Sotah 34b — the Talmud in English

As they were encamped

the Children of Israel, whose encampment was twelve mil in length and twelve mil in width, thus

they crossed

the Jordan.

But

according to the words of Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Shimon—

who holds that the water rose more than three hundred mil—

they crossed one after another

the Children of Israel the Jordan.

; And one

of the amoraim

said

in explaining the dispute of the tannaim:

Between one master,

Rabbi Judah,

and between one master,

Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Shimon,

they crossed as they were encamped,

the Children of Israel; rather, they disagreed in this:

one master,

Rabbi Judah,

held: a person is light

enough to run like water, and while a person crosses twelve mil, the water also rises twelve mil.

And one master,

Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Shimon,

held: water is lighter

than a person—that is, water is much lighter in its running than a person, so that while a person crosses twelve mil, the water piles up more than three hundred mil.

Since the spies were mentioned, the Gemara explains the account of the spies: “

And you approached me, all of you, and you said: Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and let them bring us back word concerning the way by which we shall go up and the cities to which we shall come. And the matter was good in my eyes, and I took from you twelve men, one man, one man, for each tribe” [Deuteronomy 1:22].

And it is written [Numbers 13]: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Send for yourself men, and let them spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Children of Israel; one man, one man, from the tribe of his fathers you shall send, every one a leader among them. And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran by the word of the Lord; all of them were men, heads of the Children of Israel. And these were their names: for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur; for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; for the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; for the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; for the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi; for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; for the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; for the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land; and Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua.” “

Send for yourself men”:

Reish Lakish said:

Thus the Holy One, blessed is He, said to Moses:

Send for yourself, according to your own judgment;

that is, I am not commanding you, but Israel are the ones who said to you to send spies, and I am not preventing you.

And from where is it known that the Holy One, blessed is He, did not command him to send them? For:

Does a person ever choose a bad portion for himself

—that is, if you say that the Holy One, blessed is He, commanded him, would He have told him to do something whose end would lead to a mishap!?

And this is what is written: “

And the matter was good in my eyes [

to send the spies]”:

And Reish Lakish said: In my eyes

alone was it good to send them,

but not in the eyes of the Omnipresent.

It is written: “And you said: Let us send men before us

and let them search out the land for us”:

Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said: Spies—

that is, those who requested to send spies—

did not intend

from the outset

anything but the shame of the Land of Israel;

for:

It is written here,

concerning the request of the Children of Israel to send spies: “

And let them search out the land for us,”

and it is written

there [Isaiah 24:23]: “

[Ишаягу, 24:23]: «

And the moon shall be ashamed

[the expression of shame]

and the sun shall be ashamed.”

It is written: “

And these were their names

[of the spies]:

for the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur,”

and why was it necessary to say, “And these were their names,” when it is stated at the end of the portion: “These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land”!?

Rabbi Isaac said: This matter is a tradition in our hands from our forefathers: the spies were called according to their deeds,

and therefore the verse said, “And these were their names,” so that you should scrutinize their names.

And we were not able

to expound and explain

except

one

of

them, namely: “

Sethur son of Michael.”

Sethur: for he contradicted the words of the Holy One, blessed be He,

that is, he denied them and made the enemy of the Holy One, blessed be He [the expression “sagi nahor”] out to be a liar; that is, the Holy One, blessed be He, promised Israel a good land, and it was not so.

Michael: for he made the enemy of the Holy One, blessed be He

weak [“

the expression: ‘sagi nahor’”]

and feeble

[weak], as is explained below [35a], where they said: Even the Master of the House [the Master of the world] is unable to remove His vessels from the Land of Israel: “For he is stronger than we.”

Rabbi Yohanan said: We too

shall expound and

say

what is the meaning of “

Nahbi son of Vophsi”: “

Nahbi”:

for he concealed the words of the Holy One, blessed be He,

and did not say them as they were. “

And Vophsi”:

for he stepped over

and skipped

over His attributes

of the Holy One, blessed be He,

and did not state the words of the Lord as they were.

The continuation of the account of the spies: “And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and he said to them: Go up here in the south, and go up into the mountain.” “

And they went up and spied out the land, from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, at the entrance of Hamath. And they went up in the south, and he came to Hebron; and there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of the giant; and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt.” “

And he went up in the south, and he came to Hebron”: “

And they came”

was required for him

to say, since there were many of them!?

Rava said: This teaches that Caleb separated himself from the counsel of the spies, and went and prostrated himself upon the graves of the forefathers

that were in Hebron.

And thus

he said to them,

Caleb to the forefathers:

My forefathers, request mercy for me, that I be saved from the counsel of the spies.

And why did Caleb go alone, and Joshua did not go with him? Because:

Joshua—Moses had already requested mercy for him, as it is stated: “

And Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Joshua,”

saying: “

May Yah save you from the counsel of the spies.”

And this is what is written [Numbers 14:24]: “

[Бемидбар 14:24]: «

But My servant Caleb, because a different spirit was with him

and he wholly followed Me, I shall bring him into the land to which he came, and his seed shall dispossess it.” And this land is Hebron, as it is said in Joshua [Joshua 14:13]: “And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, God of Israel.” And from the wording of the verse, “to which he came,” we learn that Caleb was the one who came to Hebron.

It is written: “

And there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai

the children of the giant,” and the Gemara explains their names: “

Ahiman”:

the skilled one among his brothers,

the mighty one among his brothers, just as the right is more important than the left. “

Sheshai”

is an expression of [Lamentations 3]: “Fear and the pit were ours, desolation and destruction”:

who trample the land

—through his heavy steps—

as ruins,

for the place of his feet sank into the land because of his great weight, and he was recognizable in the land like a hollow and a ruin. “

Talmai”:

who trample the land

—through his heavy steps—

furrow upon furrow,

like the furrow of a plow, which raises the earth and deepens [the mark] in the land.

Another matter:

Ahiman built

the city

Anath.

Sheshai built

the city

Alash.

Talmai built

the city

Talbush. “

And there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai

the children of the giant”:

who reached the sun with their height,

because of the great height of their stature; it appeared that their necks rose up and pierced the window of the firmament.

It is written: “

And Hebron was built

seven years before Zoan of Egypt”: “What is the meaning of “

was built”?”

был построен»?

If you say that it

был

was literally built

seven years before Zoan, which was in Egypt!?

Is it possible that a person would build a house for his younger son before his elder son!?

For

it is

written: “

And the sons of Ham were Cush and Egypt

and Put and Canaan,” and it is impossible that Ham built Hebron, which was in the land of Canaan, before Zoan, which was in the land of Egypt!?

Rather, it was more built-up

that is, more settled with produce,

at a ratio of one to seven compared with Zoan [

seven times as much].

And from here you learn of the praise of the Land of Israel; for:

There is no

soil

of hard rock—

which does not produce so much fruit, like moist land—

throughout all the Land of Israel more than Hebron,

and you will know that this is so,

for they bury the dead there

[they bury the dead there], and because Hebron is the least fit for fruit of all the Land of Israel.

And there is no place more excellent throughout all the lands than the land of Egypt, as it is stated [Genesis 13:10]: “

[Берешит 13:10]: «

Like the garden of the Lord

like the land of Egypt,”

that is, just as the garden of the Lord, so is the land of Egypt.

And there is no place more excellent throughout all the land of Egypt than Zoan, as it is written [Isaiah 30:4]: “

[Йешая 30:4]: «

For his officers were in Zoan

[the officers of the king of Israel were in Zoan, on a mission to Pharaoh, king of Egypt],” so Pharaoh was dwelling in Zoan, and presumably he was dwelling in the most excellent place.

And even so, Hebron was more built-up than Zoan by a ratio of one to seven.

And we raise an objection:

But

is it really the case that

Hebron was hard-rock soil?

But it is written: “

And it came to pass at the end of forty years, and Absalom said to the king: Let me go now

and pay my vow that I vowed to the Lord in Hebron. For your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt in Geshur in Aram, saying: If the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, I shall serve the Lord. And the king said to him: Go in peace. And he arose and went to Hebron.”

And Rav Avya said, and some say Rabbah bar bar Hannah,

to explain what Absalom said, “that I vowed to the Lord in Hebron,” and then again said, “Your servant vowed a vow while I dwelt in Geshur”:

That he went

Absalom to Hebron in order

to bring sheep for an olah

to fulfill his vow that he had vowed in Geshur, as the verse says: “And he arose and went to Hebron.” The meaning of the verse is: “Let me go now to Hebron and pay my vow that I vowed to the Lord [in Geshur].” And he went to Hebron because

the master said:

Rams

are brought

from Moab,

and

sheep

are brought

from Hebron,

because they are good.

It is thus explicit that Hebron is a pastureland, and therefore its sheep are fat and good!?

And we answer:

From it—that is, from your objection you support me that it was hard-rock soil, and it was not important for sowing like the rest of the land!

, то есть именно из твоего вопроса ты помогаешь мне доказать, что земля была каменистой и не считалась столь пригодной для посева, как прочая земля!

For

since the soil was poor

[since its soil was weak and scant], and because of this they did not plow and sow grain there for human food.

Therefore

it served the shepherd, and the acquisition became fat,

[it caused grass to grow and rise for the food of the flock, and made the flock fat], since it is the way of sheep to improve in dry, hard-rock soil more than in moist land.

It is written further in the account of the spies: “And they returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days. And they went and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and they brought them back word, and all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told him and said: We came to the land to which you sent us, and indeed it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are fierce, and the cities are fortified and very great, and we also saw there the children of the giant. Amalek dwells in the land of the south, and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the mountain, and the Canaanite dwells by the sea and beside the Jordan.” “

And Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said: We shall surely go up and possess it, for we shall surely be able to overcome it. And the men who went up with him said: We shall not be able to go up against the people, for he is stronger than we. And they brought forth an evil report of the land which they had spied out, to the Children of Israel, saying: The land through which we passed to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in its midst were men of stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of the giant from the Nephilim; and we were in our eyes like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and the people wept on that night. And all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation said to them: If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or in this wilderness, if only we had died. And why does the Lord bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children shall be as spoil; is it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said, each man to his brother: Let us appoint a head and let us return to Egypt. And Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel. And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, among those who spied out the land, tore their garments. And they said to all the congregation of the Children of Israel, saying: The land through which we passed to spy it out is a very, very good land.”