Sukkah 53b — the Talmud in English

David said: Is there anyone who knows

whether there is someone who knows

whether it is permitted

if it is permitted

to write the Name ![](pamud.bmp "

exact page location")

on a potsherd

on earthenware,

and throw it into the abyss, and let it remain.

that we should throw it, so that it would sink and come to rest on the opening of the abyss, and seal it.

There was no one

and there was not anyone

who said anything to him.

David did not wish to rule the halakha himself, since his teacher Ahitophel was there, and it is forbidden to rule a halakhic ruling in the presence of one’s teacher.

David said: Whoever knows how to say something and does not say it—

will be strangled in his throat.

Ahitophel derived a kal va-chomer for himself: If, in order to make peace between a man and his wife,

through the examination of the sota with the bitter waters,

the Torah said: My Name, which was written in sanctity—

shall be erased in the water!

for they erase the passage of the sota upon them, so that, if the woman was not defiled, her husband’s suspicion of her would be removed.

To make peace for the entire world—

all the more so

that it is permitted to erase the Name.

He said to him

Ahitophel said to David:

It is permitted

it is permitted to erase it.

He wrote

David

the Name on a potsherd, and threw it into the abyss, and the abyss descended

and the level of the waters of the abyss descended

sixteen thousand cubits,

sixteen thousand cubits.

When he saw

when David saw

that it had descended excessively,

that the waters of the abyss had descended to an excessive depth,

he said: The more it is raised, the more

the closer the waters of the abyss are to the level of the ground and are not deep,

the world is moister,

there is more moisture in the upper soil, in which the trees and vegetables grow.

He said

David

fifteen

psalms of the Song of

Degrees,

for raising the abyss to the height,

and raised it

and raised the level of the waters of the abyss

fifteen thousand cubits, and established it

and established them

at

a depth of

one thousand cubits,

one thousand cubits.

Ulla said: Learn from this: The thickness of the earth is

the depth of the earth—from the ground until the level of the waters of the abyss—is

one thousand cubits,

one thousand cubits.

And we raise an objection:

But we see

we see

that we dig

that when we dig a pit to a depth

a little

small,

and

already

water emerges,

even when the pit is not one thousand cubits deep!

Rav Mesharshiya said: That

water is not the water of the abyss; rather, it comes

from the ladder of the Euphrates.

through the underground passages in which water seeps from the Euphrates River.

Since the place of origin of the Euphrates River is high, and the abundant waters that flow there, besides flowing in the Euphrates River, also seep through and find a path even through the mountains of Babylonia, which are lower than the place of origin of the river.

We learned in the Mishna:

And the priests stood at the upper gate that descends

from the Israelite Court to the Women’s Court. When they reached the tenth step, they sounded a tekia, a terua, and a tekia.

Rabbi Yirmeya asked:

What is that tenth step to which they reached and upon which they sounded?

Did they reach

the tenth step

by this:

that they descended

that they descended

five, and

now

stand

they stand

at ten,

on the tenth step from below.

Or perhaps they descended ten,

that they descended ten steps,

and stand

and now they stand

at five,

on the fifth step from below.

And we conclude:

The matter stands unresolved.

The Sages taught: From the implication of what is stated [Ezekiel 8] “

”

And their faces eastward,”

do I not know

on my own

that their backs were toward the Sanctuary of the Lord,

which was located on the western side!?

Rather, what is the purpose of saying: “

Their backs were toward the Sanctuary of the Lord”?

It teaches that they were exposing

revealing

themselves, and defecating

their excrement

downward.

We learned in the Mishna:

We are His, and our eyes are toward Him.

And we raise a difficulty:

Is that so? But Rabbi Zeira said: Whoever says

twice

“Hear, hear”,

who repeats and doubles the verse,

is like one who says “We give thanks, we give thanks”,

for they silence him, because he appears to acknowledge two authorities!

Rather, this is how they say: They—

bowed eastward.

And

these

we

bow

to Him, and our eyes hope toward Him.

Bowing and hoping are two different matters.

Mishna:

The blasts in the Temple were always in the form of “a tekia, a terua, and a tekia.”

Although they always sounded the terua together with a tekia before it and after it, they are considered separate mitzvot and are counted as three blasts.

They do not decrease

on any day

from twenty-one blasts in the Temple.

And they do not add to forty-eight.

According to this reckoning:

Every day there were twenty-one blasts there in the Temple:

Three

tekia, terua, tekia]

for the opening of the gates.

And nine for the morning daily offering,

for they sounded them for each of the three sections of song that the Levites sang at the time of the pouring of the wine.

As stated, each “tekia” consisted of three blasts [a tekia, a terua, and a tekia].

And nine

blasts they sounded for each of the three sections of song that the Levites sang

for the daily offering between the evenings.

And for the additional offerings they added another nine,

a triple sequence for each of the three sections of song of the additional offerings.

And on the eve of Shabbat they added six:

At first they sounded

three

blasts in order

to stop the people from work.

And three

blasts they sounded when the day became sanctified,

to distinguish between the holy and the ordinary,

for from that point it was subject to the prohibition whose violation incurs stoning.

On the eve of Shabbat that fell within the Festival there were forty-eight:

Three

as on every day

for the opening of the gates.

Three for the upper gate,

the Nicanor Gate. When they went out from the Israelite Court to the Women’s Court, for the drawing of the water.

And three for the lower gate,

for they sounded them when they descended to the Women’s Court and prolonged the blast until they went outside, through the gate in the Women’s Court.

And three for filling the water,

when they returned and brought it through the Water Gate.

And three

when they stood the willow branches upright

on the altar.

Nine for the morning daily offering, nine for the daily offering between the evenings, and nine for the additional offerings.

Three to stop the people from work, and three to distinguish between the holy and the ordinary.

Gemara:

The Mishna

which counts the tekia and the terua as separate mitzvot of sounding

is not in accordance with Rabbi Yehuda!

For it was taught in a beraita, Rabbi Yehuda says:

One who sounds

the minimum—

may not sound fewer than seven

blasts. [For they are seven repetitions of “a tekia, a terua, and a tekia,” which are twenty-one according to the Sages].

And one who adds—

may not add more than sixteen

repetitions of “a tekia, a terua, and a tekia,” which are forty-eight according to the Sages.

And the Gemara explains:

With regard to what do they disagree?

Rabbi Yehuda holds: “

A tekia, a terua, and a tekia” —

трубление, прерывистый звук и трубление» —

a mitzva of sounding

is one.

And the Sages hold: The tekia is separate and the terua is separate,

and likewise the tekia that follows it is separate.

And we raise a difficulty:

What is Rabbi Yehuda’s reason,

who counts the tekia, the terua, and the tekia that follows it as one mitzva?

And we answer:

The verse says [Numbers 10], “

”

And you shall sound a terua.”

Apparently, the terua and the tekia—

are one.

And the Sages

hold:

That

verse—

to

obligate a

simple tekia before it

before the terua,

and

a simple tekia

after it, is what it came to teach.

And what is the reason of the Sages?

As it is written [Numbers 10], “

”

And when assembling the congregation—

you shall sound, but you shall not sound a terua.”

And if it enters your mind

that

“a tekia and a terua

and a tekia” are a mitzva

unto itself,

then how

did the Merciful One say

that in the sounding to assemble the people only

half of the mitzva

half a mitzva, namely, a tekia without a terua]

he should perform, and the other half

of the mitzva

he should not perform!?

And Rabbi Yehuda:

that

came only as a mere sign,

to assemble the Children of Israel, and it is not “half a mitzva.”

And the Sages:

Indeed, this sounding is only

a sign,

for assembling the congregation is not a mitzva, but

the Merciful One made it a mitzva!

For Scripture established as a mitzva that, when they assemble the congregation, they must assemble it specifically by sounding. Therefore, the Sages hold that if the mitzva of sounding is as Rabbi Yehuda says, namely, “a tekia, a terua, and a tekia,” and a single tekia alone is only “half a mitzva,” it is impossible that the sounding to assemble the congregation should consist only of a tekia and not a terua, since it would be half a mitzva.

And the Gemara says:

In accordance with whom is this statement that Rav Kahana said: One does not

interrupt

between the tekia and the terua at all,

except for an interruption of “the time needed to breathe.”

In accordance with whom?—

In accordance with Rabbi Yehuda,

since he holds that the two of them are one mitzva.

And we refute this:

It is obvious

that only according to Rabbi Yehuda, who holds that the tekia and the terua are one mitzva, may one not interrupt between them. For according to the Sages they are two mitzvot, so why, in their view, would he not be able to interrupt slightly between them?!

And if so, why does the Gemara need to teach us this?!