shall give me I will surely give a tenth to You." The angel noted that Jacob had sons and that Jacob had not given a tithe of them. So Jacob set aside the four firstborn sons (whom the law excluded from the tithe) of each of the four mothers, and eight sons remained. He began to count from Simeon, and included Benjamin, and continued the count from the beginning. And so Levi was reckoned as the tenth son, and thus the tithe, holy to God, as says, "The tenth shall be holy to the Lord." So the angel Michael descended and took Levi and brought him up before the Throne of Glory and told God that Levi was God's lot. And God blessed him, that the sons of Levi should minister on earth before God (as directed in ) like the ministering angels in heaven. Rabbi Berekiah and Rabbi Ahi taught in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani that Jacob would not have told God, "of all that You shall give me, I will surely give a tenth to You," in unless God had already offered Jacob, "Ask what I shall give you," as God offered Solomon in . Rabbi Jonathan taught that God invited three people to ask what God could give them: Solomon in , Ahaz in , and the Messiah in . Rabbi Berekiah and Rabbi Ahi in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani cited two more: Abraham in and Jacob in , teaching that neither Patriarch would have asked God unless God had first offered to give them what they asked. Genesis chapter 29 The Gemara cited the words "And it came to pass" (, ) in as an exception to the general rule taught by Rabbi Levi, or some say Rabbi Jonathan, in a tradition handed down from the Men of the Great Assembly, that wherever the Bible employs the term and it was or and it came to pass (, ) it indicates misfortune, as one can read as , , 'woe, sorrow.' Thus the words, "And it came to pass when man began to multiply," in , are followed by the words, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great," in . And the Gemara also cited the instances of followed by ; followed by ; followed by the rest of ; followed by ; followed by ; followed by