Hebrew Literature. Various

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ east to west, and let him go and stand with one leg on each side of it, and let him take with his right hand some mud from under his left foot, and with his left hand from under his right foot, and let him twist two threads of wool, and dip them in the mud, and put them into his nose.” If a man be bitten by a mad dog he must die, unless some remedy be found for him. “Abai says he must take the skin of a male adder, and write upon it, ‘I, M, the son of the woman N, upon the skin of a male adder, write against thee, Kanti Kanti Klirus, but some say, Kandi Kandi Klurus, Lord of Hosts. Amen. Selah.’ Let him also cast off his clothes, and bury them in a graveyard for twelve months of a year; then let him take them up, and burn them in a furnace, and let him strew the ashes at the parting of the roads. And during these twelve months let him only drink out of a brass tube, lest he see the phantom form of the demon, and he be endangered. This was done by Abba, the son of Martha—he is Abba, the son of Manjumi. His mother made him a tube of gold.”

      Magic naturally follows from such teaching. Abba Benjamin says, “If leave had been given to see the hurtful demons, no creature could stand before them.” Abbai says, “They are more than we are, and stand against us, like the trench round a garden bed.” Rav Huni says, “Everyone has a thousand on his left hand, and ten thousand on his right hand.” Rabba says, “The want of room at the sermon is from them, the [pg 020] wearing out of the Rabbis' clothes is from their rubbing against them, bruised legs are from them.” “Whosoever wishes to know their existence, let him take ashes passed through a sieve, and strew them in his bed, and in the morning he will see the marks of a cock's claws. Whosoever wishes to see them, let him take the inner covering of a black cat, the kitten of a first-born black cat, which is also the kitten of a first-born, and let him burn it in the fire, and powder it, and fill his eyes with it, and he will see them. And let him pour the powder into an iron tube, and seal it with an iron signet, lest they steal any of it, and let him seal the mouth of it, lest any harm ensue. Rav Bibi bar Abbai did thus, and he was harmed, but the Rabbis prayed for mercy, and he was healed.” Arts of sorcery are attributed to the Rabbis. They are represented as having the power to create both men and melons. One of them is said to have changed a woman into an ass, and ridden the ass to market, when another sorcerer changed the ass again into a woman.

      This sorcery is traced to Abraham, who is said (Gen. xxv. 6) to have given his sons gifts. These gifts are stated to have been the arts of sorcery. Legends abound everywhere throughout the Talmud. Rabbi Judah said, Rav said, “Everything that God created in the world, He created male and female. And thus he did with leviathan, the piercing serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent. He created them male and female; but if they had been joined together they would have desolated the whole world. What then did the Holy One do? He enervated the male leviathan, and slew the female, and salted her for the righteous in the time to come, for it is said, ‘And He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea’ (Isa. xxvii. 1). Likewise, with regard to behemoth upon a thousand mountains, He created them male and female; but if they had been joined together they would have desolated the whole world. What then did the Holy One do? He enervated the male behemoth, and made the female barren, and preserved her for the righteous in the time to come. That period is to be a season of great feasting. The liquor to be drunk will be apple-wine of more than seventy years old. The cup of David alone will hold one hundred and twenty-one logs. It is related that a Rabbi once saw in a desert a flock of geese [pg 021] so fat that their feathers fell off, and the rivers flowed in fat. He said to them, ‘Shall we have part of you in the world to come?’ One of them lifted up a wing and another a leg, to signify the parts we shall have. We should otherwise have had all parts of these geese, but that their sufferings are owing to us. It is our iniquities that have delayed the coming of the Messiah, and these geese suffer greatly by reason of their excessive fat, which daily increases, and will increase till the Messiah comes.”

      Rabba bar Chama says that he once saw “a bird so tall, that its head reached to the sky and its legs to the bottom of the ocean.” The water in which it stood was so deep that a carpenter's axe which had fallen in seven years before had not then reached the bottom. He also saw “a frog as large as a village containing sixty houses.” This frog was swallowed up by a serpent, and this serpent in turn by a crow; this crow flew, and perched upon a cedar, and this cedar was as broad as sixteen wagons abreast. There is also an account of a fish which was killed by a worm. This fish, when driven ashore, destroyed sixty cities, and sixty cities ate of it, and sixty cities salted it, and with its bones the ruined cities were rebuilt. Stories are also told of fishes with eyes like the moon, and of horned fishes three hundred miles in length. These stories are intended to confirm the text, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep” (Ps. cvii. 23, 24). To illustrate the statement of Amos (iii. 8), a story is told of a lion which one of the Cæsars wished to see. At 400 miles distance he roared, and the walls of Rome fell. At 300 miles he again roared, and all the people fell on their backs, and their teeth fell out, and Cæsar fell off his throne. Cæsar then prayed for his removal to a safer distance.

      The Talmud informs us that “a young unicorn, one day old, is as large as Mount Tabor.” Consequently Noah had great difficulty in saving an old one alive. He could not get it into the ark, so he bound it by its horn to the side of the ark. At the same time Og, King of Bashan (being one of the antediluvians), was saved by riding on its back. We are further informed that he was one of the giants who came from the intermarriage of angels with the daughters of men. [pg 022] His footsteps were forty miles long, and one of his teeth served to make a couch for Abraham. When the Israelites came against him under the command of Moses, he inquired the size of their camp, and hearing that it was three miles in extent he tore up a mountain of that size, to hurl it upon them. Grasshoppers were, however, sent to bore holes in it, so that it fell over his head on to his neck. His teeth also grew and were entangled in the rocks, as the Psalmist says, “Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly” (Ps. iii. 7). He is also said to be identical with Eliezer the servant of Abraham, and to have been, like Enoch, translated to Paradise. This account, however, differs widely from the statements of the Jerusalem Targum on the Book of Numbers (xxi. 34).

      The Talmud affirms that Adam was made from dust of all parts of the earth; and that he was created with two faces, as it is written, “Thou hast beset me behind and before” (Ps. cxxxix. 5). The Rabbis further state that he was formed in two parts, one male and one female. His height before his fall reached to the firmament, but after his fall God put his hand upon him, and compressed him small. In the tenth hour after he was made, he sinned; and in the twelfth he was driven out of Paradise. Abraham is said to have put Sarah into a box when he brought her into Egypt, that none should see her beauty. At the custom-house toll was demanded. Abraham said he was ready to pay. The custom-house officers said, “Thou bringest clothes.” He said, “I will pay for clothes.” They said, “Thou bringest gold.” He said, “I will pay for gold.” They said, “Thou bringest silk.” He said, “I will pay for silk.” They said, “Thou bringest pearls.” He said, “I will pay for pearls.” They said, “Thou must open the box,” whereupon her splendor shone over the whole land of Egypt.

      Abraham, it is also said, had a precious stone hung around his throat, on which when the sick looked they were healed. Some of the laws of Sodom are also recorded: “Whosoever cut off the ears of another's ass received the ass till his ears grew again.” “Whosoever wounded another, the man wounded was obliged to pay him for letting his blood.” When the judges of Sodom attempted to fine Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, because another man had wounded him, he took [pg 023] up a stone and flung it at the judge. He then bid the judge to pay the fine, which was now due to him for letting his blood, to the man who had first wounded him. There was a public bed in Sodom, and every stranger was obliged to lie in it. If his legs were too long for it, they were cut off; and if too short, they were racked out to the proper length. When a traveller came, each citizen, to show his hospitality, was obliged to give him a coin with his name written upon it. The traveller was then deprived of bread; and when he had died of starvation, the citizens came, and each one took back his own money. The Sodomites thus kept up their character for liberality.

      At the giving of the Law the Israelites stood at the lower part of the СКАЧАТЬ