והא כתיב (ישעיהו מח, טז) לא מראש בסתר דברתי ההוא ביומי דכלה
[you see] the disability of their 'reproof' [in Palestine] lasts thirty days! - The 'reproof' of a Nasi is different. And our 'reproof', how long [is its disability]? - One day [only], as in the case of Samuel and Mar 'Ukba.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Mar' is a Babylonian title of rank and is sometimes also borne by Samuel, but mostly by the members of the Exilarch's family. Samuel was the principal of the Academy at Nehardea and the Chief justice, while Mar 'Ukba was both a disciple of Samuel and Exilarch, the supreme civil Head of the Jewish community invested with authority by the persian king. This Mar 'Ukba is probably the same as Nathan 'Ukban who succeeded his father 'Anan or Huna as Exilarch shortly before the rise of the Neo-Persian rule of the Sassanids (c. 226 C.E.) . V. W. Bacher, Jew. Encyc. Vol. V, ');"><sup>13</sup></span> When they were sitting together [at the College] engaging in the revision of some theme, Mar 'Ukba sat before him<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., in his presence, probably sitting at his right.');"><sup>14</sup></span>
Shulchan Shel Arba
And in connection to this you will also find it plainly stated in Perek Helek that in time to come the human height [komot] will return to two hundred cubits, and they also taught this in a midrash likewise in Perek Sefinah: “I will lead you komamiyut,” R. Meir says: [it means] two hundred cubits – twice the height of Adam. R. Judah says: A hundred cubits; corresponding to the [height of the] temple and its walls. For it is said: ‘carved after the fashion of the Temple. But insofar as it said, The Holy One, Blessed be He, will in time to come bring precious stones and pearls…and will cut out from them [openings] ten by twenty cubits, and will set them up in the gates of Jerusalem, as it is said, “and your gates of stones of carbuncle,” it seems from this that the height will be no more than twenty cubits. So therefore it must be said that the gates of the houses are not being spoken about, for how could they enter them at that height?! But rather, it’s certainly the gates of the windows that are being spoken about. And you already knew that parashat “Im Behukotai” is a promise of what will happen in the future, for what it says there never existed in the two Temples, neither in the First nor the Second Temple. For what is destined in the Torah through its promises is not al shlemut, but will happen in time to come after the ancient sin has been atoned for, which has never occurred at any time, and this is what our sages z”l taught in a midrash: When David went out to war he killed eight hundred at one time, but was sorry for the two hundred [he would have killed], to fulfill what has been said, “How could one have routed a thousand?” A voice from heaven went out and said, “Were it not for the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
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