Sotah 10a (י.) — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said -

the wording of the verse

“shall begin”

became void

Abimelech’s oath.

As it is written

in Genesis, that Abraham swore to Abimelech

“if you will deal falsely with me, or with my son, or with my grandson,”

that he would not harm him or his grandson. Since the Philistines, who were descendants of Abimelech, violated the oath first, Samson too was permitted to violate the oath.

It is written in the verse: after Samson was born

“the child grew, and the Lord blessed him” -

With what did He bless him?

For a blessing denotes increase, yet we find nothing in which Samson increased—not wealth and not anything else.

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav -

He blessed him with regard to his organ,

that it should be

the size of

that of other

human beings, and his offspring

would thereby be

like a rushing stream,.

meaning that his offspring would be blessed.

It is written in the verse: after the Philistines seized Samson and he was in a house with the Philistines,

“Samson called to the Lord and said: Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me, only this time, and let me take vengeance with one act of vengeance for my two eyes”

“upon the Philistines.”

Rav said:

Samson said before the Holy One, blessed be He:

“Master of the Universe, remember the twenty years during which I judged Israel, and I never said to any one of them

even a minor request, such as

‘Move my staff from one place to another.’

It is written in the verse: when Samson wished to punish the Philistines,

“Samson went and caught three hundred foxes,”

and he took torches, placed tail to tail, and put one torch between the two tails, inside -

Why foxes?

Why did he specifically take foxes? The fox is the most difficult of animals to capture.

Rabbi Aivu bar Nagdi said that Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said:

Rabbi Aivu bar Nagdi said in the name of Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba: Samson said: Let a fox come,

whose nature when it is hunted is

to turn backward,

as it does not flee but turns back,

and exact retribution from the Philistines, who reneged on their oath.

It was taught in a baraita:

Rabbi Shimon the Pious said:

Between

the width of

Samson’s shoulders there were sixty cubits.

As it is stated:

“Samson lay until midnight, and he arose at midnight, and he grasped the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and pulled them out together with the bar, and placed them on his shoulders.”

And we have received a tradition

that

the doors of Gaza were no less than sixty cubits wide,

and they filled the entire width of his shoulders, from which we learn that his shoulders were sixty cubits wide.

It is written in the verse -

“And he was grinding in the prison house.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

“Grinding” is only an expression for sexual transgression.

And so it says:

“Let my wife grind for another,”

meaning: let another man have relations with my wife -

And this

teaches that each and every one brought his wife to him in the prison house so that she would conceive from him.

Rav Pappa said: This is what people say,

which is analogous to the way people customarily say:

“Before

one

who drinks wine,”

one who regularly drinks wine, they bring

wine,

meaning wine.

Similarly, people customarily bring

before

one

who works the land,

a farmer who regularly eats vegetables, a basket full of vegetables called

dubla.

Therefore, since Samson was accustomed to women, they brought him what he was accustomed to.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

Every

man

who commits adultery

with other women, then

his wife commits adultery against him,

committing adultery with another man..

As it is stated

in Job:

“If my heart was enticed by a woman, and I lay in wait at my neighbor’s door,”

meaning, a man whose heart was enticed by another woman,

and it is written

afterward in the verse:

“Let my wife grind for another, and let other men kneel over her,”

meaning that she too commits adultery against him.

And this is what people say:

This is what people are accustomed to say:

“He is among the gourds

—he is among the pumpkins—

and his wife is among the cucumbers,”

meaning that whatever he does, she also does; therefore, if he commits adultery, his wife commits adultery against him.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

Samson judged Israel

with righteous judgment

like their Father in Heaven.

As it is stated

in Jacob’s prophecy:

“Dan shall judge his people”

with righteous judgment

as one,

like the Unique One of the world,

etc.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

Samson was named after the Holy One, blessed be He.

As it is stated:

“For the sun and shield is the Lord God, etc.,”

meaning that the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is “sun,” and Samson was called by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.

The Gemara asks:

If so,

since the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is “sun,”

it may not be erased;

it should be prohibited to erase the word “sun.”

The Gemara answers:

Rather,

the Holy One, blessed be He, is certainly not called “sun.” Rather, “sun” here conveys the idea of protection and salvation, and the intention of the baraita is that Samson was

similar to the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,

for

just as the Holy One, blessed be He, protects the entire world, so too Samson protected Israel in his generation,

and therefore his name was Samson, from the word “sun,” which protects its generation.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said:

Balaam was lame

in a

single leg.

As it is stated:

“And he went alone,”

and the word “alone” conveys the meaning of limping.

Samson was lame

in

both of his legs.

As it is stated

in Jacob’s blessing concerning Dan, in which he prophesied about Samson:

“A serpent,”

a double expression of lameness, indicating that he was lame in both legs,

upon the path.

The Sages taught:

Five people were created in a semblance resembling that Above,

not according to the natural order,

and all of them were punished through those

very qualities.

Samson through his strength; Saul through his neck; Absalom through his hair; Zedekiah through his eyes; Asa through his legs.

Samson

was distinguished

through his strength.

And from where do we know that he was punished through his strength? -

As it is written:

the beginning of his downfall came when Delilah cut his hair, and then

“his strength departed from him.”

Saul

possessed distinction

through his neck,

as he was taller than all the people.

As it is written:

“Saul took the sword and fell upon it,”

indicating that he died through his neck..

Absalom

possessed exceptional beauty

through his hair.

As we shall say later,

on the second side of the page, he was punished through his hair.

Zedekiah

possessed exceptional sight

through his eyes,

as he could see even in darkness, and ultimately he was blinded in his eyes.

As it is written:

when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem,

“and he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah.”

Asa

possessed a special quality

in his legs,

in his manner of walking, and he was punished through his legs and died as a result.

As it is written:

“Only in the time of his old age he became ill in his legs.”

And Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav

that Asa’s illness in his legs was

that he was afflicted with padgera.

Mar Zutra, son of Rav Naḥman, said to Rav Naḥman:

What is padgera?

What illness is it?

He said to him:

It is painful

like

the piercing of

a needle in living flesh.

From where did he know?

From where did Rav know that this was the illness?

Some say:

There are those who say:

He himself had suffered from it,

as he himself had experienced this illness.

And some say:

There are those who say:

He heard it from his teacher,

as he had received this tradition from his teacher.

And some say:

There are those who say:

“The counsel of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and His covenant, to make it known to them,”

meaning that it was revealed to him through prophecy that this was the illness.

Rava taught:

Why was Asa punished

by becoming ill in his legs in his old age?

Because he imposed forced labor

the king’s labor

upon Torah scholars.

And from where do we know that he did so? -

As it is stated:

“And King Asa summoned”

—he gathered—

“all Judah; none was exempt.”

What

is the meaning of the expression

“none was exempt”?

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav:

He gathered

even a bridegroom from his chamber,

during the first year after his marriage, concerning whom it is stated that he is exempt for his household,

and a bride from her wedding canopy;

and all the more so he gathered Torah scholars.

The Gemara asks:

It is written: “And Samson went down to Timnah,”

indicating that Timnah was in a low place,

, and it is written

concerning Judah:

“Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah,”

indicating that it was in a high place..

The Gemara answers:

Rabbi Elazar said:

The intention is not literally descent and ascent, but rather spiritual descent and ascent. Therefore,

Samson, who

through the incident at Timnah

was disgraced

by it,

as he married a Philistine woman there,

is described there as descending,

as it constituted a descent for him,

, whereas Judah, who was elevated through it,

as Perez and Zerah were born from that union, and they produced kings and prophets in Israel,

is described there

with the expression

“ascending.”

And

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said

to resolve the difficulty:

There were

two

towns

called Timnah: one was in a low place,

one was in a low place,

and one was on a height,

and one was in a high place..

Rav Pappa said

to resolve the difficulty:

In fact, there was only

one Timnah,

but

one who came from this side

—Samson, who came from the top of the mountain—considered it

a descent, whereas one who came from this side

—Judah, who came from the foot of the mountain—considered it

an ascent. For example,

we likewise find that

Verdonia, Bei Be’ari, and Shuka de-Narash

were situated on the slopes of mountains; therefore, from the foot of the mountain it was an ascent, and from the top of the mountain it was a descent.

It is written in the verse concerning Tamar:

“And she sat at the entrance of Enaim.”

And what is “the entrance of Enaim”? -

Rabbi Alexandri said:

This teaches that she went and sat at the entrance of Abraham our forefather,

and it was called “the entrance of Enaim” because it was

a place upon which all eyes gazed,

since people were accustomed to gather and lodge there, and the place was dear to them..

Rabbi Ḥanin said in the name of Rabbi:

The reason it says that she sat at the entrance of Enaim is that it was

a place called Enaim.

And so it says

in the book of Joshua, when it lists the names of the cities of the land:

“Tappuah and Enam,”

indicating that there was a city called Enaim.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said:

The reason it says that she sat at the entrance of Enaim is that

she

gave her words an appearance of legitimacy,

granting herself permission, claiming that there was no transgression in enticing Judah.

When

Judah

solicited her

to have relations with her -

He said to her:

“Perhaps you are a gentile.”

She said to him:

“I am a convert.”

Judah asked her again:

And

“Perhaps you are a married woman,”

and therefore forbidden to other men.

She said to him:

“I am unmarried,”

and permitted to other men.

Judah asked her again:

And

“Perhaps your father betrothed you,”

when you were a minor, and you do not know of it.

She said to him:

She said to him: “I am an orphan,”

from the moment I was born, and it is therefore impossible that my father betrothed me.

He asked her further:

And

“Perhaps you are impure,”

perhaps you are impure with the impurity of menstruation.

She said to him: “I am pure,”

and I am not impure with the impurity of menstruation..

Since the Gemara previously cited the verse “And she sat at the entrance of Enaim,” which is stated concerning Tamar, and Rabbi Alexandri explained that she went and sat at the entrance of Abraham, it therefore cites the following verse for exposition:

(Genesis 21:33) “And he planted an eshel in Beersheba.”

Reish Lakish said: This teaches that he made

Abraham

an orchard, and planted in it all kinds of delicacies

to provide pleasure for passersby.

The tannaim disagreed about this:

Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya.

One said: An orchard,

which he planted in order to bring fruit from it for guests at the meal;

and one said: An inn,

he made lodging for them. The word “eshel” is an acronym for food, drink, and escort: he fed them, gave them drink, and afterward escorted them.

And we inquire about this:

Granted, according to the one who says

that he planted

an orchard, this is why it is written, “and he planted,”

as the expression “planting” is applicable to an orchard;

but according to the one who says

that he made

an inn, what

is the relevance of the expression

“and he planted”?

And we answer: We find the expression “planting” used with regard to tents,

as it is written:

concerning one of the kings,

(Daniel 11:45) “And he shall plant the tents of his palace, etc.,”

meaning that he will establish the tents of his palace.

It is written later in the verse concerning Abraham:

“And he called there in the name of the Lord, the God of the world.”

Reish Lakish said: Do not read

this verse as it is explicitly written,

“and he called”

for himself.