Shekalim 14a (יד.) — the Talmud in English

And he knew

this rock

[which rock]

had cold water

[its waters were cool],

and this rock had warm springs

[and some were warm].

And how far did its warm waters extend

[and how far did its warmth reach].

Rabbi Eliezer said:

Although he was engaged in this endeavor and concerned that there should be water for the pilgrims to drink, nevertheless

his son died of thirst.

Rabbi Hanina said: Whoever says that the Merciful One is lenient, may his intestines become disordered

[Whoever says that the Holy One, blessed be He, is lenient, that He overlooks those who transgress His word—“may his intestines become disordered,” so that they turn over and cease to function].

Rather,

the Holy One, blessed be He, is accustomed to

restrain His anger, and

in the end He

collects His due!

For He is not lenient; rather, He restrains His anger, and ultimately collects His debt.

We also learn this from the incident involving Neḥunya, the digger of cisterns: Although he was engaged in this mitzva, nevertheless his son died of thirst, because Neḥunya did not cover the pits, since there is no overlooking before Him.

And although, according to the law, he was exempt from covering them, since he had handed them over to the public, nevertheless the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting with the righteous to the measure of a hairsbreadth.

And

as Rav Aḥa said: It is written

in Psalms:

“And exceedingly exacting with those around Him.”

The meaning of the verse is that with regard to those who are around the Holy One, blessed be He—that is, the righteous, who are close to Him and cleave to Him—

the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting

with

them

regarding their deeds

to the measure of a hairsbreadth.

And the expression “exceedingly exacting” is an expression referring to a hair.

Rabbi Yose said: It is not for this reason

that we learn this.

Rather, from that which is written

in Psalms:

“And He is awe-inspiring toward all those around Him.”

It is apparent, then, that the Holy One, blessed be He, imposes His

awe

and the dread of His judgment

upon those close

to Him

more than upon those who are far away.

Rabbi Ḥaggai said in the name of Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani: There was an incident involving a certain pious man who would dig cisterns, pits, and caves for passersby.

Once, his daughter was passing

on her way

to be married, and a river swept her away.

And all the people were going in to him.

They sought to comfort him

[and all the people went to him to comfort him],

but he did not accept consolation from them

[and he did not accept their condolences].

Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair entered

[came in]

to him. He wished to comfort him, but the man did not accept consolation from him

[and he, too, wished to comfort him with words, but the pious man did not accept his consolation].

He said to them

[to them] Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair: Is

this your pious man

[is this the one whom you call pious]? Yet he does not justify the judgment upon himself and does not accept consolation!

They said to him

to Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair:

Rabbi, this and that is what he used to do,

for he would dig water pits for the needs of the public.

And this and that happened to him,

for the river waters came and swept away his daughter on her way to her wedding.

He said to them

Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair: If he acted in this way for the sake of Heaven, is it

possible that he honored his Creator with water and He would cut him off

and punish him

with water—

by drowning his daughter in the river waters? This is impossible. Rather, his daughter will certainly emerge from the river.

Immediately there fell

a

report throughout the city: “The daughter of that man has arrived!”

She had been saved from the river’s flood.

Some say:

She was saved

by clinging to a branch—

a branch happened to come her way in the river, she grasped it, and emerged.

And some say: An angel descended

from Heaven

in the likeness of Rabbi Pinḥas ben Yair, and saved her.

We learned in our Mishna:

Gavini

was appointed over the

caller, who would make proclamations in the Temple

in the morning.

And

what would he say? “Rise, priests, for the service; Levites, to your platform; and Israelites, to your station.”

King Agrippa heard his voice

when Gavini proclaimed,

as far away as eight parasangs.

And he gave him many gifts.

Ben Gavvar—

was appointed

over locking the gates.

Rav translated

[interpreted]

“kumi”

[before]

the house of Rabbi Sheila

the statement that we learned in the first chapter of Yoma: Every day they removed the ashes from the altar, from the ashes upon it, at “the call of the man.”

And he said: “the call of the man” means:

“the man called and the caller proclaimed”

[the man called and proclaimed], and this was the call of Gavini, who would proclaim: “Priests, rise for your service.”

The members of the house of Rabbi Sheila said to him

: From where do you know how to interpret “the call of the man” as the call of Gavini?

Say

, interpret “the call of the man” to mean:

“The rooster called!”

For the rooster is called “man,” as we say in tractate Yoma: One who sets out on a journey before the call of the man. This is the rooster’s call.

He said to them

: Is it the case that wherever the term “man” is taught, it refers to a rooster?

But we learned

in our Mishna:

Ben Gavvar

over the gates. Can

you say

that

it is the son of a rooster

?

It necessarily follows that not every place where “man” is mentioned refers to a rooster; sometimes it refers to a human being, and sometimes to a rooster.

We learned in our Mishna:

Ben Bavi

was appointed

over the lash.

And what would he do?

He would join the wicks,

twisting and braiding them.

Rabbi Yose entered

[came in]

Kufra

[a place].

They wanted to appoint over them

[he wished to appoint over them]

administrators

[charity collectors],

but they did not accept it from him

[they did not wish to undertake the position of administrators].

He entered and said before them

[he came in and said to them]: This is what we learned in the Mishna:

Ben Bavi

was appointed

over the lash.

Thus, he was included among the worthy officials in every generation.

And if this one

[Ben Bavi],

who was appointed

only

over

the repair of

the wicks, merited being counted among the great men of the generation,

you, who are appointed over the lives of people,

over charity and the needs of the public,

all the more so

should not refuse to accept appointment to this important position.

We learned in our Mishna:

Ben Arza

was appointed

over the cymbal.

As we learned there

in tractate Tamid: When the High Priest came to pour wine as a libation on the altar,

the deputy waved cloths.

And when they saw the cloths,

Ben Arza struck the cymbal,

and afterward all the Levites began to sing.

Hugras ben Levi

was appointed

over the song.

Rabbi Aḥa said: He knew an exceptional melody

which Hugras could produce with his mouth,

and they said of Hugras ben Levi that he would beautify his voice in song.

And when he would place his thumb inside his mouth, he would produce several kinds of melody.

And all his fellow priests would recoil from him with a sudden movement

[they recoiled from the sound of his voice] backward.

We learned in our Mishna:

The house of Garmu

was appointed

over the preparation of the showbread.

The Sages taught:

The house of Garmu were expert in the preparation of the showbread and in removing it

from the oven. It was a highly skilled craft to remove it without breaking the bread, since the showbread was shaped like a box with its cover removed and with two opposite walls.

And they did not wish to teach

this craft to others.

Therefore, the Sages dismissed them from their service. And

the Sages sent

and brought craftsmen from Alexandria

in Egypt

who were expert in preparing the showbread,

baking it properly; however,

in removing it

from the oven

they were not expert

in removing it as the members of the house of Garmu did.

For

the house of Garmu would heat

the oven

from within and bake

the loaves

within

the oven, and the bread was thoroughly baked;

and it would not become moldy.

But these—

the people of Alexandria—

would heat

the oven

from outside and bake

the bread

from outside,

on top of the oven and not inside it [the version of the Vilna Gaon; and so it is in the Babylonian Talmud], because they were afraid to bake it inside, lest the bread break when it was removed. Since the heat of the oven did not penetrate the bread sufficiently, it was not fully baked.

And

therefore

it became moldy.

But the house of Garmu, who were expert at removing the showbread, were not afraid to bake the bread inside, and because of this the bread did not become moldy.

When the Sages learned of this matter,

that the people of Alexandria were not expert at removing the bread and therefore baked it from outside, causing the bread to become moldy,

they said: “Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created—

He created for His glory.

As it is stated: ‘Everything the Lord has done

is for His sake.’”

And this is not for His glory; rather, it is a disgrace that the bread becomes moldy.

Therefore,

they sent for them

[the members of the house of Garmu] to restore them to their service,

but they did not wish to come until the Sages doubled their

wages

[from the funds of the Chamber collection].

Until then,

they had received twelve maneh

each day as their wages, and now they increased their wages

and gave them twenty-four

maneh.

Rabbi Yehuda says: Twenty-four

maneh

they had received

each day,

and they gave them

now

forty-eight

maneh.

The Sages said to them

:

Why do you not wish to teach

the craft of making and removing the showbread?

The members of the house of Garmu said to them

:

We have a tradition from our fathers that this House

[the Temple]

is destined to be destroyed,

and we fear

that others will teach

who are unworthy, and they will go

and perform

this act

before their idolatry.

And in these matters the Sages mention them

in their praise:

“No fine bread ever emerged from the homes of their children,”

rather, they ate coarse bread, which was not fine and could not be confused with or exchanged for the showbread, so that

people would not be

saying and murmuring

that they were eating from the preparation of the showbread

that they had received from their fathers—

that they were eating it.

We learned in our Mishna:

The house of Avtinas

was appointed

over the preparation of the incense.

The Sages taught:

The members of the house of Avtinas were expert in the preparation of the incense,

knowing how to grind the spices and mix them properly.

They were likewise expert

and

familiar

with

the herb called

“smoke-riser,”

which caused the smoke to rise straight upward, ascending like a staff,

but they did not wish to teach

this to others, and therefore the Sages dismissed them from their service.

And

they sent and brought craftsmen from Alexandria of Egypt, and they were

these craftsmen

expert in preparing the incense,

knowing how to grind the spices and mix them properly; however,

they were not expert in the smoke-riser,

as no one knew the herb except the members of the house of Avtinas.

It does not mean that they did not recognize the herb “smoke-riser” at all, for the smoke-riser is one of the ingredients of the incense, and if one omitted any of its ingredients, he is liable to death. Rather, they knew another herb that produced smoke, but not as effectively.

Therefore, the incense

of the house of Avtinas rose upward in a column

straight

like a staff.

When the incense smoke reached the ceiling of the Sanctuary, its column

spread

[it spread to the sides] and

descended.

But

the incense

of these men

who came from Alexandria

spread

[dispersed]

immediately

downward, at the beginning of the smoke’s ascent.

And

when the Sages learned of this matter,

that the craftsmen from Alexandria were not expert in the smoke-riser,

they said: “Everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created, He created for His glory.

As it is stated: ‘Everything that is called by My Name and for My glory I created;

I formed it and even made it.’ Therefore, we must restore the house of Avtinas to their service.”

The Sages sent

after

them

to restore them to their service,

but they did not wish to come until the Sages doubled their

wages

[from the funds of the Chamber collection].

Until then,

they had received twelve maneh

as their wages each day, and now they increased their wages

and gave them twenty-four

maneh.

Rabbi Yehuda says: Twenty-four

maneh

they had received

each day,

and they gave them

now

forty-eight

maneh.

The Sages said to them

:

Why do you not wish to teach

the craft of preparing the incense?

The members of the house of Avtinas said to them

:

We have a tradition from our fathers that this House is destined to be destroyed,

and we fear

that others will teach

who are unworthy the preparation of the incense,

and they will perform it before their idolatry.

And

in these matters the Sages mention them

in their praise:

No woman from any of their households ever went out perfumed.

Moreover, when one of them married a woman from elsewhere,

who was unfamiliar with this practice of the house of Avtinas,

he would stipulate

and make an agreement

with her

that he was marrying her

on condition that she would not perfume herself.

So that

people would not

be

saying

and murmuring that

from the preparation of the incense

in which their husbands were engaged,

they were being perfumed.

And they practiced this precaution

to fulfill what is stated: “And you shall be clear before the Lord and before Israel.”

Rabbi Yose said: Once I was standing in Jerusalem, and I found a certain child from the house of Avtinas. I said to him: My son, from which family are you?

He said to me: From the family of so-and-so.

That is, from the family of the house of Avtinas.

I said to him: My son, your fathers, because they intended to increase their own honor

by refusing to teach the preparation of the incense,

and to diminish

thereby

the honor of Heaven.

Therefore, their honor was diminished,

because once the Temple was destroyed, their craft was no longer needed,

while the honor of Heaven was increased.

[In tractate Yoma, page 38a, the version reads: “And the honor of the Omnipresent remains in its place.” See the Korban HaEdah.]

Rabbi Akiva said: Shimon ben Loga told me:

Once I went out to the field, and

I was gathering

herbs, I and a certain child from

the family of

the house of Avtinas.

And I saw him crying, and

then

I saw him laughing.

I said to him: My son, why did you cry?

He said to me: For the honor of my father’s house, which has diminished

with the destruction of the Temple, because the service of the incense and the smoke-riser ceased—that is why I cry.

I said to him:

And why did you laugh?

He said to me: For the honor prepared for the righteous in the future,

when the Temple will be rebuilt and the smoke-riser will again be needed.

I said to him:

And what did you see

now that caused you to remember this, cry, and laugh?

He said to me: “I saw a herb

that produced smoke before me,

and therefore I remembered the honor of my father, which had diminished with the absence of this herb, and which is destined to return in the future.”

I replied [

I said ]

to him: “My son, show it to me

alone, for I will certainly be careful that this herb does not reach idolatry.”

He said to me: “Rabbi, I have a tradition from my ancestors not to show it to anyone!”

And Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri said:

Once,

an old man from the house of Avtinas encountered me, carrying a scroll of ingredients

for the incense

in his hand.

He said to me: “Rabbi, formerly my father’s household were discreet,