the Holy One--blessed
be He!--of executing judgment without justice?" "Well," said Rav Hunna,
"if you have heard anything against me, don't conceal it." "It has been
reported to us," said they, "that the master has withheld the gardener's
share of the prunings." "What else, pray, did he leave me?" retorted Rav
Hunna; "he has stolen all the produce of my vineyard." They replied,
"There is a saying that whoever steals from a thief smells of theft."
"Then," said he, "I hereby promise to give him his share." Thereupon,
according to some, the vinegar turned to wine again; and, according to
others, the price of vinegar rose to the price of wine.

_Berachoth_, fol. 5, col. 2.

Rav Adda bar Ahavah once saw a Gentile woman in the market-place wearing
a red head-dress, and supposing that she was a daughter of Israel, he
impatiently tore it off her head. For this outrage he was fined a fine
of four hundred zouzim. He asked the woman what her name was, and she
replied, "My name is Mathan." "Methun, Methun," he wittily rejoined, "is
worth four hundred zouzim."

Ibid., fol. 20, col. 1.

Methun means patience and Mathan two hundred. The point lies
either in the application of the term Methun, which means
patience, as if to say, had he been so patient as to have first
ascertained what the woman was, he would have saved his four
hundred zouzim; or in the identity of the sound Mathan, i.e.,
two hundred, which doubled, equals four hundred. This has long
since passed into a proverb, and expresses the value of
patience.

From the foregoing extract it would seem that it was not the
fashion among Jewish females to wear head-dresses of a red
color, as it was presumed to indicate a certain lightness on the
part of the wearer; so Rav Adda in his pious zeal thought he was
doing a good work in tearing it off from the head of the
supposed Jewess. "Patience, patience is worth four hundred
zouzim."

Custom among the Jews had then, as now, the force of religion.
The Talmud says, "A man should never deviate from a settled
custom. Moses ascended on high and did not eat bread (for there
it is not the custom); angels came down to earth and did eat
bread (for here it is the custom so to do)." Bava Metzia, fol.
86, col. 2.

In the olden time it was not the fashion for a Jew to wear black
shoes (Taanith, fol. 22, col. 1). Even now, in Poland, a pious
J