Moed Katan

with reference to a woman who died in childbirth,1 but [that of] other women may be set down [in the broadway]. R. Eleazar says: [The rule applies] even to other women, as it is written: And there Miriam died and was buried there,2 which shows that her death was close to her [place of] burial. R. Eleazar also said that Miriam also died by the Divine kiss [like Moses]: We interpret the expression ‘there’ [used at Miriam's death] in the same sense as that of the expression ‘there’ used of Moses.3 Wherefore then is it not said about her [that she died] by the mouth of the Lord?3 Because it would be unbecoming to say so. Said R. Ammi, Wherefore is the account of Miriam's death4 placed next to the [laws of the] red heifer?5 To inform you that even as the red heifer afforded atonement [by the ritual use of its ashes], so does the death of tie righteous afford atonement [for the living they have left behind]. R. Eleazar said, Wherefore is [the account of] Aaron's death closely followed by [the account of the disposal of] the priestly vestments?6 [To inform you] that just as the priest's vestments were [means] to effect atonement,7 so is the death of the righteous [conducive to procuring] atonement. Our Rabbis taught: If one die suddenly, this is [reckoned] as being ‘snatched away’; if one is ill one day and dies, that is reckoned as being hustled away; R. Hanania b. Gamaliel says, That is death by a stroke, for it is said: Son of Man, behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a pestilential stroke,8 and it is written [there. after], So I spoke unto the people in the morning and at even my wife died.9 After two days’ [illness], it is a rather precipitous death.10 [After] three — it is one of reproof; [after] four — it is one of rebuff [snubbing]; [after] five is the ordinary death of all men.11 (Said R. Honin: What is the text [for this]? Behold thy days are approached that thou must die.12 ‘Behold’ [accounts for] one;13 ‘thy days’ accounts for two [more]; ‘are approached’ [gives us] two [more], which makes five. ‘Behold’ makes one because the word for ‘one’ in Greek is hen.)13 ‘If one dies [under]14 fifty years [old] — that is death by kareth;15 at fifty-two years — that is the death of Samuel of Ramah; at sixty — that is by the hand of Heaven’.11 (Said Mar Zutra: What is the text [for this]? Thou shalt come to thy grave in ripe age,16 as the [numerical value of the] word for ‘in ripe age’ yields sixty.) ‘At seventy, it is the death of the hoary head; at eighty it is the death of a vigorous [old man]. for it is written, The days of our years are three score and ten, or even by reason of strength four score years.17 Said Rabbah,18 From fifty to sixty years [of age]. that is death by kareth, and the reason why this has not been mentioned was out of deference to [the prophet] Samuel of Ramah. R. Joseph, on his attaining the age of sixty, made a festival day for the Rabbis [of the Academy] saying. ‘I have just passed beyond [the limit of] kareth’. Said Abaye to him: ‘Granted, Sir, that you have passed the [limit of] kareth as to years. but as to the [limit of sickening] days19 have you escaped that’? He replied: ‘Nevertheless, hold on to the half’.20 R. Huna's soul went into repose suddenly21 and the Rabbis [of the academy] were perturbed [thereat] when Zoga22 who hailed from Adiabene taught them:23 ‘What we learned applies only when one has not attained the "age of strength" [eighty] but if one has attained the "age of strength" [eighty] a sudden death is dying by the kiss’. Raba said: [Length of] life, children and sustenance depend not on merit but [rather on] mazzal.24 For [take] Rabbah and R. Hisda. Both were saintly Rabbis; one master prayed for rain and it came, the other master prayed for rain and it came. R. Hisda lived to the age of ninety-two,25 Rabbah26 [only] lived to the age of forty. In R. Hisda's house there were held sixty marriage feasts, at Rabbah's house there were sixty27 bereavements. At R. Hisda's house there was the purest wheaten bread for dogs, and it went to waste;28 at Rabbah's house there was barley bread for human beings and that not to be had. This too, Raba said: These three requests I made of Heaven; two were granted me and one was not. [I prayed for] the scholarship of R. Huna and the wealth of R. Hisda which were granted me; but the modest disposition of Rabbah son of R. Huna,29 that was not granted me. R. Se'orim, Raba's brother, while sitting at Raba's bedside30 saw him [Raba] going into sleep [dying],31 when he [the invalid] said to his brother: ‘Do tell him,32 Sir, not to torment me’. R. Se'orim replied: ‘Are you, Sir, not his intimate friend?’33 Said Raba: ‘Since [my] mazzal34 has been delivered [to him], he takes no heed of me’. R. Se'orim then said to the dying: ‘Do, Sir, show yourself to me [in a dream]’. He did show himself and when asked: ‘Did you, Sir, suffer [pain]?’ He replied: ‘As from the prick of the cupping instrument’. Raba, while seated at the bedside30 of R. Nahman, saw him sinking into slumber [death].35 Said he to Raba: ‘Tell him,36 Sir, not to torment me’. Said Raba: ‘Are you, Sir, not a man esteemed?’37 Said [R. Nahman] to him, ‘Who is esteemed, who is regarded, who is distinguished [before the Angel of Death]?’ Said [Raba] to him: ‘Do, Sir, show yourself to me [in a dream]’. He did show himself. [Raba] asked him: ‘Did you suffer pain, Sir’? He replied: ‘As [little as] the taking of a hair from the milk; and were the Holy One, blessed be He, to say to me, Go back to that world as you were, I wish it not, for the dread thereof [of death] is great’. R. Eleazar was eating some terumah [priest's holy food] when he36 showed himself to him. Said he, Am I not [in the pious act of] eating terumah and is not that designated ‘holy [meat]’?38 The [fatal] moment [thus] was past! R. Shesheth caught sight of him36 in the market place. Quoth he: ‘Do you [seize me] in the market place like a beast? Come to [the] house’! R. Ashi39 caught sight of him36 in the market place. Quoth he: ‘Grant me thirty days’ respite and I shall revise my studies, inasmuch as you say [in Heaven above]: "Happy he that cometh hither [to Heaven] bringing his learning ready with him".’40 he came [again] on the thirtieth day; quoth he, ‘What is the urgency?’ He replied: R. Huna41 b. Nathan is close on your heels42 and, ‘No sovereignty encroaches upon the sphere of another even to a hair's breadth’. As for R. Hisda, he36 could never overcome him as his mouth was never silent from [repeating] his learning by rote. So he went and settled on the cedar tree of the Schoolhouse. The tree cracked; R. Hisda stopped [and] he overcame him. As for R. Hiyya. he36 could not gain access to him. So one day he adopted the guise of a poor man and came and rapped at the gate, saying, ‘Bring me out some bread’. They [others] brought out some bread to him. Said he then to R. Hiyya: ‘Don't you, Sir, treat the poor kindly? Why not, Sir, [also] treat kindly this man [standing outside]?’43 He [R. Hiyya] opened the door to him,44 whereupon, showing him a fiery rod, he made him yield his soul. passage ‘there’ could have been omitted, and in the above passage we have also a superfluous ‘there’, which suggests the Gezerah shawah, v. Glos. desire to sanctification. Besides, ‘a pious deed acts as a shield against tribulation’. Cf. Aboth. IV, 11, P.B. p. 107 (top). a slab used for closing the entrance to a tomb.