Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 10, scan section 74

Amora, would not contradict it ? Therefore it must be said that the phrase, ''The rabbis taught: Ten conditions," mentioned above does not mean that it was a Boraitha (as it usually indi- cates), but that it was taught by R. Jehoshua b. Levi (who was also an Amora, and R. Johanan may differ with him). R. Gebiah of the city of Khthil taught so plainly : R. Tan'hum and R. TRACT BABA KAMA (THE FIRST GATE). 179 Brice said in the name of the certain elder who was R. Jehoshua b. Levi, that ten conditions did Joshua make with the settlers. Ten enactments were enacted by Ezra, viz. : {a) That portions of the Scripture should be read at the Saturday afternoon prayer ; {b) on Mondays and Thursdays ; {c) the court should be open on Mondays and Thursdays ; {d) clothes should be washed on Thursdays (for the honor of the Sabbath) ; {e) garlic should be eaten on the eve of Sabbath ; (/) a woman should do her baking early in the morning (so as to have fresh bread for the poor who should ask for it); {g) a woman should wear underwear; {h) a woman should comb her hair before immersing (in the legal bath) ; {i) vendors should travel from town to town and peddle their wares unmolested. He also enacted immersion (in a legal bath) for those who see Keri (wet-dreams). Ten things were said of the city of Jerusalem (when it was the capital of Palestine) : {a) Real property should always be redeemed by the seller ; {b) if a slain person is found in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, the ceremony of the heifer [Deut. xxi.] should not be performed ; {c) it should never be declared a condemned town [Deut. xiii. 14] ; {d) the laws of plagues [Levi. xiv. 35] should not apply to the houses of Jerusalem ; {e) no beams should be permitted to pro- trude, nor any corner boards (Erubin, p. 40) ; (/) no dumping places for rubbish should be permitted therein ; {g) no potter's kiln should be permitted to be constructed therein ; {h) no gar- dens or orchards should be permitted there except those of roses, that existed since the time of the first prophets ; (/) no hens or cocks should be raised ; and {J) no dead body should remain over-night in the city (but should be carried out of the city). '^ No swine is permitted to be raised at any placed The rab- bis taught : " During the civil war of the Maccabees, Hurkanoth was within and Aristobulos was without the city wall, and every day those within lowered by means of a chair a basket full of dinars from the top of the wall to those outside, and the latter sent them up cattle for the daily sacrifices. Among the outsiders was an old man who was learned in Greek science, and he said to them : So long as your enemies continue to perform the holy service you will not subdue them. On the next day, when the basket of dinars was lowered, they sent them up a swine. When the swine reached the centre of the wall he fastened his feet in the wall, and Palestine trembled for a distance of four hundred square parsa. At that time it was declared that cursed be he who raised swine and cursed be he who taught his sons Greek i8o THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. science. Of that time it was taught (Tract Mena'hoth, p. 64^) that the omer was brought from the gardens of Zriphin and the two loaves from the valley of Ein Sokher." But is, then, the study of Greek science prohibited — have we not learned in the following Boraitha : " Rabbi said : In Palestine there is no use for the Syriac language, which is not clear, when there are the Holy language (pure Hebrew) and the Greek lan- guage, both of which are very clear ; and R. Jose said : In Babylon there is no use for the Aramean language, for there are the Holy language and the Persian language " ? It may be said : Greek language is one thing and Greek science is another. But is, then, the study of Greek science prohibited — has not R. Jehudah said in the name of Samuel : So said R. Simeon b. Gamaliel : It is written [Lam. iii. 51] : " My eye affected my soul because of all the daughters of my city. There were a thousand young men in my father's house, five hundred of whom studied Scripture and five hundred Greek science, and of all of them only two remained : I here and my nephew in Assia " ? R. Gamaliel's house was an exception, for its proximity to the government, as is stated in a Boraitha : '' He who cuts his hair X^}^V imitates the ways of the Amorites, which are prohibited [Lev. xviii. 3]. Abtulmus bar Reuben, however, was permitted to do so, for he had stood near the government. The house of R. Gamaliel was permitted to study Greek science for the same reason." "• No dog shall be kept!' etc. The rabbis taught : No one shall raise a dog unless he is kept on a chain, or unless in a town ad- joining the frontier, in which he is permitted to keep him without a chain only in the night-time. There is a Boraitha : R. Eliezer the great said : The raising of dogs is equivalent to the raising of swine. For what purpose is this equivalence ? That the curse said of him who raises swine should apply also to him. R. Joseph b. Maniumi said in the name of R. Na'hman : Baby- lon [Nahardea] is considered a city located at the frontier. R. Dosthai of Biri lectured : It is written [Numb. x. 36] : '* And when it rested, he said. Return, O Lord, among the myriads of the thousands of Israel." Infer from this that the Shekhina does not rest on Israel unless they number two myriads two thousand. If it should happen that this number should be one less and there should be a pregnant woman whose child when born would complete it, and a dog should bark and cause the woman to miscarry, it would appear that he caused the Shekhina to withdraw from Israel. TRACT BABA KAMA (THE FIRST GATE). i8i It happened with a woman that entered a house to bake there, etc. (See Sabbath, p. 124). *' No 7tets are spread, ' ' etc. But do we go as far as that ? Have we not learned in the following Mishna : " Dove-cots may be located at a distance of fifty ells from a town " ? Said Abayi : They fly for a much longer distance, but as to pecking up food they do so only within fifty ells. But do they fly only thirty ris?* Have we not learned in the following Boraitha that nets should not be spread out in the neighborhood of inhabited places, even at a distance of one hundred mil? R. Joseph said that " in- habited " means where vineyards are laid out, Rabba said that it means where dove-cots are kept. If so, let him say that it must not be done for the doves themselves, in order that they should not be caught in ? If you wish, it can be answered that the doves are ownerless ; and if you wish, it can be answered that he him- self is the owner of the doves. * Seven and a half ris equalled one Palestinian mile.