Sanhedrin 91a (צא.) — the Talmud in English

Her daughter said to him

the emperor’s daughter said to Rabban Gamliel]:

Leave him, and I will answer him

Leave him; I will answer him].

And this is what she said to her father [as an analogy, she said to him]:

There are two potters

of vessels

in our city. One potter forms

the vessels

from water, and one potter forms

them

from clay. Which of them is superior

more?

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

is more accomplished, since the usual way is to form them from clay, and not from water.

She said to him:

But the Holy One, Blessed be He,

forms from water,

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

is it not all the more so from clay

that He is able to form and bring to life?

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught:

This is how the emperor’s daughter replied to her father:

It is a kal va-chomer from glass vessels. What

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

they are formed by a person’s blowing: he blows through a tube and inflates the glass, thereby forming the vessel ], if

they break—

they have a remedy

by melting them down and making glass from them again ,

If flesh and blood, whose formation is by the breath of the Holy One, Blessed be He,

is made—

how much more so

does it have a remedy, and can be brought back to life!

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

He said to him: I will give you an analogy. To what is this 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.

Although it is difficult to build in such a place, since water and earth are needed for construction, nevertheless

the servants went

and

built it

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

After some time, they fell

those palaces.

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

that is different,

where there is

some

earth and water.

They said to him: We cannot

build it.

The king became angry with them

and

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

where building is extremely difficult—

you built it; now

that there is water and earth—

how much more so

are you able to build!

So too, with regard to the Holy One, Blessed be He: if He created a person from a tiny 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 creature that is not formed through reproduction, but is created from the earth; it began to be created and emerge from the dust today],

tomorrow it will swarm—

and become

entirely flesh,

and move about while alive.

Perhaps you will say

that just as that mouse is created from the earth

over a long period,

that is, after a week or two, so too the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not resurrect the dead immediately from the dust!

Climb the mountain and see that today there is nothing on it but one snail

it is a worm that emerges from the sea once every seventy years, and its blood is used to dye the tekhelet of 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 become entirely filled

the entire mountain]

with snails .

This proves that the Holy One, Blessed be He, can bring the dead to life immediately .

A certain heretic said to Geḥazi ben Pesis

that was his name]:

Woe to you, wicked ones

Woe to you, wicked ones],

for you say that the dead will live

that you say the dead will ultimately live]! For

those who live—

die

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

that those who die—

will live

that the dead will ultimately return to life]?

He said to him,

Geḥazi ben Pesis:

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

For

those who did not exist—

live

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

those who did exist 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 call me wicked

You call me wicked]?!

If I rise,

if I stand up —

I will kick you and straighten your crookedness

I will kick you and straighten your crookedness; Geḥazi had a curvature in his back].

Geḥazi said to him,

Geḥazi:

If you do so,—

you will be called a skilled physician, and you will receive a great fee .

The Sages taught: On the twenty-fourth of

the month of

Nisan

78, the violent claimants were removed from Judea

and Jerusalem [the violent disputants who wished to seize a share in Judea and Jerusalem ].

This occurred

when the people of Africa came

to litigate with Israel before Alexander of Macedon.

They said to him,

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 boundaries,” and

and

Canaan—

was the forefather of these people

he was the father of these people; they were referring to themselves in this way]! If so, the Land of Israel is ours, and the Jewish people inherited it unlawfully .

Geḥazi ben Pesis 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 no significance to this, because

you defeated the least worthy 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,

Geḥazi:

From where do you bring proof?

They said to him: From the Torah,

from the verse cited above.

He said to them: I too will 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 is Canaan; he shall be a slave of slaves to his brothers.’”

If so, Canaan is a slave to the Jewish people. And

a slave who acquires property—the slave belongs to whom, and the property belongs to whom?

Everything acquired by a slave is acquired by his master!

The same applies here. Even if, as you claim, you initially possessed the Land of Israel, ultimately you are slaves to Israel; and what you acquired, we acquired, since 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 many years

have passed since you became our slaves

without serving us,

and therefore you owe us a great deal of money!

King Alexander said to

the people of Africa:

Give him

Geḥazi ben Pesis

an answer!

They said to him: Give us three days

to think, after which we will give an answer.

He gave them

the

time

they had requested.

The people of Africa investigated

and searched, but

found no answer

to the claim of Geḥazi ben Pesis.

They immediately fled,

so that they would not be made slaves to Israel,

and left their fields sown and their vineyards planted.

That year—

was a Sabbatical year

the year of shemitta]]

and

there was no food for Israel.

Once these people fled, leaving their fields in Africa sown and planted, the Jewish people ate from them during the Sabbatical year .

Again,

another time,

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

They said to him,

the people of Egypt said to Alexander:

Behold, it says

in the verse that before Israel left Egypt, Moses told the people to ask the Egyptians for silver and gold vessels, and they did ask 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 it

from us]!

Geḥazi ben Pesis 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 worthy 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 will not bring you proof—

but from the Torah. As it is stated: “And the residence of the children of Israel, during which they dwelled in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” The Jewish people worked for the Egyptians throughout all those years, yet the Egyptians paid the Jewish people nothing for it.

Give us wages for the labor of six hundred thousand

people,

whom you enslaved

in

Egypt for four hundred and thirty years ,

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

Alexander of Macedon said to

the Egyptians:

Give him an answer!

They said to him: Give us three days.

He gave them time.

They investigated—

but found no answer.

They immediately left their fields sown and their vineyards planted, and fled,

so that they would not be sued for those wages.

That year—

was a Sabbatical year.

And once again, the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Keturah

came to litigate with Israel before Alexander of Macedon.

They said to him: The land of Canaan—

belongs to us and to you

it does.

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!

Geḥazi ben Pesis 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 worthy 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 will 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 whom Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts.”

A father who gave testamentary documents [

documents, writings ]

to his sons during his lifetime,

who distributed all his property among his sons while still alive, and wrote in the documents that none of them should take anything from his brother’s portion,

and sent one away from the other [

separating them, so that they would have no further connection with one another, and sending each one to a different place],

does either now have any claim against the other

from now on?

So too here: Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines, namely, Ishmael and his descendants [and the sons of Keturah and their descendants], and sent them away from him. But all the other property that he had, he gave to Isaac. From now on, the sons of the concubines have no claim against the descendants 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 the 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 be He, in the future]!

How so?

The body says:

the

soul

is the one that

sinned.

The proof is

that from the day that

the soul

departed 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.

The proof is

that from the day I departed from it—

I am

flitting through the air like a bird ,

and I do not sin .

He said to him

Rabbi:

I shall tell you a parable. To what can this be compared? To a flesh-and-blood king who had a beautiful orchard,