LXXX.

This is a compilation of excerpts from the Babylonian Talmud — specifically Bava Bathra and Sanhedrin — presented with brief editorial framing and a passage from the medieval commentator Rashi. The text moves through three loosely connected subjects: a ranking of the eighty disciples of Hillel, with praise for the encyclopedic learning of Yochanan ben Zacchai despite being ranked last; a legal dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and the sages over whether women may be executed by hanging; and an extended narrative explaining why Simeon ben Shetach hanged eighty witches in Askelon in a single day, which technically violated the rule against multiple executions. The Rashi story at the center is a morality tale in which a Rabbi and a wicked publican are mistakenly buried in each other's places, and a grieving disciple learns through a dream-vision that divine justice operates on a longer timeline than human funerals suggest. A distinctive feature is the matter-of-fact treatment of supernatural elements — witches losing their power when lifted off the ground, Gehenna's door-hinges creaking in a sinner's ears, a Rabbi touring Paradise — embedded within what are otherwise procedural legal discussions. Readers drawn to rabbinic storytelling, Talmudic legal reasoning, or the intersection of folklore and religious law will find this a compact but representative sample of that tradition.

LXXX.

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