Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 16, scan section 3

the man of God, and said. Behold will the Lord make windows in the heavens, that this thing shall be ? And he said, Behold, thou shall see it with thy eyes, but thereof shalt thou not eat." And this chapter ends [ibid. 20] : " And it happened unto him so ; for the people trod him down in the gate and he died." But perhaps this was because Elisha cautioned him ? As R. Jehudah in the name of Rabh said : If a sage cautions some one, even if the one cautioned had not deserved such, it falls upon him never- theless ? If it were so, it should read : And the people trod on him and he died." Why in the gate? Thus because of his protest which he made at the gate. Where is resurrection hinted at in the Torah ? [It reads, Num. xviii. 28] : " And ye shall give thereof the heave-offering of the Lord to Aaron the priest." Should, then, Aaron remain alive for- ever ? He did not even enter into the land of Israel. How, then, could Israel give him heave-offering? Infer from this that he would experience resurrection and Israel would give him heave- offering. Hence here is a hint of resurrection. The school of R. Ismael, however, taught : (Nothing is to be inferred from this,) as the words " to Aaron " mean priests who are similar to him— viz., scholar as he was. And from this it is inferred that no gift whatsoever should be given to a priest who is ignorant. Samuel b. Na'hmani in the name of R. Jonathan said : Whence do we know that one must not give heave-offering to a priest who is an ignoramus? From [II. Chron. xxxi. 4] : " To give the portion of the priests and the Levites, in order that they might hold firmly to the law of the Lord." Hence the priest who knows to hold firmly the law has a portion, but not he who is ignorant of the law. R. Johanan said that he who does so causes death to the ignorant priest. As it reads [Lev. xxii. 9] : " That they may not bear sin through it, and die therefor, if they profane, it." The disciples of R. Eliezer b. Jacob taught that [ibid., ibid. 16] also applies to him who gives heave-offering to an ignoramus. There is a Boraitha : R. Sinai said : The hint of resurrection in the Torah is to be found in [Ex. vi. 4] : "And as I did also TRACT SANHEDRIN (SUPREME COUNCIL). 267 establish my covenant with them, to give unto them the land of Canaan." It does not read " to you " (as it should, the patriarchs of that time being already dead), but " to them " — hence this is a hint that they would be restored. The Minim questioned Rabban Gamaliel : Whence do you deduce that the Holy One, blessed be He, would restore the dead? And he an- swered : From the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa. However, they did not accept it. From the Pentateuch — [Deut. xxxi. 16]: "Thou shalt sleep with thy parents ' ve-qom,' " — " and arise.'' * And they answered : Perhaps this word ve-qom is connected with its succeeding words. From the Prophets — [Is. xxvi. 19] : " Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; for a dew on herbs is thy dew, and the earth shall cast out the departed." And they answered : Perhaps the verse cited means those dead who were restored by Ezekiel [chap, xxxvi.]. In the Hagiographa — [Solomon's Song, vii. 10] : "And thy pal- ate like the best wine, that glided down for my friend gently, exciting the lips of those that are asleep." And they answered : This cannot be taken as an evidence, for it is not certain that " are asleep " means the dead. [(Says the Gemara 🙂 R. Johanan, in the name of R. Simeon b. Jehozodok, used to cite this verse with his statement that if a Halakha is mentioned in the name of a dead sage the lips of the latter move (mumble) in his grave.] Thereafter, when Gamaliel mentioned to the Minim [Deut. xi. * The translation of this verse by the translator of the Bible according to the sense does not correspond. The reason, however, of the Talmud's opinion is because it should read, " Sleep with thy father, and the people will go astray." Hence the word "arise" is superfluous. Furthermore, as it reads, " aw./ arise," it is therefore enumerated among the five verses of which the explanation was doubtful to the most famous Tanaim of the Talmud. These verses are : Gen. iv. 7 : The word " sheath," which has two meanings, "atone " and " carry " (the sin) — whether it be- longs to its preceding words and the former is the meaning, or to its succeeding words and the latter is the meaning; Ex. xxv. 34: the word "almond-shaped" — whether it belongs to the candlestick or to its succeeding words ; ibid. xvii. 9 : whether the word " to-morrow," mentioned in this verse, belongs to preceding or succeeding words; Gen. xlix. 7 : whether the word "cursed " ends verse 6 (at that time the verses were not as yet marked) or it is the beginning of verse 7 (explained elsewhere) ; and the verse in question cited, whether the word " ve-qom " belongs to the preceding or succeeding words. This was said by Issi b. Jehudah, the greatest authority among the ancient Tanaim, to whom even the word Rabban was not added, as to Hillel and Shammai. (See Passover, 236, explaining who Issi b. Jehudah was.) And after him no lesser authorities than Rabban Gamaliel and R. Jehoshua b. Chananjah interpreted this verse on the assumption that the word " ve-qom " belongs to its preceding words. Hence, in accordance with our method, we could not omit this strange supposition. 368 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. 9], " And the Lord hath sworn unto your fathers to give unto them," which does not read " to ye," but " to them " — hence it is a hint of resurrection from the Torah — it was accepted. Accord- ing to others he mentioned before them [Deut. iv. 4] : " But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are aHve every one of you this day " which means, as this day every one of you is aHve, so will it be in the world to come. The officers of Rome questioned R. Jehoshua b. Hananiah : Whence do you know that the Holy One, blessed be He, will restore the dead and that there is also revealed before Him all that will be in the future? And he an- swered : Both things are inferred from Deut. xxxi. 16, cited above. And to their answer : Perhaps the word " ve-qom " belongs to its succeeding words, he rejoined : Accept at least the half (the second question) — that there is revealed before Him all that will be in the future. The same was taught also by R. Johanan in the name of R. Simeon b. Jehai, that from this verse both the resurrection and that there is revealed before Him all that will be in the future is inferred. There is a Boraitha : R. Eliezer b. Jose said : I have shown the falsification in the books of the Minim, who used to say that there is no hint about resurrection in the Pentateuch. And I