Gittin 56b — the Talmud in English

Your answer:

Indeed, you are a king, for if you were not a king, Jerusalem would not have been delivered into your hand.

Indeed, you are a king, for otherwise Jerusalem would not have been delivered into your hand.

As it is written: “

And Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one,”

and

“mighty”

means only a king, as it is written

[Jeremiah 31:20]: “

And his mighty one shall be from him

and his ruler shall emerge from his midst,”

and

“Lebanon”

means only the Temple, as it is stated: “

Let me cross, please, and see the good land that is across the Jordan,

this good mountain and Lebanon.”

b.

And as you say: If I am a king, why did you not come to me!?

And regarding what you said further: If I am a king, why did you not come to me until now!?

Your answer:

The brigands among us did not let us.

The brigands among us did not let me come to you.

He said to him,

Vespasian to Rabban Yohanan concerning his last words: But

if

there

were a barrel of honey with a dragon coiled around it,

a snake attached to it and eager for it, and surely

would they not break the barrel because of the dragon

so that it would go away!?

That is to say: You should have destroyed the city wall and burned it with fire, in order to cast those brigands out of it.

Rabbi Yohanan fell silent,

and had no answer available to him.

He applied to him—

Rabbi Yohanan—

Rav Yosef, and some say

[and some say]

Rabbi Akiva

the verse: “

He turns sages backward, and makes their knowledge foolish.”

For

it was necessary for him

Rabbi Yohanan

to say to him

to Vespasian:

We would not have done so to the barrel, but rather:

We would have taken tongs, taken hold of the dragon, and killed it, while leaving the barrel.

We would have taken tongs, seized the dragon with them, and killed it, while leaving the barrel intact.

That is to say: We would have waited, perhaps we would be able to remove them from the city without destroying the city, and then we would come to make peace with you.

Meanwhile, a messenger came to him from Rome.

In the meantime, a messenger arrived to Vespasian from Rome.

He said to him,

the messenger to Vespasian:

Rise! The emperor has died, and those important men of Rome say: to appoint you at their head.

Rise, to honor the decision of the council of the great men of Rome, for the emperor has died, and the important men of Rome have decided to appoint you king at their head.

Vespasian—

Vespasian—

had finished putting on one shoe; he wished to finish with the other, but it did not enter.

Vespasian was—when he heard the report—wearing one shoe, and wished to put on the other, but was unable to do so, because his bones expanded on account of the joy of the report.

And conversely, for when

he wished

Vespasian

to remove

also

the other, it did not come off.

And conversely, when Vespasian wished to remove even the one that he had put on, he was unable to do so either.

He said,

Vespasian:

What is this

[what is this]!?

Rabban Yohanan said to him,

Rabban Yohanan to Vespasian:

Do not be distressed,

for nothing has happened to you, but rather

good news has come to you,

[has come to you],

as it is written: “

Good news makes the bone flourish,”

and it is what causes you to be unable to put on or remove your shoes.

Vespasian asked Rabbi Yohanan:

But what is its remedy

[what is my remedy]?

Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai said to him:

Let a person whom your mind does not settle for come and pass before you.

Let a person whom you cannot tolerate come and pass before you, and because of this the foot will contract.

As it is written: “

And a broken spirit dries the bone.”

Vespasian did so,

and

entered

into the shoe.

Vespasian did so, and indeed his foot entered the shoe.

Vespasian said to him,

Vespasian to Rabban Yohanan:

And since you are so wise, until now why did you not come to me?

Since you are such great sages, then why did you not come to me until now?

Rabban Yohanan said to him,

Rabban Yohanan:

And

but surely

did I not tell you

[did I not answer you about this]!?

Vespasian said to him,

Vespasian:

I too told you

[I too answered you in response to your answer]!

Vespasian said to him,

Vespasian:

I am going away, and I shall send another in my place; but ask something from me that I may give you.

I am going away from here, and I shall send another in my place; but ask something of me, and I shall give it to you.

Rabban Yohanan said to him,

Rabban Yohanan:

Give me: Yavne and its sages, and the chain

[the family]

of Rabban Gamaliel,

the Nasi, so that they should not be killed, so that the rule of the house of David should not come to an end,

and physicians who can heal Rabbi Zadok

[physicians who would heal Rabbi Zadok].

He applied to him—

Rabban Yohanan—

Rav Yosef, and some say Rabbi Akiva

the verse:

“He turns sages backward, and makes their knowledge foolish.”

For

it was necessary for him

Rabban Yohanan

to say to him

to Vespasian:

Let us leave them this time, and he,

Rabban Yohanan,

thought: Perhaps he will not do all this, and there will not even be a small salvation.

Leave Israel this time; whereas Rabban Yohanan, who did not ask this, thought: Perhaps he will not agree to do such a great request, and consequently he will do nothing, and there will not even be a small salvation.

The Gemara explains:

What are the physicians who healed Rabbi Zadok?

That is to say: How did the physicians heal Rabbi Zadok, whose intestines had contracted from the many fasts, until he could not swallow food?

This is what the physicians did to widen his intestines:

On the first day: they gave him water of bran; the next day: water of fine bran; the next day: water of flour, until his intestines expanded little by little.

On the first day they gave him water in which bran had been soaked; on the next day they gave him water with a little bran and flour; and on the next day they gave him water with flour, until his contracted intestines expanded little by little.

Vespasian went

to Rome, and

sent Titus

against Jerusalem.

Vespasian went to Rome and sent Titus in his place.

It is written

[Deuteronomy 32:37]: “

And he shall say: Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge”:

And who is the one saying this?

This is the wicked Titus, who blasphemed and reviled toward Heaven.

What did he do?

He seized a prostitute by her hand, entered the Holy of Holies, and spread

[unrolled]

a Torah scroll

on the floor of the Sanctuary,

and transgressed a sin with it.

And he took a sword and cut

[cut]

the curtain, and a miracle occurred, and blood began to bubble forth and emerge

and emerge

from it,

and Titus thought that

Titus had

killed himself

[this is a refined expression concerning Heaven]—

As it is stated: “

Your enemies roared in the midst of Your appointed place

[in the house in which You convene],

they set up their signs as signs,”

for they were saying: Whose blood is this sign, if not that he killed himself?

Abba Hanan says: “

Who is like You, mighty Yah,”

who is like You, mighty and enduring, that You hear the insult and blasphemy of that wicked one and remain silent!

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: “

Who is like You among the mighty, O Lord,”

who is like You among the mute,

O Lord!

What did

Titus

do?

He took the curtain

and made it like a kind of large basket,

and brought all the vessels that were in the Temple, placed them in it, and seated them in a ship to go and boast

[to glory]

in his city.

As it is stated: “

And then I saw the wicked buried and they came, and from the holy place they went, and they were praised in the city in which they had acted”;

and thus the verse is expounded:

Do not read: “

buried,”

but rather “

gathered.”

And

do not read: “

and they were forgotten,”

but rather “

and they were praised”

before their people for their evil deeds.

There are those who say: “

buried”

is literal, for even matters that are hidden were revealed to them

[even buried and concealed things—treasures of money—were revealed to them].

A storm surge of the sea rose against him

[against Titus]

to drown him.

Titus said

Titus:

It seems to me that the god of these people has strength only in water!

For

Pharaoh came and drowned in water, Sisera came and drowned in water

[the brook Kishon swept away Sisera and his army],

and he too is standing over me to drown me in water—

and

if he is mighty, let him go up onto dry land and wage war with me!

A divine voice went forth

from Heaven

and said to him: “

Wicked son of a wicked one, son of the grandson of the wicked Esau,”

a light creature

I have in My world, and its name is a mosquito—

and the Gemara explains:

Why is it called a light creature

[why is the mosquito called this], since

it has an entrance

[this creature has a mouth through which to bring in food]

but has no exit

[it has no place through which to expel waste]—

go up

you

onto dry land and wage war with it!

Titus went up

Titus

onto dry land, and a mosquito came

and

entered his nose and pecked at his brain for seven years.

One day he was passing

Titus

by the doorway of a blacksmith’s workshop; he heard

the mosquito

the sound of a hammer,

and

it fell silent.

One day, when Titus passed the doorway of a blacksmith and the mosquito heard the sound of the hammer, the mosquito fell silent and did not peck.

Titus said,

Titus: If so,

there is a remedy! Every day they should bring a blacksmith and strike before me—

If so, I have a remedy; and they would bring a blacksmith to him every day, and he would strike with the hammer before him.

And this is how Titus conducted himself with the blacksmiths:

To a

non-Jewish blacksmith

he gave him

Titus

four zuz; to a

Jewish blacksmith

he said to him: It is enough for you that you see your enemy in his distress.

To a non-Jewish blacksmith he paid four zuz a day,

whereas to a Jewish blacksmith he paid nothing, and he said to him: It is enough for you that you see your enemy in his distress.

For thirty days he did

Titus

so; from then on, since it had become accustomed—

it became accustomed.

For thirty days Titus did this, and it benefited him; but afterward the mosquito had already become accustomed to the sound of the hammer, and continued its pecking.

It was taught: Rabbi Phinehas ben Aruva said:

I was

in that period

among the great men of Rome, and

I remember that

when

Titus

died, they split open his brain and found in it something like a fledgling sparrow, weighing two sela.

In the metanita

[in the beraita]

it was taught:

They found in him

something like a one-year-old dove, weighing two litrin.

Abaye said: We have received

[this is what we have received]:

Its mouth

was

of copper, and its claws of iron.

When he was about to die, he said,

Titus:

Let that man be burned and let his ashes be scattered over the seven seas, so that the God of the Jews will not find him and bring him to judgment.

When Titus’s soul inclined toward death, Titus ordered that they burn him after his death and scatter his ashes over the seven seas, so that the God of the Jews would not find him in order to bring him to judgment.

And the Gemara recounts the wickedness of Titus even after his death:

For

Onkelos son of Kalonymus, the son of Titus’s sister, wished to convert; he went and raised him

Titus

through necromancy—

Onkelos, who was the son of Titus’s sister, wished to convert, and raised Titus from the dead.

Onkelos said to him,

Onkelos to Titus:

What is it to cleave to them

among Israel—that is to say, to convert?

Titus said to him,

Titus to Onkelos:

Their matters

of Israel

are numerous, and you will not be able to fulfill them!

Onkelos asked Titus: Is it worthwhile to cleave to Israel, that is, to convert? Titus answered him: Their mitzvot are numerous, and you will not be able to stand by them!

And Titus added to say:

Go and provoke them in that world, and you will be a leader.

Go and incite them against Israel, and you will be a leader.

As it is written: “

Their oppressors have become the head,”

everyone who oppresses Israel becomes a leader

in this world, and so that they should not say: Into the hand of a lowly nation the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered His children.

Onkelos continued to ask Titus:

Onkelos said to him,

Onkelos to Titus:

The judgment of that man

[Titus]

with what?

By what are you judged in Heaven?

Titus said to him,

Titus to Onkelos: