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unusual facts about Eleazar ben Shammua


Eleazar ben Shammua

His disciples once requested him to tell them whereby he merited unusual longevity, when he replied, "I have never converted the Synagogue into a passageway for the sake of convenience; have never trodden over the heads of the holy people i.e., come late to college and stepped between the rows of attentive students; compare Abdan, and have never pronounced the priestly blessing before offering the benediction preceding it" (Meg. 27b; Soṭah 39a).



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