e daughters of my
city."

Ibid., fol. 58, col 1.

The total population of Byther must have been something enormous
when the children in it amounted to 64,000,000! The elementary
teachers alone came to 160,000.

Once when the Hasmonean kings were engaged in civil war it happened that
Hyrcanus was outside Jerusalem and Aristobulus within. Every day the
besieged let down a box containing gold denarii, and received in return
lambs for the daily sacrifices. There chanced to be an old man in the
city who was familiar with the wisdom of the Greeks, and he hinted to
the besiegers in the Greek language that so long as the Temple services
were kept up the city could not be taken. The next day accordingly, when
the money had been let down, they sent back a pig in return. When about
half-way up the animal pushed with its feet against the stones of the
wall, and thereupon an earthquake was felt throughout the land of Israel
to the extent of four hundred miles. At that time it was the saying
arose, "Cursed be he that rears swine, and he who shall teach his son
the wisdom of the Greeks." (See Matt. viii. 30.)

_Soteh_, fol. 49, col. 2.

If one strikes his neighbor with his fist, he must pay him one sela; if
he slaps his face, he is to pay two hundred zouzim; but for a
back-handed slap the assailant is to pay four hundred zouzim. If he
pulls the ear of another, or plucks his hair, or spits upon him, or
pulls off his mantle, or tears a woman's head-dress off in the street,
in each of these cases he is fined four hundred zouzim.

_Bava Kama_, fol. 90, col. 1.

There was once a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and the Mishnic sages as
to whether a baking-oven, constructed from certain materials and of a
particular shape, was clean or unclean. The former decided that it was
clean, but the latter were of a contrary opinion. Having replied to all
the objections the sages had brought against his decision, and finding
that they still refused to acquiesce, the Rabbi turned to them and said,
"If the Halacha (the law) is according to my decision, let this
carob-tree attest." Whereupon the carob-tree rooted itself up and
transplanted itself to a distance of one hundred, some say four hundred,
yards from the spot. But the sages demurred and said, "We cannot admit
the evidence of a carob-tree." "Well, then," said Rabbi Eliezer, "let
this running brook be a proof;" and the brook at once reversed its
natural course and flowed back. T