deliverance from a watery grave, he was free to do as he liked.  One day, being ministered to by them after a night’s perspiration of the kind referred to, he went straight to college, and there decided sixty doubtful cases against the unanimous dissent of the assembly.  Providential circumstances, which happened afterward, both proved that he was right in his judgment and that his wife was wrong in suffering her fondness for him to stand in the way of the performance of his public duties.

Elijah frequently attended the Rabbi’s seat of instruction, and once, on the first of a month, he came in later than usual.  Rabbi asked what had kept him so late.  Elijah answered, “I have to wake up Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob one after the other, to wash the hands of each, and to wait until each has said his prayers and retired to rest again.”  “But,” said Rabbi, “why do they not all get up at the same time?” The answer was, “Because if they prayed all at once, their united prayers would hurry on the coming of the Messiah before the time appointed.”  Then said Rabbi, “Are there any such praying people among us?” Elijah mentioned Rabbi Cheyah and his sons.  Then Rabbi announced a fast, and the Rabbi Cheyah and his sons came to celebrate it.  In the course of repeating the Shemoneh Esreh [a prayer consisting of eighteen Collects, which is repeated three times each day] they were about to say, “Thou restoreth life to the dead” when the world was convulsed, and the question was asked in heaven, “Who told them the secret?” So Elijah was bastinadoed sixty strokes with a cudgel of fire.  Then he came down like a fiery bear, and dashing in among the people, scattered the congregation.

Bava Metzia, fol. 85, col. 2.

When love was strong, we could lie, as it were, on the edge of a sword; but now, when love is diminished, a bed sixty ells wide is not broad enough for us.

Sanhedrin, fol. 7, col. 1.

The pig bears in sixty days.

Bechoroth, fol. 8, col. 1.

Sixty iron mines are suspended in the sting of a gnat.

Chullin, fol. 58, col. 2.

An egg once dropped out of the nest of a bird called Bar-Yuchnei, which deluged sixty cities and swept away three hundred cedars.  The question therefore arose, “Does the bird generally throw out its eggs?” Rav Ashi replied, “No; that was a rotten one.”

Bechoroth, fol. 57, col. 2.

Everybody knows why a bride enters the nuptial chamber, but against him who sullies his lips by talking about it, the decree for good, though of seventy years’ standing, shall be reversed into a decree for evil.  Rav Chasda says, “Whosoever disgraces his mouth (by evil communication), Gehenna shall be deepened for him; for it is said in Prov. xxii. 14, ’A deep pit for the mouth of strange words (immoral talk).’” Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says, “The same punishment will be inflicted on him who listens to it and is silent; for it is said (Prov. xxii. 14), ’And he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.’”