יומא 9 — parallel

9:1

Because he sent into all the districts of Israel and he found that they were separating only the great heave-offering; [it is also right that the Sages did not impose upon these bakers] the first tithe and the poor man's tithe, because [of the principle that] the claimant must produce evidence; but the second tithe, let then [the baker] separate, take it up to Jerusalem and eat it there! ‘Ulla said: Because these parhedrin were beating them all the twelve months and telling them ‘sell cheap, sell cheap,’ the Sages did not burden them [to set apart the second tithe and take it up to Jerusalem]. What does parhedrin mean? — Porase [managers]. Rabbah b. Bar Hana said: What is the meaning of the passage, The fear of the Lord prolongeth days,’ but the years of the wicked shall be shortened? ‘The fear of the Lord prolongeth days’ refers to the first Sanctuary, which remained standing for four hundred and ten years and in which there served only eighteen high priests. ‘But the years of the wicked shall be shortened’ refers to the second Sanctuary, which abided for four hundred and twenty years and at which more than three hundred [high] priests served . Take off therefrom the forty years which Simeon the Righteous served, eighty years which Johanan the high priest served, ten, which Ishmael b. Fabi served, or, as some say, the eleven years of R. Eleazar b. Harsum. Count [the number of high priests] from then on and you will find that none of them completed his year [in office]. R. Johanan b. Torta said: Why was Shiloh destroyed? Because of two [evil] things that prevailed there, immorality and contemptuous treatment of sanctified objects. [Proof that] immorality prevailed because it is written, Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons did unto Israel, and how that they lay with the women that did service at the door of the tent of meeting. Notwithstanding R. Samuel b. Nahmani who said in the name of R. Johanan: Whosoever says, The sons of Eli sinned is but mistaken; it is

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9:2

because they delayed offering up their sacrificial birds Scripture accounts it to them as if they had lain with them. The [sacred] offerings were treated contemptuously, as it is written, Yea, before the fat was made to smoke, the priest's servant came and said to the man that sacrificed: ‘ Give flesh to roast for the priest,’ for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.’ And if the man said unto him: ‘Let the fat be made to smoke first of all, and then take as much as thy soul desireth’: then he would say: ‘Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. ‘ And the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, — for the men dealt contemptuously with the offering of the Lord. Why was the first Sanctuary destroyed? Because of three [evil] things which prevailed there: idolatry, immorality, bloodshed. Idolatry, as it is written: For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up. What is the meaning of ‘For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself’? R. Jonathan said: It is: This bed is too short for two neighbours to stretch themselves. And [what is the meaning of] ‘the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up’? — R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: When R. Jonathan [in his reading] came to this passage, he would cry and say: To Him , concerning Whom it is written, He gathereth the waters of the sea together like a heap, the cover became too narrow! Immorality [prevailed] as it is written: Moreover the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and make a tinkling with their feet. ‘Because the daughters of Zion are haughty’, i.e., they used to walk with proud carriage. ‘And wanton eyes’ i.e., they filled their eyes with kohl. ‘Walking and mincing as they go’, i.e. , they used to walk with the heel touching the toe. ‘And make a tinkling with their feet’, R. Isaac said: They would take myrrh and balsam and place it in their shoes and when they came near the young men of Israel they would kick, causing the balsam to squirt at them and would thus cause the evil desire to enter them like an adder's poison. Bloodshed [prevailed] as it is written: Moreover Manaseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. They were wicked, but they placed their trust in the Holy One, blessed be He. For it is written, The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord and say ‘Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us’. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought them three evil decrees as against the three evils which were their own: Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. But why was the second Sanctuary destroyed, seeing that in its time they were occupying themselves with Torah, [observance of] precepts, and the practice of charity? Because therein prevailed hatred without cause. That teaches you that groundless hatred is considered as of even gravity with the three sins of idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed together . And [during the time of] the first Sanctuary did no groundless hatred prevail? Surely it is written: They are thrust down to the sword with my people; smite therefore upon my thigh, and R. Eleazar said: This refers to people who eat and drink together and then thrust each other through with the daggers of their tongue! — That [passage] speaks of the princes in Israel, for it is written , Cry and wail, son of man; for it is upon my people, etc. [The text reads] ‘Cry and wail, son of man’. One might have assumed [it is upon] all [Israel], therefore it goes on, Upon all the princes of Israel. R. Johanan and R. Eleazar both say: The former ones whose iniquity was revealed had their end revealed, the latter ones whose iniquity was not revealed have their end still unrevealed. R. Johanan said: The fingernail of the earlier generations is better than the whole body of the later generations. Said Resh Lakish to him: On the contrary, the latter generations are better, although they are oppressed by the governments, they are occupying themselves with the Torah .- He [R. Johanan] replied: The Sanctuary will prove [my point] for it came back to the former generations, but not to the latter ones. The question was put to R. Eleazar: Were the earlier generations better, or the later ones? — He answered: Look upon the Sanctuary! Some say he answered: The Sanctuary is your witness [in this matter]. Resh Lakish was swimming in the Jordan. Thereupon Rabbah b. Bar Hana came and gave him the hand: Said [Resh Lakish] to him: By God! I hate you. For it is written: If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Had you made yourself like a wall and had all come up in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver, which no rottenness can ever affect. Now that you have come up like doors, you are like cedarwood, which rottenness prevails over. What is erez [‘cedar’]?- ‘Ulla said: It is sasmagor. What is ‘sasmagor’?-R. Abba says it is the divine voice as it has been taught: After the later prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel, but they still availed themselves of the Bath Kol. — But did Resh Lakish talk with Rabbah b. Bar Hana? Even with R. Eleazar, who was the master of the land of Israel, Resh Lakish did not converse [for anyone with whom Resh Lakish conversed in the street could get merchandise without witnesses] would he engage in conversation with Rabbah b. Bar Hana?-R. Papa said: ‘Throw a man between them’. It was either Resh Lakish and Ze'iri or Rabbah b. Bar Hana and R. Eleazar. When he [Resh Lakish] came before R. Johanan , he said to him: This is not the reason. Even if they had all come up in the time of Ezra, the Divine Presence would not have rested over the second Sanctuary, for it is written: God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, [that means],

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