Chagigah

is not one of them. Said the Rabbis to Raba: To [our] master ‘the hiding of the face’ does not apply, and [the words] ‘And they shall be devoured’ do not apply! Said he to them: Do ye know then how much I send secretly to the Court of King Shapur?1 Even so the Rabbis directed their eyes upon him.2 Meanwhile the Court of King Shapur sent [men], who plundered him.3 He [then] said: This is it that is taught: Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: Wherever the Rabbis direct their eyes there is either death or poverty. And I will hide My face in that day.4 Raba said: Although I hide My face from them, I shall speak to them5 in a dream.6 R. Joseph: said: His hand is stretched over us, as it is said: And I have covered thee in the shadow of My hand.7 R. Joshua b. Hanania was [once] at the court of Caesar.8 A certain unbeliever9 showed him [by gestures]: A people whose Lord has turned His face from them — He showed him [in reply]: His hand is stretched over us. Said Caesar to R. Joshua: What did he show thee?-A people whose Lord has turned His face from them. And I showed him: His hand is stretched over us. They [then] said to the heretic:10 What didst thou show him?A people whose Lord has turned His face from them. And what did he show thee? — I do not know. Said they: A man who does not understand what he is being shown by gesture should hold converse in signs before the king! They led him forth and slew him. When the soul of R. Joshua b. Hanania was about to go to its rest, the Rabbis said to him: What will become of us at the hands of the unbelievers? He answered them: Counsel is perished from the children,11 their wisdom is vanished.12 So soon as counsel is perished from the children,13 the wisdom of the peoples of the world is vanished.14 Or I may derive it from here: And he said: Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go over against thee. 15 R. Ila was once walking up the stairs of the house of Rabbi b. Shila, when he heard a child reading the verse: For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what his conversation was.16 He said: A slave Master declares to him his conversation, is there any remedy for him? — What is the meaning of [the expression] ‘What his conversation was’? — Rab said: Even the superfluous conversation17 between a man and his wife is declared to a person in the hour of his death. But is it so? Now behold R. Kahana once lay down beneath the bed of Rab,18 and he heard him converse and jest and perform his needs. [Thereupon] he said: The mouth of Rab is like that of one who has not tasted any food.19 Said [Rab] to him: Kahana, get out, this is unseemly! — There is no contradiction: In the one case [it is] where he has to procure her favour, in the other, where he has no need to procure her favour. But if ye will not hear it, My soul shall weep in secret for the pride.20 R. Samuel b. Inia said in the name of Rab: The Holy One, blessed be He, has a place and its name is ‘Secret’. What is the meaning of [the expression] ‘for the pride’?-R. Samuel b. Isaac said: For the glory21 that has been taken from them and given to the nations of the world. R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: For the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.22 But is there any weeping in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He? For behold R. Papa said: There is no grief in the Presence23 of the Holy One blessed be He; for it is said: Honour and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are it20 His sanctuary!24 — There is no contradiction; the one case [refers to] the inner chambers,25 the other case [refers to] the outer chambers. But behold it is written: And in that day did the Lord, the God of Hosts, call to weeping and to lamentation, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth!26 — The destruction of the Temple is different, for even the angels of peace wept [over it]; for it is said: Behold for their altar27 they cried without; the angels of peace wept bitterly. 28 And mine eye shall drop tears and tears, and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive.29 R. Eleazar said: Wherefore these three [expressions of] ‘tears’? One for the first Temple, and one for the second Temple, and one for Israel, who have become exiled from their place. But there are some who say: One for the neglect of [the study of] the Torah. This is all right according to the view that [one] is for Israel, who have become exiled from their place: this agrees with that which is written: ‘Because the Lord's flock is carried away captive’. But according to the view that it was for the neglect of [the study of] the Torah, how do you explain [the text], ‘Because the Lord's flock is carried away’? — Since Israel have become exiled from their place. you can have no greater neglect of [the study of] the Torah than this. Our Rabbis taught: Over three the Holy One, blessed be He, weeps every day: over him who is able to occupy himself with [the study of] the Torah and does not; and over him who is unable to occupy himself with [the study of] the Torah and does; and over a leader who domineers over the community. Rabbi was once holding the Book of Lamentations and reading therein: when he came to the verse, He hath cast down from heaven unto the earth,30 it fell from his hands. He said: From a roof so high to a pit as deep!31 Rabbi and R. Hiyya were once going on a journey. When they came to a certain town, they said: If there is a rabbinical scholar here, we shall go and pay him our respect. They were told: There is a rabbinical scholar here32 and he is blind.33 Said R. Hiyya to Rabbi: Stay [here]; thou must not lower thy princely dignity;34 I shall go and visit him. But [Rabbi] took hold of him and went with him. When they were taking leave from him,35 he said to them: Ye have visited one who is seen but does not see; may ye be granted to visit Him who sees but is not seen. Said [Rabbi to R. Hiyya]: If now [I had hearkened to you] you would have deprived me of this blessing. They [then] said to him: From whom didst thou hear this?36 -I heard it at a discourse of R. Jacob's. For R. Jacob of Kefar Hitya,37 used to visit his teacher every day. When he became old, the latter said to him: Let the master not trouble himself since he is unable. He replied: Is it a small thing that is written concerning the Rabbis? And he shall still live alway. he- shall not see the pit; when he seeth that wise man die.38 Now if he who sees wise men at their death shall live, how much more so [he who sees them] in their life. R. Idi, the father of R. Jacob b. Idi, used to spend three months on his journey and one day at the school;39 and the Rabbis called him ‘One day scholar’. So he became dispirited, and applied to himself the verse: I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbour etc.40 Said to him R. Johanan: I beg of you. do not bring down punishment upon the Rabbis. R. Johanan then went forth to the College and delivered the [following] exposition: Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways.41 Do they then seek Him by day, and do not seek Him by might? It comes to tell you. therefore, that whoever studies the Torah even one day in the year, Scripture accounts it to him as though he had studied the whole year through. And similarly in the case of punishment, for it is written: After the number of the days in which you spied out the land.42 Did they then sin forty years? Was it not forty days that they sinned? It must come to teach you, therefore, that whoever commits transgression even one day in the year, Scripture accounts it to him as though he had transgressed the whole year through. WHO IS [IN THIS RESPECT DEEMED] A MINOR? WHOEVER IS UNABLE TO RIDE ON HIS FATHER'S SHOULDERS etc. R. Zera demurred thereto: against Rome. V. Gibbon, CC. 18, 24, 25; cf. also Ber. 56a, B.B. 115b and Pes. 54a. ibid. Maharsha prefers this explanation: God would deny them His ‘face’, I.e., the direct communion of Moses which was ‘mouth to mouth’, but He would still speak to them in dreams; cf. ibid. 6-7. repv from rt. rep. A term applied to unbelievers generally, Jew or Gentile. MS.M.: ‘Min’ (v. next note), a Jewish sectary, probably a Judeo-Christian. V. J.E. vol. I, pp. 665-666 and Vol. VIII, pp. 594-595. would never want a defender so long as it was attacked’] Herford op. cit, p. 266. advantage over him. sign of grief, only ‘Honour etc.’ hearth’, Cf. Rashi to verse. Or from root meaning ‘to gather, establish’ sc. halachoth (Levy). (essentially a home festival) and Tabernacles (cf. Deut. XVI, 14) he was able to remain at the school only one day.