Sotah 11a — the Talmud in English

For it is written:

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

and through Absalom this prophecy was fulfilled upon him.

Accordingly, this verse is interpreted as follows: “

And Absalom took”—the same counsel—and fulfilled it. “

And he erected for himself during his lifetime the monument which is in the valley of the king, and so on”—for he fulfilled the monument of the words of the Holy One, blessed is He, “

And he called the monument by his own name”—for he caused that evil to be called by his name, “

And he called it the hand of Absalom”—for thus it is called.

In a similar matter you say: regarding Joseph, whom his father Jacob sent to see the welfare of his brothers, which also came about through a profound counsel—for it was the beginning of the cause of Israel’s descent to Egypt,

it is said:

“And he sent him from the depth of Hebron”

and

and

Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa said:

from this it follows that “from the depth of Hebron” means

through the profound counsel of that righteous one —

Abraham our father,

who is buried in Hebron,

as it is written:

in the covenant between the pieces, in which the Holy One, blessed is He, said to Abraham,

“Know surely that your seed will be a stranger

in a land that is not theirs

”—

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

It is said there concerning Absalom:

“For he said: I have no son.”

And we raise an objection:

And

because

he did not have sons?

But it is written:

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

And we answer:

Rav Yitzhak bar Avdimi said: He did not have a worthy son

and fit

for kingship.

Rav Hisda said: It is received by tradition [we have learned]

by tradition:

Anyone who burns his fellow’s produce—

does not leave a son to inherit him.

And he,

Absalom,

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

as it is written:

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

—if so, he did not merit that his sons should inherit him

.

We learned in the Mishna:

And likewise with regard to the good,

the Holy One, blessed is He, pays measure for measure:

Miriam

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

And we raise an objection:

Are they 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] with a slight alteration:

And with regard to the good it is not so,

and a person is not paid precisely measure for measure, but more.

Rava said to him:

How is it possible to interpret the Mishna as meaning that with regard to good a person is paid more, when

it teaches, “And likewise with regard to the good”!

This implies that payment for evil and for good is in the same measure!

Rather, Rava said: This is how

the matter that it

teaches

is to be understood:

And likewise

it is

with regard to the good,

that is:

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

a person is paid,

but

the measure of goodness is always greater

in payment

than the measure of punishment,

and therefore he receives not merely his due as recompense, but more than what he did.

It is said concerning Miriam:

“And his sister stood from afar.”

Rabbi Yitzhak said: This entire verse was stated with reference to the Divine Presence,

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

“And she stood”—

as it is written:

“And the Lord came and stood, and so on.”

“His sister”—

as it is written:

“Say to wisdom: You are my sister,”

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

“From afar”—

as it is written:

“From afar the Lord appeared to me,”

“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 said:

“And a new king arose

over Egypt

» (Шмот 1:8).

”

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed in interpreting the matter:

One said: a

truly new king,

and one said: his decrees were renewed

as though he were a new king.

The one who says, “a truly new king”—

as it is written:

explicitly,

“a new one,”

and the one who says, “his decrees were renewed”—

that is because

it is not written, “and the king of Egypt died”

and

“and he reigned”

a new king in his place; this implies that it was the same king.

Accordingly, what is stated:

“who did not know Joseph”

does not mean that he did not know his deeds; rather, it means:

he was as one who did not know him [he acted as though he did not know him]

at all.

It is said:

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

The tan[n]ay

in a

beraita:

He,

Pharaoh,

began with the counsel first—

therefore he was struck

with 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 against you and against your people and against all your servants

the frogs will ascend

”—“against you” first, and afterward “against your people.”

It is said:

“Come, let us deal wisely with him.”

And we raise an objection: “Come, let us deal wisely”

with them, it should have said

to say!

Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina

said: This is the meaning of the verse:

Come, and let us deal wisely with the Savior of Israel,

let us seek wisdom against Him; and the meaning of “with him” is: with the Holy One, blessed is He.

And what was this attempt at outwitting?

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

Therefore he deliberated over the matter:

By what shall we judge them

—by which death-sentence shall we kill Israel, so that He will be unable to judge us by it?

If

we judge them by fire,

perhaps we will be punished measure for measure by fire,

for

it is written: (

Isaiah 66:15)

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and it is written: ‘For by fire the Lord will execute judgment, and so on.’” (

there, verse 16).

If we judge them

by the sword,

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

for

it is written:

“And by His sword against all flesh.”

Rather, come, let us judge them by water,

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

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

“For as the waters of Noah are this to Me,

that I swore would no longer pass over the earth

»,

,”

but

the Egyptians

do not know

that the oath was only that

over the entire world

together

He will not bring

a flood,

but over one nation He does bring one.

Alternatively,

there is another way to punish them by water:

He will not bring

a flood upon them,

but they will come and fall into it

into the water,

and so he 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 in the matter in which they acted presumptuously against them”?

It is to say 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 concerning this:

What [how]

does it imply 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 Hiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Simai: Three

men

were

with Pharaoh

in that counsel: Balaam, Job, and Jethro,

Balaam, who advised

this counsel to Pharaoh—his punishment was that he

was killed

in the war of Midian,

Job, who remained silent

and said nothing—

was judged with sufferings

as 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

in the Sanhedrin,

his descendants merited sitting in the Chamber of Hewn Stone

As it is said:

“And the families of scribes, the inhabitants of (students of)

Jabez: the Tirathites,

the Shimeathites, the Sukathites; these are the Kenites who came from the house of Rechab’s father,”

and 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, and so on; and God brought about that which he asked” (I Chronicles 4:10). “

The Tirathites”—the Sifrei explains that they heard the teruʿa at Mount Sinai. Another interpretation: “the Tirathites”—because they sat at the gates of Jerusalem. “

The Shimeathites”—because they heard the commandment of their father. The verse speaks of the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab, and they were descendants of Jethro, as is explained afterward: “these are the Kenites.” “

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

And the verse calls them “the family of scribes”—that is, the Sanhedrin; and likewise “the Tirathites”—its meaning is the elders of the gate.

And it is written:

“And the sons of the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, and so on,”

implying that they were the Kenites who dwelt with Jabez, who sat in the place of Israel’s counsel.

It is written that Pharaoh said:

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

and we raise an objection: apparently

“and we will go up”

from the land

it should have said

to express this, for he intended to say that Israel would wage war against Egypt 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

hangs his curse upon his fellow.

It is written:

“And they placed over him taskmasters.”

And we raise an objection: apparently

“over them”

in the plural

it should have said

to express this, since they placed them over Israel,

and we answer:

The tan[n]ay of the school of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon:

the singular “over him”

teaches,

that they brought a brick-mold

—a kind of form that they filled with mortar and in which they made bricks—

and hung it around Pharaoh’s neck

as though he too were participating in the labor,

and each and every one of Israel who said to them,

the Egyptians:

“I am an istanis [pampered]

I

and I am not accustomed to such labor,

they said to him: Are you at all more pampered than Pharaoh?

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.

And this is the meaning of the verse:

“Taskmasters”—

a thing that makes [a thing that disciplines and accustoms to making]

(bricks)

to labor; that brick-mold which they hung on Pharaoh was for Israel a discipline to make bricks.

And likewise the continuation of the verse:

“In order to afflict him with their burdens,”

which apparently [“their affliction,”

in the plural

it should have said],

but the meaning is as explained:

“In order to afflict him, Pharaoh, through

the burden

of them, of Israel—

through the fact that Israel would bend their shoulders to bear it.

It is written: (there)

“And he built store cities for Pharaoh.”

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed in explaining the expression “store cities.”

One said: its meaning is cities

that endanger their owners,

for through those cities and that labor the Egyptians became endangered, to drown in the sea.

And one said: its meaning is cities

that impoverish [that impoverish]

their owners,

as it is written: “And they emptied out Egypt”; this happened to them on account of this labor.

Thus Rashi explained it in his first interpretation. (According to this interpretation, the continuation of the Gemara—“for the master said,” and so on—is not recited.)

Rashi brings another interpretation of the dispute between Rav and Shmuel: that it concerns all buildings that a person builds. One explained: “that endanger their owners,” for sometimes one falls from the building and dies;

and one explained: “that impoverish their owners”—that it brings a person to poverty. (

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

For the master said: Anyone occupied with construction becomes impoverished

—he becomes poor.

“Pithom and Raamses.”

This was one place, and one of the names was its true name while the other was a designation.

And

Rav and Shmuel

disagreed about it.

One said: Its name was Pithom,

and why was it called [and why was it designated]

Raamses?

Because

the first one, the first one

of the buildings that they built would

collapse [break, fall apart], and they would build again, and again it would fall.

And one said: Its name was Raamses,

and why was it called [and why was it designated]

Pithom?

Because

the first one, the first one

of the buildings that they built,

the mouth of the abyss swallowed it

in the ground.

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

And we raise an objection: apparently

“so they multiplied and so they spread,”

in the past tense,

it should have said!

And we answer:

Reish Lakish said: The Divine Spirit

was

announcing to them

Israel concerning the future, and saying to the Egyptians that as much as they would afflict them,

so he will multiply and so he will spread.

And they were disgusted because of the Children of Israel,

and we explain that the expression “they were disgusted”

teaches that they appeared in their eyes

of the Egyptians

like thorns,

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

And we answer:

And the Egyptians made the Children of Israel labor with crushing labor.

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.