Avodah Zarah 10b — the Talmud in English

And we raise an objection: Why did he only hint to him?

And let him say to him explicitly

explicitly,

why should he not say it to him openly, in public?

And we answer:

Rabbi said

in his heart:

They will hear

me

the important men of Rome, and they will distress him,

and they will distress Rabbi.

And we raise an objection:

And let him say to him,

why did he not say to him

in a whisper?

And we answer:

Because it is written [Ecclesiastes 10]: “Even in your thought, do not curse a king, and in the chambers of your bedchamber do not curse a wealthy man.

Even in your thoughts, do not curse a king, and in your bedchamber do not curse a rich man.

For a bird of the heavens will carry the sound.”

And the Gemara continues to relate.

There was to him,

Antonius had

a certain

daughter,

a daughter

whose name was ‘Gira’.

She was committing a transgression,

she committed adultery—

He sent him,

Antonius sent Rabbi a kind of grass, whose name was

gargira,

and Rabbi understood the hint, from the language of dragging, that is, that she was “being dragged along,” her heart being drawn after adulterers.

He sent him,

Rabbi sent Antonius a type of vegetable whose name was

kusberta,

and there is a hint in this: kos, slaughter, berta, the daughter. That is, kill her!

He sent him

Antonius a type of vegetable whose name was

karti.

Meaning: If so, may my seed be cut off!

He sent him

Rabbi sent Antonius a type of vegetable whose name was

hasa,

meaning: Have pity on her and do not kill her!

Every day he would send him,

Antonius sent Rabbi every day

refined gold,

pieces of gold

in leather bags,

in large leather sacks,

with wheat at their mouths,

covered with wheat at the opening of the sack, so that if they inspected it, they would see the wheat and not the gold.

He said to them

Antonius said to his men:

Bring wheat

carry wheat

to Rabbi!

He said

Rabbi to him:

I do not need it.

I do not need gold, because

I have much,

I have much gold.

Antonius said

to Rabbi:

Let it be for those after you,

let those pieces of gold be for your heirs,

who will give to those after me,

and they will give it to their heirs,

who will come after you,

those who come after you,

and those who will come from them,

and the generations to come

will bring it out for them,

will bring out the gold for the Roman kings who stand after me.

There was to him,

Antonius had

a certain cave,

one cave,

which led from his house to Rabbi’s house,

through which they could pass from his house to Rabbi’s house, and he would come to Rabbi secretly to study Torah.

Every day,

every day that he came to Rabbi’s house,

he would bring

with him

two slaves

two slaves to accompany and guard him.

One,

one slave,

he would kill him,

he killed him

at the gate of Rabbi’s house,

at the entrance to Rabbi’s house,

and one,

the second slave,

he would kill him

he killed him

at the gate of his house,

at the entrance to his house, on his return.

And he did all this so that his connection with Rabbi would not become known. And he also did something else: he asked Rabbi to conceal the matter—

He said to him

to Rabbi:

At the time that I come,

at the time of my coming to you,

let no man be found before you,

let no man be found before you!

One day

one day

he found him

he found

Rabbi Hanina bar Hama, who was sitting

who was sitting before Rabbi.

Antonius said

Antonius:

Did I not say to you,

did I not tell you that

at the time that I come, no man will be found before you?!

He said to him

Rabbi:

This is not a human being!

This man is not a human being, but an angel.

He said to him

Antonius said to Rabbi Hanina:

Say to him,

go out and say to him

to that slave,

to that slave

who is lying at the gate,

who is lying at the entrance,

that he should rise and come,

that he should rise and come!

He went,

he went

Rabbi Hanina bar Hama. He found him,

and found him

dead,

he was killed!

Rabbi Hanina thought

to himself:

What shall I do,

what shall I do now?

If I go and tell him that he is dead,

if I return and inform him that he is dead, then

one does not respond

with an answer

to misfortune,

to an evil matter [that is, one does not announce bad tidings]. And if

I leave him

I abandon him

and go,

and go away,

we will be showing contempt for the kingdom,

it will be contempt for the honor of the king, because I am not carrying out his orders.

What did he do?—

He pleaded for mercy for him,

he asked mercy for him,

and revived him,

and restored him to life,

and sent him,

and sent him to Antonius!

Antonius said

to Rabbi, upon seeing his slave whom Rabbi Hanina had revived:

I know,

I know

that the least among you,

even the smallest among you,

revives the dead! Nevertheless,

even so, I ask that

at the time that I come,

at the time of my coming to you,

no person be found before you,

no person be found before you.

Every day,

every day that he came to Rabbi,

he would serve

Antonius

Rabbi—

he would feed him and give him drink,

he served him with food and drink.

When Rabbi wanted to ascend to the bed,

when Rabbi wanted to climb onto his bed,

he would bend before the bed,

he bent down before the bed,

he said to Rabbi: Climb upon me onto your bed!

Climb upon me to your bed.

Rabbi said

to him:

It is not proper conduct,

this is not proper conduct,

to show such contempt for the kingdom,

to show so much contempt for the kingdom!

Antonius said

to Rabbi:

Would that I were made,

would that they would make me

a mattress beneath you in the World to Come!

He said to him

Antonius said to Rabbi:

Will I come to the World to Come,

will I merit the World to Come?

He said to him

Rabbi:

Yes!

You will merit the World to Come.

He said to him

Antonius:

But it is written [

Obadiah 1]:

“There will be no survivor of the house of Esau,”

and they are the Romans.

Rabbi answered him: The verse speaks

of one who performs the deed of Esau.

But you do not perform the deed of Esau!

He said to him

Antonius:

But it is written [

Ezekiel 32]:

“There

[in Gehenna],

are Edom, its kings and all its princes”?

He said to him

Rabbi: One must be precise in the verse, for it says

“its kings,” and not

it does not say

“all its kings.”

It says

“all its princes,” and not

it does not say

“all its officers.”

It was also taught so:

“Its kings”—

and not all its kings. “All its princes”—

and not all its officers.

And the

beraita explains:

“Its kings,” and not all its kings—

excluding,

excluding

Antonius son of Asuerus,

who will not fall into Gehenna;

“all its princes,” and not all its officers—

excluding Ketia bar Shalom,

as will be explained.

And the Gemara now explains what the beraita said, that Ketia bar Shalom is destined for life in the World to Come.

Ketia bar Shalom—

what is it,

what happened to him?

There was a certain Caesar,

there was one Caesar among the kings of Rome,

who hated the Jews,

who was a hater of the Jews.

He said to them

the Caesar said

to the important men of the kingdom,

to the important men of the kingdom, and he stated his words in the form of a parable:

One who has developed a boil,

a rotting of flesh,

on his foot,

and it pains him—should he

cut it off,

cut the

flesh and live, or leave it and suffer?

And his intention was concerning the Jews: Should he destroy them, Heaven forbid!

They said to him

the important men of Rome:

Cut it off, and live!

He said to them

one gentile among the important men of Rome, whose name was

Ketia bar Shalom: One reason

not to destroy them is:

you are unable to destroy all of them,

you do not have the ability to destroy them all

! For it is written [

Zechariah 2]: The Holy One, blessed is He, said:

“For as the four winds of the heavens I have spread you.”

And one must ask:

What is he saying,

what did the prophet say here?

If you say,

if it is said

that I scattered them,

that I scattered them

among the four winds,

there is a difficulty—

Why “as the four winds”?!

Why did Scripture use the letter of comparison in its wording?!—

For according to your words, that He scattered them among the four winds,

“among the four winds” should have been said,

the verse should have said.

Rather,

Scripture stated “as the four winds,” with the letter of comparison, in order to say:

Just as the world cannot exist

without existing

without winds,

because of the abundance of vapor and heat,

so the world cannot exist

without existing

without Israel!

And this was Ketia bar Shalom’s first argument, when he said to him that he could not destroy them.

And furthermore,

another reason not to destroy them is that

they will call you,

they will call you

“the Maimed Kingdom,”

a kingdom that cuts off, that is, murderous!

He said to him

the Caesar said to Ketia bar Shalom:

You have spoken a proper statement,

indeed you have said correct things.

Nevertheless,

but

whoever defeats the king,

whoever defeats the king and silences him with words, thereby disgracing the king,

they cast him,

they throw him

into the kemonia halila,

into a house filled with earth.

And the Gemara continues to relate about Ketia bar Shalom.

When they were seizing him and going,

when they seized him to lead him to the kemonia halila,

that noblewoman said to him,

a distinguished Roman woman:

Woe to the ship,

woe to the ship

that goes without paying customs,

that goes without paying customs! And she intended to say to him: Since you are being killed because of the Jews, it is a pity that you did not circumcise yourself [and he imagined the giving of the customs payment to God], so that they would let you pass and receive a portion in the World to Come together with the children of Israel.

He bent down,

Ketia bar Shalom bent down

upon the head of his foreskin,

upon the head of his foreskin,

cut it,

cut it

with his teeth

with his teeth,

and said:

Now

I have given my customs payment,

by this I have given her the payment of customs,

I have passed and crossed over,

and I can pass, that is, enter the Garden of Eden.

When they were casting him,

when they threw him into the kemonia halila,

Ketia bar Shalom said: I hereby command

all

my possessions

all my property

to Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues.

And the Gemara now explains how Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues divided his possessions?

Rabbi Akiva came forth and expounded:

It is stated concerning the showbread [Leviticus 24]

“And it shall be for Aaron and his sons,”

that Aaron and his sons shall divide the bread among themselves, and we derive:

half for Aaron and half for his sons.

For the High Priest takes half of the loaves for himself.

Thus, the meaning of the words “And it shall be for Aaron and his sons” is half and half. So too, his words “to Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues” should be interpreted as half and half.

A heavenly voice went forth

from Heaven

and said: Ketia bar Shalom is destined

for life in the World to Come!

When Rabbi heard this matter,

Rabbi wept and said: There is one who acquires his world

in a single hour,

and he was Ketia bar Shalom.

And there is one who acquires his world over several years.

Antonius served Rabbi,

he served Rabbi.

Likewise, one of the gentile ministers, whose name was

Adarkan, served Rav,

he served Rav.

When he died,

when Antonius died,

Rabbi said

in sorrow:

The bundle has come apart!

It is a parable, that our love, in which soul was bound to soul, has come apart.