Six things are said of the horse:--It is wanton, it delights in the strife of war, it is high-spirited, it despises sleep, it eats much and it voids little. There are some that say it would fain kill its own master.
The Rabbis have taught that there are six sorts of fire:--(1.) Fire that eats but drinks not, i.e., common fire; (2.) fire that drinks but does not eat, i.e., a fever; (3.) fire that eats and drinks, i.e., Elijah, as it is written (1 Kings xviii. 38), "And licked up the water that was in the trench;" (4.) fire that burns up moist things as soon as dry, i.e., the fire on the altar; (5.) fire that counteracts other fire, i.e., like that of Gabriel; (6.) fire that consumes fire, for the Master has said (Sanhed., fol. 38, col. 2), "God stretched out His finger among the angels and consumed them," i.e., by His own essential fire.
For six months David was afflicted with leprosy; for it is said (Ps. li. 7), "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." At that time the Shechinah departed from him; for it is said (Ps. li. 12), "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation;" and the Sanhedrin kept aloof from him, for it is said (Ps. cxix. 79), "Let those that fear thee turn unto me." That this ailment lasted six months is proved from 1 Kings ii. 11, where it is said, "And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty-three years he reigned in Jerusalem;" whereas in 2 Sam. v. 5, it is said, "In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months." The reason why these six months are omitted in Kings is because during that period he was afflicted with leprosy.
The tables of stone were six ells long, six broad, and three thick.
It may help the reader to some idea of the strength of Moses if we work out arithmetically the size and probable weight of these stone slabs according to the Talmud. Taking the cubit or ell at its lowest estimate, that is eighteen inches, each slab, being nine feet long, nine feet wide, and four and a half feet thick, would weigh upward of twenty-eight tons, reckoning thirteen cubic feet to the ton,--the right estimate for such stone as is quarried from the Sinaitic cliff. The figures are 9 X 9 X 9/2 = 729/2 = 364.5 X 173.5 = 63240.75 = 28 tons, 4 cwt., 2 qrs., 16 lbs. avoirdupois.