Chagigah

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.1 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.?2 That child was a stutterer, so it sounded as though he answered: ‘But to Elisha3 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,4 they said:5 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 cause6 smoke to rise from his grave.7 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;8 if I were to take him by the hand, who would snatch him from me! [But] said he:9 When I die, I shall extinguish the smoke from his grave.10 When R. Johanan died, the smoke ceased from Aher's grave. The public mourner11 began [his oration] concerning him12 thus: Even the janitor13 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.14 She answered: Remember his Torah15 and not his deeds. Forthwith, a fire came down and enveloped Rabbi's bench.16 [Thereupon] Rabbi wept and said: If it be so on account of those who dishonour her,17 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?18 [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.19 It does not say, ‘unto their knowledge’, but ‘unto my knowledge’.20 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.21 The verses contradict one another!22 There is no contradiction: in the one case Scripture refers to an adult,23 in the other to a child. When R. Dimi came [to Babylon] he said: In the West,24 they say: R. Meir ate the date and threw the kernel 25 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.?26 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.27 He said to him: What is the Holy One, blessed be He, doing? He answered: He utters traditions in the name28 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: Now29 He says: Meir my son says: When a man suffers,30 to what expression does the Shechinah give utterance? ‘My head is heavy, my arm is heavy’.31 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,32 wherefore dost thou weep? He replied: Is it a small thing that is written concerning the Rabbis?33 Where is he that counted, where is he that weighed? Where is he that counted the towers?34 ‘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 heavy35 in the Torah. ‘Where is he that counted the towers?’ — for they taught three hundred halachoth36 concerning a ‘tower which flies in the air’.37 And R. Ammi said: Three hundred questions38 did Doeg39 and Ahitophel40 raise concerning a ‘tower which flies in the air’. Yet we have learnt: Three kings and four commoners41 have no share in the world to come. What then shall become of us? Said [Samuel] to him. O, keen scholar, there was impurity42 in their hearts. — But what of Aher?43 — Greek song did not cease from his mouth.44 It is told of Aher that when he used to rise [to go] from the schoolhouse,45 many heretical books46 used to fall from his lap. Nimos the weaver47 asked R. Meir: Does all wool that goes down into the [dyeing] kettle come up [properly dyed]?48 He replied: All that was clean on its mother49 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 down50 unhurt; and of him Scripture says: Draw me, we will run after thee.51 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. both gutturals. Job was an infidel. in itself a merit: cf. Ab. IV, 5. wicked. Nevertheless, their words may be listened to. Thus R. Meir could learn from Aher, provided he did not imitate the latter's deeds. permit him to learn even from a heretic. 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. important) i.e., by arguing from minor to major and vice versa. 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. Thus their profound learning did not save Doeg and Ahitophel. V. Sanh. 90a, (Sonc. ed,, pp. 602f). the exact rendering, the meaning is: They were wickedly inclined from the beginning, hence their knowledge of the Torah could not protect them. 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. 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. mystic philosophy escape death or scepticism? (So too Aruch). Note Oenomaus was a cynic. (following Jast. and Aruch), all who engage in mystic speculation in perfect purity, like R. Akiba. Cf. Ab. III, 9 (Sonc. ed., p. 32). deepest mysteries of theosophy.