Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sotah

Folio 22a

It has been reported, If one has learnt Scripture and Mishnah but did not attend upon Rabbinical scholars, R. Eleazar says he is an 'Am ha-arez'²  R. Samuel b. Nahmani says he is a boor; R. Jannai says he is a Samaritan;³  R. Aha b. Jacob says he is a magician.⁴  R. Nahman b. Isaac said: The definition of R. Aba b. Jacob appears the most probable; because there is a popular saying: The magician mumbles and knows not what he says; the tanna⁵  recites and knows not what he says.

Our Rabbis taught: Who is an 'Am ha-arez? Whoever does not recite the Shema'⁶  morning and evening with its accompanying benedictions; such is the statement of R. Meir. The Sages say: Whoever does not put on the phylacteries. Ben Azzai says: Whoever has not the fringe upon his garment.⁷  R. Jonathan b. Joseph says: Whoever has sons and does not rear them to study Torah. Others say: Even if he learnt Scripture and Mishnah but did not attend upon Rabbinical scholars, he is an 'Am ha-arez. If he learnt Scripture but not Mishnah, he is a boor; if he learnt neither Scripture nor Mishnah, concerning him Scripture declares, I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.⁸

My son, fear thou the Lord and the king, and mingle not with them that are given to change.⁹  R. Isaac said: They are the men who learn legal decisions.¹⁰  This is self-evident!¹¹  — [It is not, because] you might have supposed [that the text meant], they who repeat a sin, and that it is according to the teaching of R. Huna; for R. Huna said: When a man commits a transgression and repeats it, it becomes to him something which is permissible. Therefore he informs us [that this is not the intention of the text]. A Tanna taught: The Tannaim¹²  bring destruction upon the world. How can it occur to you to say that they bring destruction upon the world! Rabina said: Because they decide points of law from their teachings.¹³  It has been similarly taught: R. Joshua said: Do they destroy the world? Rather do they cultivate the world, as it is said: As for the ways, the world is for him.¹⁴  But [the reference is to] those who decide points of law from their teachings.

A FEMALE PHARISEE etc. Our Rabbis have taught: A maiden who gives herself up to prayer,¹⁵  a gadabout widow,¹⁶  and a minor whose months are not completed¹⁷  — behold these bring destruction upon the world. But it is not so; for R. Johanan has said: We learnt fear of sin from a maiden [who gave herself up to prayer] and [confidence in] the bestowal of reward from a [gadabout] widow! Fear of sin from a maiden — for R. Johanan heard a maiden fall upon her face and exclaim, 'Lord of the Universe! Thou hast created Paradise and Gehinnom; Thou hast created righteous and wicked. May it be Thy will that men should not stumble through me'. [Confidence in] the bestowal of reward from a widow — a certain widow had a Synagogue in her neighbourhood; yet she used to come daily to the School of R. Johanan¹⁸  and pray there. He said to her, 'My daughter, is there not a Synagogue in your neighbourhood?' She answered him, 'Rabbi, but have I not the reward for the steps!'¹⁹  — When it is said [that they bring destruction upon the world] the reference is to such a person as Johani the daughter of Retibi.²⁰  What means 'a minor whose months are not completed'? — They explained it thus: It refers to a disciple who rebels against the authority of his teachers. R. Abba said: It refers to a disciple who has not attained the qualification to decide questions of law and yet decides them; for R. Abbahu declared that R. Huna said in the name of Rab, What means that which is written: For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, all her slain are a mighty host?²¹  'For she hath cast down many wounded' — this refers to a disciple who has not attained the qualification to decide questions of law and yet decides them; 'yea, all her slain are a mighty host' — this refers to a disciple who has attained the qualification to decide questions of law and does not decide them.

1. To attain higher learning in Torah. He thus makes a pretence of a scholarship which he really does not possess.
2. Lit., 'people of the earth'; the description of those Jews who are careless about religious duties.
3. And his bread and wine must not be used by an observant Jew.
4. Who deceives the people.
5. V. Glos., s.v. Tanna (b).
6. V. Glos. For the benedictions, V. Singer P. B. pp- 39ff, 96ff.
7. V. Num. XV, 37ff [Zeitlin, S. (JQR (NS) XXIII, p. 58) sees in this an allusion to the early Jewish Christians who, as is known from the N.T. and the early Church Fathers, objected to the Shema', phylacteries and fringes.]
8. Jer. XXXI, 27.
9. Prov. XXIV, 21. The word for 'that are given to change' is shonim from shanah which in later Hebrew means 'learn' or 'repeat'.
10. And do not study with the scholars to understand their scope and derivation from Scripture.
11. So why is it mentioned?
12. Who only report teachings without giving their derivations, cf. Glos. s.v. (b), and supra p. 103, n. 2.
13. [The Baraithas and Mishnas which they memorized without knowing perfectly the reasoning on which they were based.]
14. Sic., Hab. III, 6. In Meg. 28b this is explained: Read not halichoth 'ways', but halachoth 'legal decisions', i.e., as for him (who studies) legal decisions, the world exists on account of him.
15. In the J. Talmud there is a variant: 'gives herself up to fasting'. We seem to have here an expression of disapproval of conventual life.
16. Her chastity is open to suspicion.
17. Explained below.
18. Where Services were held.
19. I.e., for the extra distance she walked to attend the Services.
20. She was a widow who by witchcraft made childbirth difficult for a woman and then offered prayer for her.
21. Prov. VII, 26.

AND THE PLAGUE OF PHARISEES etc. Our Rabbis have taught: There are seven types of Pharisees: the shikmi Pharisee, the nikpi Pharisee, the kizai Pharisee, the 'pestle' Pharisee, the Pharisee [who constantly exclaims] 'What is my duty that I may perform it?', the Pharisee from love [of God] and the Pharisee from fear. The shikmi Pharisee — he is one who performs the action of Shechem.⁴  The nikpi Pharisee — he is one who knocks his feet together.⁵  The kizai Pharisee — R. Nahman b. Isaac said: He is one who makes his blood to flow against walls.⁶  The 'pestle' Pharisee — Rabbah b. Shila said: [His head] is bowed like [a pestle in] a mortar. The Pharisee [who constantly exclaims] 'What is my duty that I may perform it?' — but that is a virtue! — Nay, what he says is, 'What further duty is for me that I may perform it?'⁷  The Pharisee from love and the Pharisee from fear — Abaye and Raba said to the tanna [who was reciting this passage], Do not mention 'the Pharisee from love⁸  and the Pharisee from fear'; for Rab Judah has said in the name of Rab: A man should always engage himself in Torah and the commandments even though it be not for their own sake,⁹  because from [engaging in them] not for their own sake, he will come [to engage in them] for their own sake. R. Nahman b. Isaac said: What is hidden is hidden, and what is revealed is revealed; the Great Tribunal will exact punishment from those who rub themselves against the walls.¹⁰

King Jannai¹¹  said to his wife', 'Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who ape the Pharisees; because their deeds are the deeds of Zimri¹²  but they expect a reward like Phineas'.¹³

MISHNAH. R, SIMEON SAYS: MERIT DOES NOT CAUSE THE WATER OF BITTERNESS TO SUSPEND ITS EFFECT, AND IF YOU SAY THAT MERIT DOES CAUSE THE WATER OF BITTERNESS TO SUSPEND ITS EFFECT, YOU DISCREDIT THE WATER IN THE CASE OF ALL THE WOMEN WHO DRINK IT AND DEFAME THE PURE WOMAN WHO DRANK IT, SINCE PEOPLE WILL SAY, THEY WERE UNCLEAN, ONLY THEIR MERIT CAUSED THE WATER TO SUSPEND ITS EFFECT UPON THEM. RABBI SAYS: MERIT CAUSES THE WATER OF BITTERNESS TO SUSPEND ITS EFFECT, AND SHE NEVER BEARS A CHILD OR THRIVES, BUT SHE GRADUALLY GROWS ILL AND FINALLY DIES THROUGH THAT DEATH.¹⁴

IF HER MEAL-OFFERING BECAME DEFILED BEFORE IT BECAME HALLOWED IN THE [MINISTERING] VESSEL, BEHOLD IT IS LIKE ALL MEAL-OFFERINGS [SIMILARLY DEFILED] AND CAN BE REDEEMED;¹⁵  BUT IF [IT BECAME DEFILED] AFTER IT HAD BEEN HALLOWED IN THE [MINISTERING] VESSEL, BEHOLD IT IS LIKE ALL MEAL-OFFERINGS [SIMILARLY DEFILED] AND IS DESTROYED. THE FOLLOWING HAVE THEIR MEAL- OFFERINGS DESTROYED:

1. Tosaphoth explains this to mean after forty years of study. It may, however, be connected with the statement in Ab. V, 24, At forty for understanding.
2. He died at the age of forty; v. R. H. 18a.
3. Since they were not his superiors in learning, he decided questions although less than the requisite age. [Tosaf. s.v. [H] explains that Rabbah surpassed all other scholars in his town, and the restriction applies only where there are others equal in learning to the young scholar. For further notes on the passage, v. A.Z. (Sonc. ed.) p. 101.]
4. Who was circumcised from an unworthy motive (Gen. XXXIV). The J. Talmud (Ber. 14b) explains: who carries his religious duties upon his shoulder (shekem), i.e., ostentatiously.
5. He walks with exaggerated humility. According to the J. Talmud: He says: Spare me a moment that I may perform a commandment.
6. In his anxiety to avoid looking upon a woman he dashes his face against the wall. The J. Talmud explains: calculating Pharisee, i.e., he performs a good deed and then a bad deed, setting one off against the other.
7. As though he had fulfilled every obligation.
8. [Abaye and Raba understood 'love' and 'fear' to denote love of the rewards promised for the fulfilment of precepts and fear of punishment for transgressing them. In J. Ber., however, they are both taken in reference to God — i.e., love of God and fear of Him.]
9. From pure and disinterested motives.
10. In simulated humility. Others render: who wrap themselves in their cloaks. The meaning is that hypocrisy is of no avail against the Judge Who reads the heart.
11. Alexander Jannaeus. For his advice, given on his death-bed to his wife Salome, v. Josephus, Ant. XIII, XV, 5.
12. Num. XXV, 14.
13. Ibid. 11ff. [He probably had in mind the treacherous act by a group of Zealots — not Pharisees — in resisting foreign assistance — Demetrius Eucerus, King of Syria — in their struggle with Alexander Jannaeus. Josephus, op. cit. XIII, 13, 5. V. Klausner, [H] 11, 128.
14. Caused by the symptoms described in Num. V, 27.
15. By paying its value into the Temple treasury.