rs, as "when there is a good government it
is not quickly dissolved." It is also said that He shall die, and His
kingdom descend to His son and grandson. In proof of this opinion Isaiah
xlii. 4 is quoted: "He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till He have
set judgment in the earth." The lives of men will be prolonged for
centuries: "He will swallow up death in victory" (Is. xxv. 8); and "the
child shall die an hundred years old" (Is. lxv. 20). The Talmud applies
the former verse to Israel, the latter verse to the Gentiles. The men of
that time will be two hundred ells high. This is said to be proved by the
word "upright" (Lev. xxvi. 13), "upright" being applied to the supposed
height of man before the fall. "Moreover the light of the moon shall be as
the light of the sun; and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the
light of seven days" (Is. xxx. 26). The land of Israel will produce cakes
and clothes of the finest wool. The wheat will grow on Lebanon as high as
palm-trees; and a wind will be sent from God to reduce it to fine flour
for the support of those who gather it; as it is said "with the fat of
kidneys of wheat" (Deut. xxxii. 14). Each kidney will be as large as "the
kidneys of the fattest oxen." To prove that this is nothing wonderful, an
account is given of a rape seed in which a fox once brought forth young.
These young ones were weighed, and found to be as heavy as sixty pounds of
Cyprus weight. Lest these statements should be thought a contradiction of
the verse "_There_ is no new _thing_ under the sun" (Eccles. i. 9), the
Rabbis say that it is just like the growth of mushrooms, toadstools, and
the delicate mosses on the branches of trees. Grapes will also grow most
luxuriantly; and in every cluster there will be thirty jars of wine.
Jerusalem will be built three miles high; as it is written, "It shall be
lifted up" (Zech. xiv. 10). The gates of the city will be made of pearls
and precious stones, thirty ells high and thirty ells broad. A disciple of
the Rabbis once doubted whether precious stones could be found so large;
and shortly afterward, he saw an angel with similar stones, as he was out
at sea. On his return to land he related what he had seen to Rabbi
Jochanan. Whereupon the Rabbi said, "Thou fool, if thou hadst not seen,
thou hadst not believed; thou mockest the words of the wise." He then
"lifted up his eyes upon him, and he was made an heap of bones."

Said R. Samuel, the son of Nachman, R