Sanhedrin 91a — the Talmud in English

His daughter said to him

the emperor’s daughter said to Rabban Gamliel]:

Leave him, and I shall answer him

Leave him, and I shall answer him].

And this is what she said to her father she said to him by way of a parable]:

Two craftsmen

of vessels

are in our city. One craftsman

makes the vessels

from water, and one craftsman

makes them

from clay. Which of them is superior

more?

He said to her: The one who makes them from water

is more excellent, for the usual way is to make them from clay, and not from water.

She said to him:

Yet the Holy One, blessed be He,

formed from water,

for a person is formed from a putrid drop, which is like water;

from clay, is it not all the more so

that He is able to form and give life?

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught,

the emperor’s daughter answered her father as follows:

A kal va-chomer from glass vessels. Just as

glass vessels, whose labor is by the breath of flesh and blood

for their formation is by means of a person’s blowing: he blows into a tube and inflates the glass, and through this forms them], if

they break—

they have a remedy

by melting them and making glass from them again,

flesh and blood, which is made by the breath of the Holy One, blessed be He

—

all the more so

that it has a remedy, and it is possible to give it life again!

A certain heretic said to Rabbi Ami: You say that the dead will live, but they have become dust; and can dust live?

He said to him: I shall give you a parable. To what is the matter comparable? To a flesh-and-blood king who said to his servants: Go and build large palaces for me in a place where there is neither water nor earth.

And although it is difficult to build in such a place, since water and earth are needed for the building, nevertheless

the servants went

the servants

and built it

they exerted themselves and brought water and earth from another place].

After some time, those palaces fell

those palaces.

The king said to them: Go back and build it in a place

else,

where there is

there

earth and water.

They said to him: We are unable

to build it.

He became angry with them

the king

and said to them: In a place where there is neither water nor earth,

where building is very difficult—

you built; now

that there is water and earth—

all the more so

that you are able to build!

So too, the Holy One, blessed be He: if He created a person from a small drop that has no substance, all the more so can He create him from dust.

And if you do not believe

that the Holy One, blessed be He, creates from dust,

go out to the valley and see a mouse that today is half flesh and half earth [

there is one species of this kind that is not produced through reproduction, but is created from the earth; it began today to be created and emerge from the dust],

tomorrow it will swarm—

and become

entirely flesh,

and it walks while alive.

Perhaps you will say

that just as that mouse is created from the dust

over a long period of time,

that is, after a week or two, so the Holy One, blessed be He, does not give the dead life immediately from the dust!

Go up to the mountain and see that today there is nothing on it but one snail [

it is a worm that emerges from the sea once in seventy years, and with its blood they dye the tekhelet in tzitzit]

one.

For this is its manner: at first, only one snail is visible on the entire mountain.

Tomorrow rains will fall—

and it will be filled entirely [

the entire mountain]

with snails.

This proves that the Holy One, blessed be He, has the ability to give life immediately.

A certain heretic said to Geihazi ben Pesisah [

that was his name]:

Woe to you, sinners [

Woe to you, wicked ones],

for you say that the dead will live [

that you say that the dead are destined to live]! For

those who live—

die [

those who are alive, we see that they ultimately die]; if so, how is it possible

that the dead—

will live [

that the dead will ultimately return to life]?

He said to him

Geihazi ben Pesisah:

Woe to you, sinners, for you say that the dead will not live!

For

those who did not exist—

live [

those who never existed are created and born and live]. If so,

those who existed live,

those who have already lived,

is it not all the more so

that they will live again in the future?

The heretic said to him

the certain heretic:

You called me a sinner [

you call me wicked]?!

If I stand,

if I arise —

I will kick you and straighten out your crookedness from you [

I will kick you and straighten your crookedness. Geihazi had a crookedness in his back].

Geihazi said to him

Geihazi:

If you do so—

you will be called a skilled physician, and you will receive much payment.

The Sages taught: On the twenty-fourth of

the month of

Nisan

78, the dimosnaei were removed from Judea

and Jerusalem [the challengers, violent men, who wished to take a portion of Judea and Jerusalem, were removed].

This was

when the people of Africa came

to litigate with Israel before Alexander of Macedon.

The people of Africa said

to Alexander:

The land of Canaan is ours! For

it

is written

in the Torah concerning the Land of Israel:

“The land of Canaan according to its borders,” and

therefore

Canaan—

was the father of these people [

was the father of these people. And they were saying this about themselves]! If so, the Land of Israel is ours, and the children of Israel inherited it unlawfully.

Geihazi ben Pesisah said to the Sages: Give me permission, and I will go and litigate with them before Alexander of Macedon.

If they defeat me

the people of Africa—

say

to them: There is nothing in this, for

you defeated the least distinguished among us.

And if I defeat them—

say to them: The Torah of Moses has defeated you.

The Sages gave him

permission,

and he went and litigated with them

before Alexander.

He said to them

Geihazi:

From where do you bring proof?

They said to him: From the Torah,

from the verse cited above.

He said to them: I too shall not bring you proof—

except from the Torah. As it is stated

after Canaan saw the nakedness of his father Noah [and sinned, as is explained there by the commentators]:

“And he said

Noah:

‘Cursed be Canaan; a slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers.’”

If so, Canaan is a slave to the children of Israel. And

a slave who acquired property—to whom does the slave belong, and to whom does the property belong?

Everything a slave acquires belongs to his master!

The same law applies here. Even if it is as you say, that you initially received the Land of Israel, in the end you are slaves to Israel, and what you acquired, we acquired, for we are your masters!

And furthermore,

not only do you have no claim against us,

but

on the contrary, we have a claim against you,

for how many years

have passed since you became our slaves,

without having served us,

and if so, you owe us a great sum of money!

King Alexander said to them

to the people of Africa:

Return to him

to Geihazi ben Pesisah

an answer!

They said to him: Give us three days’ time

to think, and afterward we shall give an answer.

He gave them

the

time

that they requested.

The people of Africa investigated

and searched—and

found no answer

to the claim of Geihazi ben Pesisah.

Immediately they fled,

so that they would not be made slaves to Israel,

and left their fields while they were sown, and their vineyards while they were planted.

And that year—

was a Sabbatical year [

the year of shemitta]

it was,

and Israel had nothing to eat.

Since these people fled and left their fields in Africa while they were sown and planted, they ate from them during the Sabbatical year.

Again,

another time,

the people of Egypt came to litigate with Israel before Alexander of Macedon.

The people of Egypt said to him

to Alexander:

Behold, it says

in the verse that before Israel left Egypt, Moses told the people to ask the Egyptians for silver vessels and gold vessels, and indeed they asked them from them, as it is written:

“And the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of Egypt, and they lent them.”

If so, you possess the money of our ancestors

! Give us the silver and gold that you took from him [

from us]!

Geihazi ben Pesisah said to the Sages: Give me permission, and I will go and litigate with them before Alexander.

If they defeat me, say to them: You defeated the least distinguished among us.

And if I defeat them, say to them: The Torah of Moses our teacher has defeated you.

They gave him permission, and he went and litigated with them.

He said to them: From where do you bring proof?

They said to him: From the Torah.

He said to them: I too shall not bring you proof—

except from the Torah. As it is stated: “And the dwelling of the children of Israel, who dwelled in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” Now Israel served the Egyptians throughout all those years, and the Egyptians paid Israel nothing for this

! Give us wages for the labor of six hundred thousand

people,

whom you enslaved

them

in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years,

which is many times more than the value of those silver and gold vessels that you are demanding from us!

Alexander of Macedon said to them

to the Egyptians:

Give him an answer!

They said to him: Give us three days’ time.

He gave them time.

They investigated—

but found no answer.

Immediately they left their fields while they were sown, and their vineyards while they were planted, and fled,

so that they would not demand that labor payment from them.

And that year—

was a Sabbatical year.

And once again the people of Ishmael and the people of Keturah

came to litigate with Israel before Alexander of Macedon.

They said to him: The land of Canaan—

is ours and yours

it is.

For it is written: “And these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham,”

and it is written: “And these are the generations of Isaac, the son of Abraham.”

Thus Ishmael and Isaac were sons of Abraham. If so, the land of Canaan must be divided equally between us!

Geihazi ben Pesisah said to the Sages: Give me permission, and I will go and litigate with them before Alexander of Macedon.

If they defeat me, say: You defeated the least distinguished among us.

And if I defeat them, say to them: The Torah of Moses our teacher has defeated you.

They gave him permission; he went and litigated with them.

He said to them: From where do you bring proof?

They said to him: From the Torah.

He said to them: I too shall not bring proof—

except from the Torah. As it is stated: “And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the sons of the concubines who belonged to Abraham, Abraham gave gifts.”

A father who gave documents

documents, writings

to his sons during his lifetime,

who divided all his property among his sons while alive, and wrote in the documents that no one should take anything from his fellow’s portion,

and sent one away from the other

that is, separated them from one another, so that there would no longer be any connection between them, and sent each one to another place,

does one have anything belonging to the other at all

from now on?

So too here: behold, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines, namely Ishmael and his offspring [and the sons of Keturah and their offspring], and sent them away from him. And all the other property that he had, he gave to Isaac. From now on, the sons of the concubines have nothing belonging to the offspring of Isaac .

What are

what were

those gifts

that Abraham gave to the sons of the concubines?

Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba said: This teaches that he transmitted to them a name of impurity.

That is, the power of sorcery and the practice of demons .

Antoninus said to Rabbi: The body and the soul

of a person

can exempt themselves from judgment

from the judgment of the Holy One, blessed is He, in the future!

How?

The body says:

the

soul

is the one that

sinned.

And the proof is

that from the day it separated

the soul

from me—

I lie like a silent stone in the grave,

and I no longer sin.

And

if the

soul says:

the

body

is the one that

sinned.

And the proof is

that from the day I separated from it—

I

fly through the air like a bird ,

and I do not sin .

He said to him

Rabbi:

I will compare a parable for you. To what is this matter similar? To a flesh-and-blood king who had a beautiful orchard,