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with the living or the dead?" Then he is asked again" If there be no necessity for them why are they not de-stroyed?" The answer is," Because the sun, moon, starsetc. are worshipped and the world cannot be destroyed be-cause there are fools in it."" Why then," he is asked," doesHe place that temptation in their way?" and the answer is" It is man who is punished for his foolishness and not theobjects."

55. The Emperor and R. Gamliel dispute and the Emperorsays" God is a thief, He threw Adam into a sleep and thenstole a rib from him." The daughter of the Emperor replies," He is a fine thief. Would you call a man a thief who stoletwo earthen cups from you and replaced them by goldenones?"

56. Woman cannot keep a secret. A Hegemon twitsa Jew with that saying, and is convinced of the truth byfeigning illness and telling his wife under an oath, that hehad become pregnant with child through the king. She Bolle zu Wicksam 204divulges it nevertheless though he said he might loose hislife through it.

57. Miriam and her seven sons died as martyrs for their holyfaith. Each of her sons refused to worship idols quotingthe appropriate passages from the Bible. When the lastboy was called she asked to be permitted to kiss him andsaid unto him:" Go to thy father Abraham and say to him,do not be proud because thou hast built one altar andsacrificed thy only son; I have built seven altars and havesacrificed my seven sons."

58. R. Jehuda b. Hanina ransoms from slavery in Rome achild remarkable for his beauty and learning. It is thefuture R. Ishmael.

59. The beautiful son and daughter of R. Ishmael were soldas slaves, and were shut up by their masters in one roomin order to obtain similarly beautiful children, not recog-nising one another. They recognised one another in themorning after having kept apart during the night and theydied in a mutual embrace.

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