Sotah 35b (לה:) — the Talmud in English

Who made you angry that you became angry

[Who angered you when you became angry, so that you did not save yourself from captivity],

and who came upon you that you were appeased

[And now, who appeased you, so that you were appeased and came of your own accord]?"

It is written: "

And He struck among the people

[the men of Beth Shemesh]

seventy men and fifty thousand men":

Since the word “men” is repeated, and it also says “and fifty,” it appears that the intention is not seventy men and fifty thousand;

and

Rabbi Abahu and Rabbi Elazar

disagreed over the interpretation of the verse:

One

of them

said: There were seventy men, and each one was equivalent to fifty thousand.

And one

of them

said: There were fifty thousand, and each one was equivalent to seventy members of the Sanhedrin.

We further interpret: It is written in Samuel: “David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with joy.

And it was, when the bearers of the Ark of the Lord had taken six steps,

that he sacrificed an ox and a fatling

[a fattened ox]—

And

in Chronicles

it is written: “And David and the elders of Israel and the captains of thousands who went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy. And when God aided the Levites who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed

seven bulls and seven rams”!?

He said—

explaining

Rav Pappa bar Shmuel:

At every single step

they would sacrifice

an ox and a fatling,

and

at every six steps,

they would sacrifice

seven bulls and seven rams.

Rav Ḥisda said

to Rav Pappa bar Shmuel:

If so—

that they would sacrifice at every single step—

you have filled the entire Land of Israel with high places

[altars]!?

Rather, Rav Ḥisda said

to reconcile the verses:

At every six steps

they sacrificed

an ox and a fatling,

and

at every six sets of six steps

[thirty-six steps], they would sacrifice

seven bulls and seven rams.

We further ask:

It is written

in Chronicles [I 13:9]: “They came as far as the threshing floor of

Chidon,

and Uzza extended his hand to grasp the Ark, for the cattle had stumbled. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzza, and He struck him because he had extended his hand toward the Ark, and he died there before God.”

And

in Samuel

it is written: “They came as far as the threshing floor of

Nakhon,

and Uzza reached out toward the Ark of God and grasped it, for the cattle had stumbled”!?

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: At first,

when the Ark arrived there, the Ark became for them like

Chidon,

the killer, for it had killed Uzza.

But ultimately,

when the Ark was directed toward the house of Obed-edom, it became

Nakhon,

meaning that he had prepared his house for it, as it is stated: “And the Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.”

a. Here the Gemara continues to cite the beraita concerning the crossing of the Jordan, which was interrupted earlier on the previous page. This is the wording of the beraita: “While they were still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: ‘Take for yourselves one stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel’ [so that Joshua could place them beneath the station where the feet of the priests stood], etc. A sign for the sons that their fathers crossed the Jordan; while they were still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: ‘Take for yourselves from here, from within the Jordan, from beneath the station where the feet of the priests stand, twelve stones [other stones], and carry them with you and place them in the lodging place where you will spend the night’ [one might have thought: in every lodging place; therefore the verse says: ‘where you will spend the night’]. Rabbi Yosei ben Ḥalafta said, etc.: From here you can calculate the weight of the cluster of grapes; and when the last of Israel had ascended from the Jordan, the waters returned to their place, as it is stated, etc. It follows that the Ark and its bearers and the priests were on one side, and Israel on the other. The Ark carried its bearers and crossed, as it is stated, etc. It follows that you say, etc.”

b. The order of the verses in Joshua: [“

[Joshua 4:6–11]: ‘So that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask tomorrow, saying: What are these stones to you? Then you shall tell them: Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever.’ And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua commanded, and they carried twelve stones from within the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and they carried them with them to the lodging place and set them down there. And twelve stones Joshua set up within the Jordan, beneath the station where the feet of the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there to this day. And the priests carrying the Ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, in accordance with all that Moses had commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and crossed. And when all the people had finished crossing, the Ark of the Lord

and the priests crossed before the people. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben crossed.’” “

And when the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had ascended from the midst of the Jordan, the soles of the priests’ feet were removed to dry land, and the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went as before, over all its banks. And the people ascended from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped at Gilgal, at the eastern edge of Jericho. And those twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal.”

It follows that there were three types of stones:

a.

One that Moses set up on the other side of the Jordan

[the eastern side]

in the land of Moab.

And from where do we know that he set up stones there and wrote the words of the Torah upon them?

As it is stated

[Deuteronomy 1:5]: “

On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain

this Torah, saying.”

And below

[Deuteronomy 27:5]

it says: “And there you shall build [on Mount Ebal] an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool over them.

And you shall write upon the stones

[of the altar]

all the words of this Torah

very clearly.”

And it is derived from one verse by a gzera shava: “Moses undertook to explain,”

“Moses undertook to explain”

clearly”—

clearly,

just as there, on Mount Ebal, they were commanded to set up stones and write the words of the Torah upon them, so too Moses set up stones in the land of Moab and wrote the words of the Torah upon them.

b.

And one that Joshua set up within the Jordan, as it is stated: “

And twelve stones Joshua set up within the Jordan.”

c.

And one that he set up—

Joshua, after he had first set them up on Mount Ebal and made an altar there—

at Gilgal, as it is stated: “

And those twelve stones that they had taken

from the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal.”

The Sages taught:

It is written [Deuteronomy 27:4]: “And when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster”; and it is written [there]: “And you shall write on the stones all the words of this Torah.”

And

how did Israel write the Torah

on the stones that were coated with plaster: did they write it before they plastered them, or did they write it after they plastered them?

Rabbi Yehuda says: On top of

the

stones

themselves

they wrote it, as it is stated: “

And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this Torah,”

and afterward they plastered them with plaster.

Rabbi Shimon said to him: According to your words, how did the nations

of

the world at that time learn

Torah!?

They were commanded to write the Torah in seventy languages for this very purpose: so that every member of the nations of the world could learn the Torah, so that they would have no opportunity to say, “We had no way to learn it.” But if they plastered them with plaster after writing them, how could they learn it!?

He said to him,

Rabbi Yehuda to Rabbi Shimon:

The Holy One, blessed be He, granted them extra understanding

among the nations of the world,

and they sent scribes

[notirin]

of their own, who peeled away the plaster

in order to read what was written on the stones,

and copied it

[they transcribed it], meaning that they took it from there by copying it.

And because of this their judgment was sealed

for the nations of the world

to the pit of destruction

[Gehinnom],

for they should have learned

after they had copied it

but did not learn.

Rabbi Shimon says:

a.

They wrote it on top of the plaster.

b.

And Israel wrote for them

the nations of the world

below

the writing: “Only from the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance shall you let no soul live. For you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God commanded you.

So that they will not teach you to do according to all

the abominations that they have done for their gods, and you would sin against the Lord your God.”

Therefore they wrote this below, in order to teach those people of the seven nations who had left the Land of Israel that we were not commanded to destroy them, for we were commanded to destroy only those within the borders of the Land of Israel, so that they would not teach us their corrupt practices. But those outside the Land—if you repent, we will accept you.

Is that so?

You have learned: That if

men from the seven nations residing outside Eretz Yisrael

repented, they would accept them;

but according to Rabbi Yehuda, anyone who is from the seven nations is not accepted, and they are killed; they are included in the prohibition: “You shall not allow any soul to live.”

The Gemara—the Talmudic discussion of the Mishna—breaks off here while citing the beraita, and continues to cite it on page 36a: “Come and see.”

Rava bar Sheila said: What is the rationale of Rabbi Shimon

who holds that they wrote it on top of the plaster? For since the Torah says: “And you shall write upon the stones,” it appears to support the precise interpretation of Rabbi Yehuda, that they wrote it upon the stones!

The rationale is explained as being because

it is written

(Isaiah 33:12): “

And peoples shall be burnings of lime

concerning matters of

lime

,” meaning that they are burned because the Torah was exposed before them on the lime, and nevertheless they did not study it.

And Rabbi Yehuda

interprets the verse “And peoples shall be burnings of lime” The peoples—as long as they do not convert and the name “peoples” still applies to them—are

like lime: Just as lime has no remedy other than burning, so too those gentiles have no remedy other than burning

in Gehinnom.

In accordance with whose view is this beraita taught

[whose view does the following beraita express]: “It is written: ‘When you go out [from Eretz Yisrael to outside Eretz Yisrael] to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand and you take captives. And you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and take her for yourself as a wife.’”

The phrase “and you take captives” stated by the verse is superfluous, and the verse comes

to include Canaanites

[or members of the other seven nations]

who are outside Eretz Yisrael, for if they repent, they are accepted,

and one may take from among them a beautiful captive woman.