Raba said: (Length of) life, children and sustenance depend not on merit but (rather on) mazal. For (take) Rabbah and R. Hisda. Both were saintly rabbis; one master prayed for rain and it came, the other master prayed for rain and it came. R. Hisda lived to the age of ninety-two. Rabbah (only) lived to the age of forty. In R. Hisda’s house there were held sixty marriage feasts, at Rabbah’s house there were sixty bereavements. At R. Hisda’s house there was the purest wheaten bread for dogs and it went to waste. At Rabbah’s house there was barley bread for human beings and that is not to be had. Moed Katan 28a
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