Another commemorative formula is repeated six or seven times a day during this festival; viz, during morning and evening prayers and after each meal.
Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi has said a man should never utter an indecent word, for the Scripture (Gen. vii. 6) uses eight letters more rather than make use of a word which, without them, would be indecent.
P'sachim, fol. 3, col. i.
In the passage referred to, the words "that are not clean" are used instead of "unclean"; but see verse 2; there another word for not is used, which brings down the excess to five letters.
When the doors of the Temple were opened the creaking of the hinges was heard at the distance of eight Sabbath days' journeys.
Yoma, fol. 39, col. 2.
It may be proper to remark that the journey is about nine furlongs, or a mile and one-eighth, so that the distance alluded to is nearly ten miles.
The eight princes alluded to in Micah (v. 5) are Jesse, Saul, Samuel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zedekiah, the Messiah, and Elijah.
Succah, fol. 52, col. 2.
It is related of Rabbi Shimon, the son of Gamaliel, that at the rejoicing during the festival of the drawing of water on the Feast of Tabernacles, he threw eight flaming torches, one after the other in quick succession, into the air, and caught them again as they descended without suffering one to touch another. He also (in fulfillment of Ps. cii. 14) stooped and kissed the stone floor, supporting himself upon his two thumbs only,—a feat which no one else could perform. And this is what is termed stooping properly.