away, a task they would find of easy execution, as, except in contact with the earth, these creatures were powerless.  Then Simeon the son of Shetach, leaving his men in ambush, entered the rendezvous of the witches, who, accosting him, asked, “Who art thou?” He replied, “I am a wizard, and am come to experiment in magic.”  “What trick have you to show?” they said.  He answered, “Even though the day is wet, I can produce eighty young men all in dry clothes.”  They smiled incredulously and said, “Let us see!” He went to the door, and at the signal the young men took the dry clothes out of the jars and put them on, then starting from their ambush, they rushed into the witches’ den, and each seizing one, lifted her up and carried her off as directed.  Thus overpowered, they were brought before the court, convicted of malpractices and led forth to execution.

    Sanhedrin, fol. 44, col. 2.

(Exod. xxiii. 35), “And I will take away sickness from the midst of thee.”  It is taught that sickness (Machlah) means the bile.  But why is it termed Machlah?  Because eighty-three diseases are in it.  Machlah by Gematria equals eighty-three; and all may be avoided by an early breakfast of bread and salt and a bottle of water.

Bava Kama, fol. 92, col. 2.

If in a book of the law the writing is obliterated all but eighty-five letters—­as, for instance, in Num. x. 35, 36, “And it came to pass when the ark set forward,” etc.,—­it may be rescued on the Sabbath from a fire, but not otherwise.

Shabbath, fol. 116, col. 1.

Elijah said to Rabbi Judah the brother of Rav Salla the Pious, “The world will not last less than eighty-five jubilees, and in the last jubilee the son of David will come.”

Sanhedrin, fol. 97, col 2.

There was not a single individual in Israel who had not ninety Lybian donkeys laden with the gold and silver of Egypt.

Bechoroth, fol. 5, col. 2.

(2 Sam. xix. 35), “Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink?” From this we learn that in the aged the sense of taste is destroyed....  Rav says, “Barzillai the Gileadite reports falsely, for the cook at the house of Rabbi (the Holy) was ninety-two years old, and yet could judge by taste of what was cooking in the pot.”

Shabbath, fol. 152, col. 1.

Rava said, “Life, children, and competency do not depend on one’s merit, but on luck; for instance, Rabbah and Rav Chasda were both righteous Rabbis; the one prayed for rain and it came, and the other did so likewise with the like result; yet Rav Chasda lived ninety-two years and Rabbah only forty.  Rav Chasda, moreover, had sixty weddings in his family during his lifetime, whereas Rabbah had sixty serious illnesses in his during the short period of his life.  At the house of the former even the dogs refused to eat bread made of the finest wheat flour, whereas the family of the latter were content to eat rough bread of barley and could not always obtain it.”  Rava also added, “For these three things I prayed to Heaven, two of which were and one was not granted unto me.  I prayed for the wisdom of Rav Hunna and for the riches of Rav Chasda, and both these were granted unto me; but the humility and meekness of Rabbah, the son of Rav Hunna, for which I also prayed, was not granted.”