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.
Beruria and the wife of a Min disputed about the words "Rejoice O barren one”, and the woman asked why she should rejoice because she had not had any children and the answer was, let her rejoice that she had not borne a child, since it would have been destined for Gehinom.
48. A Min and R. Abahu disputed about the sequence of Ps. 3— 57 and he asked why Absolom was mentioned before Saul. The reply was that, in the Bible events were not always narrated in chronological order.
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49. A Min and R. Ami disputed about the resurrection of the dead after they are changed into dust. R. Ami replied with., a parable. A king ordered his servants to build a palace where there was neither dust nor water. They did so and after a time it collapsed. He then ordered them to build one where there was both dust and water. They declared that impossible. He then rebuked them and said “If you can do it where there is neither the one nor the other, why not here?” We also find the earth producing the field mouse, which is one day half earth and half flesh and the next day it is entirely flesh, and the stony rocks on the mountains are covered with snails after the rain. How much easier it is to bring back that which has already been once.
50. A Min and Gaboha b. Pesisa disputed about the quickening of the dead. The Min said, “Woe unto you ye living who say that the dead rise again; you are sure to die, but how can those who disappear come again?” The reply was “Woe unto ye sinners who say that the dead do not rise, for those who have not been before come into existence (are born) and yet you do not believe that those who have been before can come again.” He replied: “You call me a sinner, I will beat you until I get your hump off your back.” Gaboha replied: “Come and do so and I will call you a skilful physician.”
A Min and R. Ami disputed about the resurrection of the dead after they are changed into dust. R. Ami replied with., a parable. A king ordered his servants to build a palace where there was neither dust nor water. They did so and after a time it collapsed. He then ordered them to build one where there was both dust and water. They declared that impossible. He then rebuked them and said “If you can do it where there is neither the one nor the other, why not here?” We also find the earth producing the field mouse, which is one day half earth and half flesh and the next day it is entirely flesh, and the stony rocks on the mountains are covered with snails after the rain. How much easier it is to bring back that which has already been once.
50. Min & Gaboha on Resurrection.
Meg. Taanit, ch. 3. cf. Midr. Hagadol, Deut.
Vayelekh.
Gen. R. 61, § 7.
Yalk. Sip. II, p. 34.
A Min and Gaboha b. Pesisa disputed about the quickening of the dead. The Min said, "Woe unto you ye living who say that the dead rise again; you are sure to die, but how can those who disappear come again?" The reply was "Woe unto ye sinners who say that the dead do not rise, for those who have not been before come into existence (are born) and yet you do not believe that those who have been before can come again." He replied: "You call me a sinner, I will beat you until I get your hump off your back." Gaboha replied: "Come and do so and I will call you a skilful physician."
51. Two Jews were carried away captive from Mount Carmel. The captor following them overheard one saying to the other “A she -camel has passed before us, she is blind of one eye and on one side she carries wine and on the other vinegar, and two men lead her the one an heathen and the other a Jew.” The captor said “Oh ye sons of a stiffnecked people, whence do ye know that? ”They replied: “We recognise a she-camel by the foot-prints, the blindness because she feeds only off the grass on one side of the road, the wine dropping down has soaked into the earth, the vinegar makes bubbles, and the heathen is not so careful in his manners as the Jew. The captor ran after them and found the words true.”
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Walking farther they said: ‘‘We smell the pots boiling 400 miles off in Judaea." He replied, “you are too clever for me, your God cannot stand you and how can I?" He brought them home and his mother killed a she-lamb and placed it before them and gave them wine to drink." One said to the other "This flesh smells of the dog and the wine of the corpse." The man asked his mother if this was so and she explained that this lamb had been suckled by a bitch and the vine had grown on the grave of his father. After they had eaten the man began to dance and they said "That is an illegitimate child." He frightened his mother and she owned that she had once made a mistake with a dancer and then he came back and said unto them "Blessed is the Lord who has selected the seed of Abraham and has given them of his wisdom. Wherever you go you will be the masters of your master." And he gave them gifts and set them free and they returned to their own country.
This entry gathers a cluster of tales about three clever Jewish slaves who were sold into captivity after the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Jerusalem. Carried off into the Roman world, they had lost everything except their minds, and it was by their minds alone that they overcame their captors. Each of the three was handed an impossible assignment by his master, a riddle or a task meant to break or shame him, and each one turned the trap back upon the man who had set it, answering the challenge so deftly that the master was left outwitted by his own slave.
The Talmud records their exchanges in tractate Sanhedrin 104b and in Lamentations Rabbah 1:4, placing them within the long lament over the exile. There they serve a pointed purpose. The destruction had stripped the people of land, sovereignty, and the sacred house, and the conquerors might imagine that Israel was finished. These stories answer that the sharpness of Jewish wisdom could not be sold, chained, or conquered. The same motif of the captive who triumphs by wit traveled widely and surfaces in many later collections, but in its rabbinic setting it carries a particular consolation: a defeated nation kept the one possession that no army could seize, the keenness of a learned and disciplined intelligence.
52. The Rabbis Huna and Hisda refused at the beginning to be polite to Gniba. He approached them and saluted them humbly and twice he called them kings. Asked for reason for this kind of salutation, he quoted the opinion of some scholars and showed by doing so his acquaintance with study and learning, that scholars ought to be called kings and following biblical example the salutation must be repeated.
The Rabbis Huna and Hisda refused at the beginning to be polite to Gniba. He approached them and saluted them humbly and twice he called them kings. Asked for reason for this kind of salutation, he quoted the opinion of some scholars and showed by doing so his acquaintance with study and learning, that scholars ought to be called kings and following biblical example the salutation must be repeated.
53. R. Shela beat a man who commited sin with an heathen. He was denounced to the king, but he escaped punishment and obtained a high position through his interpretation of the words: "Thine, OLord is the greatness See.” as meaning that He had given power and judgment to eaithly kings for they are called upon to sit in judgment.
R. Shela beat a man who commited sin with an heathen. He was denounced to the king, but he escaped punishment and obtained a high position through his interpretation of the words: "Thine, OLord is the greatness See.” as meaning that He had given power and judgment to eaithly kings for they are called upon to sit in judgment.
54. Proklos b. Filoslos asks R. Gamliel why does not God destroy the idols. The Rabbi replies "If a man calls a dog by the name of his father, will the father be angry with the son or with the dog?" Proklos says "Well if a town burns and the temple of the idol remains, is not that a proof that it has power?" The reply is "Does a king fight
with the living or the dead?" Then he is asked again "If there be no necessity for them why are they not destroyed?" The answer is, "Because the sun, moon, stars etc. are worshipped and the world cannot be destroyed because there are fools in it." "Why then," he is asked, "does He place that temptation in their way?" and the answer is "It is man who is punished for his foolishness and not the objects."
54. Sun & Moon not Destroyed though Worshipped.
cf. Mishna, Aboda Zara, Iy, 7.
Aboda Zara ibid, and f. 54b.
Tosefta, Aboda Zara, ch. IV.
Mehilta, Jithro, 6 Midr. Hagadol, Deut.
Vaethanan.
Yalk. § 287.
Yalk. Sip. II, p.133; V, p. 29.
Proklos b. Filoslos asks R. Gamliel why does not God destroy the idols. The Rabbi replies "If a man calls a dog by the name of his father, will the father be angry with the son or with the dog?" Proklos says "Well if a town burns and the temple of the idol remains, is not that a proof that it has power?" The reply is "Does a king fight
with the living or the dead?" Then he is asked again "If there be no necessity for them why are they not destroyed?" The answer is, "Because the sun, moon, stars etc. are worshipped and the world cannot be destroyed because there are fools in it." "Why then," he is asked, "does He place that temptation in their way?" and the answer is "It is man who is punished for his foolishness and not the objects."
55. The Emperor and R. Gamliel dispute and the Emperor says "God is a thief, He threw Adam into a sleep and then stole a rib from him." The daughter of the Emperor replies, "He is a fine thief. Would you call a man a thief who stole two earthen cups from you and replaced them by golden ones?"
55. God a Thief?
Sanhedrin, f. 39 a.
Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
f. 28a— b.
Gen. R. 17 § 7.
cf. Abot de R. Nathan II, ch. 8, p. 23.
Yalk. §23.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 27. Maase Buch No. 48. Tendlau, Fellmeier,
No. 44.
The Emperor and R. Gamliel dispute and the Emperor says "God is a thief, He threw Adam into a sleep and then stole a rib from him." The daughter of the Emperor replies, "He is a fine thief. Would you call a man a thief who stole two earthen cups from you and replaced them by golden ones?"
56. Woman cannot keep a secret. A Hegemon twits a Jew with that saying, and is convinced of the truth by feigning illness and telling his wife under an oath, that he had become pregnant with child through the king. She divulges it nevertheless though he said he might loose his life through it.
57. Miriam and her seven sons died as martyrs for their holy faith. Each of her sons refused to worship idols quoting the appropriate passages from the Bible. When the last boy was called she asked to be permitted to kiss him and said unto him: "Go to thy father Abraham and say to him, do not be proud because thou hast built one altar and sacrificed thy only son; I have built seven altars and have sacrificed my seven sons."
57. Miriam [Hannah) & Her Seven Sons Martyr*.
II Bk. Maccabees, ch. VII.
IV Bk. Maccabees ch. VIII, ff. Ketubot, f. 64.
J. Ketubot, V, II. Gittin, f. 56 b.
Pesik. R. Rabati,XLIII. Tana debe Eliahu R. ch. 30.
Midr. Hagadol, Deut. Ki Tabo.
Lament. R. I §47—50; I, v. 16.
Josippon III, 5 § 2. Midr. Decalogue.
No. II, 3.
Midr. Ele Ezkera.
Ben Atar, No. 3.
Yalk. §938.
Jellinek, B. H. I, p. 70.
Heb.-Arab. Kissat.
*
Hanah.
— 197
Zunz, G. V.2 II, i. cf. p. 150 note a.
Graetz, Geschichte2 II, P- 317-
Ben Gorion II, p. 84, 341.
Origen, Exhort, ad Mart, ch. 22—27.
Cedrenus, vol. I, p. 223.
Malala, Chronograph,
VIII, p. 206.
Rampolla, Martyre et Sepulture des Mac- chabees.
Wace, Apocrypha, ad loc.
Cod. Br. M. 27 189, f. 26b.
Codd. G. 97 (Jerah- meel) f. 769; 185, No. 10; Homilies of Abraham, son of Maimoni- des, Gen. Vayesheb.
58. R. Jehuda b. Hanina ransoms from slavery in Rome a child remarkable for his beauty and learning. It is the future R. Ishmael.
58. R. Ishmael Ransomed as Child.
Gittin, f. 58.
J. Horayot, III, 4.
Tosefta Horayot II
Lament. R. IV § 4.
Aboab, Men. Ham. ch. 204 and 307.
Yalk. II §316.
Yalk. Sip. IV, p. 91.
Cod. G. 184, No. 151.
R. Jehuda b. Hanina ransoms from slavery in Rome a child remarkable for his beauty and learning. It is the future R. Ishmael.
59. The beautiful son and daughter of R. Ishmael were sold as slaves, and were shut up by their masters in one room in order to obtain similarly beautiful children, not recognising one another. They recognised one another in the morning after having kept apart during the night and they died in a mutual embrace.
59. Death of Children of R. Ishmael.
Gittin, f. 58b.
Midr. Hagadol, Deut. Ki Tabo.
Lament. R. I § 46.
Aboab, Men. Ham. ch. 307.
Yalk. II § 1020. Liturgy for 9th Ab. Yalk. Sip. V, p. 105. Tendlau, Sagen3, No. 15. Codd. G. 28, f. 512; 97 (Jerahmeel) f. 768; 184, No. 152.
The beautiful son and daughter of R. Ishmael were sold as slaves, and were shut up by their masters in one room in order to obtain similarly beautiful children, not recognising one another. They recognised one another in the morning after having kept apart during the night and they died in a mutual embrace.
60. Zophnat, daughter of Panic!, the high priest, is sold as a slave. The seller takes her clothes off; she tears the last garment off, and says, “Behold there is no more beautiful woman in the world than I am.”
Zophnat, daughter of Panic!, the high priest, is sold as a slave. The seller takes her clothes off; she tears the last garment off, and says, “Behold there is no more beautiful woman in the world than I am.”
61. The Transliteration of the Bible into Greek characters was done by five men in the time of Ptolemos; that day was an evil day for Israel. The translation of the Bible was also carried out under King Ptolemos by 72 men shut up in separate cells; they introduced 18 changes which are all enumerated.
61. Bible Transliterated. Megillah, f. 9 b.
J. Megillah, f. 9a. Taanit, end.
Soferim, ch. I.
Mehilta, Bo. § 14. Tanh. Exod. & B. ibid.
Shemot, p. 11.
Yalk. §1.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 1.
The Transliteration of the Bible into Greek characters was done by five men in the time of Ptolemos; that day was an evil day for Israel. The translation of the Bible was also carried out under King Ptolemos by 72 men shut up in separate cells; they introduced 18 changes which are all enumerated.
62. Egyptians and Jews dispute before Alexander of Mace- don. The Egyptians claim the spoil carried away by the Jews when they went out of Egypt. Gabiha b. Pesisa refutes the claim of the Egyptians, saying that they had not paid anything for the work done so many hundreds of years by the Jews and he also claimed recompeuse for the male children drowned in the Nile.
62. Egyptians Claim from Jews.
Sanhedrin, f. 91a.
Meg. Taanit, ch. 3. Midr. Hagadol, Gen.
Hayye Sara.
Gen. R. f. 61, end. Levit. R. ch. 2.
Esther R. ch. 5.
Yalk. § no.
Yalk. Sip. I, p. 44; 85. Cod. G. 242, f. 64b. (See also No. 6.)
Egyptians and Jews dispute before Alexander of Macedon. The Egyptians claim the spoil carried away by the Jews when they went out of Egypt. Gabiha b. Pesisa refutes the claim of the Egyptians, saying that they had not paid anything for the work done so many hundreds of years by the Jews and he also claimed recompeuse for the male children drowned in the Nile.
63. R. Akiba in prison was pressed to change his religion, which he refused to do. The wife of the governor tried to tempt him, but she failed and became converted to Judaism. Then her husband hearing of it followed her example.
R. Akiba in prison was pressed to change his religion, which he refused to do. The wife of the governor tried to tempt him, but she failed and became converted to Judaism. Then her husband hearing of it followed her example.
64. R. Johanan b. Nuri asked R. Akiba a question secretly because he was in prison. He disguised himself as a pedlar selling spices. Between the cries about his wares he mentioned the question, which the people took to mean an unknown spice. R. Akiba understood it and answered it.
64. Johanan Questions Akiba in Prison.
Erubin, f. 21.
J. Yebamot, 12. cf. Aboab, Men. Ham. ch. 119.
Yalk. Sip. V, p. 99.
R. Johanan b. Nuri asked R. Akiba a question secretly because he was in prison. He disguised himself as a pedlar selling spices. Between the cries about his wares he mentioned the question, which the people took to mean an unknown spice. R. Akiba understood it and answered it.
