Avot303

17:
The rod. The reference is to the rod, or staff, which Moses used and therewith performed wonders. We first meet this rod when God is persuading a very reluctant Moses to accept the mission which will fill the rest of his life:

18:
Now, apparently, according to legend this rod had a most wondrous history. Our people, not satisfied with the rather ample details of Moses' biography that the Torah supplies, embroidered Moses' story most marvelously. The amplified story would have it that Moses reigned as king in Ethiopia before arriving at the well where Jethro's daughters found him. Jethro took him for an Ethiopian fugitive, and intended to deliver him to the Ethiopians. He kept Moses prisoner for seven years in a deep dungeon in his (Jethro's) house, where Moses received as food only small portions of bread and water. Unbeknown to her father, Moses' fiancée, Zipporah, kept him supplied with ample food and drink. After seven years she reminded her father about the prisoner, who must have died long ago; but if he were still living he must be a just man whom God had kept alive by a miracle. Finding Moses still alive Jethro now believed that he had been saved by a miracle, and liberated him.

19:
Now Jethro had planted in his garden a marvelous rod, which, as we know from our present mishnah, had been created on the sixth day of the Creation, on Friday afternoon, and had been given to Adam. This curious rod had been handed down through Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Joseph, at whose death it came into the possession of Pharaoh's court. Jethro, who saw it there, stole it and planted it in his garden. On the rod were engraved the name of God and the initials of the ten plagues destined for Egypt (which initials we celebrate annually during the Seder service). Jethro asked every one who wished to marry one of his daughters to pull up the rod; but no suitor had yet succeeded in doing so. Moses, on being set at liberty, walked in the garden, saw the rod, and read the inscription. He easily pulled it out of the ground and used it for a staff.

20:
In his commentary on our present Mishnah Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro tells us that this rod was made of sanperion, which made it unbreakable and that it could cleave stone and so forth. A rod as wondrous as this must surely have been created on Erev Shabbat at twilight between the Friday of creation and Shabbat.

To be continued.

In Avot 300 I wrote of the donkey of Bil'am that this is probably the most famous donkey in all literature!"

Elizabeth Petuchowski adds:

… with The Golden Ass (Lucius Apuleius) probably a close contender in a rivalry for fame among literary donkeys.
But then, Bil'am's narrative is briefer, and, as we know, brevity is the soul of wit, so Bil'am's donkey would win.

During the coming week I shall be on vacation with my family, so I doubt that it will be possible to send out shiurim until Tuesday, 30th October.