Bava Bathra, fol. 16, col. 2.

Till Abraham’s time there was no such thing as a beard; but as many mistook Abraham for Isaac, and Isaac for Abraham, they looked so exactly alike, Abraham prayed to God for a beard to enable people to distinguish him from his son, Isaac, and it was granted him; as it is written (Gen. xxiv. 1), “And to Abraham a beard came when he was well stricken in age.”

Sanhedrin, fol. 107, col. 2.

Here the word which the translators of the English version render “was old,” is taken in another of its cognate meanings as a beard.  The Midrash is a trifle more modest in this legendary assertion.  There we read, “Before Abraham there was no special mark of old age,” and that for distinction’s sake “the beard was made to turn gray.”

When he died, all the chiefs of the nations of the world stood in a line and exclaimed, “Alas for the world that has lost its leader!  Alas for the ship that has lost its helmsman!”

Bava Bathra, fol. 91, col. 2.

As Rabbi Banna went about to measure and to mark off the outward and inward dimensions of the different caves, when he came to the cave of Machpelah he found Eliezar, Abraham’s servant, at the entrance, and asked him, “What is Abraham doing?” The answer he received was, “He is asleep in the arms of Sarah.”

Ibid., fol. 58, col. 1.

Abraham being greater than Moses, for while the latter is only called by God “My Servant” (Mal. iv. 4), the former is called “My Friend” (Isa. xli. 8), we devote a little more space for a few more extracts from other Jewish sources than the Talmud, in order to make the picture they supply of Abraham’s character a little more complete.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri says:—­“The Holy One—­blessed be He!—­took Shem and separated him to be a priest to Himself, that he might serve before Him.  He also caused His Shechinah to rest with him, and called his name Melchizedek, priest of the Most High and king of Salem.  His brother Japheth even studied the law in his school, until Abraham came and also learned the law in the school of Shem, where God Himself instructed Abraham, so that all else he had learned from the lips of man was forgotten.  Then came Abraham and prayed to God that His Shechinah might ever rest in the house of Shem, which also was promised to him; as it is said (Ps. ex. 4), ’Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’”

Avodath Hakkodesh, part 3, chap. 20.

Wherever Jacob resided he studied the law as his fathers did.  How is this, seeing the law had not yet been given, it is nevertheless written of Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 5), “And he kept my charge”?  Whence then did Abraham learn the law?  Rabbi Shimon says his reins (literally kidneys) were made like two water-jars, from which the law flowed forth.  Where do we learn that it was so?  From what is said in Ps. xvi. 7, “My reins also instruct me in the night season.”