Bava Metzia 84b (פד:) — the Talmud in English

And now the Gemara returns to the story of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, who said about himself: “Rejoice, my innards, rejoice! If your doubtful cases are thus, how much more so your certain cases!”

Nevertheless, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, did not rely on his own assessment.

He did not rely on himself; rather, he was concerned that perhaps he had mistakenly handed over to the authorities a righteous person, and he would pray for mercy and forgiveness for this.

He accepted suffering upon himself.

He accepted suffering upon himself in order to atone for his sin.

In the evening, they would lay beneath him sixty sheets,

In the evening, they would spread sixty clean sheets beneath him in his bed.

In the morning, they would draw out from beneath him sixty bowls of blood and pus.

In the morning, they would remove from beneath him sixty basins filled with blood that had turned white, from the boils that had afflicted him.

The next day, his wife would prepare for him

Each morning, his wife would prepare medicine for him,

sixty kinds of porridge,

sixty types of food made from figs,

and he would eat them and recover,

and he would eat them and regain his strength.

And his wife would not allow him to go out to the beit-midrash.

His wife would not let him go to the beit-midrash,

so that the Sages would not distress him,

so that the Sages would not cause him anguish, since they resented him for handing thieves over to the authorities.

In the evening, he would say to them,

In the evening, he would say to the suffering:

“My brothers and friends, come!”

In the morning, he would say to them,

In the morning, he would say to them:

“Go,”

leave me

because of the neglect of Torah study,

for he studied throughout the day in his house.

One day, his wife heard him,

One day, his wife heard him telling the suffering in the evening to come upon him.

She said to him: “You are bringing them upon yourself!

You are the one bringing this suffering upon yourself.

You have depleted my family’s wealth.”

You are depleting the wealth that I brought from my father’s house, through the many foods I must prepare for your recovery and the garments that rot because of the suffering.

She rebelled against him,

she rebelled against him,

and went to her father’s house,

and went to her father’s house.

Then there came those

sixty

sailors

sixty sailors who had been in danger when their ship was about to sink at sea prayed to be saved in the merit of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon. When they were saved in his merit and emerged from the sea,

they brought him

they sent him a gift:

sixty slaves, each holding sixty purses.

Sixty slaves, with sixty purses in their hands.

And they prepared for him sixty kinds of porridge.

And they prepared for him, as medicine, the sixty types of food.

And he ate them.

And he ate them and recovered.

One day, she said to her daughter,

One day, his wife said to her daughter:

“Go and examine your father: What is he doing today?!”

Go and see what your father is doing today.

She came,

she arrived.

He said to her

her father said to her:

“Go,

go

tell your mother:

our wealth

is greater than theirs.”

He applied to himself

He recited concerning himself the verse

“She is like the merchant ships; from afar she brings her bread.”

This verse is said concerning Torah. In other words, in the merit of Torah, he attained wealth from the sailors who had come from afar.

He ate and drank and recovered,

until he regained his strength.

He went out to the beit-midrash,

he went out to the beit-midrash, since no one would now prevent him from doing so.

They brought before him sixty types of blood,

the women brought before him sixty shades of women’s blood, so that he could determine whether each was menstrual blood or pure blood.

He declared them pure.

He declared all the appearances pure and permitted the women to their husbands.

The Sages began murmuring, and they said,

The Sages in the beit-midrash murmured about Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, and said:

“Can you really think that there was not even one doubtful case among them?!”

How is it possible that not even one of those appearances was possibly menstrual blood?

He said to them

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, said to them:

“If I am correct,

and all these women are permitted to their husbands,

let them all be male,

let them all conceive tonight and give birth to males.

And if not,

but at least one of them is of doubtful purity,

let there be one female among them.”

They were all males! And they named them

They called them

“Rabbi Elazar,”

after him,

after Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon.

It was taught: Rabbi said: How much procreation did this wicked woman prevent from Israel,

The wicked government that appointed Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, to apprehend thieves caused the prevention of procreation in Israel, since Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, was unable to come regularly to the beit-midrash and rule concerning the women’s blood. Alternatively, “this wicked woman” refers to his wife, who prevented him for many years from coming to the beit-midrash.

When his soul was departing,

when Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, was dying,

he said to his wife

to his wife:

“I know that the Sages are angry with me,

I know that the Sages are angry with me because I handed thieves over to the authorities, among them also relatives of the Sages,

and they will not attend to me properly,

they will not attend to me honorably after my death.

Lay me in the upper room,

lay my body in the attic,

and do not fear me.”

And you need not fear at all.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: The mother of Rabbi Yonatan told me,

the mother of Rabbi Yonatan told me,

for the wife of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, had told her:

for the wife of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, had told her:

“For no fewer than eighteen and no more than twenty-two years

for at least eighteen years and perhaps even twenty-two years,

he lay in the upper room.”

He lay in the attic.

“When I would go up,

when I would go up there,

I would examine his hair;

I would inspect his hair.

When a strand would come loose from him,

when a hair would fall out from him,

blood would emerge

blood would emerge from that place!

One day, I saw a worm emerging from his ear,

one day, she saw a worm emerging from his ear.

I was distressed,

I was concerned that from then on his body had begun to smell and decay.

He appeared to me in a dream,

he appeared to me in a dream, and

said to me: “It is not from me!

Do not be concerned, because this occurred to me as punishment for the fact that

one day, I heard an affront to a Torah scholar and did not protest as I should have.”

Once, I heard someone insult a Torah scholar and did not protest properly, and therefore I was punished in my ear.

Throughout all the time that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, body lay in the attic, people did not know at all that he was dead.

When two litigants would come for judgment,

when two litigants would come to Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, house to litigate before him,

they would stand at the doorway.

They would stand at the entrance.

One would state his case, and the other would state his case.

Each one would present his claims.

A voice would emerge from the attic,

and a voice would emerge from the attic,

and say: “So-and-so, you are liable!

So-and-so, you are entitled!”

One day, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, wife was quarreling with her neighbor.

One day, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, wife quarreled with her neighbor.

The neighbor said to her

the neighbor said to her:

“May you be like your husband, who was not brought to burial!”

The Sages said: “This has gone too far; it is certainly not proper conduct.”

Since the matter had already become publicly known—that he was not alive and had not been buried—it was no longer an honor to leave him that way and not bury him.

Some say:

The reason the Sages became concerned to bring him to burial was that

Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai,

who was Rabbi Elazar’s father,

appeared to them in a dream,

appeared to the Sages in a dream and

said to them: “I have one fledgling

one young bird

among you, and you do not wish to bring him to me?!”

The Sages went to attend to him,

the Sages went to bring him to burial.

The people of Akhbaria did not allow

the people of that place, located near the city of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, did not allow them to remove Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, from his house,

because during all the years that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, slept in his attic,

throughout all the years that he lay in the attic of his house,

no wild animal entered their town.

No wild animal entered their town.

It was one day, the eve of Yom Kippur,

the eve of Yom Kippur arrived.

They were preoccupied,

when the people of Akhbaria were busy,

the Sages sent to the people of Beiri,

the Sages sent to the people of the village of Beiri, which was near Akhbaria,

and they brought him up on his bier, and brought him to his father’s cave.

They took Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, bier and brought it to the entrance of the cave of his father, Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai.

They found a snake encircling the cave.

There was a snake there that encircled the cave, with its tail in its mouth.

They said to it

to the snake:

“Snake, snake,

snake,

open your mouth

and move your tail away from your mouth,

so that a son may enter beside his father!”

It opened for them

the snake opened its mouth and allowed them to enter the cave.

Rabbi sent word to speak with his wife

Rabbi sent a message to Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon’s, wife, asking that she agree to marry him.

She sent him a reply

she sent him this response:

“A vessel that has been used for sacred purposes —

should it be used for profane purposes?!”

She also sent him:

“In the Land of Israel they say,

in the Land of Israel they use a proverb in such a case:

‘At the place where the master of the house hangs his weapon,

on the peg where the warrior would regularly hang his weapons,

the vile shepherd

the despicable shepherd

hangs his sack!’

he hung his sack there!

He sent her

Rabbi sent her:

“Granted

indeed,

in Torah

your husband was

greater than I, but in good deeds, who is greater than I?!”

She sent him

to Rabbi:

“As for Torah, he was indeed greater than you—I do not know,

I do not know whether he was greater than you in Torah, except that you yourself acknowledge this.

But

in deeds

of goodness,

I do know

I know that he was greater than you,

for he accepted suffering upon himself.”

For he accepted suffering upon himself.

The Gemara explains:

“In Torah”—what is the evidence?

From where did Rabbi know that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, was greater than he in Torah?

For when they would sit,

when the two great sages of the generation would sit,

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa,

along with many other Sages,

on benches

on benches in the beit-midrash,

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi would sit before them,

they would sit before them,

on the ground,

on the ground,

raising difficulties and resolving them

and raising difficulties and resolving them concerning the sugyot under discussion in the beit-midrash.

They said

the Sages sitting on the benches in the beit-midrash said:

“From the waters of

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, and Rabbi,

we drink,

meaning, we learn Torah from them,

and they sit on the ground?!”

They made benches for them

they prepared benches for them as well,

and raised them

and seated them upon them.

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said to them,

Rabbi’s father said to the Sages:

“I have one fledgling

one young bird

among you,

and he is my son,

and you wish to destroy him?!”

He was concerned that the evil eye might affect him because they had raised him to sit on the bench.

They brought Rabbi down

they brought him back down to sit on the ground.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa said to them

to the Sages:

“He who has a father should live, and he who has no father should die?!”

That is, does Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, whose father, Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai, had already died, not deserve concern that the evil eye should not affect him?

They also brought him down to earth, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon,

lowering him back to the land.

His feelings were hurt.

Rabbi was distressed,

and he said: “Do you consider him my equal,

that you are concerned about the evil eye affecting him as well?”

Until that day,

until that day,

whenever Rabbi would say something,

when Rabbi would say a Torah teaching,

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, would assist him,

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, would bring a proof supporting it.

From that point onward,

once Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, saw that Rabbi did not consider him worthy,

whenever Rabbi would say: “I have a response,”

when Rabbi had only begun to say that he had an objection, immediately

Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, would say to him: “This and this is what you have to respond,”

you surely wish to raise this and this objection, and

“This is your answer!”

He would immediately tell him the resolution.

“Now you have hemmed us in;

had I not answered you immediately, you would have surrounded us with

a barrage of arguments

through many objections

“that have no substance!”

Rabbi’s feelings were hurt,

once he realized that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, was greater than he in Torah.

He came and told his father.

He went and expressed his distress before his father.

He said to him: “My son, do not let it trouble you! He is a lion, the son of a lion, whereas you are a lion, the son of a fox!”

And this is what Rabbi said: “There are three humble men.”