Yoma

because they delayed offering up their sacrificial1 birds Scripture accounts it to them as if they had lain with them. The [sacred] offerings were treated contemptuously, as it is written,2 Yea, before the fat was made to smoke, the priest's servant came and said to the man that sacrificed: ‘ Give flesh to roast for the priest,’ for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.’ And if the man said unto him: ‘Let the fat be made to smoke first of all, and then take as much as thy soul desireth’: then he would say: ‘Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. ‘ And the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, — for the men dealt contemptuously with the offering of the Lord. Why was the first Sanctuary destroyed? Because of three [evil] things which prevailed there: idolatry, immorality, bloodshed. Idolatry, as it is written: For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up.3 What is the meaning of ‘For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself’? R. Jonathan said: It is: This bed4 is too short for two neighbours to stretch themselves. And [what is the meaning of] ‘the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up’? — R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: When R. Jonathan [in his reading] came to this passage, he would cry and say: To Him , concerning Whom it is written, He gathereth the waters of the sea together like a heap,5 the cover became too narrow! Immorality [prevailed] as it is written: Moreover the Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and make a tinkling with their feet.6 ‘Because the daughters of Zion are haughty’, i.e., they used to walk with proud carriage. ‘And wanton eyes’ i.e., they filled their eyes with kohl.7 ‘Walking and mincing as they go’, i.e. , they used to walk with the heel touching the toe. ‘And make a tinkling with their feet’, R. Isaac said: They would take myrrh and balsam and place it in their shoes8 and when they came near the young men of Israel they would kick, causing the balsam to squirt at them and would thus cause the evil desire to enter them like an adder's poison. Bloodshed [prevailed] as it is written: Moreover Manaseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.9 They were wicked, but they placed their trust in the Holy One, blessed be He.10 For it is written, The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord and say ‘Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us’.11 Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought them three evil decrees as against the three evils which were their own:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. But why was the second Sanctuary destroyed, seeing that in its time they were occupying themselves with Torah, [observance of] precepts, and the practice of charity? Because therein prevailed hatred without cause. That teaches you that groundless hatred is considered as of even gravity with the three sins of idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed together . And [during the time of] the first Sanctuary did no groundless hatred prevail? Surely it is written: They are thrust down to the sword with my people; smite therefore upon my thigh,13 and R. Eleazar said: This refers to people who eat and drink together and then thrust each other through with the daggers of their tongue! — That [passage] speaks of the princes in Israel, for it is written , Cry and wail, son of man; for it is upon my people,13 etc. [The text reads] ‘Cry and wail, son of man’. One might have assumed [it is upon] all [Israel], therefore it goes on, Upon all the princes of Israel. R. Johanan and R. Eleazar both say: The former ones whose iniquity was revealed14 had their end revealed, the latter ones whose iniquity was not revealed have their end still unrevealed. 15 R. Johanan said: The fingernail of the earlier generations16 is better than the whole17 body of the later generations. Said Resh Lakish to him: On the contrary, the latter generations are better,18 although they are oppressed by the governments, they are occupying themselves with the Torah .- He [R. Johanan] replied: The Sanctuary will prove [my point] for it came back to the former generations, but not to the latter ones. The question was put to R. Eleazar: Were the earlier generations better, or the later ones? — He answered: Look upon the Sanctuary! Some say he answered: The Sanctuary is your witness [in this matter].19 Resh Lakish was swimming in the Jordan. Thereupon Rabbah b. Bar Hana came and gave him the hand:20 Said [Resh Lakish] to him: By God! I hate you. For it is written: If she be a wall, we will build upon her a turret of silver; if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. 21 Had you made yourself like a wall and had all come up in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver, which no rottenness can ever affect. Now that you have come up like doors,22 you are like cedarwood, which rottenness prevails over. What is erez [‘cedar’]?- ‘Ulla said: It is sasmagor.23 What is ‘sasmagor’?-R. Abba says it is the divine24 voice as it has been taught: After the later prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi had died, the Holy Spirit25 departed from Israel, but they still availed themselves of the Bath Kol.26 — But did Resh Lakish talk with Rabbah b. Bar Hana?27 Even with R. Eleazar, who was the master of the land of Israel, Resh Lakish did not converse28 [for anyone with whom Resh Lakish conversed in the street could get merchandise without witnesses]29 would he engage in conversation with Rabbah b. Bar Hana?-R. Papa said: ‘Throw a man between them’.30 It was either Resh Lakish and Ze'iri or Rabbah b. Bar Hana and R. Eleazar.31 When he [Resh Lakish] came before R. Johanan , he said to him: This is not the reason.32 Even if they had all come up in the time of Ezra, the Divine Presence would not have rested over the second Sanctuary, for it is written:33 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, [that means], together with an idol, in his one Sanctuary. used for idolatrous purposes, thus became His rival,’ the cover here standing for the Sanctuary. is adopted by Bah. [Cur. edd. insert: ‘This refers to the first Sanctuary’. This, on the rearrangement of the text adopted (v. n. 5), is evidently superfluous. V. D.S.] Babylon, I will remember you and perform My good word to you, in causing you to return to this place. political and moral condition. Hebrew between the two versions ofhbhg and ofhshg. in Palestine may have been found worthy of a restoration of the Sanctuary. from within. the divine voice a remnant of God's grace, even after the destruction. V., however, Cant. Rab. VIII, 11 when addressed by him; an example is cited from Zeb. 5a. Eleazar was the swimmer’ (Rashi). [Aliter: Or Rabbah b. Bar Hana (who was a Palestinian) was the swimmer, and R. Eleazar (who was a Babylonian) offered the hand, v. Hyman, Toledoth, p.3 1076.]