306 THE CURIOUS LORE OP PRECIOUS STONES
plete the picture, following the indication given by the general terms "stones with fair colours" and "pleasant stones. ' '
In
commenting on this text Rabbi Johanan is quoted in the Babylonian
Talmud as saying that God would bring jewels and pearls thirty ells
square (twenty ells in height and ten in width) and would place them on
the gates of Jerusalem. There may be in this some reminiscence of the
Apocalyptic foundation stones. A sceptical disciple said to the Rabbi,
"We do not ever find a jewel as large as the egg of a dove." But not
long afterward, when this same disciple was sailing in a boat on the
sea, he saw angels sawing stones as immense as those described by Rabbi
Johanan, and when he asked for what they were designed, the reply was,
"The Holy One, blessed be He, will place them on the gates of
Jerusalem."18
""New
Edition of the Babylonian Talmud," ed. and trans, by Michael L.
Rodkinson, vol. ν (xiii), New York, 1902, p. 210. Baba Batra.
