Sotah 48b (מח:) — the Talmud in English

As it is written:

Therefore

the netherworld expanded its soul,

measure for measure: just as they expanded their appetite to drink excessively, so the netherworld will expand itself beyond its usual measure in order to receive the dead.

And it opened its mouth wide without measure

It will open itself without limit to receive those whose indulgence knew no bounds.

And there descended

to the netherworld

its glory,

the honored people of Jerusalem,

and its multitude,

the masses of its people,

and its tumult,

the masses who raise a voice of tumult and commotion,

and those who exult in it.

All of them will fall into the netherworld while still engaged in their tumult and merriment.

We learned in the Mishna:

When the early prophets died,

the Urim VeTumim ceased to function.

And we explain:

Who are the early prophets? Rav Huna said: This refers to David, Samuel, and Solomon.

Rav Naḥman said: In the days of David, at times the answer rose,

they succeeded in receiving an answer from the Urim VeTumim,

and at times it did not rise.

As

when David fled and left Jerusalem because of Absalom, and ascended the Mount of Olives, he wished to inquire through the Urim VeTumim whether he would succeed in returning to Jerusalem and whether God would show him the Ark and His dwelling place. At that point,

Zadok inquired, and the answer rose for him,

but

Abiathar inquired, and the answer did not rise for him.

As we expound from what

is stated

there: “And they set down—and stationed—the Ark of God,”

and Abiathar ascended

until all the people had finished crossing. And we explain that when David inquired and saw that Abiathar was not answered, he understood that Samuel’s curse had been fulfilled against him, to remove the priesthood from the descendants of Eli. Therefore Abiathar withdrew from the High Priesthood that very day, and Zadok the priest, who had served beneath him, inquired concerning David’s question and was answered through the Urim VeTumim.

Rabba bar Shmuel raised an objection: “And it was to inquire of God in the days of Zechariah, who understood through the vision of God.” What, is it not

the intention of the verse that they inquired of God

through the Urim VeTumim,

which indicates that they still existed in the days of Zechariah, who lived at the end of the Second Temple period? And we answer:

No,

the intention is not that they inquired through the Urim VeTumim, but rather

through the prophets.

Come and hear:

Until when did the Urim VeTumim exist?

From when the First Temple was destroyed, the open spaces of the Levitical cities ceased to function,

these are the cities of the Levites, for whom open spaces must be left before them; some of the Levites moved to other cities [but did not build in the open spaces, since the prohibition is from the Torah and did not cease, Rashash].

And the Urim VeTumim ceased to function

and the king from the House of David ceased to rule.

And if someone would whisper to you, saying

How can it be possible to say that the Urim VeTumim had ceased at that time? Does the verse not state that when Ezra ascended after the Babylonian exile,

“And the Tirshata said”

who was Nehemiah, who was permitted to drink wine of gentiles in the king’s palace,

to them,

to the priests descended from Barzillai, who had not found records of their genealogy,

“that they should not eat of the most holy offerings”

sin offerings and guilt offerings

“until a priest arises for the Urim VeTumim,”

who would determine through them whether they were valid priests. This indicates that the Urim VeTumim existed when they returned and rebuilt the Second Temple.

Tell him

that the intention is not “until there are Urim VeTumim in the Second Temple,” but rather that he told them not to eat of the sacred offerings until the coming of the Messiah,

as a person says to his fellow: “Until the dead come to life and the Messiah son of David comes.”

In any event, it is explained in this beraita that the Urim VeTumim existed at least until the end of the First Temple, and not only in the days of David and Solomon, contrary to Rav Huna’s statement.

Rather, Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Who are the early prophets?

All the prophets who lived until the Second Temple period,

excluding Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,

who lived during the Second Temple period,

for they were the later ones,

and in their time the Urim VeTumim no longer existed.

And the proof that these prophets are called the later ones is:

The Sages taught: When Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, the Divine Spirit departed from Israel,

and nevertheless

they still heard the word of God, for

they would make use

of a Divine voice.

seated in an upper room of the House of Gurya in Jericho, a heavenly voice came upon them from heaven and said: “There is among you one person worthy for the Divine Presence to rest upon him, but his generation is not worthy of it.” When they heard this, they considered who among them was worthy of this, and

And likewise we find

that once there were

the Sages of Israel

sitting in the upper chamber of the house of Gurya in Jericho, and a Divine voice came forth from Heaven over them and said: “There is one person among you who is worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon him, but his generation is not worthy of this.”

When they heard this, they considered which among them was worthy of it, and

they directed their eyes toward Hillel the Elder, and when he died, they eulogized him

and said of him,

“Alas, pious one; alas, humble one; disciple of Ezra,”

who had been a Nasi like him and continued the transmission of Torah from generation to generation.

And again, on another occasion they were sitting in an upper chamber in Yavneh, and a Divine voice came forth from Heaven and said to them: “There is one person among you who is worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon him, but his generation is not deserving of this.” They directed their eyes toward Shmuel HaKatan, [

who was called “the small one” because he was worthy of prophecy, but it was withheld from him because of his generation],

and when he died, they eulogized him: “Alas, humble one; alas,

pious one, disciple of Hillel,”

as the same was said of Hillel, as mentioned above.

And he himself,

Shmuel HaKatan,

said at the time of his death,

as though by prophecy, that the end of Rabban

Shimon

the Nasi

and

Rabbi

Yishmael

son of Elisha, who had been High Priest,

would be by the sword,

for the Greek king would execute them.

And

the end of the other

colleagues would be more lenient,

being killed by other unusual forms of execution, like Rabbi Akiva, whose flesh was combed with iron combs; Rabbi Ḥananya ben Teradion, who was burned together with a Torah scroll; and Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, into whom three hundred iron spears were thrust, making him like a sieve.

And the rest of the people

their end

would be plunder—

plunder—

and many troubles—

and great calamities—

would be destined to come upon the people.

And concerning Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava as well, they wished to say, “Alas, pious one; alas, humble one, disciple of Hillel,” but the moment was disrupted,

and they could not eulogize him with honor, since he was killed by the government. And the halakha is

that one does not eulogize those executed by the government.

We learned in the Mishna:

From when the Temple was destroyed, the shamir ceased to function, and so on.

The Sages taught:

the

shamir, with which Solomon built the Temple, ceased to function, as it is stated: “And the House, when it was being built, was built of whole stone brought up ready-made.”

The stones were built in their complete form, as they were brought along from the place where they had been quarried, and they were not hewn again with an iron tool.

The words as they are written—

the words of Rabbi Yehuda.

This is indeed how it was: no additional hewing was done to these stones, because they were quarried precisely and completely by means of the shamir.

Rabbi Neḥemya said to him: How can one say this? Is it not already stated

there,

“All these were precious stones, and were sawn with saws”?

It is explicit that they sawed and hewed them. Rather,

what does the verse teach

by saying, “A whole stone brought up ready-made,” and “Neither hammer nor axe nor any iron tool was heard in the House when it was being built”?

The explanation is that he prepared them

by hewing them

outside, and brought them in from inside,

so that

he prepared them

outside and brought them in from inside; only within the Temple was no sound of an iron tool heard.

Rabbi said: The words of Rabbi Yehuda appear [correct] concerning the stones of the Temple,

for they were not hewn at all with an iron tool.

And

the

words of Rabbi Neḥemya appear [correct] concerning the stones of his house,

Solomon’s house: they were hewn outside and not inside the house, and only concerning them is it stated, “precious stones sawn with saws.”

And we challenge this:

And according to Rabbi Neḥemya, what purpose does the shamir serve,

if in any event he hewed them with an iron tool outside the Temple? For what purpose was the shamir necessary?

And we answer:

It was needed for that which is taught in a beraita: These stones

the stones of the ephod and the breastplate

may not be inscribed

with the names of the tribes upon them

with ink, because it is stated

that they must be engraved:

“Engravings of a signet”; and one may not scratch them with a chisel, because it is stated: “In their full setting,”

which indicates that although there is a mitzva to engrave them, they must remain complete and nothing may be missing from them.

Rather, one writes on them with ink

the forms of the letters that he wishes to engrave in them,

and displays the shamir to them from outside,

passing it over the ink,

and they split on their own,

and resemble

this fig, which splits during the summer and loses nothing, and this field, which splits

its soil

during the rainy season and loses nothing.

The Sages taught: The shamir—its natural size

its growth

was that of a barleycorn, and it was created during the six days of Creation, and no hard object could withstand it,

for it cuts through everything.

How was it kept,

since it would split any material in which it was placed, emerge, and disappear? Rather,

they wrapped it in wool sponges and placed it in a chest

a box

of lead filled with barley bran,

for the Holy One, blessed be He, had implanted this nature in it when He created it: that it would split every hard object, yet it would be preserved in an exceedingly soft material and would not emerge from it quickly [Maharsha].

Rabbi Ami said: When the First Temple was destroyed, shira paranda ceased to exist,

a type of fine silk,

and white glass

which was extremely valuable, because from that time it became exceedingly rare.

It was also taught so: When the First Temple was destroyed, shira paranda, white glass, and iron chariots ceased to exist.

And some say: Also congealed wine that comes from

the place called

Shenir, and

because of its many years it congeals into lumps and

resembles rounds of pressed figs.

We learned in the Mishna:

And the honey of the honeycombs.

And we explain:

What is the honey of the honeycombs? Rav said: Flour that floated

because of its abundance of oil

on top of a sieve,

sticking to its sides,

and resembled dough kneaded with honey and oil.

And Levi said

that the intention is that because of the abundance of blessing that rested upon the dough, there were

two loaves that adhered

to the sides of

the oven,

one to one side and the other to the opposite side,

which rose and came until they reached one another,

and they floated, puffed up in the air, resembling honeycomb that grows, spreads, and hangs in the air.

And Rabbi Yehuda ben Levi said:

The honey of the honeycombs

is honey that comes from the peaks,

from high mountains from which one can see far. And we explain:

What is the indication,

that you know that superior honey comes from the high mountains?

As Rav Sheshet translated

the verse “as the bees do,”

“as they are nourished by their nature”

as bees feed,

“and roam in the heights of the world”

and wander at the world’s heights,

“and bring honey from the herbs of the mountain,”

bringing honey from the mountain plants, which indicates that this is the source of the superior honey.

We learned there

that every

streaming

from a pure vessel into an impure vessel, the portion that remains in the pure vessel remains

pure,

and the stream does not cause the liquid remaining in the pure vessel to become impure,

except for Zif honey and honey wafers

—honey products that are very thick and are considered attached to what remains in the upper vessel, since when the stream is interrupted, some of it flows back and continues to rise from below upward, rendering impure what remains in the vessel from which it flowed.

And we explain:

What is meant by Zif honey? Rabbi Yohanan said: It is honey with which people can falsify things,

as water and wine can be mixed into it without this being detected, because it is exceptionally fine and thick; this is how liars [and tale-bearers, as explained below] use it.

And Reish Lakish said

that this honey is called Zif

after the name of its place

of origin, and we find such a place in Eretz Yisrael,

as it is written

among the names of the cities conquered by Joshua:

“Zif, Telem, and Bealot.”

Similarly, you say

that we find another dispute concerning the explanation of the name Zif, with regard to the verse:

“Then the Ziphites came and said to Saul: Is not David”

hiding among us; and they dispute:

What is meant by Ziphites? Rabbi Yohanan said: People who falsify their words,

for they spread tales about David,

while Rabbi Elazar says

that they were so called

after the name of their place, as it is written: “Zif, Telem, and Bealot.”

We learned in the Mishna:

“And the people of faith ceased to exist.”

Rabbi Yitzhak said: These are people who believe in the Almighty,

and are willing to forgo their money to beautify a mitzva, to give charity, and for the expenses of Shabbat and Festivals [Rashi].

As it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Eliezer the Great

says: Anyone who has bread in his basket and says, ‘What will I eat tomorrow?’ is nothing other than one of little faith [

And in the Yalkut we expound it in this manner from the verse, as it is stated: “That I may test him, whether he will follow My Torah or not.”].

And this is what Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of the verse, “For who has despised the day of small things,” and

its explanation is:

Who caused the tables of the righteous to be diminished in the World to Come,

meaning, who causes the righteous to be disgraced in the future, so that they do not receive their full reward?

Smallness

of faith

that they possessed

is what causes this. And what is this smallness?

That they did not fully believe in the Holy One, blessed be He,

and said: “What will we eat tomorrow?”