et the Babylonian Talmud.

_Bava Metzia_, fol. 85, col. 1.

This passage, as also that on another page, will appear
surprising to many a reader, as we confess it does to ourselves.
We must, however, give the Talmud great credit for recording
such passages, and also the custodians of the Talmud for not
having expunged them from its pages.

"Ye shall hear the small as well as the great" (Deut. i. 17). Resh
Lakish said, "A lawsuit about a prutah (the smallest coin there is)
should be esteemed of as much account as a suit of a hundred manahs."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 8, col. 1.

Rav Yitzchak asks, "Why was Obadiah accounted worthy to be a prophet?"
Because, he answers, he concealed a hundred prophets in a cave; as it is
said (1 Kings xviii. 4), "When Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord,
Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave." Why by
fifties? Rabbi Eliezer explains, "He copied the plan from Jacob, who
said, 'If Esau come to one company and smite it, then the other company
which is left may escape.'" Rabbi Abuhu says, "It was because the caves
would not hold any more."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 39, col. 2.

"And it came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham" (Gen.
xxii. 1). After what things? Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Rabbi Yossi
ben Zimra, replies, "After the words of Satan, who said, 'Lord of the
Universe! Thou didst bestow a son upon that old man when he was a
hundred years of age, and yet he spared not a single dove from the
festival to sacrifice to Thee.' God replied, 'Did he not make this
festival for the sake of his son? and yet I know he would not refuse to
sacrifice that son at my command.' To prove this, God did put Abraham to
the test, saying unto him, 'Take now thy son;' just as an earthly king
might say to a veteran warrior who had conquered in many a hard-fought
battle, 'Fight, I pray thee, this severest battle of all, lest it should
be said that thy previous encounters were mere haphazard skirmishes.'
Thus did the Holy One--blessed be He!--address Abraham, 'I have tried
thee in various ways, and not in vain either; stand this test also, for
fear it should be insinuated that the former trials were trivial and
therefore easily overcome. Take thy son.' Abraham replied, 'I have two
sons.' 'Take thine only son.' Abraham answered, 'Each is the only son of
his mother.' 'Take him whom thou lovest.' 'I love both of them,' said
Abraham. 'Take Isaac.' Thus