Shabbat 118b (קיח:) — the Talmud in English

“And I will mount you upon the high places of the land”.

“And I will feed you”

“with the inheritance of Jacob your father.”

Not like

the inheritance of

Abraham,

which has boundaries, as

it is written [

Genesis 13 ]

“Arise, walk through the land through its length

and through its breadth”; that is, this land, and no more.

And not like

the inheritance of

Isaac,

which was also an inheritance with boundaries, as

it is written [

Genesis 26 ]

“For to you and to your offspring I shall give all these lands,”

and no more.

Rather, like

the inheritance of

Jacob, of whom it is written [

Genesis 28 ]

“And you shall spread forth westward and eastward and northward and southward.”

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: He is saved from the subjugation of the exiles. Here it is written, “And I will mount you upon the high places of

the land,” and there it is written [

Deuteronomy 33 ]

“And you shall tread upon their high places.”

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Whoever delights in Shabbat is granted the desires of his heart.

As it is stated [

Psalms 37 ]

“Delight in the Lord—

and He will grant you the desires of your heart.”

“This delight”—I do not know what it is.

When it says, “And you shall call Shabbat ‘delight,’”—

you must say: This is the delight of Shabbat.

With what does one make it delightful?

Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Shilat, said in the name of Rav: With a dish of spinach,

which is an important dish,

and large fish and heads of garlic.

Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi said in the name of Rav: Even a small thing, if he prepared it in honor of Shabbat—

this is delight.

What is

a small thing?

Rav Pappa said: Kasa de-harsena.

A dish of small fish fried in the oil from their entrails, together with flour.

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: Whoever observes Shabbat according to its halakhic requirements,

even

if he

worshipped idolatry like the generation of Enosh,

the grandson of Adam, in whose generation idolatry began to be worshipped [while Adam, the handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He, was still alive!],

he is forgiven.

As it is stated [

Isaiah 56 ]

“Fortunate is the person

who does

this:

one who observes Shabbat—

from profaning it.”

Do not read: “from profaning it,” but rather: “he is forgiven.”

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Had Israel observed the first Shabbat,

no nation or tongue would have ruled over them.

As it is stated [

Exodus 16 ]

“And it happened on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather.” And it is written

after it,

in the following passage—

“And Amalek came.”

This teaches that had they observed the first Shabbat, Israel’s enemies would no longer have been able to wage war against them.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: Had Israel observed two Shabbatot according to their halakhic requirements—

they would be redeemed immediately.

As it is stated [

Isaiah 56 ]

“So says the Lord concerning the eunuchs who observe My Shabbatot.” And it is written afterward

“And I will bring them to My holy mountain.”

Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those who eat three meals on Shabbat.

Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those who complete Hallel every day.

And we challenge this:

Is that so?

But the Master said: One who recites Hallel every day—

behold, this person blasphemes and curses!

Since the recitation of Hallel was instituted by the early prophets to be said at specific times and when the community was saved from distress. One who says it every day is like one who sings a song that people customarily sing constantly; he is considered to be mocking, rather than praising and glorifying.

And we answer:

When we say

that his portion is fortunate, it is

when

he recites verses of Hallel in

the Pesukei de-Zimra,

such as “Praise the Lord from the heavens” and “Praise God in His sanctuary.” These are chapters of praise.

Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those who pray at twilight,

in the morning close after sunrise, and in the evening close before sunset, for at that time the sky reddens; this is “the twilight of the sun.”

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: It is a mitzva to pray at twilight.

Rabbi Zeira said: What is the verse?

As it is written [

Psalms 72 ]

“May they fear You

with the rising of the

sun, and before

the setting of the

moon, throughout all generations.”

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among

those

who die

from

intestinal illness,

for through their suffering their sins are cleansed.

For the Master said: Most of the righteous—

die from intestinal illness.

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those who die on the way while engaged in a mitzva.

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those who usher in Shabbat in Tiberias,

which lies in a valley, and Shabbat arrives there early,

and among those who take leave of Shabbat in Sepphoris,

which lies on a mountain, and Shabbat ends there late.

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among the “seaters of the house of study,”

whose task is to gather and bring the students every day,

and not among the “standers of the house of study,”

whose task is to announce the end of the studies because the time for eating has arrived.

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among the collectors of charity,

who collect it from the public,

and not among the distributors of charity,

who may err in their judgment regarding how to distribute it fairly among the poor.

And Rabbi Yosei said: May my portion be among those whom people suspect, but who are innocent.

Rav Pappa said: As for me, people suspected me, but I was not guilty.

Rabbi Yosei said: I engaged in intercourse five times, and planted five cedars in Israel.

And who are they—

Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei; Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Yosei; Rabbi Ḥalafta, son of Rabbi Yosei; Rabbi Avtilas, son of Rabbi Yosei; and Rabbi Menaḥem, son of Rabbi Yosei.

And we challenge this:

But there is also

another,

Vardimas,

son of Rabbi Yosei!?

And we answer:

“This is Vardimas”—

this is Menaḥem.

And why did he call him Vardimas—

because his face resembled a rose.

It follows from Rabbi Yosei’s words that he engaged in intercourse only five times.

And we are astonished: Do we have

to say,

that is,

that Rabbi Yosei did not fulfill the mitzva of marital relations,

which every husband is obligated to fulfill for his wife,

at all?

Rather, say

that this is what Rabbi Yosei meant:

“I engaged in intercourse five times and repeated it,”

that is, five times it happened that he engaged in an additional act of intercourse after the first, in order to have male children. Through this additional act he merited these five “plantings,” as we say in tractate Eruvin: One who wishes to have male children should engage in intercourse and repeat it.

Rabbi Yosei said:

Even in my mundane conversation there is a lesson in wisdom:

“I never called my wife—

my wife, nor my ox—

my ox. Rather,

my wife,

since she is the foundation of the household, I called

my house.

And my ox,

since it is the foundation of the field, through which it can be plowed so that it will produce grain, I called

my field.”

Rabbi Yosei said: I have never looked at my organ

of circumcision,

out of modesty.

And we challenge this:

Is that so? For they said to Rabbi: Why did they call you Our Holy Rabbi?

He said to them: I have never looked at my organ of circumcision.

If so, why was Rabbi Yosei also not called “Our Holy Rabbi”?

And we answer:

In Rabbi—

there was another matter,

through which he was called holy:

he never placed his hand beneath his belt,

toward the lower part of his body.

And Rabbi Yosei said: The beams of my house never saw the hems of my garment,

which were sewn on the garment’s inner side.

This means that he conducted himself modestly when removing his garment. He did not open it and turn it inside out; rather, he first covered himself with a sheet and then removed it from the head, as one does when putting it on.

And Rabbi Yosei said: I have never violated the words of my colleagues. I know about myself that I am not a koen,

but

if my colleagues say to me, “Go up to the platform,”—

I go up.

And Rabbi Yosei said: In all my days I have never said a word

about another person in the presence of three people

and turned

back.

For if I had spoken about a particular person, truthfully, in his presence, there would be no prohibition of lashon hara in doing so. And if that person had come, I would not have retracted my words; rather, I would have told him that I had indeed said those true things about him.

Rav Naḥman said: May it be credited to me

[meaning: Fortunate is my portion]

that I fulfill

the mitzva of

three

meals on Shabbat.

Rav Yehuda said: May it be credited to me that I fulfill the mitzva of attentiveness in prayer

that I prayed with complete concentration.

Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said: May it be credited to me that I have never walked four cubits bareheaded .

Rav Sheshet said: May it be credited to me that I fulfill the mitzva of tefillin,

for I do not walk four cubits without them .

And Rav Naḥman said: May it be credited to me that I fulfill the mitzva of tzitzit,

for I do not walk four cubits without fulfilling the mitzva of tzitzit.

Rav Yosef said to Rav Yosef, son of Rabba: With regard to what was your father particularly careful?

He said to him: With regard to tzitzit.

One day he was ascending a ladder,

he went up a ladder,

and one of its strings broke

from his tzitzit.

And he did not descend and come down

and did not come down from the ladder,

for as long

as

he had not hung them,

that is, he had not attached the tzitzit strings to the garment.