Kiddushin

here it is to permit him to take a wife; there it is to take the wife from him.1 R. Joseph said: He whose speech is Babylonian is permitted to take a wife [of superior birth]. But nowadays that there are dissemblers, we fear [them].2 Ze'iri was evading R. Johanan, who was urging him, ‘Marry my daughter.’3 One day they were travelling on a road, when they came to a pool of water. Thereupon he placed R. Johanan on his shoulder and carried him across. Said he to him: ‘Our learning is fit but our daughters are not? [On] what is your view [based]? Shall we say, because we learned, TEN GENEALOGICAL CLASSES WENT UP FROM BABYLON: PRIESTS, LEVITES [etc.]? Did then all the priests, Levites and Israelites go up? just as some of these were left, so were some of those [the unfit enumerated in the Mishnah] left [in Babylon].’4 He [however] overlooked what R. Eleazar said: Ezra did not go up from Babylon until he made it like pure fine flour: then he went up.5 ‘Ulla visited Rab Judah in Pumbeditha. Seeing that R. Isaac, the son of Rab Judah, was grown up, yet unmarried,6 he asked him, ‘Why have you not taken a wife for your son?’ ‘Do I then know whence to take one?’ he replied.7 ‘Do we know whence we are descended?’ he retorted. ‘Perhaps from those of whom it is written: They ravished the women in Zion, the maidens in the cities of Judah.8 And should you answer: If a heathen or slave has intercourse with the daughter of an Israelite, the issue is fit, — then perhaps [we are descended] from those of whom it is written, that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves [seruhim] upon their couches.9 Now, R. Jose son of R. Hanina said: This refers to people who pass water before their beds naked.10 But R. Abbahu derided this: If so, see what is written: Therefore shall they now go captive the first that go captive11 — because they pass water before their beds naked they shall go captive with the first that go captive! But, said R. Abbahu, this refers to people who eat and drink together, join their couches, exchange their wives and make their couches foul [masrihim] with semen that is not theirs.’12 ‘Then what shall I do?’ he ‘asked. ‘Go after the peaceful,’13 he replied.14 As the Palestinians15 make a test: When two quarrel, they see which becomes silent first and say: This one is of superior birth. Rab said: Silence [peaceableness] in Babylon, is [the mark of]16 pure birth. But that is not so, for Rab visited the family of Shihla17 and examined them; surely that means as to their genealogy? — No, by silence. He said thus to them:18 Examine [them], whether they are silent [peaceable] or not. Rab Judah said in Rab's name: If you see two people continually quarreling, there is a blemish of unfitness in one of them, and they are [providentially] not allowed to cleave to each other. 19 R. Papa the elder said on Rab's authority: Babylon is healthy; Mesene20 is dead; Media is sick, and Elam is dying.21 And what is the difference between sick and dying? — Most sick are [destined] for life; most dying are for death.22 How far does Babylon extend?23 — Rab said: As far as the river ‘Azak;24 Samuel said: as far as the river Wani.25 How far on the upper [reaches of] Tigris? Rab said: as far as Bagda26 and Awana; Samuel said: as far as Moxoene.27 Is then Moxoene itself not included? Surely R. Hiyya b. Abba said in Samuel's name: Moxoene is as the land of Exile28 in respect to genealogy? — But as far as and including Moxoene. How far on the lower reaches of the Tigris? — Said R. Samuel: As far as lower Apamea.29 There were two Apameas, an upper and a lower; one was fit [in respect to marriage] and the other unfit, and one parasang lies between them; and they [their inhabitants] were particular with each other, and did not even lend fire to each other.30 And the sign whereby [you may recognise] the unfit is the one that speaks [the] Mesene [dialect]. How far [does it extend] on the upper reaches of the Euphrates? — Rab said: To Fort Tulbakene.31 Samuel said: To the bridge of Be-pherat;31 R. Johanan said: As far as the ford of Gizama.32 Abaye — others state, R. Joseph — cursed Rab's [definition].33 Only Rab's, but not Samuel's!34 — But he cursed Rab's, and all the more so Samuel's. Alternatively, he cursed [only] Rab's, after all, and not Samuel's, and the bridge of Be-Pherat [originally] lay below; fitness, if he lacks the established presumption. On the other hand, if he is married to such, he is not compelled to divorce her unless his own unfitness is established. former are of purer birth. eastern boundaries of Babylon.] bank, constituted the northern boundary of Babylon; loc. cit. p. 82.] Johanan's definition is not controverted, this must have been higher up than the other two, v. next note. were heads of the academy. Hence, this excluded Pumbeditha, which aroused their vehement opposition. Fort Tulbakene.