Sanhedrin 105a — the Talmud in English

“Judah, my lawgiver” —

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who came from Judah

[who came from the tribe of Judah ].

“Moab

is my washing-pot” —

this is Gehazi, who was punished on account of washing .

“Upon Edom I shall cast my shoe” —

this is Doeg

the Edomite .

“Upon Philistia, shout aloud” —

the ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe! If David, who killed the Philistine and caused Your sons to inherit Gath,

and raises this claim against You, that You grant his haters Doeg and Ahithophel a share in the World to Come,

what will You do for him

to appease him?

He said to them: I must make them friends with one another,

and then David will forgive them for what they did to him. And this is what is stated, “shout aloud” — an expression of friendship.

It is written in the Book of Jeremiah:

“Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away with a perpetual turning away, etc.”

Rav said: The congregation of Israel gave the prophet a conclusive reply.

The prophet said to Israel: Repent!

For

your fathers who sinned —

where are they?

They said to him,

Israel:

And your prophets, who did not sin, where are they?

As it is stated: “Your fathers, where are they, and the prophets

will they live forever?”

This was the prophet’s claim and Israel’s reply.

He said to them,

the prophet:

Your fathers returned and admitted. As it is stated: “But My words and My statutes that I commanded My servants the prophets, etc.”

[And the end of the verse is: “Did not your fathers attain them, and they returned and said, As the Lord of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and according to our deeds, so He did with us”] .

Samuel said:

In this manner they gave him a conclusive reply:

Ten people came

and sat before him

[before the prophet].

He said to them: Repent!

They said to him: A slave whom his master has sold, and a woman whom her husband has divorced — does either of them have anything against the other?

Likewise, since the Holy One, blessed be He, sold us to Nebuchadnezzar and divorced us from Him, He no longer has anything against us!

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the prophet: Go, say

to them: “Where is the book of your mother’s divorce, with which I sent her away, or who is My creditor to whom I sold you? Behold, because of your iniquities you were sold, and because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.”

And this is what Resh Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written, “David My servant,” and “Nebuchadnezzar My servant”?

How did the Holy One, blessed be He, equate and compare the wicked Nebuchadnezzar to David His servant?!

Rather,

it is revealed and known before Him who spoke and the world came into being that Israel would eventually say this,

that now they are Nebuchadnezzar’s servants, and the Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing against them.

Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, anticipated and called

Nebuchadnezzar

His servant.

And from now, even if Nebuchadnezzar indeed acquired them, he himself is the Holy One, blessed be He’s servant. And

a slave who acquired property — whose slave is he, and whose property is it?

Surely all the property belongs to the master!

“And what comes up upon your spirit shall not be,

[what you think — shall not be] ,

when you say: We shall be like the nations, like the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone. As I live, says the Lord God, if I do not rule over you with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with overflowing wrath,

I shall rule over you.”

Rav Naḥman said: May the Holy One bring upon us all such wrath and redeem us

[Would that this wrath mentioned in the preceding verse — “with overflowing wrath I shall rule over you” — would come upon us, so that the Holy One, blessed be He, would redeem us against our will and rule over us].

“And He will chastise them for judgment; his god will instruct him.” Rabbah bar bar Ḥana said,

this is the conclusive reply that Israel gave the prophet:

The prophet said to Israel: Repent!

They said to him: We are unable,

because

the evil inclination rules over us.

He said to them: Chastise

the

inclinations

[this is what is stated: “And He will chastise them for judgment”].

They said to him: “His god will instruct him.”

May the god of the inclination instruct us how to chastise it and defeat it .

We learned in our Mishna:

Four commoners: Balaam, Doeg, Ahithophel, and Gehazi.

“Balaam” —

its meaning is

“without a people” .

That is, he has no share with the people of Israel in the World to Come.

Alternatively: “Balaam” —

because he ruined a people.

He confused Israel through the counsel he gave Balak, and twenty-four thousand of Israel were killed because of him.

“The son of Beor” —

a son

who had intercourse with an animal

[beast ]. Balaam had intercourse with his she-ass.

A tanna taught: He,

that same man, Balaam’s father , was called

Beor,

and that same man

was Cushan-Rishathaim,

and

he

was the one called

Laban the Aramean.

The Gemara now explains why he was called by these names:

That same man was called

Beor —

because

he had intercourse with an animal

[beast] .

And he was also called

Cushan-Rishathaim —

because

he committed two wicked acts against Israel:

One in the days of Jacob,

for he was Laban the Aramean, who sought to uproot everything,

and one in the days of the judging of the judges,

after the death of Joshua, as it is stated: “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim.”

And what was his name

in truth? —

His name was Laban the Aramean.

It is written “

Balaam

the son of Beor,” and

on the other hand

it is written, “his son, Beor,”

which implies that Beor was Balaam’s son!

Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

In truth, Beor was Balaam’s father. Nevertheless, Scripture called him “his son, Beor,” implying that he was Balaam’s son, because

his father

of Balaam

was his son in prophecy.

For Balaam was greater in prophecy.

And from the fact that the Mishna listed Balaam among those who have no share in the World to Come, it implies that specifically

Balaam —

it is he who does not come to the World to Come. But

gentiles

other —

they do come

[they come to life in the World to Come]!

Who is the author of the Mishna? —

It is Rabbi Joshua.

For it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Eliezer says:

It is written:

“The wicked shall return to the underworld, all the nations that forget God.”

And thus the verse is expounded:

“The wicked shall return to the underworld” —

these are the sinners of

Israel.

“All the nations that forget God” —

these are the sinners of

the gentiles. These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer.

Rabbi Joshua said to him: Is it stated “

the wicked shall return to the underworld

among all the nations” ,

so that it would indeed imply as you say, that the sinners of Israel would be like all the nations, which have no share in the World to Come?

But it is not

so

stated; rather, “all the nations that forget God”!

Rather,

this is the meaning of the verse:

“The wicked shall return to the underworld,” and who are they

[and who are those wicked ones] —

“all the nations that forget God,”

such as Balaam and the other wicked ones among the nations of the world. But the other nations have a share in the World to Come.

And that wicked man himself gave a sign concerning himself

whether he would have a share in the World to Come. For thus

he said: “May my soul die the death of the upright,

and may my end be like his.”

If my soul dies the death of the upright,

that I die my own death, upon my bed —

my end shall be like his,

like that of the people of Israel, so that I will have a share in the World to Come.

But if not,

if I do not die a natural death —

I am going to my people,

to Gehinnom .

It is written in the portion of Balak:

“And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went.”

A tanna taught: Midian and Moab never had peace with one another.

It is analogous to two dogs that were in a flock, and they were angry

[resentful ]

with one another.

A wolf came upon one of them.

One said

[the second dog] to the other: Indeed, we are angry with one another. But

if I do not help him —

today

the wolf

will kill him, and tomorrow it will come upon me

and kill me, for there will be no one to help me.

Therefore, although there was no peace between them,

they both went —

and killed

the

wolf.

So too here. Although there had never been peace between Moab and Midian, nevertheless, because of their fear of Israel, they made peace between themselves.

Rav Pappa said: This is what people say: When a weasel and a cat,

[a rat and a cat], between whom there is never peace,

hold a feast from the fat of the unlucky man

[make a celebration from the fat of the unlucky man].

It is written at the beginning of the matter: “And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went, with divinations in their hands, and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak.” “And he said to them, Lodge here tonight, and I shall bring you back word, etc.” And at the end it is written:

“And the princes of Moab remained with Balaam.”

But the princes of Midian,

who initially came with the princes of Moab to Balaam, and are not mentioned at the end —

where did they go

[where did they go]?

Once he said to them,

Balaam:

“Lodge here tonight, and I shall bring you back word

as the Lord speaks to me,”

they said

in their hearts: If so, if Balaam intends to do only what the Lord will speak to him, he will be of no benefit to us, for surely the Lord will not speak evil concerning Israel. For the Holy One, blessed be He, is Israel’s father —

is there

[indeed]

a father who hates his son?!

Rav Naḥman said: Insolence is effective even toward Heaven.

For

at first it is written,

that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Balaam:

“You shall not go with them.” And at the end,

after Balaam said, “Lodge here tonight, etc.,” which involved insolence toward Heaven, for he thought to himself: Perhaps I will persuade the Holy One, blessed be He, and He will consent,

it is written

that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him:

“Rise, go with them.”

Rav Sheshet said: Insolence —

is a kingdom without a crown

[that is, it is great authority, lacking only the royal crown].

For it is written

that David said:

“And I am today weak, though anointed king, while these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me, etc.”

That is, I am not greater than they except in that I am anointed as king.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Balaam —

was lame

[crippled]

in one leg

. As it is stated: “And he went alone.” [“Alone” is an expression of displacement, as in: “the head of the thigh-bone that was displaced from its place” [Hullin 54b]. That is, it left its place. Here too, this means that his leg was dislocated and he became lame].

“Limping” is an expression of moving something from its place, as in: “the thigh-bone that was dislocated from its place” [Ḥullin 54b]. That is, his leg was dislocated and he became lame].

Samson —

he was lame

in both his legs

was.

As it is stated

in Jacob’s blessing to Dan:

“A serpent on the road, a viper on the path, that bites the horse’s heels”

[“a viper” implies twice “alone”], and Samson was from the tribe of Dan.

Balaam —

was blind in one of his eyes. As it is stated: “with an open eye” [“open” means open

. As Onkelos translated: “who sees well.” That is, one of his eyes was open. It follows that the other eye was closed].

Balaam —

was a diviner with his organ

[like one who practices necromancy with his male organ]

.

For

it is written here,

concerning Balaam:

“Fallen and with uncovered eyes,” and it is written there,

in the Scroll of Esther:

“And Haman fell upon the couch, etc.,”

and when Ahasuerus saw this he said: “Will he even conquer the queen with me in the house?” This refers to intercourse. It follows that Balaam, too, performed his divinations with his organ.

It was stated: Mar Zutra said:

Balaam

was a diviner with his organ .

Mar, the son of Ravina, said: He had intercourse

Balaam

with his she-ass.

The one who says that he was a diviner with his organ —

as we said,

for this matter is learned from what is written here: “Fallen and with uncovered eyes,” and concerning Haman it is written: “And Haman fell upon the couch.”