Мидраш к Мелахим Б 4:43

During the years of R. Joseph, there was a famine. Rabbi said to R. Joseph: "Let the master pray for mercy." Whereupon the latter replied: "If Elijah, who [was such a great man that] twenty-two hundred disciples would remain to dine at his table, could not pray for mercy at an improper time to relieve the famine, should such a small man as I pray for mercy?" And whence do we know he had so many who dined with him? It is written (II Kings 4, 43) And his servants said, 'What, shall I set this before a hundred men? What does before one hundred men mean? Shall I say that this means that there were only one hundred men? If so, then in a year of famine it (twenty loaves of bread) should have been sufficient for one hundred men. We must therefore say that it means each and every loaf should be placed before one hundred men, [since there were twenty loaves, a bread of the first fruit, and fresh ears of corn,' we infer that there were twenty-two hundred men.] When the Rabbis would take leave from the college of Rab they would serve a meal for twenty-two hundred men; from the college of R. Huna the meal was served for eighteen hundred Rabbis. R. Huna would lecture with thirteen interpreters, and when the Rabbis would rise from the college of R. Huna, shaking off the dust of their garments, the dust would cover the face of the sun, and the Rabbis in Palestine would say: "This is a sign that the scholars of R. Huna of Babylon arose from their lecture." When the Rabbis would take leave from the college of Raba and R. Joseph there always remained four hundred who would call themselves orphans, [that would dine] with them. When the Rabbis would take leave from the college of Abaye, and according to others from the college of R. Papa, and still according to others from the college of R. Ashi, there would remain two hundred Rabbis who would dine with them and who would call themselves orphans of the orphans.