Megillah 25a (כה.) — the Talmud in English

“May the good bless You” ,

this is the way of heresy.

For he says that specifically the good should bless the Lord, and he does not include the wicked in praising the Omnipresent . And the Sages learned from the ḥלבנה (ḥelbenah), which Scripture included among the spices of the incense despite its foul smell, that all must be joined together as one group .

One who says:

“Your mercy extends to the bird’s nest,”

meaning that he says: Just as Your mercy extends to the bird’s nest, so have compassion and mercy upon us,

and

likewise one who says:

“For good may Your name be remembered,”

meaning that we should thank You specifically for Your goodness,

and likewise one who says:

“We give thanks, we give thanks,”

saying the word “we give thanks” twice while bowing,

in all these cases—

he is silenced.

And the reason is explained in the Gemara.

One who euphemizes the forbidden sexual relations,

saying that the passage concerning forbidden relations was stated euphemistically—and “euphemism” means reversing one’s speech for praise or blame—and that it was not intended to refer to actual forbidden relations, but rather that when Scripture says: “The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover,” -

it means one who reveals the disgrace of his father and the disgrace of his mother, for Scripture commanded that no disgraceful matter concerning them be revealed —

he is silenced.

One who says: “And you shall not give any of your offspring to pass through for Molekh”—

“You shall not give them to pass through among the Arameans,”

meaning that he says the verse intends to prohibit intercourse with a gentile woman, thereby fathering a son for idolatry—

he is silenced with a rebuke .

And the reason is that he uproots the verse from its plain meaning, namely, the practice of the Amorites of passing their children through fire. One who translates it as “You shall not give them to pass through among the Arameans” assigns karet to one who has intercourse with a gentile woman, and makes one who does so unwittingly liable to a sin-offering and one who does so intentionally liable to court-imposed execution, for this is what is written concerning one who gives his offspring to Molekh. In truth, this is not so .

Gemara:

We raise a difficulty:

Granted,

with regard to one who says

“We give thanks, we give thanks,”

and he is silenced, this is because

when

he says this,

it appears as though

he acknowledges

two authorities.

And

one who says:

“For good may Your name be remembered” also

is silenced, because

it implies: For good—

yes,

may Your name be remembered;

but for evil—

no. And

that cannot be so, for

we learned in a mishna: One is obligated to bless for the evil

with the blessing, “Blessed is the true Judge,”

just as he blesses for the good

with the blessing, “Who is good and bestows good.”

Rather,

one who says:

“Your mercy extends to the bird’s nest”—what is the reason

that he is silenced?

Two amora’im in the West, Rabbi Yosei bar Avin and Rabbi Yosei bar Zevida, disagree about it.

One said:

The reason is

because he arouses jealousy regarding the works of Creation.

For he says that the Holy One, blessed be He, had compassion upon birds but did not have compassion upon animals .

And the other said: Because he makes the attributes of the Holy One, blessed be He, into mercy,

for he says that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded this mitzva because He took pity upon the bird’s nest.

But

in truth,

they are only decrees,

in order to place His yoke upon us and to make known that we are His servants and observe His mitzvot .

A certain man who descended

before the ark to lead the prayer

before Rabba

and

said

as follows:

“You had compassion upon the bird’s nest; have compassion and mercy upon us.”

Rabba said: How skillful this Sage is at appeasing his Master!

Abaye said to him: But we learned, “He is silenced”!

And Rabba,

who said this,

said it only to sharpen Abaye,

for he wanted Abaye to answer him in this manner. In truth, he did not approve of the man’s words.

A certain man descended before Rabbi Hanina and said: “The great, mighty, and awesome, the exalted, powerful, and valiant.”

Rabbi Hanina said to him:

Rabbi Hanina

said to him: Have you completed all the praises of your Master?!

Now, these three: “the great, the mighty, and the awesome,”

“the great, the mighty, and the awesome,”

if Moses had not written them in the Torah,

as it is written: “The great, mighty, and awesome God, who shows no partiality,”

and the Men of the Great Assembly had come and instituted

saying this, as it is written in the Book of Ezra: “And now, our God, the great, mighty, and awesome God, and so on”—

we would not

have

said them

on our own initiative.

And you said

on your own initiative

all this?!

A parable:

To what is this comparable?

To a man who possessed a thousand thousand thousands of gold dinars, and people praised him

as possessing

silver dinars.

And

is that not an insult to him?!

Rabbi Hanina said: Everything is in the hands of Heaven—

except for fear of Heaven ,

which is entrusted to man

to prepare his heart for it

even though the ability to prepare our hearts for Him is in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written: “Just as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” Rashi .

As it is stated: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? Only to fear” .

And we raise an objection:

Does this imply that fear is a minor matter?!

And we answer:

Yes. For Moses our Teacher,

it is a minor matter .

A parable:

To what is this comparable?

To a man from whom they request a large vessel, and he possesses

that very vessel; then

it appears to him like a small vessel.

But when a man is asked for a vessel, even a

small one,

and he does not possess it, it appears to him like a large vessel.

Rabbi Zeira said: One who says, “Shema, Shema,”

is equivalent to one who says, “We give thanks, we give thanks” .

An objection was raised: One who recites the Shema and repeats it—

this is disgraceful.

This implies that

it is merely disgraceful,

but

he is not silenced— -

is he not silenced?!

We answer:

It is not difficult. This

case, in which we said that it is disgraceful, is one in which

he says one word

and repeats it,

saying a word and then repeating it. This does not imply belief in two authorities; he is merely disgraceful and foolish.

Whereas

this

case, in which we say that he is silenced, is one in which

he says one verse—

and repeats it .

Rav Pappa said to Rava: Perhaps at first he did not direct his mind properly, and now he directed his mind properly,

and that is why he repeated the verse?

He said to him:

Is this the conduct of

companionship

[his fellow] that one conducts

toward Heaven?!

Does he speak without proper intention, then repeat and double it, thereby showing Him that he did not have proper intention the first time?!

If he does not direct his mind—

I strike

[him]

with a blacksmith’s ax

[a pickaxe, a large hammer]—

until he directs his mind!

We learned in our Mishna:

One who euphemizes the forbidden sexual relations is silenced.

Rav Yosef taught:

One who translates “The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother” as

“the disgrace of his father and the disgrace of his mother,”

so that he will not reveal any disgraceful matter concerning them.

We learned in our Mishna:

One who says, “And you shall not give any of your offspring to pass through, and so on.”

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught

to explain the Mishna: He says that

it speaks of an Israelite who has intercourse with a Cuthean woman and fathers from her a son for idolatry—

the verse speaks of this.

Mishna:

The incident of Reuben,

namely, the passage that states: “And he lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine”—

is read

in the synagogue

but is not translated ,

because we are concerned for Reuben’s disgrace [the Ran explained that we are concerned for Jacob’s disgrace ].

The incident of Tamar

and Judah —

is read and translated.

The incident of the first Golden Calf,

namely, up to “and he burned it in the fire”—

is read and translated. And

the incident of the

second Golden Calf,

namely, what Aaron recounted afterward, as it is written there: “I cast it into the fire, and this calf emerged”—

is read but not translated.

This is because we are concerned that unlearned people might err and say that it possessed substance, since it emerged on its own , as in truth they do not understand the verse.

The Priestly Benediction,

and

the incident of David

and Amnon—

are read but not translated .

One does not read as a haftara from

the account of

the Chariot .

But Rabbi Judah—

permits it.

Rabbi Eliezer says: One does not read as a haftara from “Make known to Jerusalem”

“its abominations” .