Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 8, scan section 76

with the lancet." Rabha was sitting at the bedside of R. Na'h- man when he was in his last agonies, and the latter said : " Let the Master tell him (the angel of death) not to pain me." And he said to him : "Is not the Master a prominent person?" (to tell him so himself). And he answered him : " Who is esteemed, or worthy, or who can contend (at such a moment) ? " He then said to the dying : " Let the Master's soul appear before me." When it was so, he asked him : " Had you pain ? " And he answered : " It was as easy as to remove a hair from milk ; and yet, if the Holy One, blessed be He, would command me to re- turn to the world I was in I would pray permission not to do it, for the fear (of the angel of death) is too great." R. Elazar was eating Trumah (heave-offering) when the death angel appeared before him, and he said to him : " You see that I am now eating Trumah, is it not sacred ? " And the appropriate moment passed EBEL RABBATHI, OR SEMA'HOTH. n over. To R. Shesheth he presented himself in the market, and he said to him : " Do you wish to take me when I am in the market, as if I were an animal ? Come to my house." When he presented himself to R. Ashi in the market, the latter said to him : " Extend my time thirty days, so as to enable me to re- view my studies, as ye say : ' Happy is the person who comes here possessed of his studies.' ' On the thirtieth day he ap- peared again, and R. Ashi said to him : " Why such punctuality ? " And he answered him: "You interfere with Bar Nathan, as no regency must interfere with another, even as much as a hair {i.e., R. Nathan cannot become the head of the college so long as you are alive)." R. Hisda could not be overpowered (by the angel of death), for he kept on studying all the time, and the death angel climbed up and hid himself in a cedar in front of Rabha's house. When the cedar broke down, R. Hisda discontinued his study for a moment and he was overpowered at that moment. R. Hyya was inaccessible (to the angel of death). One day he transformed himself into a mendicant, and knocked on the door and asked for a slice of bread. When R. Hyya handed him what he asked for, the angel said to him : " Does not the Mas- ter have mercy with a poor man ? Why does the Master have no mercy with me? I am the angel of death." And as proof, he showed him the fire-rod. R. Hyya then delivered up his soul to him. /. Said R. Hanina b. Antigonos : If an old man has eaten forbidden things, or intentionally violated the Sabbath, the pun- ishment of which is Kareth,1 and he is over the age that short life should be applied to him, what will signify to us that his death was that of Kareth ? Therefore we must consider that he who died after only three days of sickness, it is a death of Kareth ; at four days, it is a hastened death, etc. Said R. Jehudah: The pious of ancient times have suffered of the sick- ness of the intestines two or three days before their death,2 for the purpose of cleaning their bodies of all food and drink, that they should enter clean in the world to come, as it is written [Proverbs, xxvii. 21]: " (As) the fining-pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is a man (proved) according to his praise." f. ' Leviticus, vii. 25. 2 According to Elias Wilna's corrections, and according to him, it is to be understood that R. jehudah opposes R. Hanina b. Antigonos, and maintains that even a pious man may die in two or three days. The text, however, reads twenty days. 12 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. CHAPTER IV. A. For relatives of the first degree — e.g., father, mother, son, daughter, brother, wife, and sister — a priest may defile him- self. R. Aqiba said : For those of the second degree 1 he mourns and is prevented also from services, which he must not perform when his dead is not buried; but he must not defile himself. B. R. Simeon b. Elazar, however, said : He may defile him- self for his grandfather and his grandson, but the sages1 say: For whomsoever he is obliged to perform all the ceremonies of mourning, are to mourn with him, but not otherwise. If it was doubtful, however, whether the deceased was his brother or son, or not, he mourns and is considered an Orvan, but he must not defile himself. C. For his betrothed he must neither mourn nor defile him- self. The same is the case with his divorced wife, although he has children by her. The rabbis taught : Over all those of which it is written in the chapter relating to priests [Lev. xxi.], that a priest may defile himself on them, an ordinary person must mourn, and they are the following: wife, father and mother, brother and sister, son and daughter. To these were added: his brother and virgin sister by his mother, and his married sister either by his mother or by his father. And also over all their second degree of consanguinity. Such is the dictum of R. Aqiba. R. Simeon b. Elazar, however, holds that it extends only to his grandson and his grandfather. The sages, however, laid down the CHAPTER IV. A. ' Grandfather, grandmother, grandson, etc. B. ' The sages differ with R. Aqiba, who says: That for the second degree he must not mourn at all, and it is to be understood so: Whoever is obliged to perform all the mourning ceremonies, e.g., not to sit in a chair, not to put on the shoes, etc., which are customary for the first degree, then also the priest must mourn and defile himself; but for the second degree, for whom he is not allowed to defile himself, the mourning is also unnecessary for him. The case where mourning without defilement can be found is only when it is doubtful, the doubtfulness meaning when the woman who bore the child was suspected. EBEL RABBATHI, OR SEMA'HOTH. 13 following rule: " Over whom one is bound to mourn, with him he must mourn. ' ' 1 Does not the rule of the sages state the same thing stated by the first Tana ? There is a difference as to those who are with him in the same house.2 Rabh once said to Hyya his son, and so also said R. Huna to Rabba his son: " In her (wife's) presence observe mourning, but not in her absence." Mar Uqba's brother-in-law died, and he was inclined to observe both the seven and the thirty days. When R. Huna came to him and found him mourning, he said : " Dost thou desire to partake of the mourning-meal ? The rule that one must observe mourn- ing out of respect for his wife, extends only to father-in-law and mother-in-law." We have also so learned in a Boraitha: " Ameimar's grandson died, and he rent his garment. When subsequently his son arrived he rent again in his presence, and when he afterwards recollected that he was seated at the time he rent, he arose and rent once more." D. [What is the term for Aninuth?1 From the time of