He next slaughtered young men and maidens, but the blood continued restless as before.  He finally brought school-children and slaughtered them, but the blood being still unpacified, he exclaimed, ’Zachariah!  Zachariah!  I have for thy sake killed the best among them; will it please thee if I kill them all?’ As he said this the blood of the prophet stood still and quiescent.  He then reasoned within himself thus, ’If the blood of one individual has brought about so great a punishment, how much greater will my punishment be for the slaughter of so many!’ In short, he repented, fled from his house, and became a Jewish proselyte.”

Gittin, fol. 57, col. 2.

The same story is repeated in Sanhedrin, fol. 96, col. 2, with some variations; notably this, among others, that it was because the prophet prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem that they put him to death.

(Gen, xxvii. 2), “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  The first-named “voice” alludes to the voice of lamentation caused by Hadrian, who had at Alexandria in Egypt massacred twice the number of Jews that had come forth under Moses.  The “voice of Jacob” refers to a similar lamentation occasioned by Vespasian, who put to death in the city of Byther four hundred myriads, or, as some say, four thousand myriads.  “The hands are the hands of Esau,” that is, the empire which destroyed our house, burned our Temple, and banished us from our country.  Or the “voice of Jacob” means that there is no effectual prayer that is not offered up by the progeny of Jacob; and “the hands are the hands of Esau,” that there is no victorious battle which is not fought by the descendants of Esau.

Ibid.

Tamar and Zimri both committed fornication.  The former (actuated by a good motive, see Gen. xxxviii. 26) became the ancestress of kings and prophets.  The latter brought about the destruction of myriads in Israel.  Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says, “To do evil from a good motive is better than observing the law from a bad one” (e.g., Tamar and Zimri, Lot and his daughters).

Nazir, fol. 23, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that the text, “And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the myriads and thousands of Israel” (Num. x. 36), intimates that the Shechinah does not rest upon less than two myriads and two thousands (two being the minimum plurality).  Suppose one of the twenty-two thousand neglect the duty of procreation, is he not the cause of the Shechinah’s departure from Israel?

Yevamoth, fol. 64, col. 1.

“And place over them to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, and rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens” (Exod. xviii. 21).  The rulers of thousands were six hundred in number, the rulers of hundreds six thousand, of fifties twelve thousand, and rulers of tens six myriads.  The total number of rulers in Israel, therefore, was seven myriad eight thousand six hundred.