Read Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924) in source order, passage by passage, with the close English translation where available and the original source text for checking.
208. R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, driven by a storm into the ocean, filled a cask with the waters thereof saying that they must have been driven there for a good reason. Asked in Rome by Adrianos about the ocean they proved that its waters ware ever swallowing water, because however much was poured into that cask it never overflowed.
208. Waters of Ocean.
Gen. R. ch. 13 § 9.
- 226
Eccles. R. I, 7 § 3. Yalk. II, § 967.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 7.
Cod. Br. M. 2380 (Midr. Hahefes) f. 10 a.
R. Eliezer and R. Joshua, driven by a storm into the ocean, filled a cask with the waters thereof saying that they must have been driven there for a good reason. Asked in Rome by Adrianos about the ocean they proved that its waters ware ever swallowing water, because however much was poured into that cask it never overflowed.
209. A governor of Rome was induced by the Prophet Elijah to store away great treasures. All these will in the future be discovered and used by the Messiah.
A governor of Rome was induced by the Prophet Elijah to store away great treasures. All these will in the future be discovered and used by the Messiah.
210. A man threw stones from his field into the high road and was rebuked by a pious man, who said that he should
7*
IOO
not throw stones from a place which was not his own in to one that was. Later on he was compelled to sell the field which thus became his own no longer; and whilst walking along he stumbled over the very stones lying in the high road which had now become his property as common to all.
210. Stones in High Road. Baba Kama, f. 50a. Tosefta B. Kama, ch. II. Midr. Hagadol, Exod.
Mishpatim.
Eccles. R. VI, 11 § 1. Yalk. Sip. II, p. 173. Cod. G. 184, No. 72.
21 1. Division of Earnings. Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
Lekh Lekha. cf. Gonzenbach, Sicil.
Marchen, No. 50. cf. Kohler, note to Gonzenbach, No. 50, note 2, p. 234.
A man threw stones from his field into the high road and was rebuked by a pious man, who said that he should
IOO
not throw stones from a place which was not his own in to one that was. Later on he was compelled to sell the field which thus became his own no longer; and whilst walking along he stumbled over the very stones lying in the high road which had now become his property as common to all.
211. Of the 60 dinars which a man earned he spent 20 for food, 20 for house and 20 he left to his children. R. Meir said a calligrapher used to earn 6 Selaim, whereof he spent « two on food, two on the house, two he gave away in alms to the poor and had nothing left for his children, saying: "If they be good God wall help them and if they be bad why should I leave money to the enemies of God?”
212. Simeon ben Rabbi forgot to invite Bar Kappara to dinner. The latter wrote on the door: ‘‘After joy death.” Invited afterwards to another dinner, he kept the guests so amused by his jokes and sallies, telling 300 Fox-fables at every dish, that the dinner was spoiled. In this way he was revenged on his host. He afterwards became reconciled to R. Shimeon.
213. Eleazar b. Dama was bitten by a snake. Jacob of Kefar Sama wished to heal him in the name of Jeshua b. Pandira. R. Ishmael prevented it and Eleazar died.
213b. A spell was cast upon Hananya, nephew of R. Joshua in Capernaum, which caused him to enter Tiberias riding on an ass on the sabbath. R. Joshua cured him with a certain ointment and spells and sent him away to Babylon.
212. Bar Kappara as Guest. Nedarim, f. 50b.
Levit. R., 28 § 2. Eccles. R. I, 3.
Yalk. II, § 966. Yalk.Sip.III,p.i3&i79. Konigsberger in Z. V.
Vlksd. VI, p. 149.
The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 27b) preserves a disturbing account of the dangers that healing spells could pose to the rabbis. Ben Dama, the nephew of Rabbi Ishmael, was bitten by a serpent, a wound that could prove fatal without swift treatment.
A certain healer, a man known to practice in the name of foreign teachings, offered to cure Ben Dama with a spell. Ben Dama begged his uncle to allow the healing. "Let him cure me," he pleaded, "and I will bring you proof from the Torah that it is permitted."
Rabbi Ishmael refused. The law was clear: one must not seek healing through forbidden practices, even to save a life. To accept such a cure would be to acknowledge the power of heretical teachings, and that was a line Rabbi Ishmael would not cross.
Before Ben Dama could finish his argument, before he could cite the verse he had in mind, he died. Rabbi Ishmael declared over his body: "Happy are you, Ben Dama, that your body was pure and your soul departed in purity, and you did not transgress the words of your colleagues."
The story became a warning repeated in study houses for generations. There are cures worse than the disease. There are healings that cost more than a life.
A spell was cast upon Hananya, nephew of R. Joshua in Capernaum, which caused him to enter Tiberias riding on an ass on the sabbath. R. Joshua cured him with a certain ointment and spells and sent him away to Babylon.
A Roman official named Hadrakitilios wrote a letter to the Emperor Hadrian about the Jews. "Your Majesty evidently hates the Jews," Hadrakitilios wrote, "because they refuse to conform. They do not circumcise themselves like the Saracens, nor do they observe the Sabbath like the Samaritans. They insist on being different from everyone."
Hadrakitilios intended the letter as mockery, pointing out that the Jews were peculiar, stubborn, impossible to assimilate. But Hadrian's response was not what anyone expected.
The Emperor wrote back: "Let the God of the Jews be revenged on this man." Not on the Jews, on Hadrakitilios himself. Hadrian, whatever his other feelings about Jews, recognized that mocking another people's God was dangerous business. The divine was not to be trifled with, regardless of which nation claimed it.
From that moment, everything went wrong for Hadrakitilios. His enterprises failed. His wife's business ventures collapsed. Nothing he touched prospered. The curse he had drawn upon himself by mocking the God of Israel followed him everywhere.
In the end, Hadrian showed him a grim mercy. "Since your life has become nothing but misery," the Emperor said, "death is a kindness." Hadrakitilios was executed, not as punishment for a crime, but as a release from the curse he had brought upon himself.
The sages preserved this story as a warning: even the mighty Romans knew better than to mock another people's God. The person who ridicules what others hold sacred invites a reckoning that no earthly power can deflect. Hadrian understood this. Hadrakitilios learned it too late.
A Roman official named Hadrakitilios wrote a troubled letter to the Emperor Hadrian.
"Clearly the God of the Jews hates me," he wrote. "I do not circumcise myself as the Saracens do. I do not keep the Shabbat as the Samaritans do. And now nothing I undertake succeeds. My works fail. My wife trades in the markets and can turn no profit. Disaster follows my household wherever we go."
Hadrian read the letter and wrote back a short, strange line.
"Let the God of the Jews," he said, "be avenged upon him."
The misfortunes continued. Business collapsed. The wife's ventures soured. Nothing the minister touched held together.
Eventually Hadrian issued the command that seems, on the surface, cruel: the minister was to be killed on a Roman execution stake. But the Emperor explained his reasoning plainly.
"By dying now," he said, "he will be spared the evils and misfortunes that are coming for him for years. The God of the Jews is already destroying him slowly. A swift ending will be less painful than the slow one heaven has prepared."
The story, preserved in Gaster's Exempla #214, is a Jewish tale told about a Roman emperor, reading Roman cruelty as a strange kind of mercy, the Roman intervention cut short the divine unraveling already underway. The Rabbis did not pretend to know whether Hadrian truly reasoned like this. They only knew that the gods Rome trusted in had no such care, and the God of the Jews had no such reluctance.
215. Bar Hadya used to interpret dreams. For those who paid him for so doing he had a good interpretation, and for
IOI
those who did not an evil. He was laughed and mocked at by the Rabbis. [A long series of dreams and various interpretations are given in the text in connection with this.]
215. Bar Hadya & Dreams. Berakhot, f. 56aff. (En
Yaakob no) Differently arranged in Talmud.
cf. J. Mass. Maaser Sheni, IV, 6.
Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Mikes.
cf. Lament. R. I § 14 Yalk. Sip. I. p. 132. Maase Buch No. 28. Helvicus, Historien II, ch. 16, p. 54.
216. Ben Dama asked R. Ishmael about a curious dream he had had, in which he saw the limbs of his body falling off. R. Ishmael interpreted the dream favourably.
Ben Dama asked R. Ishmael about a curious dream he had had, in which he saw the limbs of his body falling off. R. Ishmael interpreted the dream favourably.
217. A Min asked of R. Ishmael the interpretation of some curious dreams. The Rabbi interpreted them all as pointing to some peculiar sins of immorality which he had been committing.
A Min asked of R. Ishmael the interpretation of some curious dreams. The Rabbi interpreted them all as pointing to some peculiar sins of immorality which he had been committing.
218. King Sabur asked of Samuel what he would see in his dream. Samuel told him that he would behold the Romans coming etc., and he saw it in his dream. The Caesar asked a similar question of R. Joshua b. Hananya. The Rabbi told him he would dream that the Persians were coming upon him. He thought of it all day long and dreamt of it at night.
218. King Sabur & Dreams. cf. Berakhot, f. 56a (ed.
Venice f-57b bottom). Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Mikes.
Yalk. II § 1060.
(Joshua b. Hananya & Dream, Berakhot, f. 56.)
— 227
219. A woman asked R. Eliezer about a dream. He interpreted it to mean that she would bear a male child and so it happened. On one occasion his pupils gave a bad interpretation of a dream and the fulfilment tallied with their words.
219. R. Eliezer & Dream.
J. Maaserot Sheni IV, 6. Gen. R. ch. 89 § 8. Lament. R. ch. 1, § 18. Yalk. Sip. I p. 132.
A woman asked R. Eliezer about a dream. He interpreted it to mean that she would bear a male child and so it happened. On one occasion his pupils gave a bad interpretation of a dream and the fulfilment tallied with their words.
220. Story of R.b. Nahman, who was accused of keeping people away from work for two months, and of detaining them in the village. He fled and was overtaken by the Angel of Death whilst stopping for study, for he was desired in heaven. The birds, hovering around and casting a shadow over him, showed the place where he lay and thus he was found by his disciples. They mourned for him for three days in Pumbadita. A letter fell from heaven in which was written: ‘‘Whoever returns home shall be excommunicated/' They grieved for seven days after which another letter from heaven fell which said, “Go home/' There was a great tempest at his death. He died very young and was very poor.
Story of R.b. Nahman, who was accused of keeping people away from work for two months, and of detaining them in the village. He fled and was overtaken by the Angel of Death whilst stopping for study, for he was desired in heaven. The birds, hovering around and casting a shadow over him, showed the place where he lay and thus he was found by his disciples. They mourned for him for three days in Pumbadita. A letter fell from heaven in which was written: ‘‘Whoever returns home shall be excommunicated/' They grieved for seven days after which another letter from heaven fell which said, “Go home/' There was a great tempest at his death. He died very young and was very poor.
221. R. Gidel sat at the door of the bath-house showing women the way. Tabillath asked him whether he were not
f
tempted. He replied that they were merely as so many white geese to him.
221. Women Like Geese. Berakhot, f. 20a.
Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
Vayyehi.
Yalk§ 157.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 163. cf. Boccaccio, Decameron IV, Intro. Dunlop-Liebrecht, p. 230.
R. Gidel sat at the door of the bath-house showing women the way. Tabillath asked him whether he were not
f
tempted. He replied that they were merely as so many white geese to him.
222. R. Johanan sat at the door of the bath-house so that the women should look at his beautiful face and have beautiful children. He was asked if he were not afraid of the Evil Eye. He replied that he was a descendant of the tribe of Joseph, which was not affected by the Evil Eye.
222. Beauty of R. Johanan. Berakhot, f. 20a.
Baba Mesia, f. 84a. Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
Veyese, Vayyehi. Maase Buch No. 133
(134)-
R. Johanan sat at the door of the bath-house so that the women should look at his beautiful face and have beautiful children. He was asked if he were not afraid of the Evil Eye. He replied that he was a descendant of the tribe of Joseph, which was not affected by the Evil Eye.
223. R. Johanan went to visit R. Elazar who was ill. It being dark R. Johanan uncovered his arms and illuminated the room. R. Elazar shed tears over so much beauty, which must go the way of all flesh.
223. Beauty of R. Johanan. cf. Taanit, f. 25 a.
Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
Vayyehi..Maase Buch No. 23.
R. Johanan went to visit R. Elazar who was ill. It being dark R. Johanan uncovered his arms and illuminated the room. R. Elazar shed tears over so much beauty, which must go the way of all flesh.
224. R. Johanan was one of the last beautiful men of Jerusalem. Rish Lakish, a robber, surprised him in the bath thinking him to be a woman. He was converted to study on the promise of obtaining R. Johanan ’s sister as a wife. Once they were arguing about some legal point and the anger of R. Johanan caused Rish Lakish to die. The Rabbi grieved over it to his death.
225 f. 151b. R. Dimi of Nahardea brought figs(?) to the Resh Gelutha who neglected to examine him. Later on one Rabba sent R. Ada b. Ahaba to examine R. Dimi and to find out whether he were a scholar. He believed he had found him to be ignorant, and thus spoiled his trade. R. Dimi complained to R. Joseph. Consequent death of R. Ada b. Ahaba. Various doctors ascribe to themselves regretfully the cause of it.
224. R. Jotyanan & Resh Lakish.
B. Mesia, f. 84a (74b?). (No. 222 here
intercalated in Talmud.)
cf. J. Peah, VIII, 9. Midr. Hagadol, Gen. Vayyehi.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 13. Maase Buch No. 66.
R. Johanan was one of the last beautiful men of Jerusalem. Rish Lakish, a robber, surprised him in the bath thinking him to be a woman. He was converted to study on the promise of obtaining R. Johanan ’s sister as a wife. Once they were arguing about some legal point and the anger of R. Johanan caused Rish Lakish to die. The Rabbi grieved over it to his death.
