Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 6, scan section 71

set up boys as their princes " — that is, as R. Elazar said : These are men who are deprived of good works. % " And chil- dren shall rule over them " — as R. A'ha bar Jacob said : These are foxes and sons of foxes. § And he was not satisfied until he had said to them : " The boy shall demean himself proudly against the ancient," etc. [ibid., ibid.] — these are the men who are deprived of good works. They shall demean themselves proudly against the one who is filled with good works as a pomegranate. "And the base against the honorable" — i.e., that one to whom heavy sins are like light ones will demean himself proudly against the one to whom light sins are like heavy ones. R. Kattina said : Even at the time of the destruction of * The Hebrew term is D''Knn, and is explained to have the same meaning as {jnn, a deaf man. f The Hebrew terms are tJTI? p3J, the literal meaning of which is " the instructed whisperer," but we give in the text Loesser's translation. X The Hebrew term is D'lVJ, which means also " to shake off, to be deprived," as in (Judges xvi. 20) lyjXV § The Hebrew term is Qiplpyn, and is interpreted here as derived from th« Aramaic ?yn, a fox ; i.e.^ men who are shrewd as a fox, but deprived of any good qualifications. TRACT HAGIGA (HOLOCAUST). 31 Jerusalem there did not cease from them faithful men. Is that so ? Did we not learn : Rabha said : Jerusalem was not laid waste till there ceased from it faithful men, as it is written [Jer. V. i]: "Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and notice, and search in its broad places, if ye can find one man, if there be one who executeth justice, that searcheth for truth : and I will pardon it " ? This presents no difficulty. The former means, faithful in the study of the Law, and the latter means, honesty in common business. The rabbis taught : It happened with Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai that he was riding upon his ass and was travelling on the road, and R. Elazar b. Arakh was behind him, as driver. Said the latter to him : Rabbi, teach me a chapter on the subject of the divine chariot. And he answered him : Have I not taught you : Nor the chariot with one individual, unless he was a wise man and had much knowledge of his own? Then he said to him : Rabbi, allow me to say before thee one thing which thou hast taught me. He allowed him. Immediately R. Johanan b. Zakkai dismounted from the ass, and wrapped himself up and seated himself upon the stone under the olive tree. R. Elazar asked him : Rabbi, wherefore didst thou dismount from the ass ? He answered him : Is it right that thou shouldest investigate the subject of the divine chariot, and the Shekhina is with us and ministering angels accompany us, and that I should ride upon the ass? Then R. Elazar b. Arakh entered upon the sub- ject of the divine chariot and lectured: And there descended fire from heaven and encircled all the terebinth trees of the field, which uttered a song. [What was the song which they uttered ? [Ps. cxlviii. 7, 9, 14] : " Praise the Lord from the earth, ye sea monsters, and all deeps . . . fruitful trees and all cedars . . . Hallelujah."] An angel answered from the fire : This is the real subject of the divine chariot. R. Johanan arose and kissed him upon his head, and said : Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath given to our father Abraham a son who is able to under- stand and lecture on this subject. There is one who lectures well, but doth not perform well. There is one who performeth well, but does not expound well. Thou dost expound well and dost perform well. Blessed art thou, Abraham our father, fronj whose loins hath come forth Elazar b. Arakh. And when 'these things were told to R. Joshua, he and R. Jose the priest were travelling on the road. They said : Let us also expound on the same subject. R. Joshua opened his mouth 32 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD. and lectured : And it was the day of the summer solstice. The heavens were wrapped in clouds, and there appeared the form of a bow in the cloud, and the angels were assembling and coming to hearken, as the men assemble and come to look at the festivi- ties of bridegroom and bride. R. Jose the priest went forward and related the whole occurrence to Rabban Johanan b. Zakkai, who said : Blessed are ye, and blessed is she that bare you. Blessed are mine eyes, that they have thus seen. And also in my dream I and ye were resting upon Mount Sinai, and a heavenly voice was heard, which said : Come up hither, come up hither. Large banqueting chambers are prepared and fair cover- lets are spread for you, you and your disciples and your disciples' disciples, as fitted to attain to the third degree of blessedness. Is it so ? Have we not learned in a Boraitha: R. Jose in the name of R. Jehudah said : There were three consecutive exposi- tions. R. Joshua explained things before R. Johanan b. Zakkai ; R. Aqiba explained things before R. Joshua ; Hananiah b. Hachinai explained before R. Aqiba. Hence we see that R. Elazar b. Arakh was not mentioned. (This presents no diflfi- culty 🙂 He who teaches and before whom others teach is men- tioned, while he who teaches and before whom others do not teach is not mentioned. But was not Hananiah b. Hachinai one who taught and before whom others did not teach? And still he was mentioned ? Yea, for he taught at least in the presence of one who taught others. The rabbis taught : Four men went up into the heavenly garden,* and they were : Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, A'her and R. Aqiba. Ben Azzai gazed and died ; f to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Ps. cxvi. 15] : " Grievous in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his pious ones." Ben Zoma gazed and went mad ; to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Prov. XXV. 16]: "Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou consume too much of it, and have to vomit it forth." A'her cut the plants.:}: R. Aqiba departed *The Hebrew term is Pardes, meaning " a garden" ; the commentaries explain it to mean "heavenly." Tosaphoth states : " They did not go up literally, but it appeared to them as if they went up." See Streane's " Hagigah," p. 83. f In the Palestinian Talmud it reads : Ben Zoma gazed and died ; Ben Azzai gazed and was injured. This seems to be the more correct, as can be seen from many other places in the Babylonian Talmud and Tosephtha. See our ' ' Eben Ha- rosha," at the end. J These terms are used because he speaks of a garden ; i.e., in some way made bad use of his learning. TRACT HAGIGA (HOLOCAUST). 33 in peace.* A'her cut the plants ; it is to him that the scriptural passage may be applied [Eccl. v. 6] : "Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy body to sin." There came out a heavenly voice and