Kiddushin

to warn him.1 Rab Judah said in Rab's name: We learnt this2 only in town; but on a road, three are necessary, lest one has a call of nature, and so the other is left alone with a forbidden woman. Shall we say that the following supports him: Two scholars were sent with him, lest he has intercourse with her on the way. Two, and he [the husband] himself — that is three? — There it is in order that they may be witnesses against him.3 Rab and Rab Judah were walking on a road, and a woman was walking in front of them. Said Rab to Rab Judah, ‘Lift your feet before Gehenna.’4 ‘But you yourself said that in the case of respectable people it is well,’ he protested. ‘Who says that respectable people mean such as you and I?’ he retorted. ‘Then such as who?’ — E.g., R. Hanina b. Pappi and his companions.’5 Rab said: We flagellate on account of privacy, but do not interdict on account of same.6 R. Ashi said: This was said only of privacy with an unmarried woman, but not with a married woman, lest a stigma be cast upon her children.7 Mar Zutra punished and proclaimed.8 R. Nahman of Parahetia9 said to R. Ashi: You too should punish and proclaim! — Some may hear of the one but not of the other. Rab said: We flagellate on account of an evil rumour,10 because it is said. Nay [al], my sons; for it is no good report that I hear.11 Mar Zutra laid a cord about his shoulders12 and recited to him, ‘Nay, my sons’. Rabbah said: If her husband is in town we have no fear on account of privacy. R. Joseph said: If the door opens to the street, we have no fear on account of privacy. R. Bibi visited R. Joseph. Having dined,13 he said to them [the servants], ‘Remove the ladder from under Bibi.’14 But Rabbah said: If her husband is in town, we have no fear on account of privacy? — R. Bibi was different, because she was his best friend,15 and intimate with him. R. Kahana said: If there are men without [i.e., in the outer chamber] and women within, we have no fear of privacy.16 If there are men in the inner chamber and women in the outer, we have fear of privacy.17 In a Baraitha the reverse was taught.18 Said Abaye: Now that R. Kahana ruled thus, while the Baraitha taught the reverse, let us19 act stringently. Abaye made a partition of jugs;20 Raba made a partition of canes. Abin21 said: The sorest spot of the year22 is the festival.23 Certain [redeemed] captive women came to Nehardea. They were taken to the house of R. Amram the pious, and the ladder was removed from under them.24 As one passed by,25 a light fell on the sky lights;26 [thereupon] R. Amram seized the ladder, which ten men could not raise, and he alone set it up and proceeded to ascend. When he had gone half way up the ladder, he stayed his feet and cried out, ‘A fire at R. Amram's!’ The Rabbis came and reproved him, ‘We have shamed you!’27 Said he to them: ‘Better that you shame Amram in this world than that you be ashamed of him in the next.’ He then adjured it [the Tempter] to go forth from him, and it issued from him in the shape of a fiery column. Said he to it: ‘See, you are fire and I am flesh, yet I am stronger28 than you.’29 R. Meir used to scoff at transgressors.30 One day Satan appeared to him in the guise of a woman on the opposite bank of the river. As there was no ferry, he seized the rope31 and proceeded across. When he had reached half way along the rope, he [Satan] let him go32 saying: ‘Had they not proclaimed in Heaven, "Take heed of R. Meir and his learning," I would have valued your life33 at two ma'ahs.’34 R. Akiba used to scoff at transgressors. One day Satan appeared to him as a woman on the top of a palm tree. Grasping the tree, he went climbing up: but when he reached half-way up the tree he [Satan] let him go, saying: ‘Had they not proclaimed in Heaven, "Take heed of R. Akiba and his learning," I would have valued your life at two ma'ahs.’ Pelimo used to say every day, ‘An arrow in Satan's eyes!’35 One day — it was the eve of the Day of Atonement — he disguised himself as a poor man and went and called out at his door; so bread was taken out to him. ‘On such a day,’ he pleaded, ‘when everyone is within, shall I be without?’ Thereupon he was taken in and bread was offered him. ‘On a day like this,’ he urged, ‘when everyone sits at table,36 shall I sit alone!’ He was led and sat down at the table. As he sat, his body was covered with suppurating sores, and he was behaving repulsively.37 ‘Sit properly,’ he rebuked him. account. Tosaf.: an unmarried woman is not interdicted to a priest as a zonah (q.v. Glos.) for being alone with a man. in respect of a report that is not good. here has no basis in the Bible, but belongs to the category of makkath marduth ‘a beating for rebellion’ instituted by the Rabbis for the enforcement of discipline, and which was not hedged about by the regulations which governed the infliction of the ‘forty stripes’ prescribed in the Bible] Joseph left the house he gave this order, so that R. Bibi should not go down and be alone with his wife. women. But if men are in the inner chamber, we are not afraid that a woman from the outer chamber will enter, because in any case one woman may be alone with two men; nor do we fear that a man may enter the women's chamber, since others will follow him, as that is their natural exit.