they all came in by one gate.”  But there is a tradition that each lived three hundred miles away from the other.  How then came they to know of Job’s sad condition?  Some say they had wreaths, others say trees (each representing an absent friend), and when any friend was in distress the one representing him straightway began to wither.  Rava said, “Hence the proverb, ‘Either a friend as the friends of Job, or death.’”

Bava Bathra, fol. 16, col. 2.

Rashi tenders this explanation, that Job and his friends had each wreaths with their names engraved on them, and if affliction befell any one his name upon the wreath would change color.

Rabbi Yochanan says that Rabbi Meir knew three hundred fables about foxes, but we have only three of them, viz, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ezek. xviii. 2); “Just balances and just weights” (Lev. xix. 36); “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead” (Prov. xi. 8).

Sanhedrin, fol. 38, col. 2, and fol. 39, col. 1.

Quite apropos to this we glean the following from Rashi:—­A fox once induced a wolf to enter a Jewish dwelling to help the inmates to get ready the Sabbath meal.  No sooner did he enter than the whole household set upon him, and so belabored him with cudgels that he was obliged to flee for his life.  For this trick the wolf was indignant at the fox, and sought to kill him, but he pacified him with the remark, “They would not have beaten thee if thy father had not on a former occasion belied confidence, and eaten up the choicest pieces that were set aside for the meal.”  “What!” rejoined the wolf, “the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and shall the children’s teeth be set on edge?” “Well,” interrupted the fox, “come with me now and I will show thee a place where thou mayest eat and be satisfied.”  He thereupon took him to a well, across the top of which rested a transverse axle with a rope coiled round it, to each extremity of which a bucket was attached.  The fox, entering the bucket, which happened to be at the top, soon descended by his own weight to the bottom of the well, and thereby raised the other bucket to the top.  On the wolf inquiring at the fox why he had gone down there, he replied, because he knew there was meat and cheese to eat and be satisfied, in proof of which he pointed to a cheese, which happened to be the reflection of the moon on the water.  Upon which the wolf inquired, “And how am I to get down beside you?” The fox replied, “By getting into the bucket at the top.”  He did as directed, and as he descended the bucket with the fox rose to the top.  The wolf in this plight again appealed to the fox.  “But how am I to get out?” The reply was, “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead;” and is it not written, “Just balances just weights?”

When Rabbi Eliezer, on his deathbed, taught Rabbi