observed a pair, but there he met the ministering angels
disguised as men, grinding date-stones. He asked them for the scissors,
but they said "Grind thou first a measure of date-stones, and then thou
shalt have the scissors." He did as he was told, and so obtained the
scissors. It was dark before he returned, and God said unto him, "Go and
fetch some fire." This also he did, but while blowing the embers his
beard was singed. Upon which God came and shaved his head and his beard,
and said, "This is it which is written (Isa. vii. 20), 'It shall also
consume the beard.'" Rav Pappa says this is the proverb current among
the people, "Singe the face of a Syrian, and, if it pleases him, also
set his beard in fire, and thou wilt not be able to laugh enough."

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 95, col. 2, and fol. 96, col. 1.

"He hath cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel," etc. (Lam.
ii. 3). These are the eighty thousand war-horns or battering-rams that
entered the city of Byther, in which he massacred so many men, women,
and children, that their blood ran like a river and flowed into the
Mediterranean Sea, which was a mile away from the place.

_Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 1.

That mule had a label attached to his neck on which it was stated that
its breeding cost a hundred thousand zouzim.

_Bechoroth_, fol. 8, col. 2.

Rabbi Yossi said, "I have seen Sepphoris (Cyprus) in the days of its
prosperity, and there were in it a hundred and eighty thousand marts for
sauces."

_Bava Bathra_, fol. 75, col. 2.

Rav Assi said three hundred thousand swordsmen went up to the Royal
Mount and there slaughtered the people for three days and three nights,
and yet while on the one side of the mount they were mourning, on the
other they were merry; those on the one side did not know the affairs of
those on the other.

_Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 1.

A certain disciple prayed before Rabbi Chanina, and said, "O God! who
art great, mighty, formidable, magnificent, strong, terrible, valiant,
powerful, real and honored!" He waited until he had finished, and then
said to him, "Hast thou ended all the praises of thy God? Need we
enumerate so many? As for us, even the three terms of praise which we
usually repeat, we should not dare to utter had not Moses, our master,
pronounced them in the law (Deut. x. 17), and had not the men of the
Great Synagogue ordained them for prayer; and yet thou hast repeated so
many and still seemest inclined to go on. I