Pesachim 87b — the Talmud in English

“Daughter ![](pamud.bmp "

Exact folio location")

of Diblaim”

from the expression of two “slanderous reports”—

a bad report, daughter of a bad report,

for Gomer's mother was similar to her.

And Samuel said:

She was called Diblaim since

she was sweet in everyone's mouth like a fig-cake

[a dried fig].

And Rabbi Yohanan said: Because everyone trampled her like

a

fig-cake.

Another matter:

Because of what was she called

“Gomer”?

Rabbi Judah said:

Because

the nations sought

to

finish off Israel's property in her days.

Rabbi Yohanan said:

They did not merely seek to finish it off, but succeeded in doing so, for they

plundered and finished it off, as it is said:

[in II Kings 13] “For

the king of Aram destroyed them, and made them like dust to be trampled.”

And the Gemara brings the continuation of the verse in Hosea, after he took Gomer, daughter of Diblaim:

[verses 3–4]

“And she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I shall visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I shall bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.”

Verse 6 [sic?]

“And she conceived again and bore a daughter.”

And He said to him: Call her name

“Lo-Ruhamah,”

“for I shall no longer continue to have compassion upon the House of Israel, for I shall surely bear them away.”

Verses 8–9: “And she weaned Lo-Ruhamah.”

“And she conceived and bore a son. And He said: Call his name ‘Lo-Ammi,’ for you are not My people, and I shall not be for you.”

And

after two sons and one daughter had been born to him, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Hosea:

And

did you not have to learn from Moses, your teacher?

That when I spoke with him he separated from the woman! You too, separate yourself from her!

He said to him,

Hosea to the Holy One, blessed be He:

Master of the world! I have children from her, and I cannot put her out, nor divorce her!

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: And what are you, whose wife is a prostitute, and whose sons are sons of prostitution, and you do not know whether they are the sons of others,

nevertheless

thus

you say, that you cannot divorce her.

Israel, who are My sons, My tested sons, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

and they are one

of the four acquisitions that I acquired for Myself in My world.

And the Gemara explains parenthetically the four things that are important in the eyes of the Holy One, blessed be He, and are called “His acquisitions,” like a person who takes pains to acquire something dear to him:

A.

Torah is one acquisition, as it is written

[in Proverbs 8], the Torah said:

“The Lord acquired me

at the beginning of His way.”

B.

Heaven and earth are one acquisition, as it is written: [Genesis 14] “Acquirer of heaven and earth.”

C.

The Temple is one acquisition, as it is written:

[in Psalms 78]

“This mountain His right hand acquired.”

D.

Israel is one acquisition, as it is written

[in Exodus 15]

“This people

acquired.”

And the Gemara continues to explain the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, who rebuked Hosea: he should have said to the Holy One, blessed be He, “They are Your sons, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they are one of Your four acquisitions,” but instead Hosea said that He should replace them with another nation.

And you said

to me:

Transfer them to another nation?!

When

Hosea

knew

that he had sinned

by having brought accusations against Israel,

he arose to request mercy for himself.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Before you request mercy for yourself, request mercy for Israel.

Since

I decreed three decrees against them because of you:

And the Sages expounded that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Hosea to call his first son “Jezreel,” because they would be sown in exile [Tosafot]—this is one decree.

And he called his daughter “Lo-Ruhamah,” and this is the second decree, that He would not have compassion upon Israel.

And he called his last son “Lo-Ammi,” a third decree, that Israel would not be called the people of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Hosea arose

and

requested mercy

for Israel,

and annulled the decree. And he began to bless them.

As it is stated,

[Hosea 2:1]: Hosea prophesied:

“And it shall be that the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea

which cannot be measured and cannot be counted.”

“And it shall be that in the place where it shall be said to them

“Lo-Ammi”

are you—

it shall be said to them: ‘Children of the living God.’”

[There, verse 2]

“And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together”—

thus the decree of exile was annulled.

[There, verse 25]

“And I shall sow her for Myself in the land, and I shall have compassion upon Lo-Ruhamah”—

thus the decree of “Lo-Ruhamah” was annulled.

[There]

“And I shall say to ‘Lo-Ammi,’ ‘You are My people’”—

thus the decree of “Lo-Ammi” was annulled.

Rabbi Yohanan said: Woe to leadership

[authority],

which buries its possessors.

For you have no prophet who did not cut short

[bury]

four kings in his days.

That is, the prophet lived longer than four kings who were buried in his days. For the kings, since they exalt themselves through authority, die within a short period.

As it is stated

[in Isaiah 1]:

“The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem,

in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Rabbi

Yohanan

said: On account of what did Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, merit being counted among the kings of Judah?

[This is explained below.]

Because he did not accept slander about Amos

as follows.

And the Gemara explains:

From where do we know that he was counted

—from where do we know that Jeroboam son of Joash was counted among the kings of Judah?

As it is written

[in Hosea 1]:

“The word of the Lord that was to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah

and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel.”

And from where do we know

[from where do we know]

that he did not accept slander?

As it is written

[in Amos 7:10]:

“And Amaziah the priest of Beth-El

[a priest of idolatry]

sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos has conspired against you

among the house of Israel; the land cannot bear all his words.”

And it is written

[there, verse 11]:

“For thus said Amos: By the sword shall Jeroboam die.”

Jeroboam

said:

Heaven forbid,

not

did that righteous man say so.

And if he did say it, what can I do to him?

For

the Divine Presence said it to him.

Rabbi Elazar said: Even at the time of the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He,

He

remembers compassion.

As it is stated

[in Hosea 1]

“For I shall no longer continue to have compassion upon the House of Israel.”

And it mentioned the expression “I shall have compassion” within a prophecy of calamity.

Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Hanina said: From here

we learn this matter. As it is stated later in the verse, “For I shall no longer continue to have compassion upon the House of Israel”—

“for I shall surely bear them away.”

Even though the meaning of the verse is in the language of a question: “Shall I surely bear them away [forgive them]?” Nevertheless, since the expression “I shall surely bear” is mentioned here, which is an expression of forgiveness, the Sages expounded that the Holy One, blessed be He, remembers His compassion at the time of His anger.

And Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, exiled Israel among the nations only so that converts would be added to them.

As it is stated:

[Hosea 2:25]

“And I shall sow her for Myself in the land.”

Is it so that

for what purpose

does a person sow

in the ground

a se’a?

Rather,

in order

to bring in

from the crops that will grow from the seeds

several kor. [

And every kor is thirty se’ah.]

So too, the Holy One, blessed be He, sowed Israel among the nations, so that they would increase in exile through converts being added to them.

And Rabbi Yohanan said: From here.

From here we learn that the Holy One, blessed be He, exiled Israel so that converts would be added to them:

As it is stated: [there]

“And I shall have compassion upon Lo-Ruhamah,

and I shall say to Lo-Ammi, ‘You are My people.’” Those gentiles who are “not My people” will convert, and He will say to them, “You are My people,” so that they will become part of the people of Israel.

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai:

What is the meaning of that which is written:

[Proverbs 30:10]

“Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you become guilty”?

And it is written:

[there, verse 11]

“There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.”

And the verse appears to give a reason: Do not slander a servant to his master, since there is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.

And Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai wondered: Is it so that

because it curses its father and does not bless its mother,

therefore—

do not slander?!

What reason is given in this?

Rather,

this is the intention of the verse:

even

in

a generation

that is bad

whose father curses and whose mother it does not bless—

do not slander

it,

a servant, to his master.

From where do we know

—from where do we know that this is so?

From Hosea.

For he slandered Israel and said: Replace them with another nation. And although they had sinned, the Holy One, blessed be He, punished him and said to him: Take for yourself a wife of prostitution.

Rabbi Oshaya said: What is the meaning of that which is written:

[Judges 5:11] “There they shall recount the righteous acts of the Lord,”

“the righteous act of His open places toward Israel” —

the Holy One, blessed be He, performed an act of righteousness for Israel

in that

He scattered them among the nations.

[“His open places” is in the sense of scattering], so that the nations would not be able to destroy them all together.

And this is what is meant,

we learned the words of Rabbi Oshaya from an incident that occurred:

for a certain heretic

gentile

said to Rabbi Hanina: We—

are superior to you.

We are better than you, the Jews:

For

it is written concerning you,

it is said concerning you: [I Kings 11] “And it came to pass when David was with Edom, when Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, and he struck every male in Edom.”

“For Joab and all Israel remained there six months

[in Edom], until he had cut off every male in Edom.”

But we

are better than you, for

you are with us

in exile among us

for several years

[for how many years],

and we do nothing to you,

and we do not do anything to you.

He said to him,

Rabbi Hanina: If

you wish, one student will deal with you!

One student has an answer with which to answer you.

Rabbi Oshaya dealt with him

to answer him.

He said to him,

Rabbi Oshaya: This that you do not kill us is

because you do not know how you should act.

For you do not know how to destroy us.

For if

you destroy all of them,

if you say to destroy all the Jews—

they are not all with you!

They are not all located among you.

And if you say to destroy only

what is with you,

the Jews who are found among you, in your kingdom alone, then

they will call you

“a severed kingdom,”

they will call you “a severed kingdom” [for if you kill us, you will rule over a small people].

The gentile heretic said to him: I swear by

the Roman idol

[this is a designation for their idolatry] that indeed

with this we descend,

with this thought of how to destroy you we descend,

and with this we ascend,

and with this thought we also ascend.

That is, we are constantly occupied with this thought.

Rabbi Hiyya taught: What is the meaning of that which is written

what is the meaning of the verse:

[in Job 28:23]:

“God understands its way, and He knows its place”?

The Holy One, blessed be He, knows

recognizes

Israel,

that they cannot endure cruel decrees

of

Edom.

Therefore He exiled them to Babylonia,

for the Babylonians are not as cruel as the other nations.

And Rabbi Elazar said: The Holy One, blessed be He, exiled Israel to Babylonia only because it is as deep as Sheol,

and He would redeem them from there quickly, as He promised them.

As it is stated

[in Hosea 13]

“From the hand of Sheol I shall redeem them; from death I shall redeem them.”

Rabbi Hanina said: Because their language

of the Babylonians

is close to the language of Torah

[resembling the language of Torah], and through this Torah would not be quickly forgotten by them.

Rabbi Yohanan said: Because He sent them back to their mother’s house,

to the house of Abraham their father, who came out of Ur of the Chaldeans in Babylonia.

A parable to a person who became angry with his wife.

Where does he send her?

To her mother’s house!

And this is

similar to this, the words

of Rabbi Alexandri.

For he said: Three returned to their place of planting—

three returned to the place in which they had been planted.

These are they: Israel, the silver of Egypt, and the writing of the Tablets.

Israel—

this is what we said,

this is what we said: they returned to Babylonia, where Abraham their father had grown.

The silver of Egypt—

the silver that Israel plundered when they left Egypt. And in the days of Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt went up and took all the treasuries.

As it is written

[I Kings 14]

“And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem.

And he took the treasuries of the House of the Lord, and the treasuries of the king’s house, and he took everything.”

The writing of the Tablets—

as it is written

[Deuteronomy 9:17] “And I grasped the two Tablets and cast them from my two hands,”

“and I broke them before your eyes.”

The verse changed its wording and did not say, “And I broke them before you,” but rather, “before your eyes.” This implies that it was a wondrous thing, toward which the eye turns to look. Therefore they expounded in the beraita:

The Tablets were broken, and the letters flew away

in the air. It follows that the letters flew through the air and ascended to heaven, the place from which they had been given.