Book: Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and

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See also the previous quotation from the Midrash Rabbah. The
Targum of Jonathan and also the Yerushalmi record the same
fantastic tradition. In the latter it is given thus, "And Esau
ran to meet him, and hugged him, and fell upon his neck and
kissed him. Esau wept for the crushing of his teeth, and Jacob
wept for the tenderness of his neck."

Abraham made a covenant with the people of the land, and when the angels
presented themselves to him, he thought they were mere wayfarers, and he
ran to meet them, purposing to make a banquet for them. This banquet he
told Sarah to get prepared, just as she was kneading cakes. For this
reason he did not offer them the cakes which she had made, but "ran to
fetch a calf, tender and good." The calf in trepidation ran away from
him and hid itself in the cave of Machpelah, into which he followed it.
Here he found Adam and Eve fast asleep, with lamps burning over their
couches, and the place pervaded with a sweet-smelling odor. Hence the
fancy he took to the cave of Machpelah for a "possession of a
burying-place."

Ibid.

Shechem, the son of Hamor, assembled girls together playing on
tambourines outside the tent of Dinah, and when she "went out to see
them," he carried her off, ... and she bare him Osenath. The sons of
Jacob wished to kill her, lest the people of the land should begin to
talk scandal of the house of their father. Jacob, however, engraved the
holy Name on a metal plate, suspended it upon her neck, and sent her
away. All this being observed before the Holy One--blessed be He!--the
angel Michael was sent down, who led her to Egypt, into the house of
Potipherah; for Osenath was worthy to become the wife of Joseph.

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 48.

In Yalkut Yehoshua 9, Osenath is styled a proselyte; and indeed
it might seem likely enough that Joseph induced her to worship
the true God. The Targum of Jonathan agrees with the version of
the Midrash above, while another tradition makes Joseph marry
Zuleika, the virgin widow of Potiphar, and says that she was the
same woman that is called Osenath (_Koran_, note to p. 193).

When Joseph's brethren recognized him, and were about to kill him, an
angel came down and dispersed them to the four corners of the house.
Then Judah screamed with such a loud voice that all the walls of Egypt
were leveled with the dust, all the beasts were smitten to the ground,
and Joseph and Pharaoh, their teeth having fallen out, were cast down
from their thrones; while all the men that stood before Joseph had their
heads twisted round with their faces toward their backs, and so they
remained till the day of their death; as it is said (Job iv. 10), "The
roaring of the lion (Judah), and the voice of the fierce lion," etc.

_Vayegash_, chap. 5.

The tradition of a legend in our possession says that Judah killed Esau.
When? When Isaac died, Jacob and (the chiefs of) the twelve clans went
to bury him; as it is written (Gen. xxxv. 29), "And his sons Esau and
Jacob buried him." In the Midrash it is, "And Esau and Jacob and his
sons buried him," which fits the legend better. Arrived at the cave,
they entered it, and they stood and wept. The (heads of the) tribes, out
of respect to Jacob, left the cave, that Jacob might not be put to shame
in their presence. Judah re-entered it, and finding Esau risen up as if
about to murder Jacob, he instantly went behind him and killed him. But
why did he not kill him from the front? Because the physiognomy of Esau
was exactly like that of Jacob, and it was out of respect to the latter
that he slew Esau from behind.

_Midrash Shochar Tov_, chap. 18.

Tradition varies respecting the tragic end of Esau. The Book of
Jasher (chap. 56, v. 64) and the Targum of Jonathan (in Vayechi)
both say that Cushim the son of Dan slew Esau at the burial, not
of Isaac, but of Jacob, because he sought to hinder the funeral
obsequies, disputing the title to the sepulchre.

"Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away, and be at
rest" (Ps. lv. 6). This is spoken of Abraham. But why like a dove? Rabbi
Azariah, in the name of Rabbi Yudan, says, "Because all birds when tired
rest on a rock or on a tree, but a dove, when tired of flying, draws in
one wing to rest it, and continues her flight with the other."

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 39.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto Abraham, "What should I tell
thee? and with what shall I bless thee? Shall I tell thee to be
perfectly righteous, or that thy wife Sarah be righteous before me? That
ye both are already. Or shall I say that thy children shall be
righteous? They are so already. But I will bless thee so that all thy
children which shall in future ages come forth from thee shall be just
like thee." Whence do we learn this? From Gen xv. 5: "And he said unto
him, So (like thee) shall thy seed be."

_Bamidbar Rabbah_, chap. 2.

"Every man ... by his own standard" (Num. ii. 2). The several princes of
Israel selected the colors for their banners from the color of the
stones that were upon the breastplate of Aaron. From them other princes
have learned to adorn their standards with different distinguishing
colors. Reuben had his flag red, and leaves of mandrakes upon it.
Issachar had his flag blue, and the sun and moon upon it. Naphtali had
on his flag an olive tree, for this reason that (Gen. xlix. 20) "Out of
Asher his bread shall be fat."

Ibid., chap. 7.

"And Abraham rose up early and saddled his ass" (Gen. xxii. 3). This is
the ass on which Moses also rode when he came into Egypt; for it is said
(Exod. iv. 20), "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon
an ass." This is the ass on which the Son of David also shall ride; as
it is said (Zech, ix. 9), "Poor, and riding upon an ass."

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 31.

In the morning service for Yom Kippur, there is an allusion to
the Scripture passage with which our quotation opens. It is said
that Abraham in "his great joy perverted the usual order," which
a footnote explains thus--"In the greatness of his joy, that he
had thus an opportunity of showing his obedience to God, he set
aside the usual order of things, which was that the servant
should saddle the ass, and saddled the ass himself, as mentioned
Gen. xxii. 3." The animal referred to in the above remarks is
spoken of in Sanhedrin, fol. 98, col. 1, as being of a hundred
colors.

When Joseph saw the signs of Judah's anger, he began to tremble, and
said (to himself), "Woe is me, for he may kill me!" And what were these
signs? Tears of blood rolling down from Judah's right eye, and the hair
that grew on his chest rising and penetrating through the five garments
that he wore. Joseph then kicked the marble seat on which he was
sitting, so that it was instantly shattered into fragments. Upon this
Judah observed, "He is a mighty man, like one of us."

_Yalkut Vayegash._

Abraham married three wives--Sarah, a daughter of Shem; Keturah, a
daughter of Japheth; and Hagar, a daughter of Ham.

_Yalkut, Job_, chap. 8.

Rashi supposes that Keturah was one and the same with Hagar--so
the Midrash, the Targum Yerushalmi, and that of Jonathan. The
latter says, "Keturah, she is Hagar, who had been bound to him
from the beginning," but Aben Ezra and most of the commentators
contend that Keturah and Hagar are two distinct persons, and the
use of the plural concubines, in verse 6, bears them out in this
assertion.

The Holy One--blessed be He!--daily proclaims a new law in the heavenly
court, and even all these were known to Abraham.

Ibid., chap. 37.

A Gentile once asked Rabbi Yoshua ben Kapara, "Is it true that ye say
your God sees the future?" "Yes," was the reply. "Then how is it that it
is written (Gen. vi. 6), 'And it grieved Him at His heart'?" "Hast
thou," replied the Rabbi, "ever had a boy born to thee?" "Yes," said the
Gentile; "and I rejoiced and made others rejoice with me." "Didst thou
not know that he would eventually die?" asked the Rabbi. "Yes," answered
the other; "but at the time of joy is joy, and at the time of mourning,
mourning." "So it is before the Holy One--blessed be He!--seven days He
mourned before the deluge destroyed the world."

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 27.

All the strength of the soul's mourning is from the third to the
thirtieth day, during which time she sits on the grave, still thinking
her beloved might yet return (to the body whence she departed). When she
notices that the color of the face is changed, she leaves and goes away;
and this is what is written (Job. xiv. 22), "But his flesh upon him
shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him." Then the mouth and
the belly quarrel with one another, the former saying to the latter,
"All I have robbed and taken by violence I deposited in thee;" and the
latter, having burst three days after its burial, saying to the former,
"There is all thou hast robbed and taken by violence! as it is written
(Eccles. xii. 6), 'The pitcher is broken at the fountain.'"

Ibid., chap. 100.

Job said, "Even the devil shall not dissuade me from comforting those
that mourn; for I would tell him that I am not better than my Creator,
who comforts Israel; as it is said (Isa. li. 12), 'I, even I, am He that
comforteth you.'"

_Psikta Nachmu._

Once Rabbi Shimon ben Yehozedek addressed Rabbi Sh'muel ben Nachman and
said, "I hear that thou art a Baal Aggadah; canst thou therefore tell me
whence the light was created?" "We learn," he replied in a whisper,
"that God wrapped Himself with light as with a garment, and He has
caused the splendor thereof to shine from one end of the world to the
other." The other said, "Why whisperest thou, I wonder, since Scripture
says so plainly (Ps. civ. 2) 'Who covereth Himself with light as with a
garment'?" The reply was, "I heard it in a whisper, and in a whisper I
have told it to thee."

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 3.

"As the tents of Kedar" (Cant. i. 5). As the tents of the Ishmaelites
are ugly without and comely within, so also the disciples of the wise,
though apparently wanting in beauty, are nevertheless full of Scripture,
and of the Mishnah and of the Talmud, of the Halacha and of the
Aggadoth.

_Shemoth Rabbah_, chap. 23.

"Write thou these words" (Exod. xxxiv. 37). That applies to the Law, the
Prophets, and the Hagiographa, which were given in writing, but not to
the Halachoth, the Midrashim, the Aggadoth, and the Talmud, which were
given by the mouth.

Ibid., chap. 47.

Rabbi Samlai said to Rabbi Yonathan, "Instruct me in the Aggada." The
latter replied, "We have a tradition from our forefathers not to
instruct either a Babylonian or a Daromean in the Aggada, for though
they are deficient in knowledge they are haughty in spirit."

_Tal. Yerushalmi P'sachim_, v. fol. 32, col. 1.

He who transcribes the Aggada has no portion in the world to come; he
who expounds it is excommunicated; and he who listens to the exposition
of it shall receive no reward.

_Tal. Yerushalmi P'sachim, Shabbath_, xvi. fol. 30, col. 2.

"Day unto day uttereth speech" (Ps. xix. 2, 3, 4); this means the Law,
the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. "And night unto night showeth
knowledge;" this is the Mishnaioth. "There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard;" these are the Halachoth. "Their line is
gone out through all the earth;" these are the Aggadoth, by which His
great name is sanctified.

_T. debei Aliahu_, chap. 2.

Rabbi Yeremiah, the son of Elazar, said, "When the Holy One--blessed be
He!--created Adam, He created him an androgyne, for it is written (Gen.
v. 2), 'Male and female created He them.'" Rabbi Sh'muel bar Nachman
said, "When the Holy One--blessed be He!--created Adam, He created him
with two faces; then He sawed him asunder, and split him (in two),
making one back to the one-half, and another to the other."

_Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 8.

"And it repented the Lord that He had made man (Adam) on the earth, and
it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. vi. 6). Rabbi Berachiah says that
when God was about to create Adam, He foresaw that both righteous people
and wicked people would come forth from him. He reasoned therefore with
Himself thus: "If I create him, then will the wicked proceed from him;
but if I do not create him, how then shall the righteous come forth?"
What then did God do? He separated the ways of the wicked from before
Him, and assuming the attribute of mercy, so He created him. This
explains what is written (Ps. i. 6), "For the Lord knoweth the way of
the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall be lost." The way of the
wicked was lost before Him, but assuming to Himself the attribute of
mercy, He created him. Rabbi Chanina says, "It was not so! But when God
was about to create Adam, He consulted the ministering angels and said
unto them (Gen. i. 26), 'Shall we make man in our image after our
likeness?' They replied, 'For what good wilt thou create him?' He
responded, 'That the righteous may rise out of him.' This explains what
is written, 'For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way
of the wicked shall be lost.' God informed them only about the
righteous, but He said nothing about the wicked, otherwise the
ministering angels would not have given their consent that man should be
created."

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 8.

Rabbi Hoshaiah said, "When God created Adam the ministering angels
mistook him for a divine being, and were about to say, 'Holy! holy!
holy!' before him. But God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, so
that all knew he was only a man. This explains what is written (Isa. ii.
22), 'Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is
he to be accounted of'?"

Ibid.

Rabbi Yochanan saith, "Adam and Eve seemed as if they were about twenty
years old when they were created."

Ibid., chap. 14.

Rav Acha said when God was about to create Adam He consulted the
ministering angels, and asked them, saying, "Shall we make man?" They
enquired, "Of what good will this man be?" He replied, "His wisdom will
be greater than yours." One day, therefore, He brought together the
cattle, the beasts, and the birds, and asked them the name of them
severally, but they knew not. He then caused them to pass before Adam,
and asked him, "What is the name of this and the other?" Then Adam
replied, "This is an ox, this is an ass," and so on. "And thou, why is
thy name Adam?" (i.e. in Hebrew, man). "I ought to be called Adam," was
his reply, "for I was created from Adamah" (the ground). "And what is My
name?" "It is meet Thou shouldst be called Lord, for Thou art Lord over
all Thy creatures." Rav Acha says, "'I am the Lord, that is My name'
(Isa. xlii. 8). 'That is My name which Adam called Me.'"

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 17.

Rabba Eliezer says Adam was skilled in all manner of crafts. What proof
is there of this? It is said (Isa. xliv. 11), "And the artisans, they
are of Adam."

Ibid., chap. 24.

"And the Lord said, I will destroy man" (Gen. vi. 7). Rabbi Levi, in the
name of Rabbi Yochanan, says that even millstones were destroyed. Rabbi
Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, declares even the very dust of Adam
was destroyed. Rabbi Yuda, in the name of Rabbi Shimon, insists that
even the (resurrection) bone of the spine, from which God will one day
cause man to sprout forth again, was destroyed.

Ibid., chap. 28.

Concerning the bone, the _os coccygis_, there is an interesting
story in Midrash Kohelet (fol. 114, 3), which may be
appropriately inserted here. Hadrian (whose bones may they be
ground, and his name blotted out) once asked Rabbi Joshua ben
Chanania, "From what shall the human frame be reconstructed when
it rises again?" "From Luz in the backbone," was the answer.
"Prove this to me," said Hadrian. Then the Rabbi took Luz, a
small bone of the spine, and immersed it in water, but it was
not softened; he put it into the fire, but it was not consumed;
he put it into a mill, but it could not be pounded; he placed it
upon an anvil and struck it with a hammer, but the anvil split
and the hammer was broken. (See also Zohar in "Genesis," 206,
etc. etc.)

"A window shalt thou make to the ark" (Gen. vi. 16). Rabbi Amma says,
"It was a real window." Rabbi Levi, on the other hand, maintained that
it was a precious stone, and that during the twelve months Noah was in
the ark he had no need of the light of the sun by day nor of the moon by
night because of that stone, which he had kept suspended, and he knew
that it was day when it was dim, and night when it sparkled.

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 31.

The transparency, ascribed to the ark, has given rise to various
conjectures. The idea of Rabbi Levi, that it was a precious
stone, has the sanction of the Targum of Jonathan; which
volunteers the additional information that the gem was found in
the river Pison.

Noah was deficient in faith, for he did not enter the ark till the water
was up to his ankles.

Ibid., chap. 32.

"And he sent forth a raven" (Gen. viii. 7). The raven remonstrated,
remarking, "From all the cattle, beasts, and fowls thou sendest none but
me." "What need has the world for thee?" retorted Noah; "thou art good
neither for food nor for sacrifice." Rabbi Eliezer says God ordered Noah
to receive the raven, as the world would one day be in need of him.
"When?" asked Noah. "When the waters are dried up from off the earth,
there will in a time to come arise a certain righteous man who shall dry
up the world, and then I shall want it." This explains what is written
(1 Kings xvii. 6), "And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the
morning."

Ibid., chap. 33.

At the time God said to the serpent, "Upon thy belly thou shalt go"
(Gen. iii. 14), the ministering angels descended and lopped off his
hands and his feet. Then his voice was heard from one end of the world
to the other.

_Bereshith Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 20.

When God said to the serpent, "And upon thy belly thou shalt go" (Gen.
iii. 14), the serpent replied, "Lord of the universe! if this be Thy
will, then I shall be as a fish of the sea without feet." But when God
said to him, "And dust shalt thou eat," he replied, "If fish eat dust,
then I also will eat it." Then God seized hold of the serpent and tore
his tongue in two, and said, "O thou wicked one! thou hast commenced (to
sin) with thy evil tongue; thus I will proclaim it to all that come into
the world that it was thy tongue that caused thee all this."

_Letters of Rabbi Akiva._

"And Noah only remained" (Gen. vii. 23), except Og, king of Bashan, who
sat on a beam of the ladders (which projected from the ark), and swore
to Noah and his sons that he would be their slave forever. Noah made a
hole in the ark through which he handed to Og his daily food. Thus he
also remained, as it is said (Deut. iii. 11), "For only Og, king of
Bashan, remained."

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 23.

"Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins" (Gen. iii.
21), viz, to cover their nakedness; but with what? With fringes and
phylacteries, "Coats of skins," viz, the leathern straps of the
phylacteries; "and they sewed fig-leaves" (Gen. iii. 7), viz, fringes;
"and made themselves aprons," this means the proclaiming of the Shema,
"Hear, O Israel," etc.

_Yalkut Chadash._

The aprons, which some (as Rashi, for instance) take to denote
furs, the Targum of Jonathan says were made "from the skin of
the serpent." The wardrobe of Adam afterward came into the
possession of Esau and Jacob (see Targ. Yon. in Toledoth, and p.
199, No. 161, _ante_).

All the presents which our father Jacob gave to Esau will one day be
returned by the nations of the world to the Messiah, and the proof of
this is (Ps. lxxii. 10), "The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall
return presents." It is not written here, "They shall bring," but they
shall restore or return.

_Midrash Rabbah Vayishlach_, chap. 78.

A philosopher once posed Rabbi Eliezer with the question, "Does not the
prophet say (Mal. i. 4), 'They shall build, but I will throw down'? and
do not buildings still exist?" To which the Rabbi answered, "The prophet
does not speak of buildings, but of the schemes of designers. Ye all
think to contrive and build up devices, to destroy and make an end of
us, but He bringeth your counsels to nought. He throweth them down, so
that your devices against us have no effect." "By thy life," said the
philosopher, "it is even so; we meet annually for the purpose of
compassing your ruin, but a certain old man comes and upsets all your
projects" (namely, Elijah).

_Yalkut Malachi._

When Israel came out of Egypt, Samael rose to accuse them, and thus he
spoke: "Lord of the Universe! these have till now worshiped idols, and
art Thou going to divide the sea for such as they?" What did the Holy
One--blessed be He!--then do? Job, one of Pharaoh's high counselors, of
whom it is written (Job i. 1), "That man was perfect and upright," He
took and delivered to Samael, saying, as He did so, "Behold, he is in
thy hand; do with him as thou pleasest." God thought to divert his evil
designs by keeping him thus occupied with Job, that Israel meanwhile
might cross the sea without any hindrance, after which He would return
and rescue Job from his tender mercies. God then said to Moses, "Behold
I have delivered Job to Satan; make haste. Speak unto the children of
Israel that they go forward" (Exod. xiv. 15).

_Midrash Rabbah Shemoth_, chap. 21.

No man ever received a mite (in charity) from Job, and needed to receive
such a second time (because of the good-luck it brought along with it).

Ibid.

A superstitious belief prevails to some extent in Poland, among
the Christian population as well as the Jews, that coins
obtained in certain circumstances bring luck apart altogether
from any virtue they may be supposed to convey from the giver. A
penny obtained, for instance, the first thing in the morning, by
stumbling on it in the street, by the sale of an article in the
market, or by gift of charity, is considered to bode luck, and
cherished as a pledge of good fortune by being slightly spat
upon several times on receipt, and then carefully stowed away,
for a longer or shorter period, in some safe sanctum. Job was
the luckiest man that ever lived; his very goats even were so
lucky as to kill the wolves that came to devour them; and a
beggar, as we see, who received a mite from his hands, never
needed afterward to beg an alms from him again. (See "Genesis
according to the Talmud," p. 288, No. 16.)

"And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, etc.; for ye showed
kindness to all the children of Israel" (1 Sam. xv. 6). And did they
show kindness to all the children of Israel? No; but what is written is
to teach that he who receives a disciple of the wise as a guest into his
house, and gives him to eat and to drink, is as if he had shown kindness
to all the children of Israel.

_Midrash Sh'muel_, chap. 18.

Rabbi Levi says, "When Solomon introduced the ark into the Temple, all
the woodwork thereof freshened with sap and began to yield fruit, as it
is said (Ps. xcii. 13), 'Those that be planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God.' And thus it continued to bear
fruit, which abundantly supplied the juveniles of the priestly caste
till the time of Manasseh; but he, by introducing an image into the
Temple, caused the Shechinah to depart and the fruit to wither; as it is
said (Nah. i. 4), 'And the flower of Lebanon languisheth.'"

_Midrash Tillin Terumah._

The land of Israel is situated in the centre of the world, and Jerusalem
in the centre of the land of Israel, and the Temple in the centre of
Jerusalem, and the Holy of holies in the centre of the Temple, and the
foundation-stone on which the world was grounded, is situated in front
of the ark.

_Midrash Tillin Terumah, Kedoshim._

In Ezek. v. 5 we read, "I have set Jerusalem in the midst of the
nations and countries that are round about her." On the literal
interpretation of these words it was asserted that Jerusalem was
the very centre of the world, or, as Jerome quaintly called it,
"the navel of the earth." In the Talmud we find a beautiful
metaphor in illustration of this view. It is in the last six
lines of the ninth chapter of Derech Eretz Zuta, which read
thus: "Issi ben Yochanan, in the name of Shemuel Hakaton, says,
'The world is like the eyeball of man; the white is the ocean
which surrounds the world, the black is the world itself, the
pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the Temple.
May it be built in our own days, and in the days of all Israel!
Amen!'" The memory of this conceit is kept alive to this day
among the Greek Christians, who still show the sacred stone in
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. This notion is
not confined to Jewry. Classic readers will at once call to mind
the appellation Omphalos or navel applied to the temple at
Delphi (Pindar, Pyth., iv. 131, vi. 3; Eurip. Ion., 461; AEsch.
Choeph., 1034; Eum. 40, 167; Strabo, etc.).

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