חגיגה 15:2 — Soncino English Talmud

to a child: Recite for me thy verse! He answered: And thou, that art spoiled, what doest thou, that thou clothest thyself with scarlet, that thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, that thou enlargest thine eyes with paint? In vain dost thou make thyself fair etc. He took him to yet another schoolhouse until he took him to thirteen schools: all of them quoted in similar vein. When he said to the last one, Recite for my thy verse, he answered: But unto the wicked God saith: ‘What hast thou to do to declare My statutes etc.? That child was a stutterer, so it sounded as though he answered: ‘But to Elisha God saith’. Some say that [Aher] had a knife with him, and he cut him up and sent him to the thirteen schools: and some say that he said: Had I a knife in my hand I would have cut him up. When Aher died, they said: Let him not be judged, nor let him enter the world to come. Let him not be judged, because he engaged in the study of the Torah; nor let him enter the world to come, because he sinned. R. Meir said: It were better that he should be judged and that he should enter the world to come. When I die I shall cause smoke to rise from his grave. When R. Meir died, smoke rose up from Aher's grave. R. Johanan said: [What] a mighty deed to burn his master! There was one amongst us, and we cannot save him; if I were to take him by the hand, who would snatch him from me! [But] said he: When I die, I shall extinguish the smoke from his grave. When R. Johanan died, the smoke ceased from Aher's grave. The public mourner began [his oration] concerning him thus: Even the janitor could not stand before thee, O master! Aher's daughter [once] came before Rabbi and said to him: O master, support me! He asked her: ‘Whose daughter art thou?’ She replied: I am Aher's daughter. Said he: Are any of his children left in the world? Behold it is written: He shall have neither son nor son's son among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. She answered: Remember his Torah and not his deeds. Forthwith, a fire came down and enveloped Rabbi's bench. [Thereupon] Rabbi wept and said: If it be so on account of those who dishonour her, how much more so on account of those who honour her! But how did R. Meir learn Torah at the mouth of Aher? Behold Rabbah b. Bar Hana said that R. Johanan said: What is the meaning of the verse, For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts? [This means that] if the teacher is like an angel of the Lord of hosts, they should seek the Law at his mouth, but if not, they should not seek the Law at his mouth! — Resh Lakish answered: R. Meir found a verse and expounded it [as follows]: Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge. It does not say, ‘unto their knowledge’, but ‘unto my knowledge’. R. Hanina said, [he decided it] from here: Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house etc. The verses contradict one another! There is no contradiction: in the one case Scripture refers to an adult, in the other to a child. When R. Dimi came [to Babylon] he said: In the West, they say: R. Meir ate the date and threw the kernel away. Raba expounded: What is the meaning of the verse: I went down to the garden of nuts, to look at the green plants of the valley etc.? Why are the scholars likened to the nut? To tell you that just as [in the case of] the nut, though it be spoiled with mud and filth, yet are its contents not contemned, so [in the case of] a scholar, although he may have sinned, yet is his Torah not contemned. Rabbah b. Shila [once] met Elijah. He said to him: What is the Holy One, blessed be He, doing? He answered: He utters traditions in the name of all the Rabbis, but in the name of R. Meir he does not utter. Rabbah asked him, Why? — Because he learnt traditions at the mouth of Aher. Said [Rabbah] to him: But why? R. Meir found a pomegranate; he ate [the fruit] within it, and the peel he threw away! He answered: Now He says: Meir my son says: When a man suffers, to what expression does the Shechinah give utterance? ‘My head is heavy, my arm is heavy’. If the Holy One, blessed be He, is thus grieved over the blood of the wicked, how much more so over the blood of the righteous that is shed. Samuel found Rab Judah leaning on the door-bolt weeping. So he said to him: O, keen scholar, wherefore dost thou weep? He replied: Is it a small thing that is written concerning the Rabbis? Where is he that counted, where is he that weighed? Where is he that counted the towers? ‘Where is he that counted?’ — for they counted all the letters in the Torah. ‘Where is he that weighed?’ — for they weighed the light and the heavy in the Torah. ‘Where is he that counted the towers?’ — for they taught three hundred halachoth concerning a ‘tower which flies in the air’. And R. Ammi said: Three hundred questions did Doeg and Ahitophel raise concerning a ‘tower which flies in the air’. Yet we have learnt: Three kings and four commoners have no share in the world to come. What then shall become of us? Said [Samuel] to him. O, keen scholar, there was impurity in their hearts. — But what of Aher? — Greek song did not cease from his mouth. It is told of Aher that when he used to rise [to go] from the schoolhouse, many heretical books used to fall from his lap. Nimos the weaver asked R. Meir: Does all wool that goes down into the [dyeing] kettle come up [properly dyed]? He replied: All that was clean on its mother comes up [properly dyed], all that was not clean on its mother does not come up [properly dyed]. R. Akiba went up unhurt and went down unhurt; and of him Scripture says: Draw me, we will run after thee. And R. Akiba too the ministering angels sought to thrust away; [but] the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Let this elder be, for he is worthy to avail himself of My glory.^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ^ˡ^ᵐ^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ^ˣ^ʸ^ᶻ^ᵃᵃ^ᵃᵇ^ᵃᶜ^ᵃᵈ^ᵃᵉ^ᵃᶠ^ᵃᵍ^ᵃʰ^ᵃⁱ^ᵃʲ^ᵃᵏ^ᵃˡ^ᵃᵐ^ᵃⁿ^ᵃᵒ^ᵃᵖ^ᵃᵠ^ᵃʳ^ᵃˢ^ᵃᵗ^ᵃᵘ^ᵃᵛ^ᵃʷ^ᵃˣ^ᵃʸ

^ᵃnote:Ibid. IV, 30.
^ᵇnote:Ps. L, 16.
^ᶜnote:The child pronounced garku (‘and unto the wicked’) like gahktku(‘and unto Elisha’). Note that t and r are both gutturals.
^ᵈnote:Lit,, ‘his soul rested’.
^ᵉnote:I.e,, in heaven,
^ᶠnote:By my prayer.
^ᵍnote:I.e., as a sign that he was judged and punished for his sins.
^ʰnote:I.e., one scholar among us went astray, yet all of us together have not the power to save him!
^ⁱnote:Var. lec. omit ‘said he’,
^ʲnote:I.e., as a sign that he was forgiven.
^ᵏnote:V. S. Krauss, T.A. II, p. 68.
^ˡnote:I.e., R. Johanan.
^ᵐnote:I.e., of hell.
^ⁿnote:Job. XVIII, 19. The verse forms part of a description of the fate of the wicked; cf. v. 5. In the eyes of Bildad (v. I), Job was an infidel.
^ᵒnote:I.e., his vast knowledge of the Torah. Though theory should not be divorced from practice, the study of the Torah is in itself a merit: cf. Ab. IV, 5.
^ᵖnote:Cf. p. 89.
^ᵠnote:I.e., the Torah.
^ʳnote:Mal. II, 7.
^ˢnote:Prov. XXII, 17.
^ᵗnote:Since the heart may not be applied to their knowledge, it shows that the acts of the wise men referred to must be wicked. Nevertheless, their words may be listened to. Thus R. Meir could learn from Aher, provided he did not imitate the latter's deeds.
^ᵘnote:Ps. XLV, 11. I.e., hearken to the words of the wise, but forget their actions, if they are wicked.
^ᵛnote:I.e., the two verses contradict Mal. II,7 quoted above.
^ʷnote:An adult, unlike a child, can use discrimination, and avoid the teacher's wrongdoing; hence the last two verses permit him to learn even from a heretic.
^ˣnote:I.e., Palestine, which is west of Babylonia.
^ʸnote:So Rashi and Levy; Jast. trans., ‘peel’. V. D.5. a.I. n. 30.
^ᶻnote:Cant. VI, 11.
^ᵃᵃnote:For Elijah in Rabbinic literature v. J.E. vol. V, pp. 122ff(especially p. 124).
^ᵃᵇnote:Lit., ‘from the mouth’.
^ᵃᶜnote:I.e., since you have pleaded for him,
^ᵃᵈnote:The passage refers to capital punishment, v. Sanh. 46a.
^ᵃᵉnote:Lit., ‘I am lighter than my head etc.’, a euphemistic expression for feeling heavy, giddy. weak; v. Sanh., Sonc. ed., pp. 304, 306. The anthropomorphism is intended to show how near God is to man and how real is His sorrow for him in the time of his trouble, even though he be a delinquent and fully deserve his punishment.
^ᵃᶠnote:Shinena, lit., ‘sharp one’; aliter ‘man with long (sharp) tooth’.
^ᵃᵍnote:I.e., about those who went astray into evil courses.
^ᵃʰnote:Isa. XXXIII, 18.
^ᵃⁱnote:I.e., expounded the Torah according to the hermeneutical rule of ke (light, unimportant) rnuju (heavy, important) i.e., by arguing from minor to major and vice versa.
^ᵃʲnote:I.e., fixed traditional laws, V. Glos.
^ᵃᵏnote:An obscure expression for which Rashi both here and Sanh. 106b (Sonc. ed., p. 727) offers several interpretations, The most likely explanations relate the ‘flying tower’ to the laws of defilement. It could then mean: (a) A portable turret-shaped conveyance, in which an Israelite entered heathen land, which is regarded as levitically unclean; v. Tosef. Oh. and Rashi to Sanh. l.c. ‘Flying’ will thus mean ‘moving’ i.e., being carried. (b) An open chest or cupboard containing a levitically unclean object, which stands in an open space; v, Oh. IV, If. In this case, it is best to read ‘open’, or, as in the Mishnah ‘standing’. The following are less plausible explanations: — (a) The upper stroke of the letter lamed, i.e., they taught three hundred traditions concerning so insignificant a matter. (b) The tower of Babel. (c) A tower suspended in mid-air by magic. Cf. Sanh. 68a (Sonc. ed., p. 462), concerning the planting of cucumbers by magic.
^ᵃˡnote:An indication of their profound learning. V. the variant reading in Sanh, l.c.
^ᵃᵐnote:Cf. I Sam. XXI, 8 where ‘the chiefest of the herdmen’ is explained by Rashi as ‘the head of the Beth din’.
^ᵃⁿnote:Cf. II Sam. XVI, 23.
^ᵃᵒnote:The three kings are, Jeroboam, Ahab and Manasseh; the four commoners, Balaam, Doeg, Ahitophel and Gehazi, Thus their profound learning did not save Doeg and Ahitophel. V. Sanh. 90a, (Sonc. ed,, pp. 602f).
^ᵃᵖnote:Lit., ‘clay’, i.e., heathen sensuality (Jast.). Aliter: ‘gnawing worm’; ‘jealousy’, i.e., evil thoughts (Levy). Whatever the exact rendering, the meaning is: They were wickedly inclined from the beginning, hence their knowledge of the Torah could not protect them.
^ᵃᵠnote:I.e., why did not his study of the Torah save him?
^ᵃʳnote:Rashi reads: ‘from his house’. Why Greek song should have been the cause of Aher's corruption is not clear. Rashi says that he transgressed the prohibition against music after the destruction of the Temple (v. Git. 7a; cf. Isa. XXIV, 9). Maharsha rightly objects that this does not explain the word Greek: the Gemara could have simply stated that song did not cease from his mouth. He suggests, therefore, that the Greek songs were tainted by heresy. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that Aher's devotion to Greek literature eventually led him to accept ideas which were contrary to Jewish teaching.
^ᵃˢnote:I.e., before his apostasy.
^ᵃᵗnote:Lit., ‘books of Minim’ (v. Glos. s.v. Min).
^ᵃᵘnote:hsrd, Lat. gerdino. Cf. R. Isaac the Smith, R. Johanan the Sandalmaker etc. Being a weaver, the allegory employed by Nimos is appropriate. But Jast. holds that hrsd equals (by transposition) hrsd and means ‘of Gadara’. He also regards xunhb as a shortened form of xunhbct (cf. Gen. Rab. s. 65), who, he thinks, is to be identified with the cynic philosopher Oenomaus.
^ᵃᵛnote:Rashi explains: does the study of the Torah serve to protect all students from sin? Jast.: i.e., does every student of mystic philosophy escape death or scepticism? (So too Aruch). Note Oenomaus was a cynic.
^ᵃʷnote:I.e., when the sheep was sheared, i.e., all who begin the study of the Torah when they are free from sin; or (following Jast. and Aruch), all who engage in mystic speculation in perfect purity, like R. Akiba. Cf. Ab. III, 9 (Sonc. ed., p. 32).
^ᵃˣnote:Cf. ‘entered . . . departed’ supra pp. 90-91.
^ᵃʸnote:Cant. I, 4. I.e., R. Akiba was able to follow God right into Paradise, or (according to the other opinions) into the deepest mysteries of theosophy.