Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 8, scan section 31

his goats caused damage to others. Said he : " If my goats do damage, may wolves devour them ; but if they do not, may they each bring a bear impaled upon their horns." That same even- ing, each goat really brought in a bear mounted on its horns. How did Hanina happen to have goats? Was he not a poor man ? Said R. Pinchas : " It once happened that a man left a few chickens at the house of Hanina, and the latter said to his wife : ' Do not use the eggs, for the chickens do not belong to us.' ' Accordingly the eggs were left untouched, and in the course of time quite a number of chickens were produced, so that they became too troublesome, and Hanina sold them and with the proceeds purchased goats. Subsequently the man who left the chickens returned to claim them. He was asked for a description of his property, which he gave correctly, whereupon Hanina turned over the goats to him, and these are the goats that brought bears upon their horns.* The same Hanina had a neighbor who was building a house, and the beams were too short. So she came to him, and said : " I have built my house, but my beams do not reach far enough." And he asked her her name. And she answered : " Aikho." He then said : " Aikho, may thy beams become longer." We have learned in a Boraitha that they really became so long that they protruded an ell on each side, while others say that pieces were conjoined with the beams so that they attained the required length. We have learned in another Boraitha : " Plimo said : ' I saw that house and noticed that the beams protruded an ell on each side. And I was told that the house was the one for which Hanina prayed to have the beams become longer.' " R. Hama bar Hanina ordered a fast-day, but no rain de- * According to Hananel and other commentaries the whole paragraph was inserted here from other sources than the Gemara. In the Ain Jacob this is not to be found. TRACT TAANITH (FASTING). 75 scended, and he was told : " Why, R. Jehoshua ben Levi would order a fast-day, and rain would commence to fall ! " Said he : " That was the son of Levi, and not I ! " And they said : " We meant to say, that we should again congregate, and perhaps, if we prove contrite of heart, the rain will descend." They did so, and still no rain descended. Said he to them : " Think ye that ye deserve rain to descend for you?" And they answered: " Yea." Said he to the sky : " Cover thy countenance." No re- sults, however, were produced, and he exclaimed : " How impu- dent are the skies ! " Whereupon they became covered, and rain commenced to fall. Levi ordered a fast-day, but no rain descended. Said he : " Creator of the universe ! Thou didst ascend to the heavens, and didst sit down, but hast no compassion upon thy children." Whereupon rain descended, but Levi fell and became lame. R. Hyya bar Lolaini heard one cloud say to another : " Come, let us go and deposit our waters in the lands of Ammon and Moab." Said R. Hyya : " Creator of the universe ! when thou gavest Thy Law to Israel, Thou hadst gone to other nations, offering it to them, and they would not accept it ; and now Thou wouldst allow the clouds to pour forth their waters on their lands ! " and turning to the clouds, he exclaimed : " Pour forth your waters on this spot," and they did so. The same R. Hyya preached : " It is written [Psalms, xcii. 13]: 'The righteous shall spring up like the palm-tree; like a cedar in Lebanon shall he grow high.' Why are both the palm- tree and the cedar mentioned ? If the palm-tree only were men- tioned, I would say that as a branch of the palm-tree which is broken off does not grow out again, so it will be with the right- eous— if he dies, he will leave no one in his stead ; therefore a cedar is also mentioned, for with a cedar it is not so. And if a cedar only were mentioned, I might say that as the cedar does not bear fruit, so will it also be with the righteous (which may God forbid). Hence the palm-tree is also mentioned." The rabbis taught : It once happened that R. Eliezer ordered thirteen fast-days, but no rain descended. When the congrega- tion dispersed after the thirteenth fast-day, he asked them if they had already ordered their graves, and they commenced to weep aloud, whereupon rain commenced to fall. Another time it happened that R. Eliezer recited the twenty- four benedictions at prayer, but he was not answered. R. Aqiba followed him at the reading-desk, and said : " Father and 76 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. King ! we have no other king but Thee. Only for Thy sake have mercy upon us ! " And his prayer was answered. The people then began to murmur (and say that R. Aqiba was a greater man than R. Eliezer). A heavenly Voice went forth and said : " Not because R. Aqiba is a greater man than R. Eliezer was his prayer answered, but because he always gives in to another, while R. Eliezer never did that." The rabbis taught : How much rain should fall in order that the congregation may stop fasting ? When the rain fills up a furrow made with a plough. So said R. Meir, but the sages say : If the water is a span deep on dry land, two spans on moist earth, and three spans on ploughed soil. 11 If while the people are fasting rain should fall before sun- rise." The rabbis taught : " If while the people are fasting rain should fall before sunrise they may stop fasting, but if after sunrise they must not. Such is the dictum of R. Meir. But R. Jehudah said : If it fell before noon they may stop fasting, but if after noon they should not. R. Jose, however, said : They may stop if rain fell before the end of the ninth hour (3 P. M.), but not if it fell after that hour. And so we find in the case of Achab, King of Israel, who fasted from the ninth hour on, and further, as it is written [I Kings, xxii. 29] : " Hast thou seen how Achab hath humbled himself before me?" (It is explained elsewhere that kings used to eat their meal at the ninth hour.) R. Jehudah Nesseah (the Second) ordered a fast-day, and rain commenced to fall after sunrise. He thereupon desired to stop fasting, but R. Ami said to him : " We have learned that if rain falls before noon or after noon there is a difference of opinion, but after sunrise all agree that fasting may be stopped." Samuel the Little ordered a fast-day, and rain descended be- fore sunrise. The people wanted to infer therefrom that it was in praise of the congregation ; for as soon as a fast was ordered, rain commenced to fall. Said Samuel to them : " This can be compared to a case of where a slave begs for something of his master, and the master says : ' Give it to him ! I do not cars, even to hear his voice.' " Again it happened that the same Samuel ordered a fast-day,