TEN MIRACLES WERE WROUGHT FOR OUR FATHERS IN JERUSALEM:1The current editions read ‘in the Temple’. This is an error, because the list of miracles wrought in the Temple is given later in the chapter, §5, and the name ‘Jerusalem’ is specified in the last eight items. It would seem that the first two were common to the Temple and Jerusalem. Cf. Aboth 5:8 (Sonc. ed., V, 5, pp. 61f). Furthermore, in the current editions the first two items are followed by, ‘Ten miracles were wrought for our fathers in Jerusalem’. It is suggested that these words were a marginal correction for the opening line of the chapter, intended to replace it, but by mistake it was inserted in the text in addition to the opening line. Cf. Schechter’s note in his ed. THE HALLOWED FLESH NEVER TURNED PUTRID; NO WOMAN MISCARRIED THROUGH THE SMELL OF THE HALLOWED FLESH; no man was ever injured in Jerusalem, no man was ever attacked in Jerusalem; no man ever stumbled in Jerusalem; never did fire break out in Jerusalem; never did a building collapse in Jerusalem; no man ever said to his fellow, ‘I cannot find an oven in which to roast the Passover-offering in Jerusalem’; no man ever said to his fellow, ‘I cannot find a bed to sleep on in Jerusalem’; AND NO MAN EVER SAID TO HIS FELLOW, ‘THE PLACE IS TOO STRAIT FOR ME TO LODGE OVERNIGHT IN JERUSALEM’.
[The2Here is enumerated a list of special regulations which applied to Jerusalem. Cf. B.Ḳ. 82b (Sonc. ed., pp. 468f) and Maimonides, Yad, Beth Habbeḥirah, VII, 14. houses of] Jerusalem cannot become defiled by leprosy.3Cf. Lev. 14, 34-53. The law of leprosy of houses did not apply to the buildings in Jerusalem. [Jerusalem] cannot be condemned as an apostate city.4Cf. Deut. 13, 13-18. No juttings, balconies or gutters in it were allowed to overhang the public thoroughfare lest they form a tent for defilement by a corpse.5Cf. Num. 19, 14. No dead bodies were kept in it overnight,6The dead were buried the same day and not kept overnight. and no human bones were carried through it. A resident alien was not permitted to settle in it. No graves were allowed to remain within it, except the tombs of the House of David and of the prophetess Huldah, which existed there since the days of the early prophets. And why, when they cleared the city of graves, did they not remove these tombs? It is said that there was an underground cave there through which the uncleanness passed out to the brook Kidron.7There was accordingly no danger of the defilement being spread. No plants were planted in it;8The reason was the same as for the regulation forbidding all overhanging projections; here, too, the branches of the trees would form a ‘tent’ over a corpse and thereby spread the defilement. no gardens or orchards were laid out in it, except the rose-gardens which existed there from the days of the early prophets. No geese or fowl were reared in it,9These birds spread defilement by carrying reptiles in their beaks. and needless to say no pigs;10Cf. B.Ḳ. 79b (Sonc. ed., p. 453). no dunghills were allowed to remain in it on account of uncleanness. No ‘stubborn and rebellious son’11Cf. Deut. 21, 18ff. could be condemned in it, according to the view of R. Nathan, for it is stated, Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place,12ibid. 19. and Jerusalem is neither his city nor his place.13Because Jerusalem had not been divided among the tribes, but was in trust for all Israel collectively. There was therefore no ownership of land in the city. No houses could be sold there [together with the ground on which they stood], but only the structure above the ground; and no house sold in it became irredeemable after twelve months.14As in the law with a dwelling-house in a walled city; cf. Lev. 25, 29f. No payment was allowed to be taken there as rent, but a charge could be made for the hire of bed and bedding.15The text is in disorder, and the translation follows the emendations of GRA. R. Judah said: It was not even allowed to make a charge for bed and bedding. What did they16i.e. the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the Festivals and lived in houses rent free. do with the skins of the sacrifices?17The skins of private sacrifices belonged to the offerer. They gave them to the proprietors of the guest-houses. Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: Visitors were accommodated within the house while the owners lived outside; visitors therefore acted shrewdly and used to bring as offerings Egyptian lambs18According to another reading, ‘multi-coloured’. whose skins were worth four or five selas each which they gave to the owners of guest-houses in Jerusalem, and in this way the house-owners profited.
One verse of Scripture states, [The place which the Lord shall choose] in one of thy tribes;19Deut. 12, 14. and another verse states, [The place which the Lord your God shall choose] out of all your tribes.20ibid. 5. In one of thy tribes refers to [a place in] the tribes of Judah and Benjamin;21i.e. the Temple, which was partly in Benjamin’s lot and partly in Judah’s. out of all your tribes refers to Jerusalem, in which all Israel have a share. What was in the portion of Judah? The Temple mount, the priestly chambers and the courts. And what was in the portion of Benjamin? The Sanctuary, the porch and the Holy of Holies. A wedge22lit. ‘like the head of an ox’. of land projected [from Judah’s portion], entered [Benjamin’s portion], and then fell back again [into Judah’s portion], and on this the altar was built. Thus Benjamin was deemed worthy to become the host of the Almighty, as it is stated, And He dwelleth between his shoulders.23ibid. XXXIII, 12. Since the ark, symbolizing the Divine Presence, was in the Holy of Holies which was located in Benjamin’s territory.
Joshua24i.e. Joshua the son of Nun when he was about to apportion the land among the tribes. This is the reading of MS. E and the commentators. V reads ‘R. Joshua b. Levi’. said, ‘As soon as I know that the Temple will be situated in the region between Judah and Benjamin, I will go and set aside the fertile region around Jericho [as compensation]’.25The tribe which will give up part of its territory for the Temple will receive this fertile land in compensation. It is known that the tribe of Benjamin eventually claimed this land. And who enjoyed its produce all the intervening years? The children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, as it is stated, And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees.26Judg. 1, 16. The city of palm-trees is the fertile land at Jericho; cf. Deut. 34, 3. Jethro’s descendants enjoyed this region for four hundred and forty years, i.e. from the entry into Canaan until the building of the Temple. They27i.e. the Sages. said that when the Holy One, blessed be He, will again reveal His Presence, He will pay a goodly reward to Jethro and his sons. And whence did Jethro’s descendants maintain themselves [in the meantime]?28From the time they gave up possession of that region until the realization of their promised reward. From their pottery works,29So according to the MSS. and the marginal reading. V has ‘from charity’. as it is stated, And the families of scribes that dwelt at Jabez;301 Chron. 2, 55. and it also states, These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plantations,31ibid. IV, 23. etc. For they were great men, possessed of houses, fields and vineyards, but for the sake of the work of the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, they abandoned everything and departed, and there they dwelt occupied in the king’s work.32ibid. The word ‘king’ is understood of God. The translation of the passage follows a variant text. Where did they go? To Jabez33According to Rabbinic tradition Jabez is identical with Othniel the son of Kenaz; cf. Tem. 16a (Sonc. ed., p. 111, n. 13). to study Torah with him, and so they became the All-present’s people. For Jabez was a good and worthy man, true and pious, who sat and expounded the Torah, as it is stated, And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying: Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed … And God granted him that which he requested.34ibid. 10.
TEN MIRACLES WERE WROUGHT FOR OUR FATHERS IN THE TEMPLE: NO FLY WAS EVER SEEN IN THE TEMPLE SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. NO UNCLEAN ACCIDENT EVER BEFELL THE HIGH PRIEST ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. There was an exception in the case of R. Ishmael b. Ḳimḥith who went out [on the Day of Atonement] to converse with a certain prince and some saliva dropped from the latter’s mouth and fell upon his garments, [thereby rendering him unclean]; so his brother entered and officiated as High Priest in his stead. Their mother accordingly saw her two sons [officiating as] High Priests on that day. On seeing her the Sages asked her, ‘What merit had you?’ She replied, ‘Never did the beams of my house see the hair of my head’.35It being improper, especially for a married woman, to expose her hair; cf. Yoma 47a (Sonc. ed., p. 223, n. 4). In the Talmudic version he conversed with an Arab, not with a prince. No man36V inserts ‘No man was ever attacked in Jerusalem’. It is out of place in this paragraph which deals with the miracles in the Temple, and is omitted in the MSS. was ever injured in the Temple, and no man ever stumbled there. NO WOMAN EVER MISCARRIED THROUGH THE SMELL OF THE HALLOWED FLESH. Never did the priests render a sacrifice disqualified. Whenever the priests ate too much of the hallowed flesh they used [31b] to drink the waters of Siloam, whereby the food was assimilated within them as in the normal process of digestion. 6.
NO DISQUALIFYING DEFECT WAS EVER FOUND IN THE ‘OMER,37The measure of the new barley which was offered on the second day of Passover (Lev. 23, 10). OR IN THE TWO LOAVES,38These were baked of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest and offered on Pentecost (ibid. 17). OR IN THE SHEWBREAD.39Cf. ibid. XXIV, 5ff.
Whenever an earthenware vessel was broken, the fragments were swallowed up in the place [where they lay].40Cf. Yoma 21a (Sonc. ed., p. 92). THE WIND NEVER PREVAILED OVER THE PILLAR OF SMOKE [which ascended from the altar]. When the pillar of smoke ascended from the altar of the burnt-offering it rose up straight as a stick until it reached the sky; and when the column of incense went forth from the golden altar, it proceeded in a direct line towards the Holy of Holies.
THE PEOPLE STOOD CLOSELY PRESSED TOGETHER YET FOUND AMPLE SPACE TO PROSTRATE THEMSELVES. When Israel went up to prostrate themselves before their Father in heaven, although they sat so closely pressed together that none could insert a finger between them, yet when they prostrated themselves they found ample space to do so. The greatest miracle of all was that even when a hundred people were bowing all at the same time, the superintendent of the assembly never found it necessary to call out, ‘Make room for your brethren’. Miracles were wrought also in the Temple court; for even if all Israel entered there, the Temple court accommodated them all. The greatest miracle of all was that when Israel stood in prayer so closely pressed together that none could insert a finger between them, yet when they prostrated themselves there was the space of a man’s height between them.41The several sentences in this passage are apparently different versions of the same tradition.
Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel said: Jerusalem is destined that all the nations and all the kingdoms will be gathered together in her midst, as it is stated, And all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, [to Jerusalem],42Jer. 3, 17. and elsewhere it declares, Let the waters be gathered together;43Gen. 1, 9. as the ‘gathering together’ of the latter verse means that all the waters of creation are to be brought into one place, so the ‘gathering together’ of the former verse means that all the nations and kingdoms will be assembled in her midst, as it is stated, And all the nations shall be gathered unto it.