Megillah 3a — the Talmud in English

The letters

the letter mem and the letter samekh on the Tablets— ![](pamud.bmp "

exact position on the page")

stood by means of a miracle .

.

For they were surrounded by air on all their sides, and they had no place of attachment within the Tablets. We see that the final form of the letter mem already existed at the time of the Giving of the Torah!?

And we answer:

Yes,

in truth

the letters

of Mantzepakh—open and closed—

did exist

already from the time of the Giving of the Torah.

But they did not know

which

of them was used

in the middle of a word, and which—

at the end of a word .

.

And the seers came and instituted

that the

open forms be

in the middle of a word, and the closed forms —

at the end of a word.

And we raise an objection:

Ultimately,

we have expounded

“These are the commandments” -

that no prophet will in the future innovate anything from now onward!

How, then, did the seers institute which of them was in the middle and which at the end?

Rather,

in truth, they originally knew which was in the middle of a word and which at the end, but

they forgot them .

.

And

the seers

returned and established them .

.

And

further

Rabbi Yirmeya said, and some say Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba: The Aramaic translation of the Torah—

Onkelos the proselyte stated it ,

as he had heard it

from Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua.

The translation of the Prophets—

Jonathan ben Uzziel stated it, from

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

And

when Jonathan ben Uzziel stated it,

the Land of Israel was shaken four hundred parasangs by four hundred parasangs .

.

A Heavenly Voice emerged and said: Who is this who has revealed My secrets to human beings?!

Jonathan ben Uzziel stood on his feet and said: I am the one who revealed Your secrets to human beings! It is revealed and known before You that I did not do it for my honor, nor for the honor of my father’s house, but I did it for Your honor, so that controversy would not increase in Israel

as to how to interpret the obscure verses.

And he further requested

Jonathan ben Uzziel

to reveal the translation of the Writings.

A Heavenly Voice emerged and said to him: That is enough for you!

For what reason

did it say this to him?

Because there is in it—

in the Book of Daniel—

the end of the Messiah.

And we wonder:

The translation of the Torah—Onkelos the proselyte stated it? And

was there not already a translation of the Torah in the days of Ezra? For

Rabbi Ika bar Avin said in the name of Rav Hananel in the name of Rav: What

is this

that is written [

Nehemiah 8:1–9]: “And they said to Ezra the scribe to bring the scroll of the Torah of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel, etc., and the Levites were causing the people to understand the Torah, etc.

And they read in the scroll, in the Torah of God, distinctly, and gave the sense, and they understood the reading”?

What is this that is written

“And they read in the scroll, in the Torah of God”—

this is the reading,

namely, the Hebrew language of the Torah.

“Distinctly”—

this is the translation

of the Torah, for the translation explains the Torah.

“And gave the sense”—

these are the verse divisions,

namely, how they are divided, and they are called “giving the sense” because through the division a person understands the reading [Ran in tractate Nedarim 37b] .

“And they understood the reading”—

these are the cantillation accents,

namely, the melodies that divide the meaning through the melody .

And some say—

these are the masoretic traditions,

namely, the deficient and plene spellings in the Torah that were transmitted by tradition (Tosafot in tractate Nedarim, there).

We see that there was already a translation before Onkelos; how, then, do we say that he stated it?!

And we answer: In truth, there was already a translation of the Torah, but

they forgot them, and

[Onkelos]

returned and established them.

And we inquire about this:

What is different

with regard to the translation

of the Torah—

that the Land of Israel was not shaken

the Land of Israel,

and

with regard to the translation

of the Prophets -

it was shaken?

And we explain: Because

the Torah—

the matter is already explained

already

in the language of the text

in the language of Scripture , and secrets were not revealed in the translation. In contrast,

with regard to the Prophets,

there

are matters that are explained

in the language of Scripture,

and there are matters that are only hinted at

in Scripture—and they were revealed in the translation.

And an example of this

is that it is written: “On that day the mourning will be great

[over Messiah son of Joseph, who will be killed in the future, Metzudat David]

in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo.”

And Rav Yosef said

:

Were it not for the translation of this verse, I would not know what the verse is saying

the verse . For nowhere in Scripture do we find that there was mourning for Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo!

And he explained in the translation that this verse refers to two mournings, and this is the explanation of the verse:

On that day,

on which Messiah son of Joseph will be killed,

the mourning will increase

[will grow]

in Jerusalem, like the mourning for Ahab son of Omri

king of Israel,

whom Hadadrimmon

son of Tabrimmon

killed at Ramot-gilead, and like the mourning for Josiah son of Amon

king of Judah,

whom Pharaoh the Lame

[who was lame]

killed in the Valley of

Megiddo ,

,

and Jeremiah lamented over him before all Israel.

And since we said above that there is in the Book of Daniel the end of the Messiah, we bring the following verse, to say that although Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who were in the generation of Daniel, were superior to him in that they were prophets, nevertheless he too was superior to them. For he saw the vision, as follows, and he also knew the end

[Maharsha] .

It is written: “And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, one man clothed in linen, etc.,”

“and I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. And the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide”

[to a place of concealment] “.”

Who are they

those

men

who were with Daniel ?

Rabbi Yirmeya said, and some say Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba: They were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi .

?

Rabbi Yirmeya said, and some say Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba: They were Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi .

They—

Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi—

were superior to him

[to Daniel],

and he—

was superior to them.

They were superior to him, for they were prophets,

who prophesied to Israel as emissaries of the Omnipresent,

whereas he was not a prophet,

for he was not sent to Israel with any prophecy. But the holy spirit rested upon him, and he knew everything [Tosafot of the Rosh] .

But

he—

was superior to them, for he saw

that same vision,

whereas they—

did not see.

And we wonder:

But since

they

did not see, why were they terrified,

as it is written, “But a great trembling fell upon them”?

And we answer:

Even though they themselves

themselves

did not see, their guardian angels

[their angelic ministers above]—

saw,

and therefore they were terrified.

Ravina said: Learn from this: One who is terrified,

and does not know what he is afraid of,

even though he himself does not see

anything—

his guardian angel sees,

and therefore he is terrified.

What is his remedy,

what should he do so that he will not be harmed?

Let him recite the Shema!

And if he is standing in a place of filth,

where he cannot recite the Shema there,

let him leap

[jump]

four cubits from his place

[cubits], for changing one’s place changes one’s fortune.

And if not,

if he cannot jump from there,

let him say as follows: “The goat of the slaughterhouse is fatter than I!”

[Rashi explained in Sanhedrin [94a] that this is a spell, meaning: Go to the goats and leave me. See there, where the version of the Gemara differs from the version of the Gemara before us] .

And now we return to the above, where we expounded the verse, “And these days are remembered and observed in every generation and generation, family and family, province and province, and city and city”.

And now that you say

that the verse

“province and province and city and city”—

comes for an exposition,

what does that which is written

“family and family”—

come for?

Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said: To include the families of the priesthood and the Levites, who suspend their service

in the Temple

and come to hear the reading of the Megillah.

For Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: The priests at their service,

and the Levites on their platform [

who would sing on the platform],

and Israel at their station [

who would stand over the communal offerings at the time of their sacrifice, as we learned in tractate Ta'anit, page 26a, see there],

all suspend their service and come to hear the reading of the Megillah.

It was likewise taught in a beraita: The priests at their service, the Levites on their platform, and Israel at their station—all suspend their service—

and come to hear the reading of the Megillah.

From here—

the household of Rabbi derived that they

were

suspending Torah study,

and coming

to hear the reading of the Megillah.

For they learned

a kal va-chomer from service: If service, which is more stringent

than Torah study,

we suspend

because of the reading of the Megillah,

Torah study—

all the more so

that they suspend it!?

And we challenge:

A

is

service more stringent

than

Torah study?

But it is written: “And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho [

in the war],

that he lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, a man standing opposite him, and so forth”

and behold, a man stood opposite him, with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went toward him and said to him: Are you for us, or for our enemies? And he said: No, for I am the commander of the army of the Lord; now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the ground

and bowed down.”

And we do not allow the one raising the objection to bring the objection to its conclusion, but we wonder:

And how did

Joshua

do this,

that he bowed down to that man,

when Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: It is forbidden for a person to give greeting

to his fellow at night,

because

we are concerned that perhaps he is a demon!?

And we answer:

The case there is different, for he said to him

that man:

“For I am the commander of the army of the Lord.”

And we challenge:

Perhaps they were lying,

and from where did he know that he was truly the commander of the army of the Lord?

And we answer:

It is a received tradition that demons do not bring out

the

Divine Name for a lie.

And now we return to the objection above.

It is written there that Joshua asked him: “Are you for us, or for our enemies?” And the angel answered him: “I am the commander of the army of the Lord; now I have come.” And we expound from the angel’s answer that he accused them of two matters.

And thus

he said to him

the angel:

“Last night,

when the day grew dark, you delayed in ambush by the city, and therefore

you suspended the daily offering of twilight.”

And you should have offered it, for there is no time for war at night.

And now—

at night,

you suspended Torah study,

for they do not wage war at night, and you should have engaged in Torah study!

Joshua said to him

Joshua:

“Regarding which of them,

the two transgressions,

have you come?”

He said to him:

Regarding that of

“now I have come,”

regarding the transgression of the present time, namely—the suspension of Torah study.

Immediately

Joshua recanted, and when another night came, during the siege [of Ai], he engaged in Torah study. As it is written:

“And Joshua lodged that night in the midst of the valley” [

see the Tosafot, who wrote that the verse is not written exactly so],