Avoth d' Rab. Nathan, chap. 1.
When Israel went up to Jerusalem to worship their Father who is in heaven, they sat so close together that no one could insert a finger between them, yet when they had to kneel and to prostrate themselves there was room enough for them all to do so. The greatest wonder of all was that even when a hundred prostrated themselves at the same time there was no need for the governor of the synagogue to request one to make room for another.
Ibid., chap. 35.
A man is bound to repeat a hundred blessings every day.
Menachoth, fol. 43, col. 2.
This duty, as Rashi tells us, is based upon Deut. x. 12, altering the word what into a hundred, by the addition of a letter.
This is what the so-called Pagan Goethe, intent on self-culture as the first if not the final duty of man, makes Serlo in his "Meister" lay down as a rule which one should observe daily. "One," he says, "ought every day to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." The contrast between this advice and that of the Talmud here and elsewhere is suggestive of reflections.
He who possesses one manah may buy, in addition to his bread, a litra of vegetables; the owner of ten manahs may add to his bread a litra of fish; he that has fifty manahs may add a litra of meat; while the possessor of a hundred may have pottage every day.
Chullin, fol. 84, col. 1.
Ben Hey-Hey said to Hillel, "What does this mean that is written in Mal. iii. 18, 'Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not'? Does the righteous here mean him that serveth God, and the wicked him that serveth Him not? Why this repetition?" To this Hillel replied, "The expressions, 'he that serveth God, and he that serveth Him not,' are both to be understood as denoting 'perfectly righteous,' but he who repeats his lesson a hundred times is not to be compared with one who repeats it a hundred and one times." Then said Ben Hey-Hey, "What! because he has repeated what he has learned only one time less than the other, is he to be considered as 'one who serveth Him not'?" "Yes!" was the reply; "go and learn a lesson from the published tariff of the donkey-drivers—ten miles for one zouz, eleven for two."