Bava Metzia 85a — the Talmud in English

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and the sons of Beteira, and Jonathan son of Saul.

And Rabbi explains: From where do we know that they were humble?

Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel: That which we said!

For he said to his son that he was a lion among foxes.

The sons of Beteira: For the Master said

in tractate Pesachim [66a] that the sons of Beteira were presidents, and when they became aware of Hillel’s greatness in Torah, when he had just come up from Babylonia, they relinquished their presidency, and

seated him,

Hillel,

at the head, and appointed him president over them.

Jonathan son of Saul: For he said to David: [I Samuel 23:17] “

‘You shall reign over Israel, and I shall be second to you.’”

And you shall reign over Israel, and I shall be second to you.”

And we raise an objection:

From where?

What is the proof that they were humble?

Perhaps Jonathan son of Saul

agreed to be second to David because

he saw that the entire world was drawn after David,

for he saw that the people were inclined after David, and not because of his humility.

The sons of Beteira also

relinquished the presidency because

they saw that Hillel was superior to them,

for they realized that Hillel was greater than they in Torah, whereas they did not know how to answer many questions that were asked in halakha, and they were ashamed of this.

And we conclude:

Rather, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel was certainly humble!

Rabbi said: Sufferings are beloved!

Since he saw that the sufferings had benefited Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon, so that worms did not rule over him.

He accepted upon himself thirteen years,

Rabbi accepted sufferings upon himself for a period of thirteen years.

Six with the stone,

six years of sufferings from a stone located at the place where small openings emerge.

And seven

years

with mouth disease,

a disease inside the mouth.

The horsekeeper of Rabbi’s house,

the keeper of the horses in Rabbi’s house,

was wealthier than Shapur the king,

he was wealthier than “Shapur,” the Persian king.

When he would place fodder before the animals

when he would give feed to the animals,

a sound would travel three mils

the sound of the animals’ bellowing could be heard to a distance of three mils.

He would arrange that he placed it at that time,

he would arrange to feed the animals at precisely that time

when Rabbi entered

when Rabbi entered

the privy,

for then he would suffer and cry out from his sufferings. And so that Rabbi’s voice would not be heard, he therefore fed the animals then, so that their sound would overpower his voice.

And even so, his voice surpassed their voice.

Despite everything, Rabbi’s voice overcame the animals’ voice.

And the sailors heard him.

And even those who went down to the sea heard Rabbi’s voice when he was suffering.

And even so, the sufferings of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon were superior to

the sufferings

of Rabbi.

For those of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon came through love and departed through love,

for he himself would invite the sufferings every evening to come, and in the morning he would tell them to depart because of the interruption of Torah study.

But the sufferings

of Rabbi came through an incident, and departed through an incident.

And the Gemara explains: “

‘They came through an incident’—what is it?”

What was the incident on account of which Rabbi was punished with sufferings?

For there was a certain calf that they were bringing to slaughter,

they were leading a calf to slaughter,

it went, hung its head beneath Rabbi’s garment, and cried,

the calf fled and hid beneath the folds of Rabbi’s garment, and cried.

He said to him

Rabbi said to the calf:

Go,

go and give yourself over to slaughter, for

for this you were created!

They said

in Heaven:

Since he does not have mercy,

because he does not have mercy on the calf,

let sufferings come upon him,

let them come upon Rabbi

sufferings!

And through an incident they departed

the sufferings.

And this was the incident:

One day, Rabbi’s maidservant was sweeping the house,

one day Rabbi’s maidservant was sweeping the house.

There were the young of a weasel lying there,

the young of a weasel were lying on the ground,

and she was gathering them,

and she wished to sweep them away and throw them into the refuse.

He said to her

Rabbi said to her:

Leave them,

leave them, for

it is written, “

And His mercies are upon all His works”!

They said,

in Heaven:

Since he

he

has mercy, let us have mercy upon him

upon him. And his sufferings departed.

Throughout all the years of the sufferings of Rabbi Elazar

son of Rabbi Shimon, throughout all the years that he suffered,

no person died before his time,

no person died before his time, by virtue of the sufferings of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon.

Throughout all the years of Rabbi’s sufferings,

all the years that Rabbi suffered,

the world did not require rain.

The world did not need rain and existed without it.

For Rabba bar Rav Shila said: A day of rain is as difficult as a day of judgment.

A rainy day is difficult for the world like Mondays and Thursdays, on which courts sit [as instituted by Ezra], and the litigants gather for judgment, and loud voices are heard. So too on a rainy day.

And Ameimar said: If the world did not need it,

were it not that the world needed rain,

the Sages would have sought mercy concerning it and abolished it.

The Sages would have prayed that there be no rain!

And by virtue of Rabbi’s sufferings, the world existed without rain.

And

even so,

despite the fact that no rain fell throughout all those years,

when they uprooted a radish from a garden bed,

when they pulled a radish from the garden bed,

there remained

a well full of water,

there remained in the ground a pit full of water!

Rabbi happened to come to the place of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon.

Rabbi happened to come to the city of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon after his death.

He said to them,

Rabbi asked the townspeople:

Does that righteous man have a son?

Did Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon leave a son behind?

They said to him: He has a son! And every prostitute who is hired for two

who is paid two gold coins as her fee,

hires him for eight.

She pays the son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon eight gold coins because of his beauty.

He ordained him as “Rabbi.”

Rabbi ordained him so that he would be called “Rabbi,” in order to encourage him in Torah study,

and he completed him,

and entrusted him

to Rabbi Shimon ben Isi ben Lakonia, his mother’s brother,

his mother’s brother, so that he would study with him.

Every day he would say: I shall go to my town.

Every day that son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon would say to his uncle that he wished to return to his city.

He said to him

his uncle said to him:

They will make you wise.

If you remain to study, they will make you a sage.

And they will spread a golden canopy over you,

and they will spread a golden wedding canopy over you,

and they will call you Rabbi,

they will call you “Rabbi.”

And you say

“I shall go to my town!”

And you wish to return to your city?

He said to him

the son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon said to him:

By my oath, I abandon this!

By oath, I have regretted it, and I no longer wish to return to my city.

When he grew,

when he grew in Torah,

he came and sat in Rabbi’s academy.

He came to Rabbi’s yeshiva and sat there.

He heard his voice,

Rabbi heard his voice,

he said: This is a voice resembling the voice

this voice resembles the voice

of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon!

They said to him: He is his son,

indeed, this is the son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon!

He applied to him

Rabbi applied to him the verse in Proverbs [11:30] “

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and one who captures souls is wise.” “

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life” —

this is Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon,

for he is the son and fruit of a righteous man. “

And one who captures souls is wise” —

this is Rabbi Shimon ben Isi ben Lakonia,

who taught him Torah and it was as though he had acquired a son.

When his soul came to rest,

when that son died,

they brought him

to his father’s cave,

they brought his bier to the entrance of the cave of his father, Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon.

A snake was circling the cave.

There was a snake there that encircled the cave.

They said to it

to the snake:

Snake, snake! Open your mouth, and let a son enter to his father!

It did not open for them.

The snake did not wish to open its mouth so that they could enter the cave.

The people thought to say: This one is greater than that one!

Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon was greater than his son, for the snake opened its mouth for Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon, but did not agree to open it for his son.

A Divine voice went forth and said: Not because this one is greater than that one, but because this one was in the anguish of the cave,

Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon hid with his father in a cave for thirteen years out of fear of the Romans.

And this one,

the son of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon,

was not in the anguish of the cave.

Rabbi happened to come to the place of Rabbi Tarfon.

Rabbi happened to come to Rabbi Tarfon’s city after his death.

He said to them

to the townspeople:

Does that righteous man have a son?

Did that Rabbi Tarfon leave a son behind,

who used to cut off his sons,

who was accustomed to swear in the wording, “May I cut off my sons” [if the matter is not so or so]?

They said to him: He has no son,

but

he has a daughter’s son,

his daughter’s son is alive.

And every prostitute who is hired for two

hires him for eight.

They brought him before him,

they brought that grandson of Rabbi Tarfon before Rabbi.

Rabbi said to him

Rabbi said to him:

If you repent,

if you return in repentance,

I shall give you my daughter,

I shall give you my daughter as a wife.

He repented,

he returned in repentance.

Some say: He married her and divorced her.

Rabbi Tarfon’s grandson married Rabbi’s daughter and afterward divorced her.

Some say: He did not marry her at all,

he did not marry her at all,

so that they would not say

the people:

Because of

this woman

this one repented

in repentance!

And we inquire about this:

And why did he need all this?

Why did Rabbi make such an effort and inquire about others to know whether they had left a son behind?

And we answer:

For Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav.

And some say: Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan.

And some say: Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Whoever teaches his fellow’s son Torah merits to sit in the academy on high.

As it is stated [Jeremiah 15:19] “

If you return and I restore you

If you return, I shall restore you

[Jeremiah said this to Israel, that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to me: If you return to what is good through my rebuke, then]

before Me you shall stand.”

You shall stand and endure before Me always.

And whoever teaches the son of an ignoramus Torah, even if the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees a decree, He annuls it for his sake.

As it is stated [there] “

“

And if you bring out the precious from the vile

[a Torah scholar from an ignoramus]

you shall be as My mouth,”

as the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, who decrees a decree and you annul it.

Rabbi Frank said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan: Whoever is

himself

a Torah scholar, and his son is a Torah scholar, and his grandson is a Torah scholar, Torah will never cease from his descendants.

As it is stated [Isaiah 59:21] “

And as for Me, this is My covenant

the Lord said: My spirit that is upon you and My words that I have placed in your mouth

shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’s seed, said the Lord, from now and forever.”

And the Gemara explains:

What is “

said the Lord”?

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I am guarantor for you concerning this matter.

What is “

from now and forever”?

Rabbi Yirmeya said:

Since he, his seed, and his seed’s seed are Torah scholars,

from this point onward, Torah seeks its lodging.

Rav Yosef sat for forty fasts

he fasted for forty fasts and prayed that Torah should not cease from his descendants,

and they recited it to him

from Heaven they recited the verse to him, “

It shall not depart from your mouth.”

He sat for another forty fasts

he fasted another forty fasts

and they recited to him "

They shall not depart from your mouth and from the mouth of your offspring."

He sat for another hundred fasts

he fasted another hundred fasts

they came and recited to him

they came and recited to him "

They shall not depart from your mouth and from the mouth of your offspring and from the mouth of your offspring's offspring."

Rav Yosef said:

Rav Yosef:

From here onward I do not need

I no longer need to pray and fast for the future generations, for

the Torah returns to its lodging.

When Rabbi Zeira ascended to the Land of Israel

when he went up from Babylonia to the Land of Israel,

he sat for a hundred fasts, so that the Babylonian Gemara would be forgotten by him

he fasted a hundred fasts and prayed that the Babylonian Talmud would be forgotten by him,

so that it would not confuse him

so that he would not be distracted from the method of study of the Babylonian amoraim, which was different from that of the amoraim in the Land of Israel, who settled matters without challenging and answering one another, but rather examined them together and corrected one another's words until the matters became clear.

He sat for another hundred

he fasted another hundred fasts and prayed

that Rabbi Elazar should not die during his lifetime

that Rabbi Elazar should not die in his lifetime,

and that matters of the community should fall upon him

and that the burden of the community's affairs should fall upon him.

And he sat for another hundred

he fasted another hundred fasts, that

the fire of Gehenna should not prevail over him

so that the fire of Gehenna would not prevail over him.

Every thirty days he would examine himself

every thirty days Rabbi Zeira would examine himself, to see whether his prayer had been accepted and the fire of Gehenna did not prevail over him,

he would stoke an oven, go up, and sit inside it

he would heat the oven and sit inside it,

and the fire would not prevail over him

and the fire would not prevail over him.

One day the Sages cast an evil eye upon him

one day the Sages gave him the evil eye,

and his shins were scorched

and his shins were scorched when he entered the oven.

And they called him "

and from then on they called Rabbi Zeira

the short one with scorched shins"

the short one [who was of short stature] with scorched shins.

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: What is written

[Jeremiah 9:11] "

Who is the wise man who will understand this, and to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it: For what reason has the land perished?"