Torath Cohanim, sec. Shemini.

Rabbi Jacob teaches that he who has no wife abideth without good, without help, without joy, without blessing or atonement, to which Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi adds, (yea) also without peace or life.  Rabbi Cheya says that he is not a perfect man, for it is said, “And blessed them and called their name man” (Gen. v. 2), where both are spoken of together as one man.

Midrash Rabbah Bereshith, chap. 17.

“My beloved is like a roe” (1 Cant. ii. 9).  As a roe leaps and skips from bush to bush, from covert to covert, from hedge to hedge, so likewise does the Holy One—­blessed be He!—­pass from synagogue to synagogue, and from academy to academy, that He may bless Israel.

Pesikta.

(Cant. v. 1), “I came into My garden,” the synagogues and academies; “My sister, My spouse,” the congregation of Israel; “I have gathered My myrrh with My spice,” the Bible (that is); “I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey” (this means) the Halachoth, Midrashoth, and Aggadoth; “I have drank My wine with My milk,” this alludes to the good works which are reserved for the sages of Israel.  After that, “Eat, O friends! drink, yea, drink freely, O beloved!”

Yalkut Eliezer, fol. 41, col. 2.

When Solomon brought the ark into the Temple and said, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and the King of glory shall come in,” the gates were ready to fall upon him and crush his head, and they would have done so if he had not said at once, “The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory” (Ps. xxiv. 9, 10).  The Holy One—­blessed be He!—­then said to the gates, “Since ye have thus honored Me, by your lives! when I destroy My Temple, no man shall have dominion over you!” This was to inform us that while all the vessels of the Temple were carried into captivity, the gates of the Temple were stored away on the very spot where they were erected; for it is said (Lam. ii. 9), “Her gates are sunk into the ground.”

Midrash Rabbah Devarim, chap. 15.

We are reminded of this tradition in the conclusion service for Yom Kippur, where we repeat, “Speedily thou shalt open the hidden gates to those who hold fast Thy law.”  The allusion is to “the gates of the Temple,” which “are supposed to be sunk in the ground.”

Rabbi Akiva once met on a journey a remarkably ugly man toiling along under a great load of wood.  Rabbi Akiva said unto him, “I adjure thee to tell me whether thou art a man or a demon.”  “Rabbi,” said he, “I was once a man, and it is now some time since I left the world.  Day after day I have to carry a load like this, under which I am obliged to bow down, and submit three times a day to be burned.”  Then Rabbi Akiva asked him, “What was the reason of this punishment?” and the reply was, “I committed an immorality on the Day of Atonement.”  The Rabbi asked him if he knew of anything by which he might obtain