Whoever gives a prutah to a poor man has six blessings bestowed upon him, and he that speaks a kind word to him realizes eleven blessings in himself (see Isa. lviii. 7, 8).

Bava Bathra, fol. 9, col. 2.

    On the next page of the same tract it is said, “For one prutah
    given as alms to a poor man one is made partaker of the beatific
    vision.” (See also Midrash Tillim on Ps. xvii. 15.)

The prutah was the smallest coin then current.  It is estimated to have been equal to about one-twentieth of an English penny.  In some quarters of Poland the Jews have small thin bits of brass, with the Hebrew word prutah impressed upon them, for the uses in charity on the part of those among them that cannot afford to give a kreutzer to a poor man.  The poor, when they have collected a number of these, change them into larger coin at the almoner’s appointed by the congregation.  Thus even the poor are enabled to give alms to the poor. (See my “Genesis,” p. 277, No. 31.)

Rabbi Yochanan said eleven sorts of spices were mentioned to Moses on Sinai.  Rav Hunna asked, “What Scripture text proves this?” (Exod. xxx. 34), “Take unto thee sweet spices” (the plural implying two), “stacte, myrrh, and galbanum” (these three thus making up five), “sweet spices” (the repetition doubling the five into ten), “with pure frankincense” (which makes up eleven).

Kerithoth, fol. 6, col. 2.

“Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken and forgotten me” (Isa. xlix. 14).  The community of Israel once pleaded thus with the Holy One—­blessed be He!—­“Even a man who marries a second wife still bears in mind the services of the first, but Thou, Lord, hast forgotten me.”  The Holy One—­blessed be He!—­replied, “Daughter, I have created twelve constellations in the firmament, and for each constellation I have created thirty armies, and for each army thirty legions, each legion containing thirty divisions, each division thirty cohorts, each cohort having thirty camps, and in each camp hang suspended 365,000 myriads of stars, as many thousands of myriads as there are days in the year; all these have I created for thy sake, and yet thou sayest, ’Thou hast forsaken and forgotten me!’ Can a woman forget her sucking-child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

Berachoth, fol. 32, col. 2.

No deceased person is forgotten from the heart (of his relatives that survive him) till after twelve months, for it is said (Ps. xxxi. 12), “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind; I am like a lost vessel” (which, as Rashi explains, is like all lost property, not thought of as lost for twelve months, for not till then is proclamation for it given up).

Ibid., fol. 58, col. 2.