alem.
He was so poor he could not fee the porter of the college. So he used to
listen at the window. One bitter winter's night he became insensible from
cold, and the snow falling fast covered him up. The darkened window called
the attention of those inside to his form without. He was then brought in,
and soon restored to life. It is said that afterward "he had eighty
scholars: thirty of them were fit that the divine glory should rest upon
them, as it did upon Moses--thirty others were worthy that the sun should
stand still for them, as it did for Joshua--and twenty were of a form
between."

By a sort of legal fiction both schools are supposed to be of equal
authority. A Bath Kol(5) or holy echo, supplying the place of departed
Urim and Thummim, and of oracles long since silent, is related to have
established it. "There came forth a divine voice at Jabneh and said, The
words of the one and of the other are the words of the living God, but the
certain determination of the thing is according to the School of Hillel,
and whosoever transgresseth against the words of the School of Hillel
deserves death." Both schools were Pharisees, but the School of Shammai
was the straiter sect. Seven different shades of character have been
attributed to the Pharisees of that age: there were those who served God
from selfishness--those who did it gradually--those who avoided the sight of
women--saints in office--those who asked you to name some duty which they
ought to perform--those who were pious from fear of God--and those who were
pious from love of Him. Popular opinion differed with regard to them. Some
said, "If only two men be saved, one must be a Pharisee"; while others
defined a Pharisee to be "one who wished to play the part of Zimri, and to
claim the reward of Phinehas." The great opponents of the Pharisees were
the Sadducees, who arose B.C. 300, and were followers of Baithos and
Sadok. Their rivals on the other side were the Mehestanites, who returned
from the Captivity versed in the doctrines of Zoroaster--in astrology, and
in the influences of good and bad spirits. To these might be added the
Misraimites, who studied the Kabbala, specially in reference to the forms
of letters. The letter Koph, for example, has its curved part severed from
its stem, and thus teaches that "the door of mercy is always open to the
penitent." The numerical value of the letters of Messiah and Nachash
(serpent) is the same, and this teaches that "the