Berakhot 7a (ז.) — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yose:

From where is it derived that the Holy One, blessed be He, prays?

As it is stated [Isaiah 56:7]:

“And I will bring them to My holy mountain and gladden them in My house of prayer.” “

House

of their prayer” it is not stated, but “

house

of My prayer.” From here it is derived that the Holy One, blessed be He, prays.

The Gemara asks:

What does He pray,

what is His prayer?

Rav Zutra bar Tovia said that Rav said: May it be Your will before Me that My mercy suppress My anger, and that My mercy prevail

overcome

My attributes, and that I conduct Myself with My children with the attribute of mercy, and deal with them beyond the letter of the law.

It was taught: Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha,

the High Priest, said:

Once I entered

on Yom Kippur

to offer incense in the innermost chamber,

the Holy of Holies,

and I saw Akatriel

Yah, the Lord of Hosts, seated upon a high and exalted throne, and He said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me!

I said to Him: May it be Your will before You that Your mercy suppress Your anger, and that Your mercy prevail over Your attributes,

and that mercy prevail over the attribute of judgment,

and that You conduct Yourself with Your children with the attribute of mercy, and deal with them beyond the letter of the law.

And He nodded to me,

as one who acknowledges my blessing and answers Amen. That is, my prayer was accepted.

And this comes to teach us,

through this request the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to teach us,

that the blessing of an ordinary person should not be insignificant

in your eyes.

Therefore He did not say to him, “Bless My people Israel,” but “Bless Me,” to show that He appeared, as it were, to desire his blessing.

And

further,

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yose

From where is it derived that one should not appease

[conciliate]

a person at the time of his anger ?

As it is written

[Exodus 33:14]: “And He said,

‘My presence will go, and I will give you rest,’”

and this verse is interpreted as follows:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Wait for Me until the angry countenances pass, and I will give you rest.

The Gemara asks:

But is there anger before the Holy One, blessed be He,

and is there anger with the Holy One, blessed be He?

The Gemara answers:

Yes,

indeed, we find that He becomes angry,

as it was taught

in a beraita, concerning the verse [Psalms 7:12]:

“And God is angry every day” .

And how long

does

His anger

last? A moment.

And how long

is the duration of

a moment?

One

of fifty-eight thousand

[fifty-eight thousand]

eight hundred and eighty-eight parts of an hour; that is a “moment”.

And no creature can determine that time

when the Holy One, blessed be He, becomes angry,

except for the wicked Balaam, as it is written concerning him

[Numbers 24:16]:

“And knows the knowledge of the Most High.”

And one may ask:

“Now, he did not know the mind of his animal, yet he knew the mind of the Most High?!”

Rather, this teaches that he knew how to determine the time at which the Holy One, blessed

be He, becomes angry,

and concerning this it is stated that he “knew the knowledge of the Most High.”

And this is what

the

prophet

Micah [6:5]

said to Israel: “My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab advised,

and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

And the meaning of his words is:

What

is the meaning of

“so that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord”?

Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: Know how many acts of righteousness

[acts of charity]

I performed for you: I did not become angry during the days of the wicked Balaam, for had I become angry, not one of the enemies of Israel

[that is, of Israel ]

would have survived or escaped.

And this is what Balaam said to Balak

[Numbers 23:8]:

“How can I curse? God has not cursed; how can I anger? The Lord has not become angry.” This teaches

the verse

that throughout all those days He did not become angry

.

The Gemara asks:

And how long

does

His anger last?

The Gemara answers:

A moment.

And how long

is the duration of

a moment?

Rabbi Avin said, and some say

that it was said by

Rabbi Avina: A moment, as it is pronounced.

That is, the duration required to say the word “moment.”

And from where do we know that anger lasts a moment,

and from where do we know that the duration of His anger is a moment?

As it is stated

[Psalms 30:6]:

“For His anger is for a moment; His favor is for life.”

Thus, His anger lasts a “moment.”

Alternatively, if you wish, say:

we learn it

from here

[Isaiah 26:20]:

“Hide yourself for a brief moment, until the anger passes.”

Hide yourself for a short time, like a moment, until the anger passes. Thus, the anger lasts a moment.

The Gemara asks:

And when does He become angry,

when is the time that the Holy One, blessed be He, becomes angry?

Abaye said: During those first three hours,

during the first three hours of the day,

when the crest of the rooster turns white and it stands on one leg,

when the rooster’s crest whitens and the rooster stands on one leg.

The Gemara asks:

Does it not stand this way at every hour?

Is this situation not also found at every hour of the day, when at times the crest whitens and the rooster stands on one leg?

The Gemara answers:

At every hour there are red streaks in it,

for whenever the crest happens to whiten during the day, red lines remain in it, whereas

at that time there are no red streaks in it.

At that time it turns completely white, with no red lines in it.

An incident related to this matter:

There was a certain Sadducee who lived in the neighborhood of

[he lived next door to]

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi,

and

he would constantly distress him with verses,

repeatedly troubling Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi with questions based on verses that supposedly supported the Sadducees’ view.

One day he took

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi

a rooster, placed it between the legs of the bed, and watched it.

He placed it between the legs of the bed and watched it, because

he thought

that by means of the rooster’s signs he would be able to determine the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, became angry.

When that time arrived,

when the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, became angry arrived,

he would curse him

[I will curse him]. But in the end,

when that time arrived, he fell asleep,

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi fell asleep.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said:

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi

derive from this that it is not

proper conduct to act in this manner,

since it is not proper conduct to do so [that is, it is not an appropriate act], for

it is written, “And His mercies are upon all His works,”

[Psalms 145:9], and “all” includes even the wicked,

and

so

it is written

[Proverbs 17:26]:

“It is also not good to punish the righteous,”

for it is neither good nor proper for a righteous person to punish, thereby causing another person to be punished on his account.

A tanna

we learned in a beraita

in the name of Rabbi Meir:

In the morning,

when the sun

is shining,

and all the kings of the East and the West place their crowns upon their heads and bow to the sun, immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, becomes angry.

And

further

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of

[literally: on behalf of]

Rabbi Yose: One act of self-discipline in a person’s heart is better

when a person reproves and subdues himself, thereby causing himself to return in repentance

than several lashes

that he receives from others.

As it is stated

[Hosea 2:9]:

“She shall pursue her lovers

but shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them,

and she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.”

And Reish Lakish said:

One act of self-discipline in a person’s heart

is better than one hundred lashes, as it is stated

[Proverbs 17:10]:

“A rebuke enters more deeply into one who understands than a hundred blows into a fool.”

The submission that comes through a person’s own rebuke is discernible in one who understands, more than the effect of a hundred blows administered to a fool.

And

further

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Yose: Moses asked the Holy One, blessed be He, for three things, and He granted them to him,

and concerning them it is stated [Exodus 33:17]: “I will also do this thing that you have spoken.”

a.

He asked that the Divine Presence rest upon Israel, and He granted it to him.

And from where do we know that Moses asked this?

As it is stated

[there, verse 16]: “And how shall it be known that I have found favor in Your eyes, I and Your people,

unless You go with us?”

That is, that the Divine Presence should rest upon Israel.

b.

He asked that the Divine Presence not rest upon the worshippers of the stars,

and He granted it to him.

And from where do we know that he asked this?

As it is stated

[there, later in the verse]:

“And we shall be distinguished, I and Your people,

from every people upon the face of the earth”—that is, through the resting of the Divine Presence, we would be distinguished from the other nations of the world.

c.

He asked that He make known to him the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He,

the manner in which He conducts His judgments [as will be explained below],

and He granted it to him.

And from where do we know that he asked this?

As it is stated

[there, verse 13]: “And now, if I have indeed found favor in Your eyes,

please make Your way known to me,

that I may know You.”

The Gemara explains what Moses our teacher sought to know concerning the ways of the

Holy One, blessed be He.

Moses our teacher

said before Him:

“Master of the Universe! Why

is there in this world a righteous person who has good, and a righteous person who has suffering; a wicked person who has good, and a wicked person who has suffering?”

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him:

The Holy One, blessed be He

said: “Moses! A righteous person who has good

—because he is

a righteous person who is the son of a righteous person. A righteous person who has suffering

—because he is

a righteous person who is the son of a wicked person.”

The Gemara asks:

Is that so?

Is it indeed the case that the son of a righteous person suffers because of his father?

But it is written

[Exodus 20:5]:

“Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,”

meaning that children are punished because of their fathers,

and

on the other hand

it is written

[Deuteronomy 24:16]:

“And the children shall not be put to death for the fathers,”

meaning that children are not punished because of their fathers.

And we juxtapose verses and find them contradictory,

we raised [in Sanhedrin 27b] the contradiction between the verses,

and we resolve it: This

verse, which teaches that they are also punished for their fathers’ iniquity, applies

when they maintain their fathers’ deeds in their hands.

But

that

verse, which teaches that they are not punished for their fathers’ iniquity, applies

when they do not maintain their fathers’ deeds in their hands.

If so, a righteous person who is the son of a wicked person should not be punished because of his father’s deeds. How, then, can it be said that “a righteous person who has suffering” is so because he is the son of a wicked person?

Rather,

the Gemara explains:

This is what He said to him;

this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses:

“A righteous person who has good

—because he is

a completely righteous person; a righteous person who has suffering

—because he is

a not completely righteous person.”

“A wicked person who has good

—because he is

a not completely wicked person,”

“and a wicked person who has suffering

—because he is

a completely wicked person.”

And this disagrees with Rabbi Meir,

Rabbi Yose disagrees with Rabbi Meir on this matter.

As Rabbi Meir said: Two

of his requests

were granted to him, and

one request,

which

he had asked in order to know the ways of the Lord,

was not granted to him,

as it is stated

[there, verse 19]: “And I shall be gracious to whom I shall be gracious, and I shall have mercy upon whom I shall have mercy.” And he explains:

“I shall be gracious to whom I shall be gracious,”

to whomever I wish to grant grace,

even though he is not worthy; and I shall have mercy upon whom I shall have mercy, even though he is not worthy.

Thus, he received no answer to this question of his. The Gemara explains additional verses in that passage:

“And He said: You cannot see My face”

[Exodus 33:20].

A tanna

in a beraita

in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha: The Holy One, blessed be He, said this to Moses: When I wished

to show you My glory at the bush,

you did not wish to see it,

as it is stated, “And Moses hid his face.”

Now that you wish

to see,

I do not wish

to show you.

And this disagrees

with

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani, who said it in the name of Rabbi Yonatan.

As Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: In the merit of three

good things that Moses did,

he merited

measure for measure

three

distinctions.

And it is explained: In the passage of the bush it is stated [Exodus 3:6]: “And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

In the merit of “And Moses hid his face,” he merited

Moses

a radiant countenance,

as it is stated [Exodus 34:30]: “And behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.”

In the merit of “for he was afraid”

to look,

he merited “and they were afraid to approach him.”

In the merit of “to look”

[that is, because he did not look],

he merited “and the likeness of the Lord he beholds”

[Numbers 12:8]. For he merited seeing His back, as it were [as explained shortly].

Another verse from that passage [there, verse 23]:

“And I shall remove My hand, and you shall see My back.”

Rav Hana bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Hasida: This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Moses the knot of the tefillin,

since it was stated above that the Holy One, blessed be He, dons tefillin, and the knot of the tefillin is situated at the back.

And

further

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Yose: Every statement that came forth from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, for the good, even

if it was stated

conditionally, He did not retract it,

even if the condition was not fulfilled.

From where do we know this? —

From

what we find concerning

Moses our teacher, as it is stated

to Moses after the incident of the Golden Calf [Deuteronomy 9:14]:

“Leave Me, and I shall destroy them, and so on, and I shall make you into a great nation

and mightier than it,”—thus, the Lord promised Moses that He would increase his offspring into a great nation if He destroyed Israel.

And even though Moses pleaded for mercy concerning the matter and nullified

the decree to destroy Israel,

even so, He fulfilled it through his descendants;

the matter was fulfilled through his descendants, who became a great nation, as is demonstrated by

what is stated

[I Chronicles 23:15, 17]:

“The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. And the sons of Eliezer were Reḥavya the chief,

and Eliezer had no other sons.

And the sons of Reḥavya multiplied exceedingly, and so on.”

And Rabbi Yosef taught

a beraita that derives from this verse through a gzera shava that Moses’ descendants numbered

more than six hundred thousand.

It is derived

through the gzera shava

“multiplied, multiplied.” It is written here

[concerning Moses’ sons]

“multiplied exceedingly,” and it is written there

[Exodus 1:7, concerning the Israelites in Egypt]:

“And the children of Israel were fruitful, and swarmed, and multiplied.”

Just as “and multiplied” refers to six hundred thousand, so too “multiplied” concerning Moses’ descendants refers to six hundred thousand.