Gittin 68a — the Talmud in English

A silver cup has been stolen from us

[a silver cup was stolen from us], and they began checking everyone and searching to see whether one of the diners had stolen it.

While they were examining and coming

[while they were checking and coming],

they found it

[they found] the piece of meat

that he had wrapped in his garment.

They said to him

the servants said to the Exilarch:

Let my master see

[let my master see]

that he does not want to eat, but only to distress us

[that he does not want to eat, but only to distress us], for after everything that was done for him, he did not eat.

He said to them

Rav Sheshet:

I did eat, and I tasted in it the taste of a white animal

[I ate, and I tasted in it the taste of an animal afflicted with a skin disease], and therefore I did not finish eating.

They said to him

the servants:

We did not prepare a white animal today

[we did not slaughter an animal afflicted with a skin disease today]!

He said to them

Rav Sheshet:

Examine

the skin of the animal

in its place,

in the place of this bone on the thigh, and you will find that the skin there is white.

For Rav Hisda said:

A mark

black on white

[black on white skin],

and

a mark

white on black

white on black skin — this is a sign of

a lesion,

for there had been an illness there and the skin had turned white.

They examined and found it

[they examined and found it] as he had said.

When he was going out

[when Rav Sheshet was leaving the house],

they dug for him

[for him] the servants

a pit

[a pit],

and threw a mat over it

[and placed a mat over it] so that it would not be recognizable.

And they said to him

the servants said to Rav Sheshet:

Let my master come and lie down

[let my master come and lie down in his resting place], and they wanted him to pass over the mat and fall into the pit.

Rav Hisda snorted to him from behind.

He gave him a sign to be careful on his way.

He said to

Rav Sheshet

the child

[to the child] who was there:

Recite to me your verse

that you learned today [and this was a form of divination, to ask God for advice by means of the verse that the child would say].

He said to him

the child recited the verse:

“Turn for yourself to your right or to your left”

[II Samuel 2:21].

He said to

Rav Sheshet, who was blind,

his attendant

[his servant]:

What do you see

[what do you see] on the road before you?

He said to him: A mat that has been thrown down

[a mat that is lying] on the ground.

He said to him

Rav Sheshet said to his servant:

Turn away from it

[turn away from it], and let us go around.

After he went out

[after Rav Sheshet left the house of the Exilarch],

Rav Hisda said to him: From where did my master know

[from where did my master know] that there was a dug pit in that place?

He said to him

Rav Sheshet: One reason

one

[one] was

that my master snorted to me

[that my master snorted and signaled to me].

And furthermore, the child directed me to

the child

a verse

that was an allusion to the matter.

And furthermore, the servants were suspected of not being good

[the servants are suspected, that they are not upright people] and do not intend for good in their words, and I suspected that they intended to harm me by what they said to me, that I should go lie down and rest.

King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes [2:8]:

“I made for myself male singers and female singers and the delights of the sons of man, a demon and female demons.”

And the Gemara explains the verse:

“Male singers and female singers” —

these are kinds of song.

“And the delights of the sons of man” —

these are pools

of cool water

and bathhouses

of hot water.

“A demon and female demons” —

here they translated

[here, in Babylonia, they translated]:

a male demon and female demons

[a male demon and a female demon].

In the West

[in the Land of Israel]

they said: A carriage

[a carriage] for the chariot of women and nobles.

Rabbi Yohanan said: There were three hundred kinds of demons in

the place called

Shihin.

And as for the shida itself, I do not know what it is,

what its appearance and nature are.

The master said

we learned in the Gemara above:

here

[here] in Babylonia

they translated: a male demon and female demons

[a male demon and female demons].

And we object:

A male demon and female demons —

for what did he need them

[for what purpose did King Solomon need them]?

And we answer:

As it is written

in the construction of the Temple [I Kings 7:6]:

“And the House, when it was built, was built of whole stone brought from the quarry.

And neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the House when it was being built.”

He said to them

King Solomon

to the Sages: How shall I do

[how shall I make] so that the stone will be smooth and whole, without a notch, without using iron?

They said to him: There is a shamir

[there is a shamir worm], before which the hardest material splits.

That

worm

bring

[bring it]

for

cut with it the

stones of

the

ephod,

upon which it was necessary to write the names of the Children of Israel; it was impossible to write them with ink, since it is stated, “engravings of a signet,” meaning that the letters had to be engraved in the stones, but it was forbidden to engrave them with iron, because the verse says, “in their full setting,” teaching that the stones must not be deficient, and engraving diminishes the stone at the place where the letters are engraved. Rather, they wrote letters on them with ink, and placed the shamir opposite them from the outside, and the stones split by themselves according to the form of the ink upon them, without anything at all being diminished from them.

He said to them

King Solomon said to the Sages:

Where will it be found

[where shall I find] that shamir worm?

They said to him: Bring

[bring]

a male demon and female demons, subdue them together

[force them together] through suffering, so that they will reveal to you where the worm is, for

it is possible that they know

[that they know where it is],

and they will reveal

[and they will reveal it]

to you.

He brought

[King Solomon brought]

a male demon and female demons, and subdued them together.

They said

[they said] to him:

We do not know

[we do not know] where the shamir worm is;

perhaps Ashmedai, king of the demons, knows

[perhaps Ashmedai, king of the demons, knows].

He said to them: Where is he found

[where is Ashmedai, king of the demons, found]?

They said to him: He is found on such-and-such a mountain

[he is found on a certain mountain].

He dug a pit for him, filled it with water, covered it with stone, and sealed it with his seal

[and Ashmedai the king dug a pit there, filled it with water, covered it with stone, and sealed it with his seal].

And every day he ascends to heaven and learns in the academy above

and each day he ascends to heaven and learns in the heavenly academy,

and descends to the earth and learns in the academy below

and afterward descends to earth and learns in the earthly academy.

And he comes

and when he returns and comes to the pit,

he inspects its seal

he checks its seal, that it is intact and that no one has touched it at its opening,

and uncovers it, and drinks, and covers it, and seals it, and goes

and uncovers the pit and drinks from the water, and covers it and seals it again, and goes away.

He sent him

Solomon the king sent him

to Benaiah son of Jehoiada,

to that mountain where the pit of Ashmedai, king of the demons, was located.

He gave him

Solomon the king gave him

a chain upon which a Name was engraved, and a ring upon which a Name was engraved, and bundles of wool, and wineskins

a chain upon which the Ineffable Name was engraved, and a ring upon which the Ineffable Name was engraved, and fleeces of wool, and wineskins.

He went

Benaiah son of Jehoiada went,

he dug a pit

at the slope of the mountain

below

below Ashmedai’s pit,

and he poured out the water

and emptied the water of the upper pit into the lower pit through a hole that he bored in the rim between the two pits. And since the bottom of the lower pit was lower than the upper pit, the water emptied from the upper pit by itself.

And he stopped it up

and stopped up the holes between the two pits

with bundles of wool

with the fleeces of wool, so that he could fill Ashmedai’s upper pit with wine and it would not flow into the lower pit.

And

afterward

he dug a pit

after

above

above Ashmedai’s pit,

and he poured the wine

and poured the wine from the upper pit through a hole into Ashmedai’s pit.

And

afterward

he concealed it

he stopped up and filled those two pits that he had dug with earth, so that Ashmedai would not notice the change.

He ascended and sat in a tree

Benaiah son of Jehoiada ascended and sat in the tree.

When he came

when Ashmedai came,

he inspected its seal

he checked the seal and found it intact,

he uncovered it

he uncovered it and removed the stone that covered the pit,

he found wine

he found that there was wine in the pit.

He said

Ashmedai:

It is written: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is tumultuous, and whoever goes astray through it is not wise”

Proverbs 20:1

. And it is written: “Harlotry and wine and new wine take away the heart”

Hosea 4:11; therefore, it is better to be wary of it.

He did not drink

he did not drink.

When he was thirsty

when he became thirsty,

he could not endure it

he could not restrain himself,

he drank, became drunk, and fell asleep

he drank, became drunk, and fell asleep.

He descended

Benaiah son of Jehoiada descended from the tree,

he came,

he cast a chain upon him and bound him

he came and cast the chain upon Ashmedai and fastened it around his neck, so that he could not remove his head from it.

When he awoke, he was struggling

when Ashmedai awoke, he was “going mad,” striving to sever the chains from himself.

He said to him

Benaiah son of Jehoiada:

May the name of your master be upon you!

The name of your Master—the Almighty—is upon you.

May the name of your master be upon you!

The Ineffable Name is engraved on the chain!

When he seized him and came

when Benaiah son of Jehoiada took him and came to bring him to Jerusalem, to the palace of Solomon the king,

he reached a palm tree, he rubbed against it, and knocked it down

he reached a palm tree, and Ashmedai rubbed against it and knocked it down.

He reached a house and knocked it down,

he reached a house and knocked it down—Ashmedai did.

They reached the hut of a certain widow

they reached the side of a small hut belonging to a certain widow, who lived in it,