fanciful story about these stones,
Aben Ezra and R. Shemuel ben Meir among others adopt the
opposite and common-sense interpretation which assigns to the
word in Gen. xxviii. ii, no such occult meaning.
The psalms commencing "Blessed is the man" and "Why do the heathen rage"
constitute but one psalm.
_Berachoth_ fol. 9, col. 2.
The former Chasidim used to sit still one hour, and then pray for one
hour, and then again sit still for one hour.
Ibid., fol. 32, col. 2.
All the benedictions in the Temple used to conclude with the words
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel unto eternity;" but when the
Sadducees, corrupting the faith, maintained that there was only one
world, it was enacted that they should conclude with the words "from
eternity unto eternity."
_Berachoth_, fol. 54, col. i.
The Sadducees (Zadokim), so called after Zadok their master, as
is known, stood rigidly by the original Mosaic code, and set
themselves determinedly against all traditional developments. To
the Talmudists, therefore, they were especially obnoxious, and
their bald, cold creed is looked upon by them with something
like horror. It is thus the Talmud warns against them--"Believe
not in thyself till the day of thy death, for, behold, Yochanan,
after officiating in the High Priesthood for eighty years,
became in the end a Sadducee." (_Berachoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.)
In Derech Eretz Zuta, chap. i., a caution is given which might
|
