Sanhedrin 39a — the Talmud in English

And these are:

“Fathers shall eat unripe fruit”

“and the teeth of sons shall be set on edge”

Jeremiah 31:28

, “Just balances, just weights”

Leviticus 19:36

, “The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead”

Proverbs 11:8 .

A heretic said

to Rabban Gamliel: “Your God is a thief! For it is written: ‘And the Lord God cast a sleep upon the man, and he slept.’”

His daughter said to him: “Leave him. I shall answer him.”

Leave him; I shall answer him:

She said to him: “Give me one duke.”

Give me one judge, to take revenge.

He said to her: “Why do you need him?”

She said to him:

“Thieves came upon us tonight, and took from us a silver cup, and left us a golden cup.”

He said to her: “Would that they came upon us every day.”

She said to him:

“And was it not good for Adam the first, that they took one rib from him and gave him a maidservant to serve him ?!”

He said to her: “This is what I meant, but let Him take it openly!”

This was my intention in asking: why did He take it from him during sleep, like a thief in a tunnel, and not take it from him openly?

She said to him: “Bring me a piece of raw meat.”

Bring me a piece of raw meat.

They brought it to her; she placed it beneath the ashes, roasted it, took it out, and said to him: “Eat from this.”

When they brought it to her, she placed it beneath the ashes to roast it, and served it to him to eat.

He said to her: “It is repulsive to me,”

since I saw how it was prepared before it was cut, I cannot eat it.

She said to him: “Adam the first, too, if she had been taken openly,

and he had seen how the Holy One, blessed is He, creates the woman,

she would have been repulsive to him.”

Another matter:

A heretic said to Rabban Gamliel: “I know what your God is doing now,”

I know what the Holy One, blessed is He, is doing at this moment .

He slapped his hands and sighed.

Rabban Gamliel struck his hands together and sighed.

He said to him: “What is this?”

Why did you sigh?

He said to him: “I have one son in the cities overseas, and I long for him; I want you to show him to me.”

I want you to show me where he is and what he is doing now.

He said: “Do I know where he is?!”

Do I know where he is?

He said to him: “What is on earth you do not know, and what is in heaven you know?!”

What occurs on earth you do not know, and what occurs in heaven you know?!

A heretic said to Rabban Gamliel: “It is written

Psalms 147:4

‘He counts the number of the stars.’ What greatness is this? I can count the stars!”

How great is this, for I too can count the stars ?

He brought quinces,

them,

threw them into a sieve and kept moving them about,

placed them in a strainer and moved them back and forth.

He said to him: “Count them!”

He said to him: “Set them down.”

Place them in one spot, and then I can count them.

He said to him: “The firmament also moves in this manner.”

The stars too move from here to there in the firmament, and you will not be able to count them.

Some say: This is what he said to him,

the heretic to Rabban Gamliel:

“Count my stars for me.”

That is, I know the number of the stars.

He said to him: “Tell me, how many are your gums and teeth?”

Tell me how many teeth there are in your mouth?

He put his hand into his mouth and began counting them.

He put his hand into his mouth to count his teeth.

He said to him: “What is in your mouth you do not know, and what is in the firmament you know?!”

What is in your mouth you do not know, and what is in heaven you know?!

A heretic said to Rabban Gamliel: “The One who created mountains did not create wind.”

As it is stated

Amos 4:13,

“For behold, He forms mountains

and creates wind.”

It implies that they are two: one formed, and one created.

Rabban Gamliel said to him:

“But from now, concerning man, of whom it is written

Genesis 1:27

‘And He created,’

whereas elsewhere it is written

‘And He formed,’ is it likewise that the One who created this did not create that?!”

And if you will say that indeed some of man’s limbs were created by one and some by another,

what will you say about man’s head, which is

a handbreadth by a handbreadth

that

a man has in it, and there are two openings in it,

eyes and ears—and is it that

the One who created this did not create that?!

As it is stated

Psalms 94:9,

“He who plants the ear, shall He not hear? And He who forms the eye, shall He not see?!”

He said to him: “Yes!”

He said to him: “And

when

at the time of death, all of them,

the planter, the former, and the creator,

were reconciled

to put him to death at that time”?!

That magus said

sorcerer

to Ameimar:

I see through sorcery that

your upper half belongs to Ohrmiz

66, and your lower half belongs to Ahurmiz.

Your upper half was created by a demon, and the lower by the Holy One, blessed is He .

Ameimar said

Ameimar

, “If so, how does Ahurmiz permit

Hormiz to pass water through his domain,

how does Hormiz permit Ahurmiz to pass foul water through his portion? For whatever a person brings into his mouth, he expels through his orifices?

The emperor said to Rabbi Tanḥum: “Come, let us all become one people.”

Come, let us all become one people.

Rabbi Tanḥum said to him: “Gladly! We who are circumcised cannot become like you; you circumcise yourselves and become like us.”

With great honor. But we who are circumcised cannot become like you, and you must circumcise yourselves in order to become like us.

He said to him

the emperor

: “You have spoken well; nevertheless, whoever defeats the king in debate, they throw him into the lion’s den.”

You have answered well. But anyone who defeats the king in an argument is thrown into the lions’ cage.

They threw him into the lions’ den, and they did not eat him.

They threw him into the pit, and the lions did not eat him.

That sectarian said

to the emperor

, “The reason they did not eat him is that they are not hungry.”

They did not eat him because they were not hungry.

They threw him in, and they ate him.

They threw that sectarian in, and the lions ate him.

A heretic said to Rabban Gamliel: “You say that wherever there are ten, the Divine Presence rests ,

the Divine Presence rests upon every ten Israelites; if so,

how many

Divine Presences are there?”

He called for the heretic’s servant and struck him on the neck.

He said to him: “Why is there sunlight in the heretic’s house?”

Rabban Gamliel called the heretic’s servant, struck him on the neck, and said to him: Why did you allow the sun to enter the heretic’s house?!

He said to him

the heretic

: “The sun is agreeable to everyone.”

That is, the sun shines equally for all the people of the world.

He said to him:

“And if the sun, which is one among a thousand thousand myriads of suns that are before the Holy One, blessed is He, is agreeable to everyone, how much more so the Divine Presence of the Holy One, blessed is He,”

which can rest upon the entire world.

That sectarian said to Rabbi Abbahu: “Your God is a jester.”

That is, He plays with His prophets.

For He says to Ezekiel,

Ezekiel 4:4,

“Lie on your left side,” and it is written

there, 6

“And you shall lie on your right side.”

And at that same gathering,

that student came

before Rabbi Abbahu

, and said to him: “What is the reason for the Sabbatical year?”

Why did the Holy One, blessed is He, command concerning the Sabbatical year?

He said to him: “Now I shall tell you something that is suitable for both of you.”

I shall tell you something that is equally suitable for both of you.

The Holy One, blessed is He, said to Israel: ‘Sow for six and let the seventh lie fallow,

so that you will know that the land is Mine,’

and your heart will not grow haughty over the praise of your land, and you will forget the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven.

But they did not do so; rather, they sinned and were exiled.

The practice of the world is that when a flesh-and-blood king has a province that has acted corruptly toward him, if he is cruel, he kills them all; if he is merciful, he kills half of them; if he is wholly merciful and full of mercy, he afflicts the greatest among them with afflictions.

So too the Holy One, blessed is He, afflicts Ezekiel in order to cleanse the sins of Israel .

That sectarian said to Rabbi Abbahu:

Behold,

“Your God is a priest, for it is written

Exodus 25:2

‘And let them take an offering for Me,’”

and if so,

“When He buried Moses, in what did He immerse?”

And if you will say, in water, is it not written

Isaiah 40:12,

“Who measured the waters in His hand”?

He said to him: “In fire”

in fire

“He immersed.”

For it is written,

Isaiah 66:15,

“For behold, the Lord shall come in fire.”

And is immersion in fire effective,

does immersion in fire avail?!

He said to him: “On the contrary! The essence of immersion is in fire.”

For it is written,

Numbers 31:23,

“And whatever shall not

come into the fire, you shall pass through water” .

That sectarian said to Rabbi Avina: “It is written, ‘Who is like Your people, like Israel, one nation in the land.’ What is their greatness? You too have mingled with us,

and He did not exclude you either,

for it is written

Isaiah 40:17,

‘All the nations are as nothing before Him’?”