Meggillah, fol. 6, col. 1.

Rashi explains the above as follows:—­The goats fed upon figs from which honey distilled, and this mingled with the milk which dropped from the goats as they walked along.  On the spot arose a lake which covered an area of sixteen miles square. (See also Kethuboth, fol. iii, col. 2.)

A cedar tree once fell down in our place, the trunk of which was so wide that sixteen wagons were drawn abreast upon it.

Bechoroth, fol. 57, col. 2.

Who can estimate the loss the world sustains in its ignorance of the trees of the Talmud?  What a sapling in comparison with this giant cedar of Lebanon must the far-famed Mammoth tree have been which was lately cut down in California, and was the largest known to the present generation!

Rabbi Yochanan plaintively records, “I remember the time when a young man and a young woman sixteen or seventeen years of age could walk together in the streets and no harm came of it.”

Bava Bathra, fol. 91, col. 2.

On the deposition of Rabbon Gamliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was chosen as his successor to the presidential chair of the academy.  On being told of his elevation, he consulted with his wife as to whether or not he should accept the appointment.  “What if they should depose thee also?” asked his wife.  He replied, “Use the precious bowl while thou hast it, even if it be broken the next.”  But she rejoined, “Thou art only eighteen years old, and how canst thou at such an age expect folks to venerate thee?” By a miracle eighteen of his locks turned suddenly gray, so that he could say, “I am as one of seventy.”

Berachoth, fol. 27, col. 2.

The Rabbis have taught that Shimon Happikoli had arranged the eighteen benedictions before Rabbon Gamliel at Javneh.  Rabbon Gamliel appealed to the sages, “Is there not a man who knows how to compose an imprecation against the Sadducees?” Then Samuel the Little stood up and extemporized it.

Ibid., fol. 28, col. 2.

The “imprecation against the Sadducees” stands twelfth among the collects of the Shemoneh Esreh.  It is popularly known as “Velama-leshinim” from its opening words, and is given thus in modern Ashkenazi liturgies:—­“Oh, let the slanderers have no hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble Thou them quickly in our days.  Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants.”  There has been much misconception with regard to this collect against heretics.  There is every reason to believe it was composed without any reference whatever to the Christians.  One point of interest, however, in connection with it is worth relating here.  Some have sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew name,