Samuel the Small and the Chain of Sparing Another From Shame

Our Rabbis taught: the year is intercalated only by those invited for it. There was an incident with Rabban Gamliel, who said: Have seven of you come early to me in the upper chamber. He rose early and found eight. He said: Who is this who came up without permission? Immediately Samuel the Small stood on his feet and said: I am the one who came up without permission, and I did not come up to intercalate the year, but I needed to learn the practical law. He said to him: Sit, my son, sit; all the years are worthy to be intercalated through you, but the Sages said the year is intercalated only by those invited for it. In truth it was not Samuel the Small, but another person, and he did this on account of shame - as in the case where Rabbi (Chiya) was sitting and expounding, and he smelled the odor of garlic. He said: Whoever ate garlic, let him go out. Rabbi Chiya rose and went out; they all rose and went out. In the morning Rabbi Shimon son of Rabbi found Rabbi Chiya and said to him: Are you the one who distressed my father? He said to him: Heaven forbid, let there be no such thing in Israel. And from where did Rabbi Chiya learn this? From the deed of Rabbi Meir, as it was taught: there was an incident with a woman who came to the study house of Rabbi Meir. She said to them: Rabbi, one of you betrothed me through intercourse. Rabbi Meir rose and wrote her a bill of divorce and gave it to her; they all rose and wrote her a bill of divorce and gave it to her. And from where did Rabbi Meir learn this? From Samuel the Small. And from where did Samuel the Small learn it? From Shecaniah son of Yechiel, as it is written, "And Shecaniah son of Yechiel of the sons of Elam answered and said to Ezra, We have broken faith with our God and have taken foreign wives" (Ezra 10:2). And from where did Shecaniah son of Yechiel learn it? From Joshua, as it is written (Joshua 7:10), "And the LORD said to Joshua, Get up; Israel has sinned." He said before Him: Master of the world, let me know who sinned. He said to him: Am I an informer? Go and cast lots. And if you wish, say from Moses, as it is written, "How long do you refuse?" Our Rabbis taught: when the last prophets - Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi - died, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel; yet even so they made use of a heavenly voice [bat kol]. Once they were sitting in the upper chamber of the house of Guria in Jericho, and a heavenly voice was given them from heaven: There is among you one man who is worthy that the Divine Presence rest upon him as upon Moses, but his generation is not worthy of it. They set their eyes upon Hillel the Elder; and when he died they said of him, Alas the humble one, alas the pious one, the disciple of Ezra. Once again they were sitting in the upper chamber in Yavneh, and a heavenly voice was given them from heaven: There is here one who is worthy that the Divine Presence rest upon him, but his generation is not worthy of it. They set their eyes upon Samuel the Small. And when he died they said of him, Alas the humble one, alas the pious one, the disciple of Hillel. He too said at the hour of his death: Shimon and Yishmael are for the sword, and their fellows for slaughter, and the rest of the people for plunder, and great troubles are destined to come upon the world. And of Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava they sought to say the same, but the hour was troubled, for one does not eulogize those slain by the government.