st commenced (to
sin) with thy evil tongue; thus I will proclaim it to all that come into
the world that it was thy tongue that caused thee all this."

_Letters of Rabbi Akiva._

"And Noah only remained" (Gen. vii. 23), except Og, king of Bashan, who
sat on a beam of the ladders (which projected from the ark), and swore
to Noah and his sons that he would be their slave forever. Noah made a
hole in the ark through which he handed to Og his daily food. Thus he
also remained, as it is said (Deut. iii. 11), "For only Og, king of
Bashan, remained."

_Pirke d'Rab. Eliezer_, chap. 23.

"Unto Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins" (Gen. iii.
21), viz, to cover their nakedness; but with what? With fringes and
phylacteries, "Coats of skins," viz, the leathern straps of the
phylacteries; "and they sewed fig-leaves" (Gen. iii. 7), viz, fringes;
"and made themselves aprons," this means the proclaiming of the Shema,
"Hear, O Israel," etc.

_Yalkut Chadash._

The aprons, which some (as Rashi, for instance) take to denote
furs, the Targum of Jonathan says were made "from the skin of
the serpent." The wardrobe of Adam afterward came into the
possession of Esau and Jacob (see Targ. Yon. in Toledoth, and p.
199, No. 161, _ante_).

All the presents which our father Jacob gave to Esau will one day be
returned by the nations of the world to the Messiah, and the proof of
this is (Ps. lxxii. 10), "The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall
return presents." It is not written here, "They shall bring," but they
shall restore or return.

_Midrash Rabbah Vayishlach_, chap. 78.

A philosopher once posed Rabbi Eliezer with the question, "Does not the
prophet say (Mal. i. 4), 'They shall build, but I will throw down'? and
do not buildings still exist?" To which the Rabbi answered, "The prophet
does not speak of buildings, but of the schemes of designers. Ye all
think to contrive and build up devices, to destroy and make an end of
us, but He bringeth your counsels to nought. He throweth them down, so
that your devices against us have no effect." "By thy life," said the
philosopher, "it is even so; we meet annually for the purpose of
compassing your ruin, but a certain old man comes and upsets all your
projects" (namely, Elijah).

_Yalkut Malachi._

When Israel came out of Egypt, Samael rose to accuse them, and thus he
spoke: "Lord of the Universe! these have till now worshiped idols, and
art Thou goi