Some people keep their parents in
luxury, and get Gehinom
for this. Others send their parents to work, and get Gan Aden.
One person would feed his father
fattened chickens.
"Son," his father once asked, "where
do you
get these chickens from?
"Shut up and eat, old man," his son
answered,
"that's what dogs do -- they keep quiet and eat what is placed before
them."
Another sent his father to work...
The king once -- as was the custom in
that country --
conscripted a certain miller to send a worker for a period of service.
The
miller had no one to send besides his father. This he would not do.
"Father," he said to him, "this
service
requires being with rough people who will insult and hit you.
Therefore, you
work the mill, and I will go and serve the king.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.1)
R' Yonasan and R' Yanai were once
sitting together. A man
came and kissed R' Yonasan's feet.
"What favor is he repaying you," R'
Yanai asked,
"that he kisses your feet? You must have helped him in some way."
"Once," R' Yonasan answered, "he came
crying
to me that his son would not feed and support him. I told him to rebuke
his son
in the study hall, publicly, and shame him into taking care of you. For
this
reason, he feels so indebted to me.
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.1)
R' Shmuel bar R' Yitzchak would take
a myrtle branch, and
dance with it before brides on their wedding day. When R' Zeira would
see this,
he would hide himself.
"How can this rabbi so embarrass the
Torah scholars
with his deeds?" he would ask.
When R' Shmuel bar R' Yitzchak passed
away, for three hours
thunder and lightening filled the skies. A heavenly voice called out,
R' Shmuel
bar R' Yitzchak has died -- show him kindness [accompany him to his
final
resting place].
A great crowd assembled to show
kindness and follow the
procession. A fire then descended from the heavens, in the shape of a
myrtle
branch, separating between the deceased and the crowd.
"Look," the people shouted, "the
rabbi's
merit of bringing joy with a myrtle branch, has come now to honor him."
(see later 264)
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.1)
Artebon [a wealthy Roman official]
once sent an
exceptionally precious gem to Rabbeinu HaKadosh
-- a stone beyond all pricing. Together with this he sent a message --
you
also, send me something as valuable. Rabbeinu HaKadosh sent him a
mezuzah.
"What's this?" Artebon asked, "I send
you
something priceless, and you send me a parchment that costs a few
coins?"
"I sent you something," Rabbeinu
HaKadosh
answered, "that all my wealth and yours together cannot match in value.
Moreover, you sent me something that I need to protect [from thieves]
--
whereas I sent you something that protects you while you sleep in
safety.
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.1)
A group
of men once
worked in a store that sold linen. This group had a fixed time each
year when
they needed to serve the king. Once, a man in that group, Bar-Chovetz,
evaded
the call-up.
As they
were about to
depart, one person in the group asked another, "What are we eating
today?"
"Chovetz
(a dish
made of a type of bean)," he answered.
Hearing
the name
Chovetz, the commanding officer suddenly remembered that Bar-Chovetz
was not
there.
"Summon
Bar-Chovetz,"
he ordered.
"This,"
said
R' Yochanan, "is an example of hidden lashon horo.
While no one
mentioned that Bar Chovetz had not come, they hinted to it.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.1)
A group
of rich men in
Tzipori had a special day for serving the king. One man of that group,
named
Yochanan, on one occasion avoided his duty, and did not come with them.
"Are we
going to
visit R' Yochanan today?" one man in the group asked another [for the
great rabbi, R' Yochanan, was unwell at the time.]
Hearing
him mention R'
Yochanan, the officer suddenly remembered that Yochanan wasn't there.
"Call
Yochanan," he ordered, "tell him to come with us."
"This,"
said
R' Shimon ben Lakish, "is an example of hidden lashon horo."
According
to another version
though, R' Shimon ben Lakish said, "This is justified lashon
horo,"
for they mentioned doing a mitzva, namely, visiting the sick.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.1)
The Torah
says,
"... no person will covet your land, when you come to see Hashem [to
Yerushalayim, for the festivals,] three times a year." (Shmos 34) Here
are
incidents relating to this wondrous promise:
A farmer
left grain
piled high to go up to Yerushalayim for the festivals. When he came
back, he
saw lions surrounding his field, protecting his produce from any theft.
Another
person left his
chicken coop to travel for the festivals. When he came back, he saw
torn, dead
cats lying before the coop. His chickens had killed them to protect
themselves
from attack.
Another
person left his
house to travel up to Yerushalayim for the festivals. When he came
back, he saw
a snake encircling the door handle.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.1)
R'
Pinchus would tell
of two brothers in Ashkelon...
"When
these
brothers go to Yerushalayim for the festival," their neighbors said to
each other, "we'll strip their houses."
But, as
soon as the
brothers left, Hashem summoned look-alike angels to occupy the property.
When the
brothers
returned, they sent gifts to their neighbors.
"Where
were you?"
the neighbors asked.
"In
Yerushalayim," they answered.
"Who then
did you
leave guarding your house?" the neighbors asked.
"We left
no
one," the brothers answered.
"Blessed
is
Hashem," said the neighbors, "who has not abandoned the Jewish people
to this day -- so may He protect them in the future."
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.1)
When
the Beis HaMikdash stood,
the Jewish people enjoyed tremendous blessing. After its destruction,
its
influence remained such that this blessing lingered on, but only for a
short
while...
R' Avahu,
R' Yosi bar
Chanina and R' Shimon ben Lakish passed through a certain orchard in [a
place
called] Doron. The sharecropper there brought them a peach. They and
their
donkey-drivers ate from it, but could not finish it. Much was left
over. They
calculated the volume of the peach, and it equaled that of the great
pot of
[the village,] Chananya, which held a se'ah of lentils.
A few
days later, they
again passed this orchard. The same sharecropper brought them two or
three
peaches. They were so small, he held them in one hand.
"Give us
a peach
from the tree we ate from last time," they asked.
"These
are from
the same tree," he answered.
Immediately
they
recited the verse: "The fruitful land becomes barren, from the evil of
those
who live there." (Tehillim 107)
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.7)
R'
Chanina related that
when he visited Eretz Yisrael, they saw a great carob tree. He wanted
to
measure its width, so he took his sash, his son's sash, and the belt
they tied
around the donkey, together, but they could not encircle the trunk. He
plucked
one carob from the tree, and his hand filled with honey that oozed from
the
fruit.
A
Land of Milk and
Honey
There was
a person who
tied his goat to a fig tree. He came back to see streams of [goat's]
milk and
[fig] honey running into each other.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.7)
"Will you
not show
me the bunch of grapes in your vineyard?" Rebbi asked R' Preida.
"I'll
show
you," he answered.
They went
out and while
they were still at a distance, Rebbi saw what looked like an ox in the
vineyard.
"Surely,
that ox
will damage the fruits there," Rebbi said.
"That
which you
think is an ox," R' Preida answered, "is the bunch of grapes you
wanted to see."
In
response, Rebbi
recited the verse: "While the King was still feasting, my flask gave
off a
[foul] odor." (Shir haShirim 1) The holy Beis HaMikdash
has been destroyed -- are you so stubborn that you continue to give
your
fruit?"
The bunch
of grapes
suddenly shrank from sight. They searched for it, but could not find
it.
Rebbi's words had served as a curse.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.7)
Once, they brought two radishes to
Rebbi, in the days
between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. They were the size of a
camel-load. This
was in the eighth year of the Shmitta cycle.
There was a person who owned a row of
fig trees. He came one
day to find them surrounded by a wall of honey that had oozed from the
figs,
and covered the figs he had set on the ground to dry .
Another person planted turnips. As he
finished planting, so
he was able to pick the freshly grown turnips and take them to the
market.
There was a fox who built his den at
the top of a turnip --
it was so big.
In a place called Shichin, a root of
mustard produced three
branches. The laborers who guarded the field cut one of these branches
to serve
as a roof for their hut. Within this branch they found 3 kavin
of mustard.
"I had mustard growing in my yard,"
said R' Shimon
en Chalafta, "and I could climb as high on it, as one climbs a fig
tree."
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.7)
Once a person planted a se'ah of
peas, and it produced 300
se'ah of peas.
"Hashem has begun to bless you," his
friends said.
"Go away from here," he answered,
"the dew
that fell on my peas was not a good one. For, had it been good, it
would have
produced twice the amount."
"R' Yehuda lived in [a place called]
Sichnin," R'
Shimon ben Chalafta related. "Once he asked his son to go up to the
loft
and bring a dried fig from the barrel there. He went up, put his hand
in the
barrel, and found it was of honey.
"Father, that's a honey barrel, he
said.
"Sink your arm into it, his father
told him, and you
will find figs."
R' Yosi in Tziporin once told his son
to go up to the loft
and bring a dried fig. He
found the loft
swimming in honey.
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.7)
R' Chanina would sell bee honey. He
also had honey from his
dried figs and raisins. By accident he sold his fruit honey as bees
honey. A
few days later the same people passed by again.
"I don't want to mislead you," he
told them, "the
honey I sold you was not from my bees, but from my fruit [an inferior
honey
that sells at a cheaper rate]."
"If so," they assured him, "it is
just such
honey that we need -- for it was superior to bees honey."
Even so, R' Chanina did not want to
take benefit from the
proceeds of that sale. He used it instead to build a shul for the
community of
Tziporin.
A traveler came to a certain place,
and was served cooked
cabbage. It tasted like honey.
"How much honey did you put into this
dish?" he
asked his hosts.
"No honey at all," they answered,
"it's good
taste is only from itself."
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.7)
[Dear Reader. Think carefully about
the great blessings our
people enjoyed when the Beis HaMikdash still stood.
Now, however, that
we are without a Beis HaMikdash, and our people are
exiled to the four
corners of the world, we live in a state of curse -- a curse that comes
only
from the evil within our deeds -- for we have forgotten our Creator.
May Hashem
have mercy on us, and redeem us swiftly.]
R' Yosi
came to [a
place called] Kefara. He wanted to appoint the Torah scholars there
over the
charity funds. Not one of
them would
accept this authority. They wanted to maintain a low profile, rather
than
taking on public posts.
"Ben
Bavai was appointed
over the wicks in the Beis HaMikdash," he told
them, "an easy
job. Still, in this merit, the Mishna lists him with the leaders of his
generation. You then, who have an opportunity to save
lives, how much the more so, should accept positions of responsibility.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R' Elazar
was a
community leader. Once, on returning home from a trip, he asked his
family,
"Did anything happen while I was away?"
"Yes,"
they
answered, "travelers passed by, ate and drank with us, and -- in the
merit
of you feeding them -- prayed for your welfare."
"This is
not a
good heavenly reward," he responded. "Had they cursed me instead, my
merit would be twice as much."
On
another occasion, R'
Elazar came home from a trip and asked, "Did anything happen while I
was
away?"
Yes,"
they
answered, "travelers came by, ate and drank with us, and cursed you."
"Aha,"
said
R' Elazar, "now, this is a good reward."
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
Members
of the
community once, wanted to appoint R' Akiva over the charity funds.
"Let me
discuss
this with my wife," he told them.
They
followed him home,
and from outside, overheard him saying, "On condition that they curse
me
and shame me, I accept such an appointment."
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
Rebbi had
a student to
whom he would give maaser oni, the tithe of the
poor, once in three
years. This student had assets to the total value of 199 dinarim,
entitling him
to accept this charity.
Other
students felt
jealous of the special attention this student received. What did they
do? They
gave him one dinar, thereby bringing up the value of his assets to 200
dinarim,
and disqualifying him from receiving charity.
When
Rebbi came to give
him from the tithe, the student refused.
"I can no
longer
take this," he told Rebbi. He told him what had happened.
Rebbi
then indicated to
the other students that they should remedy the situation. They took
this
student shopping with them, and caused him to squander the extra dinar.
Rebbi
then gave him his usual gift.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
Once, a
distinguished
and wealthy man lost all his property. Thereafter, a charity supported
him.
They would send him food on earthenware dishes.
This he would eat, and promptly vomit. He had always eaten
on plates of
gold and silver, and could not stomach food on earthenware dishes. His
life was
in danger.
"Essentially,"
a doctor told him, "all cooked food comes from a pot that is
earthenware.
This is healthier than any utensil of silver, lead or other metals. However, since you're used to eating
on gold
and silver, you should continue to do so, and all will be fine."
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
Shmuel
once fled from
his father. He went and stood next to two houses belonging to paupers
who
received financial help from his father.
"Which
plates
should we use today," he overheard a voice there asking, "the gold
plates or silver plates?"
He went
and reported
this to his father
"We need
to be grateful
to those who deceive us," his father told him, "For was it not for
the cheats amongst them, anytime a person would ask for charity, and we
did not
help him immediately, we would be punished. However, now that there are
cheats,
amongst the poor, we need not worry as much.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R'
Yochanan and Reish
Lakish once went to bathe by the hot springs of Tiveria. A pauper approached them there.
"Merit
through
me," he said to them. [In
other
words, give me charity. He called this "merit" for one who gives
charity gains merit for himself].
"When we
return
from bathing we will give you something," they told him.
On their
return, they
found him dead.
"Since,
we did not
gain merit through him in his lifetime," they said, "let us gain
merit through him in his death."
They took
the body to
cleanse it, and prepare it for burial. As they were doing so, they
found a
purse full of money.
"This is
what R'
Avahu taught in the name of R' Elazar," they said. "We need to be
grateful for the cheats amongst them."
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
Aba bar Ba once gave money to his son to share out
amongst the poor. He went out
and found
one pauper eating meat and drinking wine. He
came and reported this to his father.
"Give him
more
than the other paupers," said his father, "he is used to expensive
living and needs extra funds.
R' Yakov
bar Idai and
R' Yitzchak bar Nachman would distribute charity. Amongst those they
gave to
was R' Chama, father of R' Oshia, who would receive one dinar. After a
time,
they discovered that he gave this allowance to other paupers.
Some
people whispered
that R' Zecharya, son-in-law of R' Levi, received charity that he had
no need
to take. After his death, they inspected his property and found that
all he
received, he gave away to others.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R'
Chanina bar Papa
would distribute charity monies at night [so as not to embarrass those
who
received from him]. Once, he met up with the chief of the destructive
spirits.
"Did you
not teach
us," asked the spirit, "that you should not encroach on the boundary
of your friend (Devarim 19)? Night is our time to wander the earth. How
then
can you walk around at night? This is trespass.
"Is it
not also
written," R' Chanina answered, "that a gift given in secret destroys
anger? [This is to say that that destructive angel, Anger, ceases to
exist
where hidden charity is performed -- and] it is just this that I am
performing."
Thereafter,
this spirit
feared him, and fled from him.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R' Yona
gave charity in
the wise way. When he saw a pauper of a good family that lost their
property,
he would say to him, "I heard you have an inheritance coming to from
elsewhere. Therefore, in the meantime take what I lend you. Afterwards
when you
receive your inheritance, you will pay me.
Later,
when he wished
to repay him, he would say to him, "Keep it as a gift."
This was
his wisdom --
he would give to the poor without embarrassing them.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R' Chiya bar Ada
would tell over that when he was young there were elders who only
accepted
charity between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Thereafter they would
take
nothing. This, they said, was a custom. [Possibly, since our allowance
is fixed
during the ten days of repentance, they wanted to demonstrate that we
need to
repent our ways that Hashem would continue to support us. Another
reason, they
did this to bring merit to the public who would distribute charity
especially
in those days. And some say, the charity they received then was enough
for them
to live on for the entire year.
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.8)
Nechemya of Shichin [so-called since
he dug wells along the
roads people took to go to Yerushalayim for the festivals] once met a
man from
Yerushalayim.
"Help me," said the man, "give me a
chicken
to eat." [He was accustomed to luxurious living.]
"Take this coin and buy yourself beef
[which was
cheaper than chicken]," Nechemya told him.
He took the coin, bought the meat,
ate it and died --
because his body was not used to eating beef.
"Come, let us mourn Nechemya's
victim," said
Nechemya, "for had I given him chicken meat and he was used to eating,
he
would not have died."
(Yerushalmi, Peah ch.8)
Nachum
Ish Gamzu was once bringing a gift of food to his
in-laws. On his way, a pauper covered in sores approached him, asking
for some
of his food
"When I
return," Nachum told him, "I will give you something."
On his
way home, he
found the pauper had died.
"These
eyes that
saw you and ignored you," said Nachum, "should go blind. These hands
that did not stretch out to you, should be cut off. These legs that did
not run
to help you, should be broken."
All this
happened to
him. A time later, R' Akiva came to visit him.
"Woe to
me, that I
see you suffering so," R' Akiva declared.
"Woe to
me, that I
don't see YOU suffering so," Nachum answered.
"Why are
you
cursing me?" asked R' Akiva.
"And why
do you
scorn sufferings," retorted Nachum, "saying "woe to me"
about them?"
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R'
Hoshaya Raba hired a
blind tutor for his son. This tutor would eat by R' Hoshaya every day.
Once R'
Hoshaya had guests and did not invite the tutor to eat with him as
usual. That
evening R' Hoshaya went to appease the tutor.
"Don't
feel bad
that I didn't invite you today," he told him. "I had guests and I
thought were you to sit with them, they may embarrass you."
"You
comforted one
who is seen and does not see," responded the tutor. "Therefore, may
the One who sees and is not seen [i.e. Hashem,] accept your kindness
and reward
you with all that is good."
"How do
you
know," asked R' Hoshaya, "that to appease a blind person is so great
that you give me such a beautiful blessing in return?"
"I
learned this
from R' Elazar ben Yakov," he answered. "Once a blind person entered
the town of R' Elazar ben Yakov. R' Elazar ben Yakov sat
himself by the side of the blind man -- but beneath him. Seeing this,
people
assumed this person must be great and famous -- otherwise, R' Elazar
ben Yakov
would not have lowered himself so. They then supported the blind
person, giving
him charity and honor.
"Why are
you so
kind to me?" asked the blind man.
"We saw
R' Elazar
ben Yakov seating himself beneath you," they answered. "We therefore,
assumed that you are great and important."
On
hearing this, the
blind person blessed R' Elazar ben Yakov. "You did a kindness for one
who
is seen but does not see. May He who sees and is not seen accept your
good
deed, and bestow on you all that is good." (See later 246)
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R' Chama
b'Rebbi
Chanina and R' Hoshaya once visited a shul in Lod.
"Look how
much
money my fathers invested here," R' Chama b'Rebbi Chanina commented to
R'
Hoshaya, "they built this entire shul with their own funds, even though
it
cost a fortune."
"Look how
many
souls your fathers buried here," R' Hoshaya answered. "They should
rather have given their money to Torah scholars. It's impossible that
there
weren't future Torah scholars here. But -- since they couldn't support
their
families -- they took jobs and did not learn Torah. It would have been
better
then for your fathers to give their money to such people, rather than
spending
it on a handsome shul.
(Yerushalmi,
Peah ch.8)
R'
Yirmiya once, sent
to R' Zeira a basket of figs. He did not tithe them.
"Could it
be," R' Yirmiya thought when he sent them, "that R' Zeira would eat
anything without tithing it first?"
"Could it
be," R' Zeira thought when he received the figs, "R' Yirmiya would send
me food that is not ready to eat?" As such, the figs were eaten while
still forbidden.
The next
day R' Zeira
met R' Yirmiya.
"That
fruit you
sent me yesterday, R' Zeira asked R' Yirmiya, "was it tithed?"
"No'"
said R'
Yirmiya, "for I said to myself would R' Zeira eat fruit that wasn't
tithed?"
"And I to
thought
to myself," said R' Zeira, "would R' Yirmiya send me food that wasn't
tithed!"
Commenting
on this
incident, R' Abba bar Zevina said in R' Zeira's name, "If earlier
generations were like the sons of angels, then we are only people. And
if the
early generation were like people, we are no more than donkeys.
Moreover, we
are plain donkeys, and not like the donkey of R' Pinchus ben Yair that
refused
to eat food that was not tithed.
What is
the story behind
this special donkey?
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
Once,
thieves stole R'
Pinchus ben Yair's donkey and held it in their cave for three days. She
ate
nothing. After three days, they decided to return it. Better this way,
than
have it die and ruin their hideout with a rotten smell. They freed her
and she
returned home. She stood by R' Pinchus ben Yair's door and began to
bray. R'
Pinchus ben Yair recognized her voice.
"Quick,
open the
door for the poor animal," he told his family, "she hasn't eaten
anything for three days." They opened the door.
"Give her
something to eat," he told them. They placed barley before her, but she
would not eat.
"She
won't
eat," they complained to R' Pinchus ben Yair.
"Tithe
the produce
first," he told them, "then she will eat."
"Surely
you taught
us," they asked R' Pinchus ben Yair, that grain bought for animal feed
is
exempt from tithing?"
"What can
I
do," he answered, "this poor animal is strict on herself." They
tithed the grain and she ate.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
What
makes R' Pinchus
ben Yair so special? Listen to this...
Two
paupers once,
deposited two bags of barley by R' Pinchus ben Yair. R' Pinchus ben
Yair took
the barley and sowed it in his fields. Later, he harvested full fields
of
grain.
When the
paupers
returned to ask for their sacks, he told them, "Bring camels and
donkeys
and take your barley."
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
R'
Pinchus ben Yair
once came to a certain place. People there cried to him that rats were
eating
their grain.
R'
Pinchus ben Yair
summoned the rats. They came before him, squeaking loudly
"Do you
understand
what these rats are saying?" he asked the people.
"No,"
they
answered.
"They are
saying,"
he told them, "you don't separate tithes. Therefore, the heavens grant
them permission to eat your grain."
"Be our
guarantor
that we will mend our ways," they asked R' Pinchus ben Yair. He did so,
and the rats no longer ate the grain.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai ch.1)
Once, an
Arab king
dropped a diamond. A rat swallowed it. This king came looking for R'
Pinchus
ben Yair.
"Am I a
witch
doctor," R' Pinchus ben Yair asked him, "that you come to me?"
"You are
neither
witch doctor, nor wizard," said the king, "I came because your good
name travels far, that you are a complete tzaddik. Whatever you decree,
Hashem
fulfills."
R'
Pinchus ben Yair
then ordered the rats to assemble before him. One rat, he saw, had a
hump on
its back.
"That one
swallowed your diamond," R' Pinchus ben Yair told the king. He ordered
the
rat to spit out the diamond, and this the rat did.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
Once R'
Pinchus ben
Yair came to certain place.
"Our well
no
longer gives us enough water," the people cried to him.
"Maybe
this is
because you do not tithe your grain," he told them.
"Be our
guarantor
that we will mend our ways," they asked him. He did so, and the well
gave
them water as before.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
R'
Pinchus ben Yair
once went to the beis hamedresh to study. The
river Genai however,
blocked his way. It raged strongly, making it impossible to cross over.
"Genai,
Genai," said R' Pinchus ben Yair, "will you stop me from learning
Torah?"
The river
split before him,
and he crossed on dry land.
"Can we
also
cross?" his students asked.
"Anyone
who knows
that he has never embarrassed any person in his lifetime," R' Pinchus
ben
Yair told them, "may cross over. No harm will fall upon him."
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
Once, Rebbi wanted to permit growing
produce in the Shmitta year.
R' Pinchus ben Yair went to see him.
"Is the produce good this year?"
Rebbi asked R'
Pinchus ben Yair. [Rebbi had gathered many scholars in order to permit
the
Shmitta. He realized that R'
Pinchus ben
Yair may not approve this ruling, and wanted to justify his ruling. He
therefore, asked a question that hinted to how little food there was
that
year.]
"Endives are good," said R' Pinchus
ben Yair.
[These wild vegetables grow freely -- and can sustain the people.]
"Is the produce good this year?"
Rebbi again asked
R' Pinchus ben Yair, [refusing to accept his solution.]
"Endives are good," said R' Pinchus
ben Yair,
[adamant that his position was the correct one].
"Possibly, the Rabbi would join us
for a small meal in
the shade today?" Rebbi asked R' Pinchus ben Yair, [changing the
subject.]
"Certainly," said R' Pinchus ben Yair
When R' Pinchus ben Yair came to
Rebbi's house however, he
saw that Rebbi kept a breed of white mules, known for attacking people.
"Do the Jews [referring to Rebbi]
keep such animals
here?" he asked Rebbi's attendants. "I don't think I can stay,"
he told them, and went home. The attendants reported this to Rebbi.
Rebbi then sent messengers to appease
R' Pinchus ben Yair.
When R' Pinchus ben Yair saw them coming, he asked the townspeople to
surround
him, that the messengers would not approach and placate him. However,
when the
townspeople heard he was trying to keep Rebbi's messengers away, they
abandoned
him.
"If the people of the town have left
me, let my sons
surround me" R' Pinchus ben Yair said. At this point, a fire came down
from heaven and surrounded him forcing the messengers off. They
returned to
Rebbi and reported what they had seen.
"We cannot enjoy his presence in this
world," said
Rebbi. "May we merit then to enjoy it in the next."
(Yerushalmi, Demai ch.1)
There was
a pious man,
R' Chaggi related in R' Shmuel bar Nachman's name, who dug waterholes
and
ditches as a kindness for travelers. Once, his daughter, on the way to
her
wedding, fell into a river and was washed away.
People
came to comfort
him over his loss, but he would not accept consolation, he would not
admit that
she was dead. Then R' Pinchus ben Yair came to console him. Again, he
would not
accept consolation.
"You call
this
man pious?" R' Pinchus ben Yair asked the people there, "Is it
correct behavior not to accept consolation?"
"Rebbi,"
they told him, "this man digs waterholes for the benefit of the
public."
"A person
who
honors his Creator with water," asked R' Pinchus ben Yair in amazement,
"is in return, punished with water?"
Immediately,
news
arrived that this man's daughter had returned. Some say, she took hold
of a peg
and pulled herself from the river. Others say, an angel with the face
of R'
Pinchus ben Yair descended from the heavens and saved her.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
The
daughter of
Nechunia who dug wells [to benefit the public,] fell into a large
waterhole.
They reported this to R' Chanina ben Dosa.
In the
first hour, he
told them, "Shalom, all is well." During the second hour, he told
them, "Shalom, all is well." In the third hour, he told them,
"She is out of the well."
"My
daughter," he asked her, "who saved you?
"It was a
ram," she answered, "led by an old man.
"Are you
a
prophet," the people then asked R' Chanina ben Dosa.
"I am
neither
prophet nor son of a prophet," he answered, "it's just that it's not
possible that something that a righteous person occupies himself with,
will in
turn, hurt his children.
(Baba
Kama 50a)
R'
Chanina ben Dosa
was once sitting, eating on Friday night, and his table broke apart.
"Why did
this
happen to you?" they asked him.
I
borrowed spice from
my neighbor," he answered, "and did not tithe it."
He
mentioned the
condition he had made erev Shabbos allowing him to separate tithes on
Shabbos, and the table [miraculously] reassembled
itself.
R' Tarfon
was once
sitting, eating and his bread fell from his hand.
"Why did
this
happen to you?" they asked.
"I
borrowed a
regular knife from my neighbor, but used it by mistake for food I keep
in
ritual purity.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.1)
R'
Elazar, in his
later years, would lean on R' Shimon bar Kahana as he walked. Once,
they passed
a vineyard.
"Give me
a twig
from that fence," he said. Then he changed his mind.
"No,
don't give
me a twig from the fence," he said, "other people will see me, and do
the same thing. People are not careful with small items -- each one
thinks,
what difference does one twig make? But if every person says the same
thing,
nothing will remain of the fence.
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.3)
R' Zeira
would lean on
R' Chagai and walk. Once, a man passed them carrying a bundle of
branches.
"Take a
twig from
his bundle," said R' Zeira. Then he changed his mind.
"Don't
bring me
anything from that bundle. For if you do so, others will do the same
and
nothing will remain of his bundle."
"It's not
because
I am pious," R' Zeira later said, "that I pay attention to such small
details. Rather this is something easy for me to do. My evil
inclination is not
so strong when it comes to a single twig." [But it was from modesty
that
he said this.]
(Yerushalmi,
Demai
ch.3)
Rebbi
commanded three
things before he passed from this world. One, they should not move his
widow
from the house; two, they should not eulogize him in the towns; and three, those who took care of his needs
in his lifetime, should take care of him in his death. Some say, he
also
commanded that they should not enfold him in too many shrouds and make
holes in
his coffin.
"Anyone
who comes
here," said the people of Tzipori, "and tells us Rebbi has died, we
will kill" -- so great was there appreciation of their precious leader.
"What
should I
do?" Bar Kapara who carried this news. He cloaked his head and body
like a
mourner, tore his garments as one does for the dead, and appeared
before the
townspeople.
"The
righteous [of
this world] and the angels," he told them sadly, "both clung to the
holy tablets [i.e. Rebbi], but the angels was stronger and snatched the
treasure."
"Are you
telling
us that Rebbi has died?" people asked.
"You said
it," he told them, "not me."
All who
heard this bad
news tore their garments, and the sound of the ripping could be heard
in
Papasa, some three mil away.
Miracles
happen on
that day, said R' Nachman in R' Mana's name. It was Erev Shabbos. All
the towns
accompanied his body, first, to eighteen shuls where they eulogized
him, then
to his resting place in Beis Shaarim. [This took a very long time, but]
the day
shone long. The sun did not set that Friday afternoon until the last
person
reached his home, filled a barrel of water for Shabbos, and lit a lamp.
Only
then, it set. However, shortly after the sunset, the rooster already
crowed;
[morning had arrived].
"Could it
be," the people worried, "that we profaned the Shabbos?"
"Whoever
was not
slack to honor Rebbi in his death," a heavenly voice called out, "is
assured life in the world-to-come. This means all of you, except for
the
laundryman who was not there that day.
This same
laundryman
would come before Rebbi every day -- that one day however, he had not
come.
This announcement so upset him, he climbed to the loft of his house,
threw
himself to the ground, and died.
"The
laundryman
also," said heavenly voice, "is invited to the life of the
world-to-come."
(Yerushalmi,
Kilaim
ch.9)
Rebbi
lived in Tzipori
for seventeen years. Of himself he would say, "Yakov lived in Egypt for
seventeen years" (Breishis 47), and Yehuda [his own name] lived in
Tzipori
for seventeen years.
For
thirteen of those
seventeen years Rebbi suffered agonizing toothache. "During those
thirteen
years," said R' Yosi b'Rebbi Bon, "no woman in Eretz Yisrael died in
childbirth, nor did any woman miscarry."
And why
did Rebbi
suffer that toothache? He saw a calf being led to the slaughterhouse.
"Save me, Rebbi," the calf cried out. "Go," Rebbi told the
calf, "it is for this you were created."
How --
after thirteen
years -- was Rebbi healed? He saw a cleaner who wanted to destroy a
nest of
mice.
"Don't
kill
them," Rebbi said, "His [Hashem's] mercy is on all His deeds"
(Tehillim 145)
(see
later 362)
(Yerushalmi,
Kilaim
ch.9)
Rebbi was
exceptionally modest.
"Anything
any
person tells me to do," he would say, "I would do, except for what the elders of Beseira did for
my ancestors. For, they stepped down from heading the Sanhedrin [and
thereby
the Jewish people], and appointed Hillel in their place. Still, if Rav
Huna
would come here from Bavel, I would sit below him -- for he is more
important
than I am. He comes from the tribe of Yehuda [and is descended from
King David]
on his father's side. I on the other hand, come from Binyamin and [and
am
descended from King David] on my mother's side.
Once R'
Chiya Raba
came before Rebbi.
"Rav Huna
is
outside," he told him.
Rebbi's
face turned
red. He would now need to set Rav Huna above himself as he had said.
When R'
Chiya Raba saw this, he told Rebbi, "he is not alive -- it's his coffin
that is here.
"Go,"
Rebbi
told him, "someone is calling you." Rebbi's intention was to punish
R' Chiya Raba for testing and embarrassing him.
R' Chiya
Raba went out
and saw that no one had called him. He understood then that Rebbi was
angry
with him. To penalize himself, he did not appear before Rebbi for the
next
thirty days
"During
these
thirty days," said R' Yosi b'Rebbi Bon, "Rav learned from R' Chiya Raba all the principles
of the Torah.
At the
end of those
thirty days, which also ended the thirteen years of Rebbi's toothache,
Eliyahu
HaNavi came to Rebbi in the guise of R' Chiya Raba.
"What's
bothering
you?" he asked him.
"My tooth
hurts," Rebbi answered.
"Show me
the tooth,"
Eliyahu said. He placed his finger on it and it healed.
The next
day R' Chiya
Raba came before Rebbi.
"How is
your
toothache?" He asked Rebbi.
"Since
you put
your finger on it, is has healed completely," Rebbi answered
"Woe to
the
mothers of Yisrael," said R' Chiya Raba. He realized that since Rebbi
no
longer suffered pain, he would no longer atone for and protect those
who are
vulnerable.
"It
wasn't I who
put his finger on your tooth," R' Chiya Raba told him.
From then
Rebbi
honored R' Chiya Raba greatly, Since Eliyahu HaNavi, of blessed memory,
had
worn R' Chiya Raba's face, this indicated his greatness. When he next
entered
the study hall he asked that R' Chiya Raba enter before his other
students.
"Even
before
me?" asked R' Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi.
"Chas
v'shalom," said Rebbi. "R' Chiya Raba will go in first, but Rebbi
Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi will enter before him."
Rebbi
would say over
the praises of R' Chiya Raba before Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi. Once
Rebbi
Yishmael saw R' Chiya in the bathhouse. R' Chiya did not stand up in
his honor.
"You call
this a
great man?" R' Yishmael asked Rebbi afterwards.
"Yes,"
said
Rebbi, "did he do something wrong?"
"He saw
me in the
bathhouse and would not humble himself -- he did not rise for me.
"What
happened?" Rebbi asked R' Chiya Raba afterwards.
"I assure
you," said R' Chiya Raba, "that I didn't even notice him entering --
for I was learning the deeper meanings of the book of Tehillim."
From that
moment,
Rebbi asked two students to accompany R' Chiya constantly. He was
concerned
that R' Chiya Raba shouldn't, through his distracting thoughts, come to
danger.
(Yerushalmi,
Kilaim
ch.9)
R' Yosi fasted eighty days (according
to other versions
thirty days)
that he might see R' Chiya Raba in a dream. Finally, he saw him, but he
suffered bad after-effects. His limbs began to shake, and his eyes grew
dim.
Maybe you'll say R' Yosi was not a great person and therefore he was
punished.
This is not so...
Once, an expert tailor came before R'
Yochanan and told him,
"I saw in a dream that the sky fell, and one of your students held it
up
that it shouldn't fall."
"Do you know," R' Yochanan asked him,
"which
student it was?"
"If I seem him," said the tailor, "I
will
know him."
R' Yochanan allowed the tailor to
look at the students. The
tailor spotted R' Yosi, and exclaimed, "That's him -- he was the one
that
held up the sky!"
From this, you see that Rebbi Yosi
was a great person.
Still, he was not on the same level as R' Chiya Raba.
(Yerushalmi, Kilaim ch.9)
R' Shimon ben Lakish fasted three
hundred fasts that he
might see R' Chiya Raba, but he didn't see him. He felt bad.
"Could it be," he asked Torah
scholars, "that
he learned more Torah than me?"
"He taught more Torah than you did,"
they told
him. "Moreover, he exiled himself."
"Did I not allow exile myself?" asked
Reish
Lakish.
"You also exiled yourself, but only
to learn Torah.
Rebbi Chiya Raba exiled himself to teach Torah to others.
(Yerushalmi, Kilaim ch.9)
When Rav Huna, leader of the Jews in
exile, passed away,
they brought him up to Eretz Yisrael.
"Where should we bury him?" they
asked.
"Surely a fitting place would be next to Rebbi Chiya Raba for he also
came
from Bavel?"
"Who is the person that would dare
enter that
cave?"
"I will go," said R' Chagai, for he
was not
scared.
"Are you playing a trick?" they asked
him,
"you are old, and now you want to be buried there."
"What should I do that you shouldn't
suspect me,"
said Rebbi Chagai. "Tie a rope to my foot -- if I'm there too long,
pull
me out." They did this.
He entered the cave and heard Rebbi
Chiya and his two sons
judging this issue [should Rav Huna be buried with him].
"My son Yehudah," said Rebbi Chiya of
the son and
sat on his right, "left no one behind to replace him; my son Chizkiya,
[on
his left], left no one behind to replace him; [just as the great son of
Yakov
Avinu,] Yosef ben Yisrael, left no one behind to replace him. [Does Rav
Huna
then have the merit be buried here?]"
R' Chagai then turned his eyes up to
look at them.
"Turn your face," a voice told him, "and don't look here."
He then heard R' Chiya Raba say to R'
Yehuda, his son,
"Make room that Rav Huna may sit between us." However, Rav Huna in
his modesty would not accept this offer.
"You did not accept to be buried
here," Rebbi
Chiya Raba blessed him, "in this merit may your seed never cease from
this
world."
Rebbi Chagai then left the cave in
peace. At that time, he
was eighty years old. [Since however, he was unjustly suspected,] the
heavens
doubled the years of his life. [see also 234]
(Yerushalmi, Kilaim ch.9)
Shlomo haMelech had two scribes,
Elichoref and Achya. Once,
Shlomo saw the Angel of Death looking at them and gritting his teeth,
because
he couldn't take their souls. To protect them, Shlomo haMelech uttered
a
special name, and suspended them in the air. However, there the Angel
of Death
killed them.
He then came before Shlomo who saw
that he was laughing.
"Before you were gritting your teeth
-- now you're
laughing?" Shlomo asked him.
"Hashem told me," the angel said,
"that only
from the air may I take them, not from the earth [an impossible task].
I
thought to myself, how can they be suspended in the air. But then, you
went and
did this for me. That's why I laugh."
Shlomo then released their bodies
from the air, that he
might bury them properly.
[This story follows the teaching --
to the place where a
person's feet are destined to go, there he will go.]
(Yerushalmi, Kilaim ch.9)
R' Reuven ben Istrobilus had two sons
who were students of
Rebbi. One day Rebbi noticed that the Angel of Death was looking at
them and
gritting his teeth -- he wanted to kill them but this was not the place
to do
so. Rebbi then sent them to South to protect them.
"Surely exile will atone for them
that they shouldn't
die," he thought to himself. From there however, the Angel of Death
killed
them -- it was at this place the heavens had decreed that they should
die.
(Yerushalmi, Kilaim ch.9)
Rebbi Aba
bar Zemina
was a tailor. Once, he went to sew garments and repair them at the
house of a
non-Jew living in Rome. The Roman offered Rebbi Aba bar Zemina
non-kosher meat
and told him to eat it.
"I cannot
eat
such food," the tailor answered.
"If you
don't eat
this" said the Roman "I will kill you"
"If you
want to
kill me, kill me," said Rebbi Aba bar Zemina, "I will not eat food
that the Torah forbids us."
"Now let
me tell
you what I had in mind," said the Roman. "My intention was just the
opposite. Had you eaten the meat, I would have killed you, for a person
needs
to be strong and courageous in his faith. A Jew must be a Jew.
Similarly, a
Roman must be a Roman. Since you did not eat the meat, you may live."
"Had
Rebbi Aba
bar Zemina," said Rebbi Mana "listened to the words of the Rabbis, he
would have eaten the meat. For, in a case like this, the Torah permits
us to
sin to protect our lives.
(Yerushalmi,
Sheviis
ch.4)
R' Tarfon
once entered
his orchards in the Shmitta year to eat figs. He did not greet the
guards
there. [One may take fruit from any field in the Shmitta year, but not
pay for
it in any way. To wish the guard a good day, would have been a form of
payment.] The guards then saw him eating figs, and began beating him.
R' Tarfon
saw he was in danger
"I beg
you,"
he said to them, "go to the house of Tarfon and tell them to prepare
shrouds for R' Tarfon. You are hitting him so hard, he is sure to die.
When the
guards heard
that this was R' Tarfon himself, they fell on the faces before him.
"Rebbi,
forgive
us," said the guards, "we didn't know that you were R' Tarfon."
"I assure
you," said R' Tarfon, "as you struck me, I forgave you -- for every
single blow."
"All his
life," said Rebbi Avahu in the name of R' Chanina ben Gamliel, "R'
Tarfon fasted over this matter -- "Woe to me," he would say,
"that that I gained honor from the crown of the Torah.""
(Yerushalmi,
Sheviis
ch.4)
A student
once gave
the ruling in the presence of R' Eliezer, his teacher.
"The
student who
gave that ruling before me," he told Imma Shalom, his wife, "will die
within the week." And so it was -- within the week the student died.
"Rebbi,"
his
students asked him, "are you a prophet? How did you know this?"
"I am not
a
prophet, nor a student prophet," he told him, "only this I know --
that when a student rules in the presence of his rebbi, his liability
is
death."
(Yerushalmi,
Sheviis
ch.6)
R' Shimon ben Yochai hid in a cave
for thirteen years [to
avoid the Roman government that wanted to execute him], until his skin
became decayed.
Miracles happened to him -- carob and fig trees grew there,
from which he sustained himself. After thirteen years, he asked
himself,
"Will I never leave here, and see what is happening in the world?"
He sat at the entrance of the cave.
From there he saw a
hunter trapping birds. As a bird came close to the trap, a heavenly
voice
called out, "Compassion." The bird flew off and escaped.
"If even a bird is not caught," said
R' Shimon ben
Yochai, "if the heavens announce otherwise, how much more so is this
true
for people.[My
fate depends not on me hiding in a cave, but rather on how the heavens
judge me
-- and if so there is no reason to stay hidden here.]
At this, he went down to Tiveria,
where he bathed in the
bathhouse there.
"Since I derived benefit from
Tiveria," said R'
Shimon ben Yochai, "let me return the favor.
"Of our father, Yakov, we learn," he
said,
"and he camped before the city". (Breishis 33) This teaches that he
set up markets where goods are sold cheaply. Let me then purify
Tiveria, that
the Kohanim no longer need to go around it." Since the graves of
Tiveria
were not marked, it became necessary to regard the whole city as a
giant
graveyard, preventing Kohanim from entering it for fear that they might
defile
themselves.
R' Shimon took lupine beans, ground
them into small pieces
and scattered them in the streets of Tiveria. Wherever a corpse lay, it
floated
upwards, and R' Shimon marked that place.
A heretic saw him. "Let's make fun of
the old
rabbi," he said. What did he do? He brought a corpse to a place that R'
Shimon ben Yochai had declared pure, and buried it there. Afterwards he
came to
R' Shimon ben Yochai and asked, "Did you not purify such-and-such
place?
Come, I will show you a corpse there."
R' Shimon ben Yochai understood that
the heretic himself had
buried that corpse.
"I decree that he walks in the upper
world [i.e. this
heretic]," said R' Shimon ben Yochai, "should fall and die, while he
who rests in the lower world [i.e. this corpse] should rise and take
his
place." And so it was.
Later, as R' Shimon passed a certain
building; a
schoolteacher there mocked him. "Is this Bar Yochai that purified
Tiveria?
[Surely, corpses were found in places you declared pure]."
"My teachers passed onto me," said R'
Shimon ben
Yochai, "that Tiveria one day, will be pure. [I have gone to much
trouble
to ensure that it is so.] You don't believe it because you don't choose
to
believe it." Immediately, this teacher collapsed into a heap of bones.
(Yerushalmi, Sheviis ch.9)
A king, by name of Diklit-yanus, much
abused the people of
Panyas.
"If you continue to afflict us so,"
they told the
king, "we will leave here for another country."
"These people won't leave," the
king's adviser
told him. "And if they go, they'll come back. They will not last there
too
long. As an animal that grows in one country is unable to live in
another
country, so they will not leave the place where they were born.
"Check the truth of what I say," he
went on.
"Export some deer from here to a distant land. In the end, they will
return to where they were born. And how will we know that these are the
same
deer? We will silver-plate their horns. This will prove that I am
right."
The king carried out the experiment
and exported deer to
Africa. Thirty years later, they came back to the place they were born.
(Yerushalmi, Sheviis ch.9)
Rebbi
Chizkia was
standing in the markets of Keisarim, and saw a man carrying a bundle of
prohibited Shmitta produce. He turned his face from him. Why did he do
this? He
wanted to show his disapproval of this person, and discourage others
from
following his example.
(Yerushalmi,
Sheviis
ch.9)
A kind,
charitable
woman once fed a pauper who came to her door. Her husband was not at
home at
this time. As the man finished eating, she sensed her husband
approaching. She
feared him -- for he was stingy -- and would shout in anger at her.
What did
she do? She hid the pauper in the loft, telling him to stay out of
sight.
Her
husband entered,
and she served him a meal. He ate a little, and dozed off. While he
napped, a
snake crept to his plate and ate from the food there. The husband then
woke,
and again raised his food to his mouth.
"Don't
touch that
food," called out the pauper who had seen everything, "a snake ate
from it."
On
hearing this story,
the rabbis commented, that while this woman had acted incorrectly, the
law did
not suspect her of adultery. For, had the man in the loft slept with
her, he
would not have exposed himself to her husband -- even to save his life.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
A butcher
in Tzipori
would deceive the local Jews and sell them non-kosher meat as being
kosher. One
Shabbos night, he got drunk, climbed to the roof, fell off and died.
Dogs
surrounded him where he fell and were licking the blood. Neighbors came
to ask
R' Chanina if they could move him, and save him from the dogs [a corpse
on
Shabbos normally, may not be moved.]
"The
Torah
says," R' Chanina answered, "do not eat non-kosher meat -- rather
feed it to the dogs (Shmos 22). This butcher stole what belonged to the
dogs.
Therefore, leave them alone that they may recover their loss.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
Some
shepherds once
milked their cows. As they were looking away, a snake came and drank
from their
bucket. The shepherd's dog who had seen this, tried to inform them. When the shepherds came to drink the milk, he
barked loudly to warn them away. However, they didn't understand what
he
wanted, and drank the milk anyway. They died.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
Once, a
person
preparing his meal, ground some garlic at his kitchen table. He then
left the
garlic unguarded for a few minutes. Within this short time, a mountain
snake
slid into the room and ate from the garlic. Another snake that lived in
the
rafters of the house saw this. Later, when the members of the family
wanted to
eat from the garlic, he threw sand at them to warn them away. But, they
ignored
him. So he threw his whole self into the garlic.
This
story parallels
this verse, "When Hashem approves of a person's ways, even his enemies
serve him." (Mishle 16) The snake, a natural enemy of people, made a
special effort to serve his "hosts".
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
A certain
man invited
a rabbi to eat with him. When the rabbi came, he sat him at the table,
and sat
his dog next to him.
"Do you
do
this," asked the rabbi, "to embarrass me?"
"No,"
said
the man, "rather, I want to honor my dog, for he did me a great favor.
Robbers entered my house and tried to snatch my wife. But this dog
attacked
them viciously, and saved us. Therefore, I look to honor him.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
The Roman
government
came to arrest and execute Ulla ben Koshev. He fled to Lod, the town of
R'
Yehoshua ben Levi. Soldiers followed on and surrounded the town.
"If you
don't
hand him over," they announced, "we will kill everyone here."
R'
Yehoshua ben Levi
came to Ulla ben Koshev to ask forgiveness. "Better they kill you than
all
these innocent people," he told him. With this, he handed him to the
soldiers.
Eliyahu
HaNavi would
visit R' Yehoshua ben Levi on a regular basis. After this incident, he
stopped
coming. R' Yehoshua ben Levi fasted a number of fasts that he might see him again. When Eliyahu
finally appeared, he asked him, "Why did you stay away from me until
now?"
"Do you
think," asked Eliyahu, "I appear to one who hands over a Jewish life
to foreigners?"
"But," R'
Yehoshua objected, "the Mishna rules that if enemies threaten to kill
everyone unless we hand over someone specific, we may do so."
"The law
is as
you say, said Eliyahu, "but a pious person like you should not have
acted so.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
R' Immi
was kidnapped
by bandits in the town Sefsofa.
"Wrap him
in
shrouds," said R' Yonasan, [in other words, these bandits are dangerous
and vicious -- there is little hope of saving him.]
"No,"
said
Reish Lakish, "I will kill or be killed and I will save him." He
approached the bandits directly, and successfully persuading them to
free R'
Immi.
"Come
with me to
our rabbi," Reish Lakish then told the bandits, "that he may bless
you for your kindness [in releasing R' Immi]." They came with him to R'
Yochanan.
"What you
wished
to do to R' Immi," R' Yochanan told them, "May Hashem do to
you."
The
bandits fearing
this "blessing" then fled to the town Afifsirus. Still, before they
reached there, other bandits attacked and killed them.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
Zeira ben
Chanina was
kidnapped in the town Sefsofa. R' Ammi and R' Shmuel went to appease
the
bandits. They came before Zenavya, queen of the bandits.
"Since
Hashem
does miracles for you," she laughed at them, "why come to me? Rely on
Him."
Suddenly,
an Arab
entered the hideout holding a sword. "This is the sword," he told
Zenavya," that they killed ben Netzer, your brother." Zenavya became
so agitated and distracted by this news that R' Ammi and R' Shmuel were
able to
free Zeira and escape without her stopping them.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
Bandits
from a place
called Kanya, stole R' Yochanan's money. With a heavy heart, he came to
the
study hall where Reish Lakish would question him on Torah law. That
day, Reish
Lakish asked, but R' Yochanan sat mutely, not answering.
"What's
wrong?" Reish Lakish asked him.
"The
limbs of the
body rely on the heart," said R' Yochanan, "and the heart relies on
the purse [to feel cheerful]. Since they stole my money, my mind is not
settled."
"Where
did they
rob you?" Reish Lakish asked.
"Didn't
you
hear?" R' Yochanan asked him. He then told him how bandits from Kanya
had
robbed him.
"Point me
to
their hiding-place," said Reish Lakish. R' Yochanan took him there.
Reish
Lakish saw the men from a distance and shouted at them to return the
money.
"Since
it's R'
Yochanan's money," said the thieves, "we're prepared to give half of
it back."
"By your
lives, I
swear," said Reish Lakish, "you will return it all." And so they
did.
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
Diklut
was a pig
shepherd. Children, students of R' Yehuda Nesia, would make fun of him,
even
hitting him. Years later, this shepherd became king, and wanted to
revenge
himself on the Jews. From a place called Panyas, some distance from
Tiveria, he
summoned the Jewish leaders there to appear before him on Motzei
Shabbos.
"Make
sure,"
he told the messenger, "to give this summons to them close to Shabbos,
that they will not be able to make the trip before Shabbos. Then, if
they
travel on Motzei Shabbos, they will arrive after the time I set, and I
will
have an excuse to punish them."
The
messenger
delivered the summons to the rabbis late Friday afternoon. Shortly
afterwards,
R' Yehuda Nesia and R' Shmuel bar Nachman were on the way to the
bathhouse.
Antigros, a demon, came before them. R' Yehuda Nesia began rebuking
him, that
he should not appear before people.
"Leave
him,"
said R' Shmuel bar Nachman, "he is here to perform miracles for us."
"What are
you
rabbis doing [i.e. why do you worry]?" Antigros ask them. They told him
of
the summons.
"Go,
bathe
yourselves and don't worry," said Antigros, "for Hashem will perform
miracles for you."
That
Motzei Shabbos,
Antigros appeared again, lifted them onto his shoulders, and flew them
to
Panyas.
"The
Jewish
rabbis have arrived," the King's servants told him.
"Tell
them not to
come before me," said the King," before they bathe themselves in the
bathhouse." He had prepared there a bathhouse whose fires had been
burning
for seven days and seven nights. Antigros however, entered the
bathhouse before
them and cooled down the fires. They then bathed and came again before
the
King.
"Because
your
Creator performs miracles, you make fun of the king?" Diklut asked them.
"We made
fun of
you when you herded pigs," they answered, "Now that you are king, we
do not make fun of you."
"Even
so,"
said Diklut, "you should not disdain even the least Roman."
(Yerushalmi,
Trumos
ch.8)
R' Elazar
b'Rebbi
Shimon once visited R' Shimon b'Rebbi Yosi ben Lekunia, his
father-in-law. His
father-in-law poured him a cup. He drank down the entire cup. His
father-in-law then poured him another cup. Again, he drank down the
entire cup.
"Did your
great
father not teach you the proper way to drink?" asked his father-in-law,
"How could you swallow two cups so quickly?"
"The
rabbis teach
that the proper way to act is if the cup is neither hot, nor cold," R'
Elazar answered, "one may swallow it in a single gulp. If it is cold,
one
drinks it in two swallows. If it is hot, one drinks it in three
swallows.
However, they did not make these rules for your wine which is so
delicious, nor
for your cup which is so small, nor for my stomach which is so wide."
"Vinegar, son of wine," R' Yehoshua
ben Korcha
called R' Elazar.
"Why do you call me so?" R' Elazar
asked him.
"Before you run away from us to
Ludkia, [we wish to
voice our disapproval,]" said R' Yehoshua. [R' Elazar would catch
thieves
for the police, as his livelihood.]?? See later
"Am I not doing a good thing by
removing the thorns
from the vineyard?" Said R' Elazar, [by removing the Jews who harm our
people.]
"For this you travel to the ends of
the world?"
Said R' Yehoshua, "better that you leave the Owner [Hashem] to weed out
His vineyard."
(Yerushalmi, Maasros ch.3)
"I had a dream," a person told R'
Yosi ben
Chalafta, "where they told me, go to Kapudkia -- there you will find
your
father's money."
"Was your father ever in Kapudkia?"
asked R' Yosi.
"No," answered the man.
"Go home," R' Yosi told him, "count
ten roof
beams from the door, and there you will find your father's money."
["Kapa d'kadia" in ancient Greek means "the tenth beam".]
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," one person told
R' Yosi ben
Chalafta, "that I was wearing a crown of olive branch."
"This means that you will rise, be a
great person, and
wear a crown on your head," R' Yosi told him.
"I saw in a dream," another person
told R' Yosi
some time later, "that I was wearing a crown of olive branch."
"This means," R' Yosi told him, "you
will
receive lashes [from a switch of olive branch]."
"How come you told the other man he
would rise to
greatness," the person asked, "and to me you say, you will receive
lashes?"
"The other man asked me at a time
when the olive trees
are sprouting," said R' Yosi, "while you ask me a time when they are
losing their strength."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I dreamed," a nonbeliever told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "that I was watering and olive tree with olive oil."
"May your soul rot," he answered,
"you had
relations with your mother."
[The fruit of the olive was
nourishing its source.]
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "one eye kissing [touching] the other eye."
"May your soul rot," he answered,
"you had
relations with your sister."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told
that R' Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "that I had three eyes."
"You are an oven-maker," he told him,
"Two of
the eyes you saw were yours, the third is the eye -- or opening -- of
the oven."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "that I have four ears."
"Your work is to fill wine jugs," he
told him,
"two of the ears you saw were yours, the other two were jug handles."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "people running away from me."
"If you carry thorns," he told him,
"people
will run away from you."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael b'Rebbi
Yosi, "that I was wearing a notepad was twelve pages in it."
"Your ladder has twelve steps," he
told him.
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "that I was having relations with a star."
"May your soul rot," he answered, "
for you
killed a Jew [the verse refers to the Jewish people as," Yakov's
star" (BaMidbar 24)]."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "this person's vineyard [meaning, his own] growing bitter
herbs."
"This person's wine," he told him,
"will turn
to vinegar, and he will take bitter greens, dip them in the vinegar,
and eat
them.
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a person told R'
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "that they told me, throw your fingers down."
"Pay me my fee, and I will interpret
it for you,"
he answered.
The man would not pay, and left.
A while later he returned. "I saw in
a dream," he
told Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi, "that they told me, blow from your
mouth."
"Pay me my fee, and I will interpret
it for you,"
he answered. The man would not pay, and left.
A while later he returned. "I saw in
a dream," he
told Rebbi Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi, "that they told me, raise your
fingers
upwards."
"Did I not tell you," answered Rebbi
Yishmael
b'Rebbi Yosi, "pay me, then I will help you. Now let me explain all
three
dreams to you. When they told you, throw your fingers down, this meant
that
rain was falling on your wheat, [causing it to spoil. Had you paid me,
you
could have harvested it and saved it]. When they told you, blow from
your
mouth, this meant the wheat was swelling [and you could still have
saved some
of it by harvesting then]. When they told you, raise your fingers
upwards, this
meant the wheat has sprouted [and is lost].
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"Let's have a good laugh at this old
Jew," said a
heretic about R' Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi. He came to him, and told him,
"I
saw in a dream four cedars, four sycamores, a beam, straw, a rod, and
myself
sitting on them, making his needs."
"May his soul rot, that's no dream,"
Rebbi
Yishmael b'Rebbi Yosi said to himself, "still, I won't send him away
empty-handed."
"The four cedars," he told him, "are
the four
sides of a bed, the four sycamores other four legs of the bed, the beam
is the
foot of the bed, the straw is for lying on, the rod is for the head of
the bed,
and you lying on the bed, neither alive nor dead, [bedridden and
sick]."
And so it was.
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," the woman told R'
Eliezer,
"the doorpost of the house broken."
"You will give birth to a male
child," he told
her. And so it was.
A while later, again she came to R'
Eliezer, but no one was
home other than his students. "What do you want of him?" they asked
her.
"I saw in a dream," she answered,
"the
doorpost of the house broken."
"We will give birth to a male child,"
they told
her, "and your husband will die."
Later, when R' Eliezer returned, they
told him what had
happened.
"You killed a man," he told them,
"for the
dream follows after the interpretation, is the verse says, "as he
interpreted for them, so it was."" (Breishis 41)
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
"I saw in a dream," a man told Rebbi
Akiva,
"that my leg (regel) became small."
"The holiday (regel) will come," he
told him,
"but your joy will not be a full one, for you will only have a little
meat
to eat."
"I saw in a dream," another man told
R' Akiva,
"that my leg was very fact."
"The holiday will come," he told him,
"and
you will have a lot of meat to eat."
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
Rebbi Akiva saw one of his students
looking very upset.
"What's wrong?" he asked him.
"I saw three unpleasant things in a
dream," the
student told him, "one, that in Adar I would die. Two, in Nisan I would
no
longer see. Three, that which I sow, I will not reap and gather."
"All three are good," R' Akiva told
him,
"that you saw in Adar you would die means that you will excel in the
Torah's beauty [hadar].
What you saw that in Nisan you would go blind indicates you will not
need
miracles [nissim] for nothing bad will happen to
you. And what you saw
that you would sow and not reap, means your children will not die in
your
lifetime.
(Yerushalmi, Maaser Sheini ch.4)
R' Yehuda
b'Rebbi
Chiya would visit R' Yanai, his father-in-law, every erev Shabbos. R'
Yanai
would sit in a high place that he might see him coming, and fulfill the
mitzva
of standing up for him.
"Didn't
you teach
us, Rabbeinu," his students asked him, "we need only stand up for a
Torah sage once we are within his four amos?"
"In the
presence
of mount Sinai," he answered them referring to R' Yehuda b'Rebbi Chiya,
"there is no sitting in all. This is why I stand even at such a
distance."
Once, R'
Yehuda was
late.
"Not for
nothing
is he late," said R' Yanai, "and we can't say he is sick either, for
a tzaddik is released from sufferings. It must be then that he has
died."
And so it was. (See 270)
(Yerushalmi,
Bikkurim
ch.3)
Shimon
bar Va was a
great Torah scholar, as well as an expert in precious stones and other
sciences. His mazal however, was very bad. He was so poor he hardly
ever had
bread to eat. Torah academies would appoint younger scholars as their
heads,
while overlooking him completely.
Of him,
R' Yochanan
would say, "Not to the wise, is there bread." (Koheles 9) He would
also say, "If you want to know the ways of Avraham Avinu, study the
ways
of Shimon bar Va."
R' Avahu
sent him a
note with a white hair tucked in -- as if to say, your hair is white
already,
go then to Eretz Yisrael -- there they will appreciate your scholarship
-- and
appoint you.
This same
R' Avahu
would comment, "Brush off the dust from your eyes, R' Yochanan, [and
see
this amazing sight,] they appoint Avahu of Riglusei [referring to
himself in a
humble way], while R' Shimon bar Va, who is the best of scholars, they
do not
appoint."
(Yerushalmi,
Bikkurim
ch.3)
Once, a Torah scholar who had learned
much, absorbed much,
and sat at the feet of the great rabbis of his time, died young. His
wife took
his tefillin, and went from Torah centre to Torah centre, asking this
question:
"The Torah says, that it is "life,
and long
days." My husband learned much, absorbed much, and sat at the feet of
the
great rabbis of his time. Why did he die young?" No one answered her.
Eliyahu HaNavi then came to visit
her. She repeated before
him her question and her anguish.
"My daughter," he asked her, "when
you were
in nida, how did he conduct himself?"
"Chas veshalom," she answered, "that
he should
even touch me with his smallest finger then."
"And in your days of wearing white?"
Eliyahu asked
her.
"He ate with me, drank with me and
slept near me, but
no more than that."
"Blessed is Hashem who killed him,"
said Eliyahu,
"that he shows no favoritism to Torah scholars, for the Torah says,
"Do not go near a woman in the impurity of her nida,"
(VaYikra
18) -- until she has immersed herself, she is a nida.
(Shabbos 13a)
"Lord of
the
universe," King David said to Hashem, "tell me my end."
"I have a
rule," Hashem answered, "that no person may know how long he will
live."
"How long
then," David asked, "will my last year be?"
"This
too, the
heavens will not reveal," Hashem answered.
"Tell me
then
what day of the week I will die?" David asked.
"On
Shabbos," Hashem told him.
"Let me
then die
after Shabbos," David requested, "that they may attend to my body,
and eulogize me."
"After
Shabbos,
your son Shlomo's time to rule will have come," Hashem told him, "and
one kingship may not touch another, even by hair's breadth."
"Let me
die then
on Erev Shabbos," David asked.
"Better
one day
in your courtyard, than a thousand, (Tehillim 84)," Hashem answered,
"better one day that you sit and learn Torah, than the thousand
sacrifices
Shlomo will offer before Me on the altar."
It was
David's way,
that every Shabbos of the year, he would sit and learn Torah entire
day, so
that the Angel of Death would not approach him. On the day he was destined to die, the Angel
of Death came, and found David learning Torah. He could not come near
him.
"What can
I do to
stop him learning?" he thought to himself. Behind David's house was a
garden. The Angel of Death started shaking the trees, creating a
tremendous
noise. David went out see what was happening, reciting Torah as he
walked. As
he climbed down the few steps there, one board cracked under his
weight, David
stopped learning for a moment, and immediately, he died.
(Shabbos
30a)
Once, two
men wagered
each other. "Whoever can get Hillel to lose his temper," the one said
to the other, "takes 400 zuz. But, if not, he must pay 400 zuz."
"I will
do
it," said one of them.
That day
was Erev
Shabbos and Hillel was washing his hair. This man came to his door and
called,
"Is Hillel here? Is Hillel here?" Hillel wrapped himself in his cloak
and came out to the man.
"Why do
people in
Bavel have round heads?" he asked Hillel.
"You ask
a great
question, my son," Hillel answered patiently, "it is because their
midwives are not expert at handling them at birth."
He went
for a short
while and then returned. "Is Hillel here? Is Hillel here?" he called.
Hillel again wrapped himself and came out.
"What is
it you
want, my son?" he asked. "I have a question to ask," said the
man.
"Ask, my
son," Hillel told him.
"Why do
the
people of Tarmud have soft eyes?" he asked.
"That is
a good
question," Hillel told him, "it is because they live in sandy places
and the wind blows sand into their eyes."
The man
went away and
again returned. "Is Hillel here? Is Hillel here?" he called. Hillel
again wrapped himself, and came out.
"What is
it you
want my son?" he asked.
"I have a
question," said the man.
"Ask what
you
will, my son," Hillel said to him
"Why do
Africans
have wide feet?" he asked him.
"That is
a good
question you ask, my son," Hillel answered, "it because they live in
swampy places. Their feet are wide, that they shouldn't sink."
"I have
many,
many questions to ask," said the man, "but, I'm afraid you'll get
angry with me."
"Any
questions
you have to ask, ask." Hillel told him.
"Are you
the
Hillel," asked the man, "head of the Jewish people."
"That's
right," said Hillel.
"Then,
too many
others shouldn't be like you," said the man.
"Why
not?"
asked Hillel.
"For, you
caused
me to lose 400 zuz," the man explained.
"Be
careful how
you speak," Hillel warned him. "It's better that you should lose 400
zuz, and another 400 zuz, and that Hillel should not become angry."
(Shabbos
31a)
(See
later 743)
A non-Jew came before Shamai.
"How many Torahs do you have?" he
asked.
"We have two," said Shamai, "a
written Torah,
and and oral Torah."
"I'm prepared to accept the written
Torah," said
the man, "but I don't believe in the oral Torah. Convert me, but teach
me
only the written Torah."
Shamai rebuked him, and sent him away.
The non-Jew then came before Hillel.
He converted him.
On the first day of his lessons,
Hillel taught him the
alphabet, "Aleph, Beis, Gimel, etc." The next day, he again taught
him the alphabet, but reversed the names of the letters, "Taf, Shin,
Reish, etc."
"But, that's not what you told me
yesterday!" the
convert protested.
"In the same way that you rely on
what I told you
yesterday," Hillel answered, "so you need also to rely on the oral
Torah."
________________________________
Another non-Jew came before Shamai.
"Convert me, and
teach me the entire Torah as I stand on one leg," he said to him.
Shamai
drove him away with a measuring rod.
He then came before Hillel who
converted him.
"Now," Hillel told him, "That which
you find
hateful, do not do to others. This is the whole Torah -- the rest is
commentary. Go now and learn [-- that you may know what is hateful, and
what is
not]."
(Shabbos 31a)
________________________________
A non-Jew once passed by the study
hall, and heard a children's
teacher describing a beautiful set of garments.
"Who are these for?" asked the
non-Jew.
"For the Kohen Gadol," the children
shouted.
"I will convert and wear those
beautiful clothes,"
the non-Jew thought to himself.
He came before Shamai. "Convert me
that I may be the
Kohen Gadol," he told him. Shamai drove him away with a measuring rod.
He then came before Hillel, who
converted him.
"Surely, a person cannot be a king
[i.e. Kohen
Gadol],"Hillel then told him, "unless he first learns the rules? Go
then and learn."
The convert went to learn. When he
came to the verse,
"The stranger [i.e. non-Kohen] who enters [into the temple service]
shall
die," (BaMidbar 3) he asked, "Who is the stranger this verse refers
to?"
"Even David, king of Yisrael," they
told him.
"If regular Jewish people," the
convert thought
himself, "who Hashem calls "my beloved firstborn," cannot serve
as kohanim, how much the more this does this apply to a newcomer who
owns
little more than his staff and his knapsack!"
He came before Shamai. "Am I at all
fit to be Kohen
Gadol?" he asked him. ["Surely you could have explained this to me,
instead of sending me away."]
He then came before Hillel. "You have
such wonderful
humility," he told him. "May Hashem bless you for converting
me."
________________________________
After a while, these three converts
met. "Shamai's
intolerance almost lost us the world,"
they said, "but, Hillel's humility drew us under the wings of the
Divine
presence."
(Shabbos 31a)
