Rosh Hashanah 17a — the Talmud in English

And they chirp.

They cry out and weep from their sufferings for one hour,

and they rise.

As it is stated [

Zechariah 13]:

“And I shall bring the [

group]

third through fire, and I shall refine them as one refines silver, and I shall test them as one tests gold.”

He,

the intermediate person who descended to Gehinnom,

“shall call in My Name, and I shall answer him.”

And concerning them,

concerning the intermediate people,

Hannah said

in her prayer [I Samuel 2]:

“The Lord puts to death and gives life, brings down to the Sheol and

afterward

raises up [

raises them].

Beit Hillel say:

the intermediate people do not descend to Gehinnom even for one hour. As it is stated

“and abundant in kindness,”

the Holy One, blessed be He, who is abundant in kindness,

inclines

the pan of the scales

toward kindness.

And concerning them David said

the psalm [in Psalms 116]:

“I love, for the Lord hears my voice.”

It is stated concerning it, “The pangs of death encompassed me,” for the intermediate person has half sins in his possession, and the pangs of death encompass him.

And concerning them,

concerning those intermediate people,

David said

the continuation

of the entire passage,

as it is stated there:

“I was poor,

when I was poor in mitzvot, then

— “and He will save me,”

for the Holy One, blessed be He, saves me by inclining toward kindness.

And the beraita specifies several kinds of wicked people and their judgment in the future:

A.

The sinners of Israel

who sinned

with their bodies [

below it will be explained which sins are meant],

and

likewise

the sinners of the nations of the world

who sinned

with their bodies—

they

descend to Gehinnom and are judged there for twelve months.

And

after twelve months their bodies are consumed, their souls are burned, and the wind scatters them,

it scatters their ashes,

and they become dust beneath the soles of the feet of

the

righteous.

As it is stated [

Malachi 3]:

“And you shall trample the wicked,

you shall crush and pound the wicked,

for they shall be ashes beneath the soles of your feet.”

B.

But the heretics,

the Sadducees and Boethusians, who changed the intention of the verses for the worse.

And the informers,

informers who hand over the property of Israel to star-worshippers.

And the Epicureans,

those who disgrace Torah scholars.

And the people

who denied the Torah,

who say that the Torah is not from Heaven.

And

the people

who denied the resurrection of the dead.

And

the people

who separated from the ways of the community,

from the ways of Israel [see Rashi regarding the version].

And

the people

who imposed their terror in the land of the living,

and below it will be explained what this refers to.

And

the people

who sinned and caused the many to sin, such as Jeroboam son of Nebat and his associates,

who prevented Israel from going up to the Temple and caused them to practice idolatry.

All these

descend to Gehinnom and are judged there for generations of generations.

As it is stated [

Isaiah 66]:

“And they shall go out [

the nations, who will come to bow before the Lord in the future, shall go out from Jerusalem to the Valley of Jehoshaphat]

and see the corpses of the people who transgressed against Me.

For their worm shall not die [forever], and their fire shall not be extinguished [forever], and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

For even when the punishment of

Gehinnom is consumed

for these wicked people, only the punishment of Gehinnom itself is consumed,

but

if

they,

they themselves,

are not consumed,

rather, they continue and grow weaker from their sufferings.

As it is stated [

Psalms 49]:

“And their form,

and their form is destined

to consume

the

Sheol.”

And why so much

are they punished?

Because they stretched out their hands against the Abode.

For through their sins they caused the Temple to be destroyed, as

it is stated at the end of the verse: “And their form to consume the Sheol

at the end of the verse: “And their form shall wear away Sheol

from His Abode.”

And “Abode” means only the Temple.

As it is stated [

I Kings 8, in Solomon’s words at the dedication of the Temple]:

“I have surely built an Abode for You.”

And concerning them,

concerning all these wicked people,

Hannah said

in her song [I Samuel 2]:

“O Lord, those who contend with Him shall be afraid [

they shall fear]

of Him.”

For these wicked people are the opponents of the Holy One, blessed be He, for they caused the Temple to be destroyed. And concerning them it is stated above in the verse, “And the wicked shall be silent in darkness.”

Rabbi Isaac bar Avin said: And their faces,

of those wicked people,

resemble the bottom of a pot,

which is black from the fire.

And Rava said: But they,

those wicked people, are

among the most handsome of the handsome people of Mehoza,

among the most pampered and well-fed of Mehoza [Rava’s city],

and they will be called,

and they are destined to be called

“the children of Gehinnom.”

And the Gemara explains the words of the aforementioned beraita:

The Master said

in the beraita:

Beit Hillel say:

the intermediate people do not descend to Gehinnom even for one hour. As it is stated:

“and abundant in kindness,”

the Holy One, blessed be He,

inclines

the judgment

toward kindness,

and He does not bring them down to Gehinnom at all.

And we raise an objection:

But it is written [

Zechariah 13]:

“And I shall bring the [

group]

third through fire.”

And Beit Shammai explained that the verse speaks about the intermediate people!

It is thus explicit in the verse that the intermediate people are judged in the fire of Gehinnom!

And we answer: According to Beit Hillel,

there,

that verse speaks

about the sinners of Israel with their bodies,

and not about the intermediate people.

And we raise an objection:

But you said

in the beraita that the sinners of Israel with their bodies

do not have

they have no

rectification

at all, for they become ashes beneath the soles of the feet of the righteous. Yet in this verse it is stated, “And I shall refine them as one refines silver,” implying that their sufferings will cleanse their sins and they will emerge from Gehinnom!

And we answer:

When we said that they have no rectification,

all that we said that they have no rectification, we spoke only

of

the sinners of Israel with their bodies who have

a majority of sins [

more than merits].

But

here,

in this verse, the matter concerns people who have

half sins and half merits, and there is also among them

and included among the half of the sins is also

the sin of “the sinners of Israel with their bodies.”

And those people, although they have half merits, their judgment differs from that of the other intermediate people, and

it is not sufficient for him,

for they are not atoned for as long as

it is not so,

that the verse is not fulfilled in them:

“And I shall bring the third through fire,”

that they descend to Gehinnom for one hour.

But

if not,

that in that half of sins there is no sin of “the sinners of Israel with their bodies,” concerning this it is stated:

“and abundant in kindness,”

for the Holy One, blessed be He,

inclines

their judgment

toward kindness,

and they do not descend to Gehinnom at all.

And concerning them David said, “I love, for the Lord hears.”

Rava expounded: What is the meaning of that which is written, “I love, for the Lord hears”—

Thus

the Assembly of Israel said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe! When am I beloved before You?

When You hear

the

voice of my supplication.

“I was poor, and He will save me”—

although I am poor in mitzvot,

nevertheless

it is fitting for Him to save me.

We learned in a beraita: The sinners of the children of Israel with their bodies.

And we inquire about it:

“The sinners of the children of Israel with their bodies”—

who are they,

who are they?

Rav said:

This is

a skull that does not put on tefillin.

A person who never put tefillin on his head, even once

one.

“The sinners of the nations of the world with their bodies [

which we learned in the beraita]—what are they?”

Rav said: Through a transgression—

through sexual immorality.

“And who imposed their terror in the land of the living”—

who are they?

Rav Hisda said: This is a leader who imposes excessive fear upon the community,

more than necessary,

not for the sake of Heaven.

And since we spoke about a leader who imposes excessive fear upon the community not for the sake of Heaven, the Gemara adds and speaks concerning his matter:

Rav Judah said in the name of Rav: Any leader who imposes excessive fear upon the community not for the sake of Heaven does not see a son who is a Torah scholar.

As it is stated [

Job 37]:

“Therefore people shall fear Him [

if people fear him, then]

he shall not see all [

children]

“the wise of heart.”

We learned in a beraita:

Beit Hillel say: “And abundant in kindness,”

the Holy One, blessed be He,

inclines

the judgment of the intermediate people

toward kindness.

And we inquire about it:

How does He do it!?

How does the Holy One, blessed be He, incline the judgment toward kindness?

Rabbi Eliezer says: He suppresses it,

he presses the pan of the scales of merits downward and makes the pan of the scales incline toward merit.

As it is stated, “He will again have mercy upon us; He will suppress our sins.”

Rabbi Yosei bar Hanina said: He lifts,

he raises the pan of the scales of liability upward and makes the scales incline toward merit.

As it is stated, “He bears iniquity and passes over transgression.”

And how does the Holy One, blessed be He, act?

The tanna of the school of Rabbi Ishmael:

At the beginning of the counting of the sins and merits, the Holy One, blessed be He,

removes [

takes away] the

first

the

first

that passes before Him.

For if the person was at the level of an intermediate person, and at the beginning of the weighing of the merits and sins they were equal, half and half, then by the Holy One, blessed be He, removing the first sin from the pan of the scales, the pan of merit makes his judgment incline toward merit.

And so is the measure!

such is the practice [always].

Rava said: And

although the Holy One, blessed be He, always removes the first sin, nevertheless the

sin

the first

itself is not erased

completely, but is placed to the side.

And the practical consequence is,

that if there is

ultimately, even after the first sin has been removed,

a majority of sins.

That is, the pan of merit did not prevail but remained balanced with the pan of liability; it follows that from the outset he had a majority of sins, and therefore then the first sin

is counted together with them!

Since the removal of the first sin did not help him to be acquitted in the judgment, from now on the removed sin is also taken into account, and it is joined to the pan of the scales together with the other sins; it inclines the scales toward liability, and he is judged together with completely wicked people.

Rava said: Anyone

person

who passes over his measures,

who passes over his anger and abandons it, and does not deal strictly with people who distress him, to repay them measure for measure, then

they pass over for him

in Heaven

all his transgressions.

For the attribute of judgment does not examine all his transgressions precisely, but leaves them and proceeds.

As it is stated [

Micah 7]:

“He bears iniquity and passes over transgression.”

That is to say,

to whom

the Holy One, blessed be He,

does He bear [

forgive] for

iniquity?

To one who passes over

the

transgression

that people commit against him.

And the Gemara brings proof that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not examine strictly one who passes over his measures:

Rav Huna, son of Rabbi Joshua, became ill,

he became sick.

Rav Pappa entered to inquire about him,

Rav Pappa entered to ask about his welfare.

He saw that the world was weak for him,

and saw that he was about to die.

He said to them [

to those standing there]:

Prepare provisions for him,

prepare provisions for him for the road, meaning shrouds.

In the end he recovered,

ultimately Rav Huna, son of Rabbi Joshua, recovered.

Rav Pappa was ashamed to see him,

Rav Pappa was ashamed to see him because he had said to prepare burial needs for him.

They said to him,

they asked Rav Huna, son of Rav Joshua:

What did you see?

What did you see when you were ill?

He said to them: Yes, that is how it was.

Indeed, as Rav Pappa thought that I was going to die, so it was; death had been decreed upon me.

And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them

to the heavenly court,

since he does not stand upon his rights,

since he does not insist upon his measures, but overlooks those who offend him—

do not stand against him,

do not examine him strictly in judgment.

As it is stated [

Micah 7]:

“He bears iniquity and passes over transgression.”

To whom

the Holy One, blessed be He,

does He bear iniquity?

To one who passes over transgression!

And it is stated further in the verse: “[He bears iniquity and passes over transgression]”

“for the remnant of His inheritance.”

Rabbi Aha bar Hanina said,

this verse is a parable to

a thigh

that is fat

with a thorn in it.

That is to say, there is a matter of consolation in the verse, that the Holy One, blessed be He, bears iniquity and passes over transgression [and this is like a thigh], but within that consolation there is a difficult matter: the Holy One, blessed be He, bears iniquity only

“for the remnant of His inheritance, and not for all His inheritance.”