travels, to hear the noise of an
earthquake just as he came opposite to the abode of one who was wont to
conjure with human bones. Happening to mutter aloud to himself as he
passed, "Does the conjurer really know what that noise is?" a voice
answered, "Ketina, Ketina, why shouldn't I know? When the Holy
One--blessed be He!--thinks of His children who dwell in sorrowful
circumstances among the nations of the earth, He lets fall two tears
into the great sea, and His voice is heard from one end of the world to
the other, and that is the rumbling noise we hear." Upon which Rav
Ketina protested, "The conjurer is a liar, his words are not true; they
might have been true, had there been two rumbling noises." The fact was,
two such noises were heard, but Rav Ketina would not acknowledge it,
lest, by so doing, he should increase the popularity of the conjurer.
Rav Ketina is of the opinion that the rumbling noise is caused by God
clapping His hands together, as it is said (Ezek. xxi, 22; A.V., ver.
17), "I will also smite My hands together, and I will cause My fury to
rest."

_Berachoth_, fol. 59, col. 1.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah proclaimed this anathema with the blast of
three hundred trumpets:--"Whoever shall take drink from the hand of a
bride, no matter whether she be the daughter of a disciple of the wise
or the daughter of an Amhaaretz, it is all one as if he drunk it from
the hand of a harlot." Again, it is said, "He who receives a cup from
the hands of a bride and drinks it therefrom, has no portion whatever in
the world to come."

_Tract Calah._

There was a place for collecting the ashes in the middle of the altar,
and there were at times in it nearly as much as three hundred cors
(equal to about 2830 bushels) of ashes. On Rava remarking that this must
be an exaggeration, Rav Ammi said the law, the prophets, and the sages
are wont to use hyperbolical language. Thus the law speaks of "Cities
great and walled up to heaven" (Deut. i. 28); the prophets speak of "the
earth rent with the sound of them" (1 Kings i. 40); the sages speak as
above and also as follows. There was a golden vine at the entrance of
the Temple, trailing on crystals, on which devotees who could used to
suspend offerings of fruit and grape clusters. "It happened once," said
Rabbi Elazer ben Rabbi Zadoc, "that three hundred priests were counted
off to clear the vine of the offerings."

_Chullin_, fol. 90, col. 2.

Three hundred priests were told