Catching Time

(13) And Hashem spoke to Moses and to Aharon, and commanded the children of Israel, and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

(13) So says Hashem, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying: (14) ’At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, that has been sold to you, and have served you six years, you shall let him go free from you’; but your fathers did not listen to Me, nor did they incline their ear.

Israel is punished for transgressing the command to free the slaves

(9) And a stranger you shall not oppress; for you know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

(13) I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

R.Samuel b. Nahmani said in R. Jonathan's name: What is meant by the verse, Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised?4 — ‘Grace is deceitful’ refers to [the trial of] Joseph; ‘and beauty is vain’, to Boaz; while ‘and a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised’, to the case of Palti son of Layish.

[The second husband of David's undivorced wife] is variously called Palti and Paltiel! — R. Johanan said: His name was really Palti, but why was he called Paltiel? Because God saved him from transgression. What did he do [to be delivered from sin]? He planted a sword between her [Michal] and himself, and said, Whoever [first] attempts this thing, shall be pierced with this sword.

Rabbi Yossi ben Yoezer and his nephew...

‘You have spoken very well; however, he who contradicts the king is to be cast into a circular furnace’. On his being held and led away, a Roman matron said of him: ‘Pity the ship that sails [towards the harbour] without paying the tax’. Then, throwing himself on his foreskin he cut it away exclaiming: ‘Thou hast paid the tax thou wilt pass and enter [paradise]’. As he was being cast [into the furnace] he said: ‘All my possessions [are to go to] R. Akiba and his friends’. This, R. Akiba interpreted according to the verse, And it shall be unto Aaron and his sons [which is taken to mean that] one half is Aaron's and one half his sons’. A bath-kol then exclaimed: ‘Keti'ah b. Shalom is destined for [eternal] life in the world to come!’ Rabbi [on hearing of it] wept saying: ‘One may acquire eternity in a single hour, another may acquire it after many years!’

As he was with her, she blew forth breath and said: As this blown breath will not return to its place, so will Eleazar b. Dordia never be received in repentance. He thereupon went, sat between two hills and mountains and exclaimed: O, ye hills and mountains, plead for mercy for me! .. So he exclaimed: Heaven and earth, plead ye for mercy for me! .. Sun and moon, plead ye for mercy for me! .. Said he: The matter then depends upon me alone! Having placed his head between his knees, he wept aloud until his soul departed. Then a bath-kol was heard proclaiming: ‘Rabbi Eleazar b. Dordai is destined for the life of the world to come!’ .. Rabbi [on hearing of it] wept and said: One may acquire eternal life after many years, another in one hour! Rabbi also said: Repentants are not alone accepted, they are even called ‘Rabbi’!

The Executioner then said to him, ‘Rabbi, if I raise the flame and take away the tufts of wool from over thy heart, will thou cause me to enter into the life to come?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Then swear unto me’ [he urged]. He swore unto him. He thereupon raised the flame and removed the tufts of wool from over his heart, and his soul departed speedily. The Executioner then jumped and threw himself into the fire. And a bathkol exclaimed: R. Hanina b. Teradion and the Executioner have been assigned to the world to come. When Rabbi heard it he wept and said: One may acquire eternal life in a single hour, another after many years.

(1) Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel His people, how that Hashem had brought Israel out of Egypt.

(2) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When either man or woman shall clearly utter a vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to consecrate himself unto the LORD,

(3) Rabbi Akiva was once sitting and lecturing, and the community [his students] was falling asleep. To arouse them, he said: How could Esther rule over one hundred and twenty seven provinces? It should be that Esther, a descendant of Sarah who lived to one hundred and twenty seven, to rule over one hundred and twenty seven provinces.

(1) Abraham was now old, advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

(1) Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years.