Yoma 77a — the Talmud in English

And it is further stated there:

“And he brought me into the inner court of the House of the Lord, and behold, at the entrance of the Sanctuary of the Lord, between the Hall and the altar, about twenty-five men.

Their

backs

were toward

the Sanctuary of the Lord, and their faces eastward, and they were prostrating themselves eastward, to the sun.”

From the fact that it is stated, “and their faces eastward,”

do I not know that their backs were toward the Sanctuary of the Lord

which was located on the western side?

Rather, what is the meaning of, “Their

backs

were toward the Sanctuary of the Lord”?

It teaches that they were exposing themselves and were defecating

turning themselves

downward

[in an expression of euphemism].

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to

the angel

Michael,

the minister of the people of Israel among the supernal angels:

Michael—

your nation has acted corruptly!

He said before Him: Master of the Universe, it is enough for You

to forgive everyone by turning

to the good ones among them,

and do not look at the wicked ones among them.

He said to him,

the Almighty to Michael:

I burn

also

them and

also

the good ones among them,

because they did not rebuke them [Tosafot Yeshanim].

Immediately: “And He said

the

to the man clothed in linen

[Gabriel],

and He said: Come in among the wheels, beneath the cherub, and fill your handfuls with coals of fire from among the cherubim, and scatter

the coals of fire

over the city!” And he came before My eyes.

Immediately: “And the cherub stretched out

[as Gabriel’s emissary]

his hand from among the cherubim, to the fire that was among the cherubim, and took up

the coals of fire,

and gave

them

into the handfuls of

the hands of

the man clothed in linen.

And he took

Gabriel the coals

and went out

to the city to cast the coals of fire upon it.”

Rav Hana bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon the Pious: Had the coals not cooled

at the time they were transferred

from the hand of the cherub to the hand of Gabriel—

not a remnant would have remained of the enemies of Israel

[an expression of euphemism]

a survivor and an escapee.

And it is written

[Ezekiel 9]:

“And behold, the man

Gabriel

clothed in linen, whose inkwell was at his loins, answered

the Almighty

with a word, saying: I have done as You commanded me!”

Rabbi Yohanan said: At that moment they brought Gabriel out from behind the curtain and struck him

and beat him

with sixty fiery rods,

with sixty rods of fire.

They said to him: If you had not carried it out,

if you had not fulfilled what had been imposed upon you,

you would not have carried it out,

you would not have been punished for failing to fulfill the mission, since there was room to vindicate you, for you had waited to see whether perhaps the anger against them would subside and He would cancel your mission.

But

if you carried it out,

since you thus carried out your mission and did not wait—

why did you not carry it out as you were commanded,

why did you not yourself take the coals when you were commanded, and how did you tell the cherub to bring them to you, thereby causing the coals to cool?

And furthermore:

now

that you carried it out,

is it so that

you do not have the principle, “One does not report back concerning a mishap”?

For an emissary who did not carry out his mission properly does not return and announce that he carried out his mission.

They brought him

they brought him

to Dubiel, the minister of the Persians,

the minister of the Persians among the supernal angels,

and installed him in his place,

and installed him in Gabriel’s place,

and he served

Dubiel served in Gabriel’s place

for twenty-one days.

This is what is written,

as Gabriel said to Daniel:

“And the minister of the kingdom of Persia stood opposite me

[in my place]

for twenty-one days.

And behold, Michael, one of the first ministers, came to help me.

And I remained there beside the kings of Persia.”

And the Gemara continues:

They gave him

they gave Dubiel control over

twenty-one kings, and

over

the harbor

the harbor

of Mashhig,

the royal one, from which they drew pearls from the sea.

He said,

Dubiel requested:

Write for me

also

Israel in the tax,

so that I too should rule over them, and they should pay taxes to the Persian kingdom.

They wrote for him.

And he further requested:

Write for me

also

the Sages in the tax!

So that the Torah scholars as well, who are exempt from tax, should pay tax to the Persian kingdom.

They wrote for him.

When they were about to seal

the letter concerning the collection of the tax from Israel and from Torah scholars,

Gabriel stood,

who was

“behind the curtain,”

and said,

he recited the verse in Psalms [127]:

“It is vain for you who rise early, who sit up late, who eat the bread of sorrows.

So He gives to His beloved sleep.”

And the Gemara explains the meaning of the verse:

Are the nations fit to have Torah scholars handed over into their hands to collect taxes from them? Surely this should be read concerning them: It is vain for you to engage in a craft from morning until a late hour at night, and to eat your bread in sorrow and toil, for, unlike you, the Torah scholars, who are the beloved of the Almighty and who banish sleep from their eyes in order to study Torah, merit that the Almighty provide their sustenance without sorrow and toil.

What is the meaning of, “So He gives to His beloved sleep”?

Rabbi Yitzhak said: These are the wives of Torah scholars, who banish sleep in this world,

in order to help and encourage their husbands,

and merit

thereby

the World to Come.

And if so, it is not proper that the Torah scholars be handed over for taxation to Dubiel.

And the Gemara continues its description of the incident:

But they paid no attention to him,

to Gabriel’s claim.

He said

Gabriel

before Him,

the Almighty:

Master of the Universe! If all the sages of the nations of the world were on one side of the scales, and Daniel, the man of preciousness, were on the other side,

would

Daniel not be found

Daniel

to outweigh them all!?

And how could a man such as he be handed over for tax collection to Dubiel?

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Who is this who teaches merit concerning My children?

The angels said

the angels

before Him,

the Almighty:

Master of the Universe—

Gabriel

he is the one!

He said to them,

the Almighty:

Let Gabriel come,

let Gabriel return and enter within the curtain.

And this is

what is stated,

as Gabriel said to Daniel:

“And I

Gabriel,

came

I returned into the partition and stood before the Almighty,

because of your words,

through the merit of my defending you.”

And the Gemara returns to the description of Gabriel’s entrance:

He said to them

the Almighty said to the angels:

Let him enter,

let Gabriel enter.

They brought him in.

He came and found

Gabriel found

Dubiel holding his letter in his hand,

while he was holding the letter concerning the tax in his hand.

He wished to cast it from him,

Gabriel wished to throw it from Dubiel’s hand.

He swallowed it,

Dubiel swallowed the letter.

Some say: It had indeed been written,

that letter, but

it had not been sealed.

Some say: It had even been sealed,

but

when he swallowed it,

when Dubiel swallowed it,

he erased

the seal

from it.

And once the seal had been erased, the validity of the letter was partially nullified, and

this is

the reason

that in the Persian kingdom—

some pay the tax, and some do not pay the tax.

There are those who pay taxes and there are those who are exempt from them.

And Gabriel continued to tell Daniel that another decree had already been issued: the people of Israel would leave the hands of the Persians and come under the rule of the minister of Greece, and he did not have the power to prevent this; rather, against his will he had to leave:

“And I am going out—

and behold, the minister of Greece is coming.”

And the Gemara explains:

Cry, cry,

Gabriel shouted and cried out to annul this decree,

but there was no one who paid attention to him,

and there was no one who would heed him.

And now the Gemara brings another derivation for the prohibition against bathing on Yom Kippur:

And if you wish, say: From where do we know that bathing is called affliction?—

From here:

For it is written

[I Kings 2]:

“And to Abiathar the priest he said,

Solomon

the king: Go to Anathoth, to your fields, for you are a man of death.

And on this day I shall not put you to death, because you carried the Ark of the Lord before David my father, and because you suffered in all that my father suffered

when he fled before Absalom.”

And what was the suffering?

And it is written concerning David

when he fled before Absalom [II Samuel 17]:

“For they said: The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

For through these they suffered.

And the explanation of the verse:

Hungry—

from bread, and thirsty—

from water.

Weary—

from what?

Is it not

from abstaining

from bathing!

And it is proven that abstaining from bathing is affliction.

And the Gemara rejects this:

But perhaps

weary is

from wearing sandals?

Rather, Rabbi Yitzhak said: From here:

[Proverbs 25]

“Cold water upon a weary soul.”

And it is proven that abstaining from bathing in water makes the soul “weary,” and this is also the meaning of the weariness of the people fleeing with David before Absalom. And this weariness is there called affliction.

And the Gemara again rejects this:

But perhaps

the people was “weary”

from drinking,

and “cold water upon a weary soul” means a soul weary from thirst?

And we answer:

Is it written “

cold water

in a weary soul”?

“Upon a weary soul” is written.

And wearing sandals—

from where do we know it?

For it is written

in the account of David’s fleeing before Absalom, concerning which Scripture stated that there was affliction in it [II Samuel 15]:

“And David went up by the ascent of the Olives, going up and weeping, and his head was covered, and he went barefoot.”

Barefoot from what—

is it not

would it not be

from wearing sandals!

And we reject this:

But perhaps

barefoot means

without a horse and a whip,

without a horse and a whip, for he did not proceed in the manner of kings, who ride upon a horse and guide it with the whip in their hands!?

Rather, Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: From here

it is to be proven that barefoot means without wearing sandals, from the fact that the Almighty said to the prophet Isaiah [Isaiah 20]:

“Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins, and remove your shoe from upon your foot.”

And it is written, “And he did so,

Isaiah,

he walked naked and barefoot.”

Barefoot from what?

Is it not from wearing sandals!

For it is not the way of the prophet to ride upon a horse, and from here there is proof that the barefoot stated concerning David means barefoot without footwear, and Scripture called it affliction.

And the Gemara rejects this:

But say

the prophet Isaiah did not walk barefoot entirely without footwear, but he walked

in patched shoes.

For if you do not say so,

but one must understand the verse according to its plain meaning, would

“naked”

stated in the verse—could it be said that the prophet Isaiah walked

actually naked?

Rather,

necessarily, “naked” means that he walked

in worn-out garments; here too,

barefoot—he walked

in patched shoes.

Rather, Rav Nahman bar Yitzhak said: From here

[Jeremiah 2]

“Withhold your foot from being barefoot, and your throat from thirst.”

And so the prophet Jeremiah said:

Restrain yourself from sin, so that your foot should not come to barefootedness

when you go into exile barefoot. And it is the way of exiles to walk actually barefoot.

Restrain your tongue from idle words, so that your throat should not come to thirst.

Marital relations, which are called affliction—

from where do we know it?

For it is written

that Laban adjured Jacob concerning the proper treatment he would practice toward his daughters [Genesis 31]:

“If you afflict my daughters, and if you take wives

additional to these”

And the meaning of Laban’s words is: