The Sadducees (Zadokim), so called after Zadok their master, as is known, stood rigidly by the original Mosaic code, and set themselves determinedly against all traditional developments. To the Talmudists, therefore, they were especially obnoxious, and their bald, cold creed is looked upon by them with something like horror. It is thus the Talmud warns against them--"Believe not in thyself till the day of thy death, for, behold, Yochanan, after officiating in the High Priesthood for eighty years, became in the end a Sadducee." (_Berachoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.) In Derech Eretz Zuta, chap. i., a caution is given which might well provoke attention--"Learn or inquire nothing of the Sadducees, lest thou be drawn into hell."
Rabbi Yehudah tells us that Rav says a man should never absent himself from the lecture hall, not even for one hour; for the above Mishnah had been taught at college for many years, but the reason of it had never been made plain till the hour when Rabbi Chanina ben Akavia came and explained it.
The Mishnah alluded to is short and simple, viz, Where is it taught that a ship is clean to the touch? From Prov. xxx. 19, "The way of a ship in the midst of the sea." (i.e., as the sea is clean to the touch, therefore a ship must also be clean to the touch).
It is indiscreet for one to sleep in a house as the sole occupant, for Lilith will seize hold of him.
Lilith (the night-visiting one) is the name of a night spectre, said to have been Adam's first wife, but who, for her refractory conduct, was transformed into a demon endowed with power to injure and even destroy infants unprotected by the necessary amulet or charm.
"Thou hast acknowledged the Lord this day to be thy God; and the Lord hath acknowledged thee this day to be His peculiar people" (Deut. xxvi. 17, 18). The Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto Israel, "Ye have made Me a name in the world, as it is written (Deut. vi. 4), 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;' and so I will make you a name in the world, as it is said (1 Chron. xvii. 21), 'And what one nation in the earth is like Thy people Israel?'"
Why are the words of the Law compared to fire? (Jer. xxiii. 29.) Because, as fire does not burn when there is but one piece of wood, so do the words of the Law not maintain the fire of life when meditated on by one alone (see, in confirmation, Matt, xviii. 20).