Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 18, scan section 55

while the sages define him to be one who binds himself to ob- serve the seven commandments accepted by the descendants of Noah. According to some anonymous teachers, such proselyte is only he who accepts all the commandments of the Torah ex- cept eating the meat of carcasses. Such a proselyte may be left alone for some short while in a room where Jewish wine is kept; however, it is not allowable to store such wine in his house even when the majority of the city inhabitants be Israelites. He may be employed as watchman of such wine even where the heathens TRACT ABUDA ZARA (IDOLATRY). 139 make up the majority of the population. His oil is subject to the same regulations. But can oil be prohibited by itself? Nay; reverse the statement and read: Wine is subject to the same regulations with oil; while with regard to all other things this proselyte is on equal terms with the heathen. R. Simeon, how- ever, holds that the wine of such a proselyte is regarded as offered wine. According to others, however, R. Simeon allows the wine even to drink. Now that this Boraitha declares this proselyte on equal terms with the heathen in all other respects, it is indicated that he can profane an idol, which contradicts R. Na'hman's view. Retorted R. Na'hman b. Itz'hak: This equali- zation refers but to the law regulating both the transferring and renouncing of his ownership (explained in Erubin). R. Jehudah sent once a present to the heathen Abidrana on one of the heathen feast-days, justifying this his action thus: I know that Abidrana does not worship idols. Said to him R. Joseph: Your reasoning appears fallacious, because of the above- cited Boraitha that he, d, proselyte, must take upon himself before three scholars to renounce all idol-worship, which condition is wanting in your case. Rejoined R. Jehudah : This Boraitha intends but to say that this one condition binds the Jewish com- munity to support this proselyte in case he becomes poor. Thereupon the other objected: Has not Rabba b. b, 'Hana said in the name of R. Johanan that a citizen-proselyte who fails to let himself circumcise during twelve months is to be regarded as a heathen heretic? Accordingly, you should not have given a present to Abidrana, who is not circumcised. Answered R. Jehudah : R. Johanan surely meant that a proselyte who fails to keep his promise to be circumcised within twelve months is a heretic. Once Rabha wanted to give on a heathen feast-day a present to the heathen Bar Sheshach, who he knew was no idol-wor- shipper. But when he came into his house he saw him sitting in a bath of rosewater, and surrounded by indecent and dis- graceful girls. Upon noticing Rabha, the heathen exclaimed: Have you Jews in prospect such pleasures in your paradise? And Rabha answered: Much better than these. Do you really mean, said the other, that there are greater pleasures than this? Retorted Rabha: In the heat of all your voluptuousness you can't help fearing lest the king disturb you and mar your plea- sure; while we expect to be free from such fear in paradise! Well, said the heathen, if others do, I, for my part, do not fear I40 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. the king. No sooner had he uttered this than a messenger came from the sovereign and said to Bar Sheshach: Go in all haste to the king, as he wants to speak to you ! Then Bar Sheshach, addressing himself to Rabha, said: May the eye that wishes to see evil jump out of its orbit ; whereupon Rabha said : Amen ! And the eye of Bar Sheshach jumped out immediately. R. Papi said : Rabha should have applied this verse in answer to Bar Sheshach — viz. [Ps. xlv. lo] : " Kings' daughters are among those dear to thee : the queen standeth on thy right hand in fine gold of Ophir." R. Na'hman b. Itz'hak would have preferred this verse [Is. Ixiv. 4] : " No eye had seen a god beside thee, who could do [the like] for the one that waiteth for him." " But if he was hired for some other work,'' etc. It is ap- parent from here that the wages are allowable even when the laborer had been ordered to carry the wine before he finished the other work ; and yet there is a Tosephtha : When the heathen tells his Jewish laborer, after he has finished his day's work, to carry a cask of offered wine from one place to another, the wages are allowed, but the remuneration for the carrying is not ; but if the heathen ordered him to do this sometime during the day's work, the whole pay is forbidden. Hence this appar- ently contradicts the Mishna? Said Abayi: The Mishna, too, implies the same limitation. Rabha, however, interprets the Mishna to allow the wages even when the carrying was done in the middle of the other work, and meets the apparent contra- diction thus: The Tosephtha teaches: When a heathen tells his Jewish laborer: Carry 100 casks from this to that place and I will pay you 100 perutoth, and it was then found that ninety- nine of the casks were with oil while one was with offered wine, all the wages are prohibited, for it is the last forbidden cask that completes the claim for wages. The Mishna, however, intends to teach that, when the laborer works per cask, he is allowed to receive the wages and to reject the pay for so many forbidden casks he had to carry. This exposition of the subject coincides with the following Boraitha: A Jewish laborer hired to carry 100 casks among which one was found to contain offered wine is prohibited from all his wages; if, however, he was hired to be paid per each cask, he should cast away the pay for this one prohibited cask, while the other pay is allowed. " If a heathen hires of a few an ass," etc. This rule, which is obviously implied in the first statement, is mentioned by the Mishna merely for the sake of its second part — viz. : If, how- TRACT ABUDA ZARA (IDOLATRY). 141 ever, he hired it in order to sit thereon, the reward is allowed even when he had along with him the wine-flask.* The father of R. A'ha b. R. Ika, who was a winedealer, sold once wine to heathens. He had to bring it over across a river and empty it into their casks, retaining his for his trouble. This subject was brought before Abayi, and he said: What R. A'ha's father is doing is certainly allowed, for the wine is not prohibited unless already in the casks of the heathens. MISHNA //. : If offered wine be poured on grapes, they must only be washed and are allowed. If, however, they were cracked, they are prohibited. Again, when such wine be poured on dates and figs, they are forbidden if the wine impart them a pleasant flavor. Bithus b. Zonan brought once dried figs in a ship, and a cask of offered wine happened to burst, the wine spilling upon the figs, but the sages who were asked on this point declared them allowable. The rule is: A prohibited thing renders another one forbidden if it imparts to it a pleasant