Sotah 5a — the Talmud in English

The Gemara explains:

Rather, Rabbi Yohanan said:

the intention of the verse is to say

that even one who performs charity in secret,

where charity in secret is from the hand of the wealthy person to the hand of the poor person, and

as it is written concerning it,

concerning charity in secret, that

“A gift in secret subdues anger,” and so forth,

for charity in secret removes wrath, nevertheless

he will not be acquitted from the judgment of Gehinnom.

The Gemara asks:

A warning concerning the arrogant—

from where [is it derived]?

Rava said, Zeiri said—

It is written in the Book of Jeremiah:

“Hear and give ear; do not be haughty.”

The verse warns people that they should not have arrogance of heart.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: From here—

“And your heart becomes high, and you forget.”

It is explained that through arrogance of heart, a person comes to forget the Lord.

And it is written: “Beware for yourself lest you forget the Lord your God.”

It is explained that there is a warning concerning forgetting the Lord, which is caused by arrogance.

And it is like [the teaching of] Rabbi Avin, who said in the name of Rabbi Ilaa—

For Rabbi Avin said in the name of Rabbi Ilaa—

Every place where it is said

in the Torah

“beware,” “lest,” or “do not”—

it is only

to teach us that one who transgresses the command stated there transgresses

a prohibition,

and here too, where it says “beware lest,” this is a warning of a prohibition:

Rav Avira expounded—

Sometimes

he would say to him

he expounded it

in the name of Rav Asi, and

sometimes

he would say to him

he expounded it

in the name of Rav Ami—

Every person who has arrogance, in the end becomes diminished

in his importance.

As it is stated—

Since he is

“raised,”

and

he has arrogance, he is

“diminished,”

he becomes diminished.

And it is written later in the verse: “Raised a little, and he is no more, and they are brought low like all others; and like the head of a stalk they wither.”

And the Gemara continues to explain the entire verse.

And lest you say, he exists in the world,

that the arrogant person still has existence in the world—

The verse states—

“And he is no more.”

And we expound from the word “and he is no more” that he has no existence in the world.

And if he repents

from arrogance and becomes humble,

he is gathered in his time, like Abraham our father.

As it is stated—

“And they are brought low.”

For if he returned and lowered himself,

“like,”

his end will be like those concerning whom the blessing was stated, that their death would be in the aspect of

“they will leap,”

whose meaning is that they die from the world an upright death; and this is

like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, concerning whom it is written,

concerning Abraham it is written: “And the Lord blessed Abraham

with everything,”

and concerning Isaac it is written: “And I ate

from everything,”

and concerning Jacob it is written: “For I have

everything.”

But if not,

if he again returns to arrogance—

“And like the head of a stalk they wither.”

What is [the meaning of] “and like the head of a stalk”?—

They disagreed about this,

Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda—

one said: Like the tuft of a stalk.

His punishment is like the head of the stalk, which breaks and falls by itself.

And one said: Like the stalk itself.

His punishment is like the stalk itself, which breaks and falls.

The Gemara asks:

Granted, according to the one who says, like the tuft of a stalk,

like the head of the stalk,

this is what is written: “And like the head of a stalk.”

But according to the one who says, like the stalk itself,

like the stalk itself—

what

is the intention of the verse

“and like the head of a stalk”?

The Gemara explains:

Rav Asi said, and likewise the tanna of the house of Rabbi Ishmael—

This is a parable to a person who enters his field

in order to gather the stalks that have grown:

he gathers the tallest first!

He begins by gathering the tallest stalks first. And this is also the punishment of the arrogant person, whose spirit is high: the Holy One, blessed is He, punishes him in the manner in which the tall stalks are gathered:

It is written in the verse in Isaiah:

“And with the contrite and lowly of spirit.”

And they also disagreed about this,

Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda—

One said: He comes to the contrite!

The Holy One, blessed is He, says that He, as it were, raises the lowly of spirit until He dwells with him.

And one said: I am with the contrite!

For the Holy One, blessed is He, as it were, lowers His Shekhinah beside the lowly of spirit.

And it is reasonable according to the one who says, “I am with the contrite,”

that the Holy One, blessed is He, as it were, causes Himself to dwell with him.

And from where [is this]?—

For the Holy One, blessed is He

at the giving of the Torah

left all the mountains and hills and caused His Shekhinah to rest upon Mount Sinai,

which was the lowest of all the mountains,

and not

do we find that

Mount Sinai rose upward.

Necessarily, the Holy One, blessed is He, descended to the mountain. And this is proof that the Holy One, blessed is He, lowers His Shekhinah beside the lowly of spirit.

Rabbi Yosef said: A person should always learn from the disposition of his Creator,

that he should lower himself.

For the Holy One, blessed is He, left all the mountains and hills and caused His Shekhinah to rest upon Mount Sinai [

and left all the good trees and caused His Shekhinah to rest in the thornbush ] .

Rabbi Elazar said—

Every person who has arrogance is fit to be cut down like an Asherah.

To cut him down and uproot him like an Asherah of idolatry, concerning which there is a mitzva to cut it down and destroy it completely.

And from where [is this]—

It is written here,

with regard to the arrogant,

“And the tall of stature,”

that is, the arrogant,

“cut down.”

And it is written there: “And you shall cut down their Asherim.”

Thus, the matter of cutting down applies both to the arrogant and to an Asherah.

And Rabbi Elazar said—

Every person who has arrogance—his dust is not stirred,

his dust is not stirred at the resurrection of the dead, for he does not rise at the resurrection of the dead .

As it is stated—

“Awaken and sing, you who dwell in the dust”—

“Those who lie in the dust” was not said,

which would imply that all those lying in the dust will rise at the resurrection of the dead,

but

only those who are

“those who dwell in the dust”

will rise at the resurrection of the dead.

And who are those who dwell in the dust?—

One who became a neighbor of the dust during his life,

who humbles himself during his life like dust.

And Rabbi Elazar said—

Every person who has arrogance—the Shekhinah cries over him,

the Shekhinah weeps over him, as it were.

As it is stated—

“And the lofty

person,” who has arrogance,

“from afar,”

a long time before the calamity comes upon him,

“He knows,”

from an expression of weeping, that the Shekhinah cries over him.

Rav Avira expounded, and some say Rabbi Elazar—

Come and see that the disposition of the Holy One, blessed is He, is not like the disposition of flesh and blood—

The disposition of flesh and blood is that the high person sees the high person, but the high person does not see the lowly person.

The great person bestows honor upon the great person, but does not bestow honor upon the small person.

But the disposition of the Holy One, blessed is He, is not so: He is high, and He sees,

and brings near to Himself

the lowly person,

and relates to him in all his matters.

As it is stated—

“For the Lord is high,”

the Holy One, blessed is He, is high,

“but He sees the lowly,”

He brings the lowly near.

Rav Ḥisda said, and some say Mar Ukva—

Every person who has arrogance—the Holy One, blessed is He, said: I and he cannot dwell in the world!

As it is stated—

“Whoever slanders his fellow in secret,”

one who informs against his fellow in secret,

“him I will destroy,”

I will cut him off.

“He who is haughty of eyes and broad of heart,”

the arrogant and haughty person—

“him I cannot endure.”

I cannot tolerate him in the world.

Thus, concerning the arrogant and haughty person it is written, “Him I cannot endure.”

And this is how the verse is to be expounded:

Do not read

“him”

but rather, “with him I cannot endure,”

that I and he cannot dwell together in the world.

There are those who teach it

who teach this statement—

with regard to one who speaks slanderous speech.

As it is stated—

“Whoever slanders his fellow in secret, him I will destroy.”

For this speaks of one who speaks slanderous speech and gossip, and concerning this the end of the verse says, “Him I cannot endure.”

Rabbi Alexandri said—

Every person who has arrogance—even a slight wind,

a minor calamity,

overturns him,

overwhelms him and destroys him from the world.

As it is stated—

“But the wicked,”

these are the arrogant,

“like a sea driven,”

just as the sea drives out and casts refuse onto the seashore, so the arrogant, who are compared to the sea, are overturned by the wind.

And if the sea, which contains

many more than

several revi’it

of water, nevertheless

a slight wind overturns it,

a minor calamity can overwhelm it—

a person, who contains only one revi’it

of blood, by which he can exist,

all the more so

that a minor calamity overwhelms him from the world.

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Ashi said in the name of Rav—

A Torah scholar must have one-eighth of an eighth,

he must possess a little pride, so that frivolous people will not be able to mock him; for if he does not have this pride, the people of his city will not listen to him.

Rabbi Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, said—

And it adorns him,

this pride is fitting for a Torah scholar,

like the tuft of a stalk,

like the head of the stalk, for without this pride the people of his city would not listen to him.

Rava said—

Let him be

under a ban,

under excommunication and a ban,

who has it,

a person who has arrogance.

And under a ban

likewise shall be a Torah scholar

who does not have

one-eighth of an eighth of pride, for otherwise the people of his city will not fear him, and he will not have the power to rebuke them.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said—

A person should desire

neither it,

not all of the pride,

nor

even

a portion of it,

a portion of the pride.

Is it a small matter,

and is it indeed a small matter,

as it is written concerning it,

what is written concerning pride:

“Everyone who is haughty of heart is an abomination of the Lord” .

Hezekiah said—

A person’s prayer is heard only if he makes his heart

soft

like flesh,

and not hard like stone.

As it is stated—

“And it shall be that from month to month [

and so forth ],

all flesh shall come to bow down” and so forth.

And it is explained that only those whose hearts are soft like flesh will come before the Lord.

Rabbi Zeira said—

In the passage of afflictions, when the Torah speaks of an affliction on

flesh,

when the affliction passes,

it is written concerning it, “and he is healed,”

but when the Torah speaks of an affliction on

a person, it is not written concerning it

when the affliction passes

“and he is healed.”

And from this we learn that one who is soft like flesh is subject to “and he is healed,” but one who is “a person,” meaning that he is hard like earth, has no healing from suffering.

Rabbi Yohanan said—

Adam,

why was he called Adam? Because this is an acronym for

ash, blood, bile.

That is, a person must remember that he is entirely vanity, for he resembles ash, something whose end is that it is burned and has no value.

And also that he is filled with blood, which brings many illnesses upon a person.

And likewise he has bile, which is moisture issuing from the liver and increasing in a person according to the changes of the seasons or according to the foods that he eats, and through it illness comes upon a person.

And his name, Adam, hints that he should not become arrogant, for he is entirely vanity.

And likewise, what we learned above, that a person is called

flesh,

this is an acronym for

shame, putrid drop, maggot.

And this comes to hint that a person must conduct himself with shame and not with brazenness, and must remember that he came from a putrid drop and that his end is to become a maggot and a worm 6 .

There are those who say: “Sheol,” which is written with the letter shin,

we do not expound the shin of “flesh” as a left-pointing shin, in the sense of putrid, but as a right-pointing shin, in the sense of Sheol; that is, Sheol—his grave—is his home.

That is, a person should remember that his end is to descend to Sheol forever, and he has nothing over which to become arrogant.

Rav Ashi said—

Every person who has arrogance, in

the

end is inflated.

His end is that he behaves not in accordance with his importance and becomes one of the lowliest of the people.

As it is stated—