g the weasel it is written (2 Kings xxii. 15), "Tell
the man that sent you," whereas she should have said, "Tell the king."

_Meggillah_, fol. 14, col. 2.

If speech is worth one sela (a small coin so called), silence is worth
two.

Ibid., fol. 18, col. 1.

The Swiss motto, "Speech is worth silver, silence worth gold,"
expresses a sentiment which finds great favor with the authors
and varied expression in the pages of the Talmud.

If silence be good for wise men, how much better must it be for fools!

_P'sachim_, fol. 98, col. 2.

For every evil silence is the best remedy.

_Meggillah_, fol. 18, col. 1.

Silence is as good as confession.

_Yevamoth_, fol. 87, col. 1.

Silence in a Babylonian was a mark of his being of good family.

_Kiddushin_, fol. 71, col. 2.

Simeon, the son of Gamliel, said, "I have been brought up all my life
among the wise, and I have never found anything of more material benefit
than silence."

_Avoth_, chap. 1.

Rabbi Akiva said, "Laughter and levity lead a man to lewdness; but
tradition is a fence to the law, tithes are a fence to riches, vows are
a fence to abstinence, while the fence of wisdom is silence."

Ibid., chap. 3.

When they opened his brain, they found in it a gnat as big as a swallow
and weighing two selas.

_Gittin_, fol. 56, col. 2.

The context of the above states a tradition current among the
Jews in reference to Titus, the destroyer of Jerusalem. It is
said that when, after taking the city, he had shamefully
violated and profaned the Temple, he took the sacred vessels of
the sanctuary, wrapped them in the veil of the holy place, and
sailed with them to Rome. At sea a storm arose and threatened to
sink the ship; upon which he was heard reflecting, "It seems the
God of these Jews has no power anywhere but at sea. Pharaoh He
drowned, and Sisera He drowned, and now He is about to drown me
also. If He be mighty, let Him go ashore and contend with me
there." Then came a voice from heaven and said, "O thou wicked
one, son of a wicked man and grandson of Esau the wicked, go
ashore. I have a creature--an insignificant one in my world--go
and fight with it."

This creature was a gnat, and is called insignificant because it
must receive and discharge what it eats by one aperture.
Immediately, therefore, he landed, when a gnat flew up his
nostrils and made its way to his brain,