im that He had prepared a prayer for them, by which, as often
as they read it, He would be propitiated and would pardon all their
sins.

_Meggillah_, fol. 31, col. 2.

He was punished by his posterity being compelled to serve the Egyptians
two hundred and ten years, because he had pressed the Rabbis under his
tuition into military service in the expedition he had undertaken to
recover Lot from those who had carried him off captive; for it is
written (Gen. xiv. 14), "He armed his instructed." Samuel says Abraham
was punished because he perversely distrusted the assurance of God; as
it is written (Gen. xv. 8), "Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit
it?"

_Nedarim_, fol. 31, col. 2.

Abraham was thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod, and God would not
permit Gabriel to rescue him, but did so Himself; because God is One and
Abraham was one, therefore it behooved the One to rescue the one.

_P'sachim_, fol. 118, col. 1.

The fire from which Abraham is here said to be delivered may
simply refer to his deliverance by the hand of God from Ur of
the Chaldees; Ur meaning "fire," and being the name of a place
celebrated for fire worship. The Midrash (p. 20) says, "When the
wicked Nimrod cast Abraham into the furnace, Gabriel said, 'Lord
of the universe! permit me to deliver this holy one from the
fire!' But the Lord made answer, 'I am the One Supreme in my
world, and he is supreme in his; it is fitting therefore that
the Supreme should rescue the supreme.'"

Abraham was a giant of giants; his height was as that of seventy-four
men put together. His food, his drink, and his strength were in the
proportion of seventy-four men's to one man's. He built an iron city for
the abode of his seventeen children by Keturah, the walls of which were
so lofty that the sun never penetrated them: he gave them a bowl full of
precious stones, the brilliancy of which supplied them with light in the
absence of the sun.

_Sophrim_, chap. 21.

Abraham our father had a precious stone suspended from his neck, and
every sick person that gazed upon it was immediately healed of his
disease. But when Abraham died, God hung up the stone on the sphere of
the sun.

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 16, col. 2.

Till Abraham's time there was no such thing as a beard; but as many
mistook Abraham for Isaac, and Isaac for Abraham, they looked so exactly
alike, Abraham prayed to God for a beard to enable people to distinguish