Torah, and asked: "Does this mean that Thou hast patience with
the pious?" But God answered: "Nay, with sinners also am I
long-suffering." "What!" exclaimed Moses, "Let the sinners
perish!" God said no more, but when Moses implored God's mercy,
begging Him to forgive the sin of the people of Israel, God
answered him: "Thou thyself didst advice Me to have no patience
with sinners and to destroy them." "Yea," said Moses, "but Thou
didst declare that Thou art long-suffering with sinners also, let
now the patience of the Lord be great according as Thou has
spoken." [251]

The forty days that Moses spent in heaven were entirely devoted to
the study of the Torah, he learned the written as well as the oral
teaching, yea, even the doctrines that an able scholar would some
day propound were revealed to him. [252] He took an especial
delight in hearing the teachings of the Tanna Rabbi Eliezer, and
received the joyful message that this great scholar would be one of
his descendants. [253]

The study of Moses was so planned for the forty days, that by day
God studied with him the written teachings, and by night the oral.
In this way was he enabled to distinguish between night and day,
for in heaven "the night shineth as the day." There were other signs
also by which he could distinguish night from day; for if he heard
the angels praise God with "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,"
he knew that it was day; but if they praised Him with "Blessed be
the Lord to whom blessing is due," he knew it was night. Then,
too, if he saw the sun appear before God and cast itself down
before Him, he knew that it was night; if, however, the moon and
the stars cast themselves at His feet, he knew that it was day. He