d upon me, they
might have added much to their knowledge of the law, but now that
knowledge will perish with me. I have in my time learned much and taught
much, and yet I have no more diminished the knowledge of my Rabbis by
what I have derived from them than the waters of the sea are reduced by
a dog lapping them. Over and above this I expounded three hundred," some
allege he said three thousand, "Halachahs with reference to the growing
of Egyptian cucumbers, and yet no one except Akiva ben Yoseph has ever
proposed a single question to me respecting them. He and I were walking
along the road one day when he asked me to instruct him regarding the
cultivation of Egyptian cucumbers. I made but one remark, when the
entire field became full of them. Then at his request I made a remark
about cutting them, when lo! they all collected themselves together in
one spot." Thus Rabbi Eliezer kept on talking, when all of a sudden he
fell back and expired.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 68, col. 1.

The last words of this eminent Rabbi derive a tragic interest
from the fact that he died while under sentence of
excommunication.

Three thousand Halachoth were forgotten at the time of mourning for
Moses, and among them the Halachah respecting an animal intended for a
sin-offering the owner of which died before sacrificing it.

_Temurah_, fol. 16, col. 1.

All the prophets were rich men. This we infer from the account of Moses,
Samuel, Amos, and Jonah. Of Moses, as it is written (Num. xvi. 15), "I
have not taken one ass from them." Of Samuel, as it is written (1 Sam.
xii. 3), "Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord, and
before His anointed, whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken?"
Of Amos, as it is written (Amos vii. 14), "I was an herdsman and a
gatherer of sycamore fruit," i.e., I am proprietor of my herds and own
sycamores in the valley. Of Jonah, as it is written (Jonah i. 3), "So he
paid the fare thereof and went down into it." Rabbi Yochanan says he
hired the whole ship. Rabbi Rumanus says the hire of the ship amounted
to four thousand golden denarii.

_Nedarim_, fol. 38, col. 1.

Four thousand two hundred and thirty-one years after the creation of the
world, if any one offers thee for one single denarius a field worth a
thousand denarii, do not buy it.

_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 9, col. 2.

Rashi gives this as the reason of the prohibition: For then the
restoration of the Jews to their own l