Rosh Hashanah 18a — the Talmud in English

Here, in the verse in which it is said that the Lord bears favor, it is speaking

before the verdict.

But

here, in the verse in which it is said that the Lord does not bear favor, it is speaking

after the verdict.

And from here there is a difficulty against what Rabbi Yohanan said: that repentance rends the verdict!

And we answer:

here too, also here, where we learned that repentance does not rend the verdict, it is speaking

also to a case in which repentance was undertaken

of a

verdict of an

individual, but the verdict of the public is indeed rent.

And the Gemara proves that the tannaim disagreed concerning an individual who repented, whether his verdict is rent:

And we say:

And the verdict of an individual—

it is a dispute among the tannaim, for the tannaim disagreed concerning this matter:

as tannaim disagreed about this matter:

For it was taught: Rabbi Meir would say: Two who went up to their beds

because of illness,

and their illnesses were equal, and both prayed that they be healed.

and both prayed to be healed.

And likewise, two who went up to the scaffold [

of a gentile court in which they are judged to be killed]

to be judged, and their judgments were equal, and both were being judged for the same matter, and both prayed that they be saved.

and both were being judged for the same offense, and both prayed to be saved.

And finally,

this one went down

from his bed of illness,

and this one did not go down.

Or

this one was saved

from the scaffold,

and this one was not saved.

If you ask:

Why did this one go down, and this one not go down?

Or why

was this one saved, and this one not saved?

Your answer is:

This one prayed and was answered, and this one prayed and was not answered.

And perhaps you will continue and ask:

Why was this one answered

in his prayer,

and this one was not answered?

Your answer is:

This one prayed a complete prayer,

with concentration, and therefore

was answered.

And this one did not pray a complete prayer

with concentration, and therefore

was not answered.

Rabbi Elazar says: Here, the person who was answered prayed

before the verdict.

But

here, the person who was not answered prayed

after the verdict.

And from here it follows that Rabbi Meir holds that repentance nullifies even the verdict of an individual, while Rabbi Elazar disagrees with him.

Rabbi Yitzhak said: Crying out is effective [

prayer]

for a person both before the verdict and after the verdict.

In any event, according to everyone, the verdict of the public is rent through repentance.

And we challenge this:

And the verdict of the public—

is it rent!?

And is it indeed rent?!

But one verse [

Jeremiah 4] says:

“Wash your heart from evil

Jerusalem, so that you may be saved.”

And it is written [

there, 2]:

“For” [

even]

“if you wash”

“with natron and increase for yourself soap” [

types of washing substances],

“your iniquity is stained before Me.”

But apparently the verses contradict one another!

Is it not the case,

must one not say that

here, the verse saying that the iniquities of Jerusalem will be washed away through repentance, is speaking

before the verdict.

But

here, the verse saying that the iniquities of Jerusalem will not be washed away through repentance, is speaking

after the verdict?!

And from here it follows that even the verdict of the public is not rent through repentance!

And we answer:

No,

this is not how the contradiction between the verses is to be resolved.

Rather,

both this and that, both verses are speaking

both verses refer to

after the verdict.

And it is not difficult:

Here, where their iniquities will not be washed away, it is speaking

of a verdict accompanied by an oath.

But

here, where their iniquities will be washed away, it is speaking

of a verdict not accompanied by an oath.

And

as

it is

s

aid by

Rav Shmuel bar Ami.

For Rav Shmuel bar Ami said, and some say [

and there are those who say]

Rav Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rav Yonatan:

From where is it known concerning a verdict accompanied by an oath—

that it is not rent!?

For it is stated [

I Samuel 3]:

“And therefore I swore to the house of Eli: The iniquity of the house of Eli shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or by offering.”

Rabba said:

Specifically,

by sacrifice and offering it is not atoned for, but it is atoned for through Torah.

Abaye said:

Specifically,

by sacrifice and offering it is not atoned for, but it is atoned for through Torah and acts of lovingkindness.

Rabba and Abaye came from the house of Eli,

they were descendants of Eli the kohen, and it was said concerning the house of Eli [

there, 2]: “And all the increase of your house shall die as men.” That is, young men, and they would not live longer than twenty years. Rabba, who occupied himself with Torah, lived [

was alive]

forty years.

But

Abaye, who occupied himself with Torah

and also

with acts of lovingkindness, lived sixty years,

he lived sixty years.

The Sages taught

a beraita speaking about the descendants of Eli:

There was one family in Jerusalem whose dead would die at the age of eighteen years.

They came and informed Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai.

He said to them: Perhaps you are from the family of Eli, concerning whom it is written [

there]:

“And all the increase of your house shall die as men,”

young men less than twenty years old. [R. Hananel]

And therefore,

go and occupy yourselves with Torah—

and live!

They went and occupied themselves with Torah, and lived.

And they would call it “the family of Rabban Yohanan,” after him.

Rav Shmuel bar Inya said in the name of Rav: From where is it known that the verdict of the public is not sealed?

And immediately the Gemara is astonished: But

is it not sealed?!

But it is written [

Jeremiah 2]:

“Your iniquity is stained before Me”!

Rather,

this is what Rav asked: From where is it known concerning the verdict of the public, that

even though it has been sealed,

it is

rent?

For it is stated [

Deuteronomy 4]:

“Like the Lord our God” [

who answers us]

“whenever we call to Him.”

This implies that in every manner in which the public cries out, its verdict is rent.

And we challenge this:

But it is written [

Isaiah 55]:

“Seek the Lord when He is present,

call upon Him when He is near.” And this implies that specifically when the Lord is present and near a person, his prayer is heard! [And below it will be explained when this time is].

And we answer:

There, that verse is speaking

that verse refers to

of an individual,

whereas

here, where we said that the verdict of the public that has been sealed is rent, it is speaking

of the public.

And we inquire concerning this:

For an individual—

when!?

When is the time that the Lord is near a person and his prayer is heard?

Rabba bar Avuha said: These are the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

It is stated [I Samuel 25]:

“And it came to pass after ten days” [

after ten days had passed]

“that the Lord struck Nabal” [

for his sin].

And we inquire:

What were these ten days for!?

Why did the Lord wait ten days before killing Nabal?

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Corresponding to the ten portions of food that Nabal gave to the servants of David.

David sent ten servants to Nabal, and Nabal gave a meal to each one of them; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, waited ten days before killing him.

Rav Nahman said

in the name of

Rabba bar Avuha: These are the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, during which the Holy One, blessed be He, waited for him to repent, but he did not repent.

We learned in the Mishna:

On Rosh Hashanah, all those who come into the world pass before Him [

before the Lord]

like the sons of Maron.

And we inquire:

What does “like the sons of Maron” mean?

And we explain:

Here in Babylonia they explained: Like the sons of sheep.

In Babylonia they explained that the reference is to the sheep passing through a narrow opening in the sheepfold, one by one, in order to determine the tenth lamb for the animal tithe. And likewise in judgment on Rosh Hashanah, each and every one passes individually.

Resh Lakish said: Like the ascent of Beit Maron,

where the path is narrow, and two cannot walk there side by side, because there is a steep slope on both sides of the path.

Rav Yehuda said

in the name of

Shmuel: “Maron” is an expression of authority and lordship.

And that is,

namely,

like the troops of the house of David,

who would go out one after another, and they would count them as they went out to battle.

Rabba bar bar Hana said:

Even though each one is judged individually, nevertheless—

they are all surveyed in a single survey,

with a single glance.

Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: We too have learned this

we too have learned this matter from our Mishna, which proved that all those who come into the world pass like the sons of Maron from the verse [Psalms 33]:

“He who fashions their hearts together, who understands all their deeds”: What is it saying?

What did this verse intend to say?

If you say that this is what it is saying,

if we say that this is what it intended:

He speaks to all the world, and unifies their hearts with one another.

The Holy One, blessed be He, governs the entire world and unifies the heart of this one so that it will be like the heart of that one—one cannot say this:

for we see that it is not so,

for we see with our own eyes that the matter is not so.

Rather, is it not necessarily that this is what it is saying:

[necessarily that]

this is what it is saying:

The One who fashions sees together

the

hearts

of all of them in a single survey, as it is said in the preceding verse, “He looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth”; and concerning this the verse said: The One who fashions the inhabitants of the earth sees their hearts together,

and

nevertheless

understands all their deeds”—

and judges each one according to his deeds.

Mishna:

From here until the beginning of the third chapter, the subject is the sanctification of the new moon, and the matters accompanying it.

In the time of the Mishna, they sanctified the new moons on the basis of seeing the moon, and not on the basis of calculation as in our time.

Rosh Hashanah falls on the first of the month of Tishrei, and they would sanctify the month on that very day:

For

six months

during the year,

the messengers

of the court

would go out

and inform those in the diaspora when they had sanctified the new month. For there are months that contain twenty-nine days, and they sanctify the following month on the thirtieth day. And there are months that are thirty days, and they sanctify the following month on the thirty-first day:

a.

For Nisan

the messengers would go out,

because of Passover,

so that those in the diaspora would know when Passover fell.

b.

For Av, because of the fast,

so that they would know when the fast of the Ninth of Av fell.

c.

For Elul, because of Rosh Hashanah.

Usually the month of Elul is deficient [twenty-nine days], and Rosh Hashanah falls on the thirtieth day. But if they did not know when the first of the month of Elul fell, they would not be able to know when Rosh Hashanah fell.

And therefore the messengers informed them when the first of the month of Elul fell, and they observed Rosh Hashanah on the thirtieth day.

d.

For Tishrei,

after the court had sanctified Tishrei, the messengers would go out on the following day and travel as far as they could reach by Sukkot,

because of the regulation of the festivals.

They would inform those in the diaspora whether the court had intercalated Elul, in which case Rosh Hashanah was on the thirty-first day; and even if they had not intercalated the month, they would go out [even though those in the diaspora would in any case rely on the majority and say that Elul had been deficient], so that they would not be troubled in their hearts on Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

e.

For Kislev—

because of Hanukkah.

f.

And for Adar—

because of Purim.

And when the Temple was standing,

they

would also go out for Iyar because of the minor Passover,

the Second Passover [called the minor Passover because it is one day], which falls on the fourteenth of Iyar; and one who was impure or was on a distant journey on the fourteenth of Nisan and could not offer the first Passover offering must know when the fourteenth of Iyar falls, for then he offers the Second Passover offering.

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna: For six months the messengers go out. And we challenge this:

And should they not also go out for Tammuz and Tevet!?

Why do the messengers not go out in Tammuz and Tevet, since they contain days of fasting just as Av does!