Sotah 10a — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Hama, son of Rabbi Hanina, said:

the meaning of the verse

“was profaned”

was nullified:

the oath of Abimelech.

As it is written

in the Book of Genesis—that Abraham swore to Abimelech:

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

that he would not harm him or his grandson. And since the Philistines, who were descendants of Abimelech, first profaned the oath, Samson too therefore profaned the oath.

It is written in the verse, after Samson was born:

“And the lad grew, and the Lord blessed him.” —

With what did He bless him?

For blessing is an expression of increase, and we do not find anything in which Samson increased, neither wealth nor anything else.

Rav Judah said that Rav said:

He blessed him with his organ,

that

his organ should be like that

of the other

human beings, and his seed

through this would be

like a flowing stream,

so that his seed would be blessed.

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

“And Samson called to the Lord and said: Lord God, remember me, I pray, and strengthen me, I pray, only this once, and I shall take vengeance from the Philistines for one of my two eyes,”

“from the Philistines.”

Rav said:

Samson said before the Holy One, blessed

be He: Master of the World, remember for me the twenty years during which I judged Israel, and I did not say to any one of them

even a small request such as

“Move a staff for me from one place to another.”

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

“And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes,”

and he took torches, placed tail to tail, and put one torch between the two tails within —

What is different about foxes?

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

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

Samson said: Let a fox come,

whose nature, when it is hunted, is

to turn backward,

for it does not flee but turns backward,

and exact retribution from the Philistines, who turned back from their oath.

It was taught:

Rabbi Shimon the pious said:

Between

the width of

Samson’s shoulders there were sixty cubits.

As it is stated:

“And Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and seized the doors of the city gate and the two doorposts, and pulled them up together with the bar, and placed them upon his shoulders.”

And it is received by tradition

and we have a tradition

that the doors of Gaza are no less than sixty cubits,

and they filled all his shoulders, and from this we learn that his shoulders were sixty cubits wide.

It is written in the verse —

“And he was grinding in the prison.”

Rabbi Yohanan said:

“Grinding” is only an expression of transgression.

And so it says:

“Let my wife grind for another,”

let another have intercourse with my wife —

And this

teaches that each and every one brought his wife to him in the prison so that she should become pregnant from him.

Rav Pappa said: This is what people say,

which is like what people customarily say:

before

the one before whom

one who drinks wine

is accustomed to drink wine, to bring before him

wine,

wine.

And people are likewise accustomed to bring

before

before

a field-worker

a farmer who is accustomed to eat vegetables, a basket full of vegetables called

dubla.

And therefore, Samson too, who was accustomed to women, they brought him that to which he was accustomed.

And Rabbi Yohanan said:

Every

person

who commits adultery

with other women, then also

his wife commits adultery against him

committing adultery under his authority.

As it is stated

in Job:

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

a person whose heart was enticed by another woman.

And it is written

afterward in the verse:

“Let my wife grind for another, and let others kneel upon her,”

that she too commits adultery against him.

And this is what people say

and this is what people customarily say:

“He is among the pumpkins

he is among the gourds,

and his wife is among the cucumbers,”

and she is among the cucumbers: whatever he does, she too does; therefore, if he commits adultery, his wife commits adultery against him.

And Rabbi Yohanan 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

“like the One”

like the Unique One of the world

and so forth.

And Rabbi Yohanan said:

Samson was called by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.

As it is stated:

“For the sun and a shield is the Lord God, and so forth,”

for the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, is “sun,” and Samson was designated by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.

The Gemara asks:

But if that is so,

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

should it not be erased?

It should be forbidden to erase the word “sun.”

The Gemara answers:

Rather,

certainly the Holy One, blessed be He, is not called “sun”; rather, “sun” here is an expression of protection and salvation, and the intention of the beraita is that Samson is

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 Samson protected Israel in his generation,

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

And Rabbi Yohanan said:

Balaam was lame

crippled

in one of his legs.

As it is stated:

“And he went alone,”

and the word shafi is an expression of lameness.

Samson was lame

crippled

in both of his legs.

As it is stated

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

“A serpent”

shafi, which is lameness, doubled, for he was lame in both his legs,

“upon the path.”

Our Rabbis taught:

Five were created in a likeness resembling that above,

not according to the natural order,

and all of them were stricken through those qualities

through those very excellences.

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 stricken through his strength? —

As it is written:

the beginning of his downfall was when Delilah removed his hair, and then

“his strength departed from him.”

Saul

had glory

through his neck,

for he was taller than all the people.

As it is written:

“And Saul took the sword and fell upon it,”

thus he was killed through his neck.

Absalom

had special beauty

in his hair.

As we shall say below,

as will be explained below on folio b, that he was punished through his hair.

Zedekiah

had special eyesight

in his eyes,

for he could see even in darkness, and in the end he was blinded in his eyes.

As it is written:

when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem,

“And he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah.”

Asa

had a special quality

in his legs,

in his walking, and he was punished through his legs, and from this he died.

As it is written:

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

And Rav Judah said that Rav said

that Asa’s illness in his legs was —

“that padagra seized him.”

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

“What is padagra like?”

What illness is it?

He said to him:

that it hurts

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 suffered from it,

for he himself suffered from this illness.

And some say

and there are those who say —

he heard it from his teacher,

for so he received it from his teacher.

And some say

and there are those who say —

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

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

Rava expounded:

Why was Asa punished

by becoming ill in his legs in his old age?

Because he imposed forced labor

the king’s service

upon Torah scholars.

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

As it is stated:

“And King Asa summoned”

gathered

“all Judah; no one was exempt.”

What

what is the expression

“no one was exempt”?

Rav Judah said that Rav said:

that he gathered

even a bridegroom from his chamber,

in the first year of his marriage, concerning whom it is stated that he shall be free for his household,

and a bride from her canopy,

and all the more so he gathered Torah scholars.

The Gemara asks:

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

implying that Timnah was in a place of descent

, and it is written

concerning Judah:

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

implying that it was in a high place.

The Gemara answers:

Rabbi Elazar said:

the intention is not descent and ascent according to their simple meaning, but descent and ascent in spirituality. Therefore,

Samson, who

in the matter of Timnah

was disgraced

through it,

for there he married the Philistine woman,

it is written concerning him, “descent,”

for this was a descent for him

, whereas Judah, who was elevated through it,

for from there were born Perez and Zerah, who established kings and prophets in Israel,

it is written concerning him

an expression of

“ascent.”

And

And Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said,

answering the difficulty —

There were

that two

towns

called Timnah existed: one was in a descent,

one was in a low place,

and one was in an ascent,

and one was in a high place.

Rav Pappa said

answering the difficulty —

that in fact only

one Timnah existed,

but

when one comes from this side,

Samson, who came from the top of the mountain, for him this is considered

descent; and when one comes from this side,

and Judah, who came from the bottom of the mountain, for him this is considered

ascent, as

and similarly we find that

we likewise find that Vardonia, Bei Be’ari, and the market of Neresh

were situated on the slopes of the mountains; therefore, from the bottom of the mountain it is ascent, and from the top of the mountain it is descent.

It is written in the verse, concerning Tamar:

“And she sat at the opening of Enaim.”

And what is “the opening of Enaim”? —

Rabbi Alexandri said:

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

and it was called “the opening of Enaim” since this was

“a place that all eyes gazed upon to see,”

since they were accustomed to gather and lodge there, and the place was beloved by them.

Rabbi Hanin said that Rabbi

that what is written, that she sat at the opening of Enaim, is because

it is a place whose name is Enaim.

And so it says

in the Book of Joshua, when it listed the names of the cities of the land: —

“Tappuah and the Enaim,”

thus there was a city whose name was Enaim.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said

that the reason it is called that she sat at the opening of Enaim is —

She

that she gave eyes to her words,

for she gave herself permission, that there was no transgression in enticing Judah.

When

Judah

demanded

to come upon her —

he said to her:

“Perhaps you are a gentile.”

She said to him:

“I am a convert.”

Judah again asked:

And

“Perhaps you are a married woman”

and forbidden to others.

She said to him:

“I am unmarried,”

and permitted to others.

Judah again asked:

And

“Perhaps your father accepted betrothal for you”

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

She said to him:

“I am an orphan”

from the moment I was born, and it is 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 brought the verse, “And she sat at the opening of Enaim,” which was said concerning Tamar—and Rabbi Alexandri explained that she went and sat at the entrance of Abraham—for this reason the Gemara brings the following verse to expound:

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

Resh Lakish said: This teaches that he made

Abraham

an orchard, and planted in it all kinds of delicacies,

to provide enjoyment from them to passersby.

And tannaim disputed this:

Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah.

One said: An orchard,

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

and one said: An inn,

he made lodging; and the expression “eshel” is an acronym: food, drink, escort—for he would feed them, give them drink, and afterward escort them.

And we raise an objection concerning this:

Granted, according to the one who says

that he planted

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

for the expression “planting” applies concerning an orchard,

but according to the one who says

that he made

an inn, what

does the expression

“and he planted” have to do with it?

And we answer: we find an expression of planting concerning tents,

as it is written:

concerning one of the kings,

“(Daniel 11:45) ‘And he shall plant the tents of his palace, and so forth,’”

whose meaning is 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, God of the world.”

Resh Lakish said: Do not read

in this verse as it is explicitly written

“and he called”

by himself.