this the Rabbi both refused to take the basket of grapes, though they
were really his own, and declined to act as judge in the process. He,
however, appointed two Rabbis to judge the case in his stead, and while
they were investigating the evidence in the litigation he kept pacing up
and down, and saying to himself, if the gardener were sharp he might say
so-and-so in his own behalf. He was at one time on the point of speaking
in defense of his gardener, when he checked himself and said, "The
receivers of bribes may well look to their souls. If I feel partial who
have not even taken a bribe of what was my own, how perverted must the
disposition of those become who receive bribes at the hands of others!"

_Kethuboth_, fol. 105, col. 1.

The judge who takes a bribe only provokes wrath, instead of allaying it;
for is it not said (Prov. xxi. 14), "A reward in the bosom bringeth
strong wrath"?

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Let judges know with whom and before whom they judge, and who it is that
will one day exact account of their judgments; for it is said (Ps.
lxxxii. 1), "God standeth in the assembly of God, and judgeth with the
judges."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 6, col. 2.

A judge who does not judge justly causeth the Shechinah to depart from
Israel; for it is said (Ps. xii. 5), "For the oppression of the poor,
the sighing of the needy, now will I depart, saith the Lord."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

The judge should ever regard himself as if he had a sword laid upon his
thigh, and Gehenna were yawning near him; as it is said (Solomon's Song,
iii. 7, 8), "Behold the bed of Solomon (the judgment-seat of God),
threescore valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all
hold swords, being expert in war (with injustice). Every one has his
sword upon his thigh, for fear of the night" (the confusion that would
follow).

_Yevamoth_, fol. 109, col. 2; _Sanhedrin_, fol. 7, col. 1.

Seven have, in the popular regard, no portion in the world to come: a
notary, a schoolmaster, the best of doctors, a judge in his native
place, a conjuror, a congregational reader, and a butcher.

_Avoth d' Rabbi Nathan_, chap. 36.

WITNESSES.

An ignoramus is ineligible for a witness.

The following are ineligible as witnesses of the appearance of the new
moon:--Dice-players, usurers, pigeon-fliers, sellers of the produce of
the year of release, and slaves. This is the general rule; in any case
in which women are inadmissibl