Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 16, scan section 16

hundred and forty thousand, and still the blood did not rest. He approached the blood, saying : Zecharyah, the best of thy people I slew ; dost thou want that I shall slay all of them ? And the blood immediately rested. He then repented, thinking they had suffered so much only for one person. I who have shed so much blood, how much will I have to suffer? He then ran away, sent his will to his house, and became a proselyte. The rabbis taught : Naamani's proselytism was only to per- form the seven commandments given to the descendants of Noah. Nebusaradan, however, was a true proselyte, from the descendants of Sissera were such who studied the law in Jerusalem, and from the descendants of Sanherib were such who taught the Torah among a majority of Israelites, and they are Shmayah and Ab- talia. From the descendants of Haman were such who learned the Torah in the city Bne-Brack. And even the descendants of Nebuchadnezzar, the Holy One, blessed be He, thought to enter them under the wings of the Shekinah. But the angels prayed before Him : Lord of the Universe, he who has destroyed your house, burned your Temple, shouldst thou enter him under the wings of the Skekinah ? And this is what reads [Jer. li. 9] : " We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed." And Ula said this means Nebuchadnezzar. Samuel b. Na'hman, however, said : It means the waters along the (dry, or stony) palms of Babylonia. 300 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. Ula said : Amon and Moab were the two bad neighbors of Jerusalem, and when they heard the prophets prophesying the destruction of same, they sent to Nebuchadnezzar, " Come up," and to his answer that he is afraid that they will do to him as they have done with their former enemies, they said to him [Prov. vii. 19] : " For the man is not in his house," and by the man is meant the Lord. He, however, sent to them ; he is near to them, and will return. They sent again to him, " He is gone on a journey a great way off." Nebuchadnezzar, however, sent to them : I am aware that among them are upright, who will pray for them to Him and He will return ; and they answered : The bag of money hath he taken with him, and by a " bag of money, " the upright are meant, as it reads [Hosea, iii. 2] : " So I bought me such a one for fifteen pieces of silver," etc. He sent again : The wicked of them will repent, pray, and will be listened to. And they answered : He has already appointed a time for repenting, as it reads [Prov. vii. 19] : " By the day of kesa only will he return," and the term kesa means " an appointed time," as it reads [Ps. Ixxxi. 4] : " Blow on the new moon, the cornet at the time appointed (kesa) on the day of our feast." He, however, sent to them : It is winter, and I cannot come up because of snow and rain. And they sent to him : The mountains will protect thee, as it reads [Is. xvi. i] : " Send ye the lambs of the ruler of the land from Sela, through the wilderness unto the mount of the daughter of Zion." He (Nebuchadnezzar) sent to them : When I will arrive there I will have no place to reside. And they answered : Their graves are better than your palaces, as it reads [Jer. viii. i and 2] : " At that time, saith the Lord, shall they bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of the princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. And they shall spread them out before the sun, and the moon and all the hosts of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked." R. Na'hman said to R. Itz'hak : Have you heard when the fallen son will come ? And to the question. Who is it ? He an- swered : The Messiah. And the Messiah you call " The fallen son " ? And he said : Yea, for it reads [Amos, ix. 11]: " On that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, which is fallen." And he answered : Thus said R. Johanan : In the generation in which the son of David will come scholarly men will decrease, and TRACT SANHEDRIN (SUPREME COUNCIL). 301 by the remainder their eyes will protrude from sighing and sor- row, many chastisements and many evil decrees will be renewed, one will not cease as yet, while another will have come. The rabbis taught : In this Sabbatic period in which the son of David will appear in the first year there will be fulfilled what is written, in [Amos, iv. 7] : " And I caused it to rain upon one city, and upon another city I caused it not to rain." In the second year, arrows (tokens) of famine will be sent. In the third, a great famine, from which men, women, and children, pious men and men of good deeds will die, and the Torah will be forgotten by their scholars. In the fourth there will be abundance, and not abundance. In the fifth there will be great abundance, and the people will eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, and the Torah will return to her scholars. In the sixth, voices will be heard saying that the Messiah is near. In the seventh, war will be, and at the end of the seventh, ben David will come. Said R. Joseph : Were there not many Sabbatical periods which were like this, but still he did not come? Said Abayi : Were then the above-men- tioned voices heard in the sixth ? And was there in the seventh war ? And secondly, has it then happened in the same order as said above? There is a Boraitha, R. Jehudah said : The gen- eration in which the son of David will come, the houses of assem- bly will be converted into houses of prostitution. Galilee will be destroyed. The place called Gablan will be astonished. Men of the borders of Palestine will travel from one city to an- other, but will find no favor. The wisdom of the scribes will be corrupted. Men fearing sin will be hated. The leaders of that generation will have the nature of dogs. And truth will be missing, as it reads [Is. lix. 15] : " And thus is the truth missing." What does this mean ? It was said in the college that it passes away like flocks.* " And he that departeth from evil is re- garded as foolish." Said the school of Shila : He who turns away from evil is regarded as foolish in the eyes of the people. Said Rabha : Previously I thought there is no truth in the whole world. However, I met thereafter a certain rabbi named Tubuth, according to others R. Tibumi, and if the whole world filled with gold would be given to him, he would not change his word or tell a lie. It happened once that he came to a city named Kushta (truth). And the inhabitants of * The Hebrew term for flocks, " eder," and concerning truth, the expression is, " neaderes." 302 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. that city would not change their word, and it never happened