Kethuboth, fol. 67, col. 2.

“And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, ... ye shall carry up my bones from hence” (Gen. l. 25).  Rabbi Chanena said, “There is a reason for this oath.  As Joseph knew that he was perfectly righteous, why then, if the dead are to rise in other countries as well as in the land of Israel, did he trouble his brethren to carry his bones four hundred miles?” The reply is, “He feared lest, if buried in Egypt, he might have to worm his way through subterranean passages from his grave into the land of Israel.”

Ibid., fol. 111, col. 1.

To this day among the Polish Jews the dead are provided for their long subterranean journey with little wooden forks, with which, at the sound of the great trumpet, they are to dig and burrow their way from where they happen to be buried till they arrive in Palestine.  To avoid this inconvenience there are some among them who, on the approach of old age, migrate to the Holy Land, that their bones may rest there against the morning of the resurrection.

Rav Cahana was once selling ladies’ baskets when he was exposed to the trial of a sinful temptation.  He pleaded with his tempter to let him off and he promised to return, but instead of doing so he went up to the roof of the house and threw himself down headlong.  Before he reached the ground, however, Elijah came and caught him, and reproached him, as he caught him up, with having brought him a distance of four hundred miles to save him from an act of willful self-destruction.  The Rabbi told him that it was his poverty which had given to the temptation the power of seduction.  Thereupon Elijah gave him a vessel full of gold denarii and departed.

Kiddushin, fol. 40, col. 1.

“Pashur, the son of Immer the priest” (Jer. xx. 1) had four hundred servants, and every one of them rose to the rank of the priesthood.  One consequence was that an insolent priest hardly ever appeared in Israel but his genealogy could be traced to this base-born, low-bred ancestry.  Rabbi Elazar said, “If thou seest an impudent priest, do not think evil of him, for it is said (Hos, iv. 4), ’Thy people are as they that strive with the priest.’”

Ibid., fol. 70, col. 2.

David had four hundred young men, handsome in appearance and with their hair cut close upon their foreheads, but with long flowing curls behind, who used to ride in chariots of gold at the head of the army.  These were men of power (men of the fist, in the original), the mighty men of the house of David, who went about to strike terror into the world.

Kiddushin, fol. 76, col. 2.