Sotah 49b — the Talmud in English

and they will see

become

like the people of the land

like the people of the land,

and the people of the land ![](pamud.bmp "

exact page location")

goes and dwindles,

dwindle and deteriorate,

and there is neither one who asks nor one who seeks; upon whom is there to rely? Upon our Father in Heaven.

In the footsteps of the Messiah

at the end of the exile, before the coming of the Messiah, at a time when, as it were, they will see his footsteps,

insolence will increase,

insolence will increase in the world.

And the costliness will soar

it will be raised like the head of a branch,

the vine will give its fruit, and

nevertheless it will be

the wine will be expensive,

because everyone will be occupied with banquets.

And the kingdom will turn to heresy,

for they will support the heretics and their opinions,

and there will be no reproof,

there will be no person able to reprove them, because all will have stumbled in sins; and when one person reproves his fellow, the sinner will say to him: “You are no better than I, for you too are a sinner.”

The assembly

of sages

will be a

house

of harlotry,

because the sages will be exhausted and there will be no Torah scholars, and the assembly that stands outside the city will be desolate and ruined, and lewd people will gather in it.

And the Galilee

which had more sages and pious men than the land of Judea,

will be destroyed.

And the Golan —

a place-name,

will be desolate.

And the people of the border

who live in the borders of the Land of Israel, [and an additional interpretation: the people of hewn stone are the Sanhedrin],

will wander from city to city

to go around collecting at the doors [or to strengthen the spiritual condition among their people]

and they will not be shown favor,

they will not pay attention to them.

And the wisdom of scribes will become putrid,

and those who fear sin will be despised,

and the truth will be absent.

Young men will whiten the faces of elders,

they will shame them and cause their faces to fall.

Elders will stand before minors,

to honor them, as a result of the insolence that will increase at that time.

A son will disgrace his father,

he will speak disgraceful words about his father,

a daughter will rise up

to revile and blaspheme

her mother, and

likewise

a bride

will rise

against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog,

for they will be brazen-faced, they will not be ashamed of one another, [and some explain that they will actually resemble a dog]

the son will not be ashamed before his father; and upon whom do we have to rely? Upon our Father in Heaven.

Gemara:

Rav said: They taught

that they decreed concerning the crowns of bridegrooms

only

concerning crowns

of salt and sulfur,

which they would make from a mass of salt clear as crystal, and paint them with sulfur and burn figures into them, as they do with gold and silver vessels,

but

crowns

of myrtle and rose

which they braid for the bridegroom’s head

are permitted.

And Shmuel said: Even those of myrtle and rose are forbidden,

but crowns

of reeds and

the plant of

ḥalita

which grows in water

are permitted.

And Levi says: Even those of reeds and ḥalita are forbidden; and Levi likewise taught in his Mishna: Even those of reeds and ḥalita are forbidden.

We learned in the Mishna,

“And concerning the irus.”

And we explain:

What is an irus? Rabbi Elazar said: A bell with one clapper,

a bell with one clapper, with which they would play music in banquet houses.

Rabba bar Rav Huna made for his son

the minor

a drum,

a small drum, to beat upon.

His father

Rav Huna, Rabba’s father,

came and broke it. He said to him:

to Rabba his son: The sound of the drum

is confused with a bell with one clapper

and they may come to stumble and make a bell concerning which they decreed; therefore, instead of the drum,

go, make for him

for your young son a large drum,

upon the mouth of a jar,

so that he will beat upon the hide stretched over the mouth of the barrel,

or upon the mouth of a kapiza,

a vessel holding three log, whose sound is thick and does not resemble the sound of the bell concerning which they decreed.

We learned in the Mishna,

“In the war of Titus they decreed concerning the crowns of brides, etc.”

And we explain:

What are the crowns of brides? Rabba bar bar Ḥana said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: A golden city,

a golden crown on which the figure of a city is drawn.

It was also taught thus: What are the crowns of brides? A city of

gold. But

it is permitted to be

making it a woolen cap,

a white woolen hat for the bride.

The tanna taught: They also decreed concerning the canopy of bridegrooms,

and we explain:

What is the canopy of bridegrooms? Gilded scarlet,

a cloth of red color in which gold plates are fixed, and they set it up like a dome,

it was also taught thus: These are the canopies of bridegrooms: gilded scarlet,

and they prohibited making them from the time Titus besieged Jerusalem.

But he may make

for the bridegroom

a papirit,

a dome of wooden hoops,

and hang upon it whatever he wishes,

even beautiful scarves and gold ornaments.

We learned in the Mishna,

“And that he should not teach his son Greek.”

The Sages taught: When the kings of the Hasmonean house were besieging one another,

when the two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus were quarrelling over which of them would rule Israel,

Hyrcanus was

besieging Jerusalem

from outside,

with the assistance of Roman troops whom he had brought with him,

and Aristobulus

was sitting

inside

under siege.

Every day they would lower

the people of Jerusalem

dinars in a box,

and they would take them from the chamber contribution, which they had donated for the purchase of sheep for the daily offering. And Hyrcanus’s men would

raise up for them

sheep for the purpose of offering

the daily offerings

in exchange for the money in the box.

There was

inside Jerusalem

an old man who was acquainted with Greek wisdom; he signaled to them

he called to Hyrcanus’s men who were outside

in

a foreign

language, which is Greek wisdom, saying to them: As long as they are engaged in the Temple service

and offer daily offerings in the Temple,

there is no

the inhabitants of Jerusalem

being delivered into your hands.

When they heard this,

the next day,

and the people of Jerusalem

lowered dinars to them in a box, and

they, instead of bringing up sheep for them,

brought up a pig for them. When it reached

the pig

halfway

up the height of the

wall, it drove its claws into the wall. The Land of Israel was shaken four hundred parsaot,

because the anger of the King, the Holy One, blessed be He, burned over the profanation of His Name.

At that time they said: Cursed is a person who raises pigs, and cursed is a person who teaches his son Greek wisdom,

for this event came about through a person who had learned Greek wisdom, and through the pig that they brought up to the wall.

And concerning that year

in which Titus besieged Jerusalem on behalf of Hyrcanus,

we learned: It happened that an omer came from the roofs of Tzerifin, and the two loaves from the valley of Ein Sokher,

for it is a mitzva to bring them from a place near Jerusalem, as it is written, “You shall offer fresh grain”; and we expound “fresh grain” as “a full handful,” meaning that the seed should be moist and the handful of the stalk should be full of it. If they bring them from distant places, the handful will dry out and become crushed and will not be full.

And in that year in which the armies of Titus besieged Jerusalem, they destroyed all the grain around Jerusalem, and they needed to bring it from these places, which were distant from it.

And we object to that which we say, that it is forbidden to learn Greek wisdom, implying that the intention is the Greek language in which that old man spoke:

Is that so? But Rabbi said

in protest against those who speak

in the Land of Israel

in

the Syriac language,

which is a contemptible language:

Why

should they speak in it, when it is not fitting to speak

except either

in

the holy language or the Greek language,

which is a clear language, Greece being the land adjacent to the Land of Israel, and they should speak in their language.

And

likewise

Rav Yosef said

in protest against those who speak

in Babylonia in the Aramaic language: Why

should they speak in it, when it is not fitting for them to speak

except either the holy language or the Persian language,

which is more pleasant than Aramaic and is the language of the land adjacent to Babylonia. It follows that there is no prohibition against speaking the Greek language; on the contrary, it is an advantage.

And we answer that there is no connection between their language and their wisdom. Rather,

the Greek language is one matter,

which is permitted to speak,

and Greek wisdom is another matter,

which is forbidden to learn.

And we object:

But is Greek wisdom forbidden? Yet Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel in the name of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel: What is [the meaning of] that which is written, “My eye has caused me to weep”

in weeping

for my soul more than all the daughters of my city”?

One must weep more than for all the families of the city, because

there were one thousand children in my father’s house; five hundred studied

only

Torah, and five hundred studied

Torah and

Greek wisdom, and none of them remained except me here, and my father’s sister’s son in Asia,

and it follows that it is permitted to learn Greek wisdom, since they learned it even in the house of Rabban Gamliel.

And we answer:

The house of Rabban Gamliel is different, for they were close to the kingdom,

and they needed Greek wisdom in order to use it in their connections with the royal house.

And likewise we find that they permitted them to learn Greek wisdom because they were close to the kingdom,

as it was taught: A mispar komi,

one who cuts the hair on the side of his head toward the face and leaves a lock behind him,

is one of the ways of the Amorites,

but for

Avtolos ben Reuven they permitted cutting in the komi style

because

he was close to the kingdom.

He needed to conduct himself according to their customs and manners when he came before the kingdom. And likewise

for those of the house of Rabban Gamliel they permitted

learning

Greek wisdom, because they were close to the kingdom.

We learned in the Mishna,

“In the final war they decreed that a bride should not go out in a litter,”

but our Sages permitted the bride to go out in a litter within the city.

And we explain:

What is the reason

our Sages permitted it?

Because of modesty,

for she goes out with her head uncovered and is embarrassed that everyone looks at her.

We learned in the Mishna,

“From the time Rabban Yoḥanan died, wisdom ceased.”

The Sages taught: From the time Rabbi Eliezer died, the Torah scroll was concealed,

for many halakhot from tradition were ordered by his mouth, with clarity as though they were written in a scroll; and when he departed, this Torah scroll was concealed.

From the time Rabbi Yehoshua died, counsel and thought ceased,

for he was careful in expositions, expert in halakhot, and knew how to answer heretics and understand their intentions and allusions.

From the time Rabbi Akiva died, the arms of

Torah

ceased, for he was distinguished in depth of reasoning, and knew how to support the reasons of the halakhot of the Oral Torah through expositions of the verses, extra letters, and changed expressions in Scripture.

And the springs of wisdom were stopped up.

From the time Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah died, the crowns of wisdom ceased,

for he was a great sage and a great wealthy man, and his wealth was a crown to his wisdom,

for the crown of sages is their wealth.

From the time Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa died, men of deeds ceased,

for he performed wondrous deeds, as was brought in the explanation of the Mishna.

From the time Abba Yose ben Kattontah died, the pious ceased. And why was his name called Abba Yose ben Kattontah? Because he was among the lesser of the pious.

From the time Ben Azzai died, the diligent ceased.

From the time Ben Zoma died, the expounders ceased.

From the time Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel died, locusts arose

a species of locust,

and troubles increased.

From the time Rabbi died, troubles doubled.

From the time Rabbi died, humility and fear of sin ceased.

Rav Yosef said to the tanna: Do not teach

that it ceased,

for

behold,

there is me

I am humble.

Rav Naḥman said to the tanna: Do not teach

that it ceased,

that

behold

there is me, [see Rashi, Megillah 28b, that Rav Naḥman was among the pious of Babylonia].

We have returned to you, chapter “The Decapitated Calf,” and the tractate Sotah is completed.

We have returned to you, chapter “The Beheaded Heifer,” and the tractate Sota is complete