ss the world sustains in its ignorance of
the trees of the Talmud? What a sapling in comparison with this
giant cedar of Lebanon must the far-famed Mammoth tree have been
which was lately cut down in California, and was the largest
known to the present generation!

Rabbi Yochanan plaintively records, "I remember the time when a young
man and a young woman sixteen or seventeen years of age could walk
together in the streets and no harm came of it."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 91, col. 2.

On the deposition of Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was
chosen as his successor to the presidential chair of the academy. On
being told of his elevation, he consulted with his wife as to whether or
not he should accept the appointment. "What if they should depose thee
also?" asked his wife. He replied, "Use the precious bowl while thou
hast it, even if it be broken the next." But she rejoined, "Thou art
only eighteen years old, and how canst thou at such an age expect folks
to venerate thee?" By a miracle eighteen of his locks turned suddenly
gray, so that he could say, "I am as one of seventy."

_Berachoth_, fol. 27, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that Shimon Happikoli had arranged the eighteen
benedictions before Rabbon Gamliel at Javneh. Rabbon Gamliel appealed to
the sages, "Is there not a man who knows how to compose an imprecation
against the Sadducees?" Then Samuel the Little stood up and extemporized
it.

Ibid., fol. 28, col. 2.

The "imprecation against the Sadducees" stands twelfth among the
collects of the Shemoneh Esreh. It is popularly known as
"Velama-leshinim" from its opening words, and is given thus in
modern Ashkenazi liturgies:--"Oh, let the slanderers have no
hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the
tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble
Thou them quickly in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who
destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants." There has been much
misconception with regard to this collect against heretics.
There is every reason to believe it was composed without any
reference whatever to the Christians. One point of interest,
however, in connection with it is worth relating here. Some have
sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the
Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew
name, Saul. They take Paulus as equal to _pusillus_, which means