long-drawn breath sounding forth the word 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.
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.
Once a Gentile came to Shamai, and said, "Proselytize me, but on
condition that thou teach me the whole law, even the whole of it, while
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 neighbor. This is the whole law,
and the rest is its commentary." (Tobit, iv. 15; Matt. vii. 12.)
Ibid., fol. 31, col. 1.
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 honor 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 honor
of 'Remember' (Exod. xxii. 28); and one in honor of 'Keep' (Deut. v.
8)." Thereupon Rabbi Shimon remarked to his son, "Behold how the
commandments are regarded by Israel!"
Ibid., fol. 33, col. 2.
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.
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.
Once when Rabbi Ishmael paid a visit to Rabbi Shimon, he was offered a
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