Sotah 11a (יא.) — the Talmud in English

As it is written:

“Behold, I am raising evil against you from within your own house,”

and this prophecy was fulfilled through Absalom.

Accordingly, the verse is interpreted as follows: “

And Absalom took”—that same counsel—and carried it out. “

And he set up for himself during his lifetime the monument that is in the King’s Valley, etc.”—for he fulfilled the word of the Holy One, blessed be He. “

And he named the monument after himself”—for he caused that evil to be called by his name. “

And he called it Absalom’s Hand”—for that is what it was called.

Similarly, you say:

with regard to Joseph, whom his father Jacob sent to inquire about the welfare of his brothers, that this too was part of a profound plan—for it was the beginning of the chain of events that caused Israel to descend to Egypt—

as it is stated:

“And he sent him from the Valley of Hebron”

and

Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa said:

This indicates that “from the Valley of Hebron” means

as part of the profound counsel of that righteous man —

Abraham our forefather,

who is buried in Hebron,

as it is written:

at the Covenant between the Parts, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham:

“Know with certainty that your offspring will be strangers”

in a land that is not theirs”

(Genesis 15:13),

and through Joseph’s journey it ultimately came about that the children of Israel descended to Egypt.

It is stated there concerning Absalom:

“For he said: I have no son”

And we raise a difficulty:

And

if so,

did he not have sons?

But it is written:

“And three sons and one daughter were born to Absalom”!

And we answer:

Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Avdimi said: He did not have a worthy son

and fit

for kingship.

Rav Ḥisda said: It is a received tradition [we have learned]

as a tradition:

Whoever burns another’s produce

does not leave a son to inherit him.

And he

Absalom

burned Joab’s produce [he burned Joab’s produce],

as it is written:

as it is written:

“And he said to his servants: See Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire,”

and therefore he was not granted that his sons should inherit him.

We learned in the Mishna:

And likewise with regard to good,

the Holy One, blessed be He, pays measure for measure.

Miriam

waited for Moses for one hour, and all Israel waited for her for seven days.

And we raise a difficulty:

Is it comparable?

Is this measure for measure?

But

there

Miriam waited only

one hour,

whereas

here

all Israel waited for her

seven days!

And we answer:

Abaye said: Say [say it] with a slight modification:

And with regard to the good it is not so,

And with regard to good it is not so,

for a person is not repaid precisely measure for measure, but more than that.

Rava said to him:

How can the Mishna be interpreted as saying that with regard to good a person is repaid more, when

it teaches: “And likewise with regard to good”?

This indicates that the repayment for evil and for good is in the same measure!

Rather, Rava said: This is what

must be understood regarding what it

teaches:

And likewise

it is

with regard to good,

that is,

in the same measure [in the same matter and manner]

a person is repaid,

but

the measure of good is always greater

in repayment

than the measure of punishment,

and therefore he receives not merely the equivalent of what he did, but more than he did.

It is stated concerning Miriam:

“And his sister stood from afar”

Rabbi Yitzḥak said: This entire verse is stated with reference to the Divine Presence,

for it alludes to the Divine Presence’s supervision over Moses our teacher:

“And she stood”—

as it is written:

“And the Lord came and stood, etc.”

“His sister”—

as it is written:

“Say to wisdom: You are my sister,”

and wisdom is with the Holy One, blessed be He, and from His mouth, as it is stated: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6).

“From afar”—

as it is written:

“The Lord appeared to me from afar,”

“To know”—

as it is written:

“For the Lord is a God of knowledge,”

“What”—

as it is written:

“What does the Lord your God ask of you?”

“He will do”—

as it is written:

“For the Lord God will do nothing,”

“To him”—

as it is written:

“And the Lord called him: Peace.”

It is stated:

“And a new king arose

over Egypt”

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed about the meaning of this:

One said:

A

literally new king,

and one said: His decrees were renewed,

as though he were a new king.

According to the one who said that he was literally new—

as it is written

explicitly:

“A new one.”

And according to the one who said that his decrees were renewed,

this is because

it does not say: “And the king died”

the king of Egypt,

and he reigned

a new king in his place, which indicates that it was the same king.

Accordingly, when it is stated:

“Who did not know Joseph,”

this does not mean that he did not know Joseph’s deeds; rather, it means:

He was as one who did not know him [he pretended to be one who did not know him]

at all.

at all.

It is stated:

“And he said to his people: Behold, the people of the children of Israel”

The tanna

in a beraita

he

Pharaoh

began with the counsel first—

therefore he was struck

by the Ten Plagues

first,

He began with the counsel first, as it is written: “And he said to his people.”

Therefore he was struck first, as it is written:

“And upon you and upon your people and upon all your servants

the frogs shall ascend”

“upon you” comes before “upon your people.”

It is stated:

“Come, let us deal wisely with him”

And we raise a difficulty: “Come, let us deal wisely”

with them, it should have said

so as to say!

Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said:

This is the meaning of the verse:

“Come, let us deal wisely with the Savior of Israel,”

let us seek wisdom with which to outwit Him; and “with him” refers to the Holy One, blessed be He.

And what was the nature of this attempt at wisdom?

He knew that the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He, were to judge measure for measure, as was the case with the generation of the Flood and the people of Sodom.

Therefore he deliberated:

“With what shall we judge them,”

by what form of death shall we kill Israel so that He will be unable to judge us by the same measure?

If

we judge them with fire,

perhaps we will be punished measure for measure with fire,

for

it is written: (

Isaiah 66:15)

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire,” and it is written: “For with fire will the Lord contend, etc.” (

ibid., 16).

If we judge them

with the sword,

perhaps we will be punished measure for measure with the sword,

for

it is written:

“And with His sword against all flesh”.

Rather, come, let us judge them with water,

so that the Holy One, blessed be He, will be unable to punish us by that same measure,

for the Holy One, blessed be He, has already sworn that He will not bring a Flood upon the world, as it is stated:

“For as the waters of Noah are this to Me

that I swore that the waters of Noah would never again pass over the earth,”

»,

but

they

the Egyptians

do not know

that the oath applied only

to the entire world as a whole

at once:

He will not bring

a Flood upon it,

but upon one nation He will bring one.

Alternatively,

there is another way to punish them with water:

He will not bring

a Flood upon them,

but they will come and fall into it

into the water,

and so it says:

“And the Egyptians were fleeing toward it.”

And this is what Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of that which is written:

“For by the very thing in which they acted presumptuously against them”?

It means that

in the pot in which they cooked—

in it they were cooked,

for their punishment was measure for measure: They were drowned in the sea.

And we inquire about this:

What [how]

does it imply that this “acted presumptuously” is an expression of cooking in a

indicates that this “acted presumptuously” is an expression of

cooking in a

pot?

And we explain:

As it is written:

“And Jacob cooked a stew.”

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Simai: Three

men

were

with Pharaoh

in that counsel: Balaam, Job, and Jethro.

Balaam, who advised

Pharaoh to adopt this counsel—his punishment was that he

was killed

in the war against Midian.

Job, who remained silent

and said nothing—

was judged with afflictions,

as is explained in his book.

Jethro, who fled

because he did not wish to participate in the counsel—

his descendants merited sitting in the Chamber of Hewn Stone

among the Sanhedrin,

As it is stated:

“And the families of scribes who dwelt

(the students of)

Jabez: the Tirathites,

the Shimeathites, the Sukkathites; they are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.”

Jabez was a great man in Torah, as it is written: “And Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying: If You will surely bless me with Torah and enlarge my boundary with students, etc.; and God brought about what he had asked” (I Chronicles 4:10). “

Tirathites”—the Sifrei explains that they heard the sound of the shofar at Mount Sinai. Alternatively, “Tirathites” refers to the fact that they sat at the gates of Jerusalem. “

Shimeathites”—because they obeyed the command of their father. The verse is speaking of the sons of Jonadab, son of Rechab, who were descendants of Jethro, as is explicit below, where it says that they were Kenites. “

Sukkathites”—because they sat in booths, as it is written: “And we dwelt in tents.””

The verse calls them “the family of scribes,” meaning the Sanhedrin; and likewise “Tirathites” means the elders of the gate.

And it is written:

“And the descendants of the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, etc.”

This indicates that they were the Kenites who dwelt with Jabez, those who sat in the place where Israel’s counsel was given.

It is written that Pharaoh said:

“And he may wage war against us and go up from the land.”

And we raise a difficulty: Apparently,

“and we shall go up”

from the land

should have been said,

for he intended to say that Israel would wage war against the Egyptians and ultimately drive the Egyptians from their land.

And we answer:

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said:

Pharaoh said “and he will go up” concerning others,

like a person who curses himself and

since he does not wish to utter a curse against himself

attributes his curse to another.

It is written:

“And they appointed taskmasters over him.”

And we raise a difficulty: Apparently,

“over them”

in the plural

should have been said,

for they appointed them over Israel.

And we answer:

The tanna of the school of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon,

explained that the singular “over him”

teaches:

That they brought a brick mold—

a type of form that they filled with mortar to make bricks—

and hung it around Pharaoh’s neck

as though he too participated in the labor.

And each and every Israelite who said to them

the Egyptians:

“I am an aesthete” [spoiled],

And therefore it is written that they placed it “over him” in the singular, referring to Pharaoh, who is mentioned in the preceding verses; and through this they made all Israel labor with crushing labor.

“I”

and am not accustomed to such labor,

they said to him: Are you more of an aesthete than Pharaoh?

Therefore it is written that they placed it “over him” in the singular, referring to Pharaoh, who is the subject of the preceding verses; and through this they forced all Israel to perform crushing labor.

And this is the meaning of the verse:

“Taskmasters”—

a thing that makes [a thing that disciplines and trains one to make]

which apparently [“their affliction,”

(bricks)

for labor; that brick mold which they hung around Pharaoh was for Israel a means of coercing them to make bricks.

And likewise the continuation of the verse:

“In order to afflict him with their burdens,”

which apparently

“to afflict them”

in the plural

should have been said,

but the meaning is as explained:

“In order to afflict him, Pharaoh,

through

the burdens of Israel”—

so that Israel would bend their shoulders to bear them.

It is written: (ibid.)

“And they built storage cities for Pharaoh.”

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed about the meaning of “storage cities.”

One said:

It means cities

that endanger their owners,

for because of those cities and that labor the Egyptians were endangered and ultimately drowned in the sea.

And one said:

It means cities

that impoverish [that impoverish]

“Pithom and Raamses.”

their owners,

as it is written: “And they emptied Egypt,” which happened to them because of this labor.

This is Rashi’s first explanation. According to this explanation, the continuation of the Gemara—“As the master said,” etc.—is not recited.

Rashi brings another explanation of the dispute between Rav and Shmuel: The verse refers to all buildings that a person constructs. One explained that they are “cities that endanger their owners,” because sometimes a person falls from the building and dies.

And the other explained that they are “cities that impoverish their owners,” for construction brings a person to poverty. (

According to this explanation, the continuation of the Gemara is recited.)

As the master said: Whoever engages in construction becomes impoverished—

he becomes poor.

“Pithom and Raamses.”

This was one place; one of the names was its true name, and the other was a nickname.

And

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed about this.

One said: Its name was Pithom.

And why was it called [why was it nicknamed]

the first one, the first one

Raamses?

Because

the first one

of the buildings that they constructed would

crumble [break and collapse], and they would rebuild it, and it would collapse again.

“so they multiplied and so they spread,”

And one said: Its name was Raamses.

And why was it called [why was it nicknamed]

And we answer:

Pithom?

Because

the first one

of the buildings that they constructed would be

swallowed by the mouth of the abyss

in the ground.

“And the more they afflicted him, so he multiplied, and so he spread.”

And we raise a difficulty: Apparently,

“so they multiplied and so they spread”

in the past tense

should have been said!

And we answer:

Reish Lakish said: The Divine Spirit

was

announcing to them

Israel about the future, saying to the Egyptians that the more they afflicted them,

so he would multiply and so he would spread.

“And the Egyptians were disgusted because of the children of Israel,”

and we explain that the expression “were disgusted”

teaches that they appeared to them

the Egyptians

like thorns,

for when they saw that the children of Israel were fruitful and multiplying, the Egyptians felt as though their eyes and bodies were filled with thorns.

And the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with crushing labor.