embroidered robe of Adam, and had bad luck in consequence. Then
Jacob borrowed the left-off garment, and kept it for himself.
The mask alluded to is accounted for thus:--The daughter of a
Roman emperor took a fancy to have the skin of Rabbi Ishmael's
face, and it accordingly, when he was dead, was taken off, and
so embalmed as to retain its features, expression, and
complexion, and the Jews say that it is still preserved among
the relics at Rome. The able-bodied man in this prophetic
mystery-play represents Esau, and the limping man is intended
for Jacob. Rome (or Esau) is uppermost in that ceremonial, but
the time is coming when Jacob will rise and invest himself in
the blessings he so craftily obtained the reversion of.

Rabbi Yochanan said:--None were elected to sit in the High Council of
the Sanhedrin except men of stature, of wisdom, of imposing appearance,
and of mature age; men who knew witchcraft and seventy languages, in
order that the High Council of the Sanhedrin should have no need of an
interpreter.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 17, col. 1.

Yehudah and Chiskiyah, the sons of Rabbi Cheyah, once sat down to a meal
before Rabbi (the Holy) without speaking a word. "Give the boys some
wine," said Rabbi, "that they may have boldness to speak." When they had
partaken of the wine, they said, "The son of David will not come until
the two patriarchal houses of Israel are no more," that is, the head of
the Captivity in Babylon and the Prince in the land of Israel; for it is
written (Isa. viii. 14), "And he shall be for a sanctuary, and for a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel."
"Why, children," said Rabbi (who was patriarch of Tiberias), "you are
thrusting thorns into my eyes." Rabbi Cheyah said, "Do not be offended
at them. Wine is given with seventy, and so is a secret (the numerical
value of each of these words is seventy); when wine enters the secret
oozes out."

Ibid., fol. 38, col. 1.

A certain star appears once in seventy years and deceives the sailors
(who guide their vessels by the position of the heavenly bodies; and
this star appears sometimes in the north and sometimes in the
south.--_Rashi_.)

_Horayoth_, fol. 10, col. 1.

As eating olive berries causes one to forget things that he has known
for seventy years, so olive oil brings back to the memory things which
happened seventy years before.

Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2,

The