Shevuoth, fol. 29, col. 1.

“For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet,” etc. (Isa. iii. 1, 2).  By “the stay” is meant men mighty in the Scriptures, and by “the staff” men learned in the Mishna; such, for instance, as Rabbi Yehudah ben Tima and his associates.  Rav Pappa and the Rabbis differed as to the Mishna; the former said there were six hundred orders of the Mishna, and the latter that there were seven hundred orders.  “The whole stay of bread” means men distinguished in the Talmud; for it is said, “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled” (Prov. ix. 5).  And “the whole stay of water” means men skillful in the Haggadoth, who draw out the heart of man like water by means of a pretty story or legend, etc.

Chaggigah, fol. 14, col. 1.

There are seven hundred species of fish, eight hundred of locusts, twenty-four of birds that are unclean, while the species of birds that are clean cannot be numbered.

Chullin, fol. 63, col. 2.

“The same was Adino the Eznite,” etc. (2 Sam. xxiii. 8).  This mighty man when studying the law was as pliant as a worm; but when engaged in war he was as firm and unyielding as a tree; and when he discharged an arrow he killed eight hundred men at one shot.

Moed Katon, fol. 16, col. 2.

“Ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land” (Deut. iv. 26).  The term soon uttered by the Lord of the Universe means eight hundred and fifty-two years.

Sanhedrin, fol. 38, col. 1.

There are nine hundred and three sorts of deaths in the world; for the expression occurs (Ps. lxviii. 20), “Issues of death.”  The numerical value of “issues” is nine hundred and three.  The hardest of all deaths is by quinsy, and the easiest is the Divine kiss (of which Moses, Aaron, and Miriam died).  Quinsy is like the forcible extraction of prickly thorns from wool, or like a thick rope drawn through a small aperture; the kiss referred to is like the extracting of a hair from milk.

Berachoth, fol. 8, col. 1.

When Moses went up on high, the ministering angels asked, “What has one born of a woman to do among us?” “He has come to receive the law,” was the Divine answer.  “What!” they remonstrated again, “that cherished treasure which has lain with Thee for nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created, art Thou about to bestow it upon flesh and blood?  What is mortal man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of earth that Thou thus visitest him?  O Lord! our Lord! is not Thy name already sufficiently exalted in the earth?  Confer Thy glory upon the heavens” (Ps. viii. 4, 6).  The Holy One—­blessed be He!—­then called upon Moses to refute