Who is as Ruthless as Samson? Yevamot 15:6

This post is dedicated to the complete and rapid healing of Rabbi Chanan Feld, HaRav Chanan Velvel Simcha Ben Bryna.

In Mishnaic times, men could have more than one wife. Also, women's testimony was generally regarded with suspicion, and did not generally have the status of being admissible in court. The Rabbis made a special exception in the case of a woman who travels far away with her husband, and then returns alone, claiming that her husband died. In such a case, a woman is permitted to re-marry on the basis of her own testimony alone. The Rabbis reasoned that a woman who lied in such a case would, once the lie was discovered, make herself forbidden to both her first and second husbands, as an adulterous wife must leave her husband. Thus she has no real incentive to lie.

When we put these two laws together and add jealousy into the mix, it gets complicated! Fasten your seatbelts...

Consider a case when the husband and Wife A travel abroad, and leave Wife B home alone. If Wife A returns alone and reports her husband's death, we might think her testimony is enough to make both wives eligible to re-marry.

However, this is not the case. Wife A, whens she testifies about her husband's death, does not enable Wife B to remarry as well. The Rabbis feared that hatred between the husband's two wives might be strong enough that the Wife A might want to cause the Wife B to enter an illegitimate new marriage by lying about their husband's death. Wife A could then have her husband to herself.

One might think that we would believe Wife A's testimony and permit Wife B to remarry if Wife A also remarries, because in such a case if Wife A is lying, neither Wife A or Wife B can remain with their original husband. However, the Rabbis feared that hatred between the wives might be so strong that Wife A would be happy to sacrifice her marriage to the husband as long as it destroyed Wife B's marriage as well.

The Rabbis draw a parallel to the story of Samson's death. Just before his death, Samson was blinded and being readied for execution by the Philistines in their temple. He held two supporting columns for the temple, and prayed that his strength could be recovered for a moment, so that he could take down the columns, causing his own death but also that of all of his enemies under their temple's roof. Here's the JPS translation: He said (Judges 16:30), 'Let me die with the Philistines!' and he pulled with all of his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him as he lived. The Rabbi's feared that Wife A might also cry out 'Let me die with the Philistines,' and happily bring town the temple of her marriage upon her own head as long as it destroyed that of her enemy Wife B.

The Unkosher Queen - Megila 9a

The Septuagent is a famous translation of the Torah from Hebrew into Greek. According to Megila 9a here is the story of its creation. The King Talmi summoned 72 Rabbis, without telling them what the purpose of the summons, and kept them apart from each other with instructions to translate the Torah. By a miracle, each Rabbi produced exactly the same translation. The Talmud lists many changes in meaning that were incorporated into the translation to avoid theological problems. One problem was more practical though - they deleted mention of the hare ('Arnevet' in Hebrew) from the list of non-kosher animals because the word happened to also be the name of the king's wife.

Door #1 or Door #2?, Sotah 2a

I've started a new study partnership with a friend, and we are learning the tractate of the Talmud that deals with the ritual of the Sotah. It is described in Numbers chapter 5. Essentially, if a man is suspicious of his wife being unfaithful, but has no proof, he can put her through an ordeal that involves drinking a bitter potion. It is probably the Bible at its most patriarchal.

The Rabbis, as they often do, immediately place limits on the nastier parts of this ordeal. Before allowing the ritual, they require the man to warn his wife before two witnesses to keep away from the particular man that he suspects of having the affair with his wife, and then have further witnesses that she has been alone with or spoken to the man after the warning. The Rabbis further state that it is forbidden to initiate the process of warning her, effectively making it impossible to do this ritual with Rabbinic approval.

As a further sign of Rabbinic disapproval, Resh Lakish stated, 'A man only pairs up with those who are suitable according to his deeds.' Basically, if you think your wife is sleeping around on you, check yourself and what you are doing before questioning her.

Resh Lakish's position seems to contradict a teaching by Rav Yehudah in the name of Rav: 40 days before the fetus is created a heavenly voice proclaims, "So-and-so will marry So-and-so, So-and-so will live in such a place, So-and-so will have this level of wealth.' How can a man's wife se be both pre-ordained and suitable according his actions? Where does free will come into this? The Rabbis resolve this, typically, with a cryptic statement. 'In one case[predestination] , this is the first wife, in the other case [when ones deeds determine the spouse], this is the second wife.''

It might be straightforward to think of the Rabbi's statement as literally being about two wives. Drawing on an earlier posting on this blog (see "Rabbinic Astrology", above) , I would interpret it differently. We have our luck, as determined by fate. This luck determines our 'first wife.' However, we have the ability to change our luck through prayer, good deeds, and repentance, or perhaps make our luck worse by behaving wickedly. If we act in particularly good or bad manner, we can change our fate and receive instead this 'second wife.'

When to read the Megila? Megila 6b

The holiday of Purim occurs in the Jewish month of Adar. The Jewish calendar is lunar. To help keep it in sync with the solar year, the Rabbis regularly add a 'leap month' to the Jewish year, which means we can have a year with two months of Adar. The rabbis argue over in this situation whether to observe the holiday in the first or second Adar of a leap year. Rabbi Elazar the son of Rabbi Yose thinks we should read it in the first Adar, and that way not skip over a chance to do a mitzvah as soon as possible. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel prefers the second Adar because it is followed immediately by the month of Nissan, where Passover occurs and we celebrate the liberation from Egypt. He puts it succintly - we should 'juxtapose redemption with redemption.'

Rabbinic Astrology: Shabat 155b-156a

A fairly famous statement appears on Shabat 155b: "Rabbi Hannina says: 'The stars make one wise, the stars make one rich, and the stars influence Israel.' Rabbi Yochanan says, "The stars do not influence Israel.' Rashi explains that both sages thought that the stars influenced Jews' fate, and their argument was whether prayer and charity can change one's fortune.

Following a discussion of the two positions comes a story that supports Rabbi Yochanan's position, that good deeds can change the stars' decree. It may seem a bit pious, but I love the idea that good deeds have a larger significance and am motivated to share it anyway.

Shmuel [a sage] and Avlet [a prominent gentile] were sitting and saw men going to a pond [to gather reeds.] Avlet said to Shmuel, 'This man [one of the reed gatherers] will go but not return. A snake will bite him and he will die' Shmuel said, 'If he is a Jew, he will go and return.' He [the reed gatherer] went and returned. Avlet got up, looked in the reed bundle, and found hidden in it a snake that had been sliced in half [presumably by accident as the reed gatherer was cutting the reeds.] Shmuel asked [the reed gatherer], 'What did you do [to merit this good fortune?]' He [the reed gatherer] said, 'Every day, we share our bread and eat it. Today, one of our group had no bread to share and was ashamed. I said to the group, 'I'll gather the bread today. When I came to that man, I pretended to take bread from him in order to save him from shame.' Shmuel said, 'You did a mitzvah!'

Shmuel then quoted [Proverbs 10:2], 'Charity saves from death,' and not just from strange deaths, but even from death itself.

This is my last post from Ma'asechet Shabat on this trip through the Talmud. We will return to you, Ma'asechet Shabat!

Badass Psalms

Someone else created a collection of 'badass' stories from the Hebrew bible.  It is at http://www.cracked.com/article_15699_9-most-badass-bible-verses.html.

The list is pretty good, except it misses out on the story of Yael driving a tent pole through the enemy king Sisera's forehead after he feel asleep.  That's a gem!

I spotted another line in Psalms this morning and, while it is not from the Talmud, thought it worthy of mention here.  Full disclosure:  I've been having some conflicts at work, now happily resolved, and this verse might have resonated more because of the conflicts.

Psalm 58:7-11:  "O G-d, smash their teeth in their mouth; shatter the fangs of lions, o L-Rd.  Let them melt, let them vanish like water.  Let Him aim His arrows that they be cut down, like a snail that melts away as it moves.  Like a woman's stillbirth, may they never see the sun!  Before the thorns grow into a bramble, may He whirl them away alive in fury.   The righteous man will rejoice when he sees revenge; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.  (JPS translation).

No Surprise this One was Unattributed!

If anyone ever tells you there is no vicious sexism in the Gemara, here is one to throw back at them.  Ugh:

It was taught:  Woman is a waterskin full of manure, her mouth (i.e. vagina) is full of blood, and yet alll run after her.