There are three whom the Holy One—­blessed be He!—­abhorreth:  He who says one thing but thinks another; he who might bear witness in favor of his neighbor but refrains from doing so; and he who, having seen his neighbor act disgracefully, goes and appears singly as a witness against him (thus only condemning, but not convicting, him, as the law requires two witnesses).  As, for example, when Toviah transgressed and Zigud appeared against him singly before Rav Pappa, and Rav Pappa ordered this witness to receive forty stripes save one in return.  “What!” said he, “Toviah has sinned, and should Zigud be flogged?” “Yes,” replied the Rabbi, “for by testifying singly against him thou bringest him only into bad repute.” (See Deut. xix. 15.)

P’sachim fol. 113, col. 2.

    “Toviah has sinned and Zigud is flogged,” has long been a
    proverb among Jews.

There are three whose life is no life:—­The sympathetic, the irascible, and the melancholy.

P’sachim, fol. 113, col. 2.

There are three which despise their fellows:—­Dogs, cocks, and sorcerers.  Some say strange women also, and some the disciples of the Babylonian Rabbis.

Ibid.

These three love their fellows:—­Proselytes, slaves, and ravens.

Ibid.

These three are apt to strut:—­Israel among the nations, the dog among animals, the cock among birds.  Some say also the goat among small cattle, and some the caper shrub among trees.

Ibid., fol. 25, col. 2.

There are three whose life is no life:—­He who lives at another’s table; he whose wife domineers over him; and he who suffers bodily affliction.  Some say also he who has only a single shirt in his wardrobe.

Ibid., fol. 32, col. 2.

Three things are said respecting the finger-nails:—­He who trims his nails and buries the parings is a pious man; he who burns these is a righteous man; but he who throws them away is a wicked man, for mischance might follow, should a female step over them.

Moed Katan, fol. 18, col. 1.

    The orthodox Jews in Poland are to this day careful to bury away
    or burn their nail parings.

Three classes appear on the day of judgment:—­The perfectly righteous, who are at once written and sealed for eternal life; the thoroughly bad, who are at once written and sealed for hell; as it is written (Dan. xii. 2), “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;” and those in the intermediate state, who go down into hell, where they cry and howl for a time, whence they ascend again; as it is written (Zech. xiii. 9), “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them.”  It is of them Hannah said (1 Sam. ii. 6), “The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to hell and bringeth up.”