Shabbat 55a — the Talmud in English

And we raised an objection:

If the ministers

sinned —

in what did the elders sin?

Rather, say:

Hashem will enter into judgment

with the elders,

who are the Sanhedrin, because

they did not rebuke the ministers

who were sinning.

Rav Yehuda was sitting before Shmuel. A certain woman came, and she was crying out before him. And Shmuel did not

pay attention to

her

, he did not relate to her cries.

Rav Yehuda said to him:

Rav Yehuda said: And does

my master not hold

the verse

“He who stops his ear from the cry of the poor —

he too will cry out, and not be answered

by Hashem”!?

He said to him: Shinana [

sharp one, for this was Rav Yehuda’s appellation],

your head [

your teacher, that is, I] — is judged

with

cold

water!

And this is a metaphor: I am not scalded and punished for not paying attention to the woman’s dispute, since the matter is not in my hands to save her.

But

the head of your head [

Mar Ukva, who was the teacher of your teacher, that is, head both for you and for me] — he will be scalded

with hot water,

for he will be punished for this.

For Mar Ukva was sitting

who was

the head of the court,

and it was in his power to save her.

For

it

is written: “House of David, so said Hashem: Judge justice in the morning, and rescue the robbed from the hand of the oppressor. Lest My wrath go forth like fire, and it burn with none to extinguish it, because of the evil of their deeds.”

Thus, only one who has the power to judge and did not judge will be punished.

Rabbi Zeira said to Rav Simon: Let my master rebuke these of the house of the Exilarch

for their evil deeds!

Rav Simon said to him:

I do not rebuke them because

they do not accept from me

my rebuke.

He said to him

Rabbi Zeira:

Even though

you think

that they do not accept

the rebuke, nevertheless

let my master rebuke them,

for perhaps they will nevertheless accept the rebuke.

For

it

Rabbi Aha bar Rabbi Hanina said: A favorable decree [

a good matter]

never issued from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed is He, and He retracted it for the bad.

Except for this matter:

except in this matter:

For it is written

in Ezekiel’s prophecy [chapter 9]:

“And Hashem said to him,

to the angel Gabriel:

‘Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and mark a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan

over all the abominations that are done within it!’”

And so

the Holy One, blessed is He, said to Gabriel: Go and write upon the foreheads of the righteous

of Jerusalem

a mark of ink,

so that

they will not be ruled over by

those

destroying angels

whom I wish to send against the city.

And upon the foreheads of the wicked

write

a mark of blood,

so that

the destroying angels will rule over them.

Then the Attribute of Justice said before the Holy One, blessed is He: Master of the Universe! What is different about

these

people

who merit a mark of ink and are saved,

from these

people upon whose foreheads a mark of blood is written, and over whom the destroying angels will rule?

The Holy One, blessed is He, said to her:

the Holy One, blessed is He said:

These

who will be saved are

completely righteous, and

these

these

who will be punished are

completely wicked!

The Attribute of Justice said before Him

the Attribute of Justice:

Master of the Universe!

But

it was in the power of

the righteous

to rebuke

the wicked

and they did not rebuke them!

The Holy One, blessed is He, said to her

the Holy One, blessed is He said to her:

It is revealed and known before Me that even if they had rebuked them, the wicked would not have accepted it from them

the rebuke!

The Attribute of Justice said before Him

the Attribute of Justice:

Master of the Universe,

even

if it is revealed before You

the matter,

who knows before them

that they would not accept it from them? Therefore they should have rebuked them. And because they did not rebuke them, they should be held accountable for the sin of the wicked.

And ultimately the Holy One, blessed is He, accepted the claim of the Attribute of Justice.

And this is what is written

at first, when Hashem said to the six destroying angels mentioned there:

“Slay old man, young man, and maiden, to destruction, and against every man upon whom is the mark do not approach”,

so that they would not kill the righteous.

But in the end it is written:

“And from My sanctuary

from the people sanctified to Me, who are the righteous —

begin!”

And

indeed at the end of the verse

it is written: “And they began with the elderly men

the righteous

who were before the House.”

Thus, in the end the words of the accuser were accepted, and even the righteous were punished because they did not rebuke.

As

Rav Yosef taught:

This that is written, “And from My sanctuary begin”

do not read “from

My

sanctuary

begin,”

but “from

My

sanctified ones

begin.”

These are people who fulfilled the entire Torah, from alef to tav,

and nevertheless they were punished first, because they did not rebuke the wicked.

And this is what Rabbi Zeira said to Rav Simon: even though they will not accept his rebuke, he must rebuke them. For because the righteous of Jerusalem did not rebuke the wicked of the city, the Holy One, blessed is He, retracted His statement that He had said to Gabriel, that the righteous would not be punished, and He punished them. And this was so even though in any event they would not have accepted their rebuke.

And immediately: “And behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate that faces north, and each man had his instrument of destruction in his hand, and one man among them was clothed in linen, with the writer’s inkwell at his waist; and they came and stood beside the copper altar.”

And these are the six destroying angels, with the angel Gabriel among them.

And we wondered: Is it possible that

there was a copper altar

in the days of Ezekiel? But Solomon had hidden it when he built the eternal House, and had built in its place a large stone altar of thirty-two cubits.

And we answer: Since the Levites used to sing beside the altar with copper instruments, it was called “the copper altar.”

For the Holy One, blessed is He, said to them: Begin

to destroy from the Levites,

from the place where they utter song before Me

with copper instruments!

And who are the “six men”?

Rav Hisda said:

They are the six destroying angels, who are called

“Wrath,”

“Anger,”

and

“Fury,”

and

“Destroyer,”

and

“Breaker,”

and

“Consumer.”

And what is different about

the letter

“tav”

from the other letters, such that specifically with it did the Holy One, blessed is He, command Gabriel to write upon the foreheads of the righteous and the wicked?

Rav said:

With the letter

“tav”

the word

“you shall live”

begins, and this is the sign for the righteous. And with the letter

“tav”

the word

“you shall die”

begins, and it is the sign for the wicked.

And Shmuel said:

Tav is the beginning of

“the merit of the ancestors has ended.”

And Rabbi Yohanan said:

Tav is the beginning of

“the merit of the ancestors will have mercy.”

And Reish Lakish said: Tav

is

the end of the seal of the Holy One, blessed is He,

whose seal is “truth.”

As Rabbi Hanina said: The seal of the Holy One, blessed is He

is

“truth”!

Since the word “truth” is composed of the first letter of the alphabet, the last letter, and the middle letter, which is mem. On account of “I am the first and I am the last, and I am He.”

Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani said: “Tav” is an allusion to

these human beings

the righteous,

who fulfilled the entire Torah, from alef to tav!

And we raised an objection:

When did the merit of the ancestors end?

Rav said: From the days of Hosea son of Beeri, as it is stated

in Hosea’s prophecy:

“I will uncover her disgrace before her lovers, and no man will rescue her from My hand.”

For from then on the merit of the ancestors would no longer stand for Israel, because they had already used it and “consumed it.”

And Shmuel said: From the days of Hazael, king of Aram

the merit of the ancestors ended.

As it is stated: “And Hazael, king of Aram, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. And it is written: ‘And Hashem was gracious to them and had mercy upon them, and He turned toward them for the sake of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And He did not desire to destroy them, and He did not

cast them away from before Him

— until now’”!

And it implies that only “until now” did the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob stand for them. But from here onward He cast them away and no longer turned toward the covenant of the ancestors.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: From the days of Elijah

the merit of the ancestors ended.

As it is stated: “And it was at the time of the evening offering,

that Elijah the prophet approached and said: ‘Hashem, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today it shall be known that You are God in Israel, and I am Your servant

and

that

by Your word I have done all these things.’”

And from his saying, “today it shall be known,” it implies that only today, and no longer. From then the merit of the ancestors ended.

And Rabbi Yohanan said: Since the days of Hezekiah

the merit of the ancestors came to an end.

As it is stated: “For the increase of dominion, and for peace without end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and to support it through justice and through righteousness, from now and forever, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this”!

And this prophecy was said concerning Hezekiah. And the prophet Isaiah said in his prophecy that from now on, only the zeal of the Lord would establish the kingdom of the House of David, and not the merit of the ancestors.

Rav Ami said: Death does not

come upon a person

without sin. And there is no suffering without iniquity!

There is no death without sin -

for

it is written:

“The soul that sins, it shall die; a son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father shall not bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him

and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him”!

There is no suffering without iniquity -

for

it is written:

“And I shall visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with afflictions”!

And the rod and the afflictions—these are suffering. And he said that they come on account of the visitation of the iniquity.