Translation:Talmud/Seder Zeraim/Tractate Berakhot/5b

and [nonetheless] buries his children,^[1] all his sins are forgiven him. R. Johanan said to him: I grant you Torah and acts of charity, for it is written: By mercy and truth iniquity is expiated.^[2] 'Mercy' is acts of charity, for it is said: He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, prosperity and honour.^[3] 'Truth' is Torah, for it is said: Buy the truth and sell it not.^[4] But how do you know [what you say about] the one who buries his children? — A certain Elder [thereupon] recited to him in the name of R. Simeon b. Yohai: It is concluded from the analogy in the use of the word 'iniquity'. Here it is written: By mercy and truth iniquity is expiated. And elsewhere it is written: And who recompenseth the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children.^[5]

R. Johanan says: Leprosy and [the lack of] children are not chastisements of love. But is leprosy not a chastisement of love? Is it not taught: If a man has one of these four symptoms of leprosy,^[6] it is nothing else but an altar of atonement? — They are an altar of atonement, but they are not chastisements of love. If you like, I can say: This [teaching of the Baraitha] is ours [in Babylonia], and that [saying of R. Johanan] is theirs [in Palestine].^[7] If you like, I can say: This [teaching of the Baraitha] refers to hidden [leprosy], that [saying of R. Johanan] refers to a case of visible [leprosy]. But is [the lack of] children not a chastisement of love? How is this to be understood? Shall I say that he had children and they died? Did not R. Johanan himself say: This is the bone of my tenth son?^[8] — Rather [say then] that the former saying refers to one who never had children, the latter to one who had children and lost them.

R. Hiyya b. Abba fell ill and R. Johanan went in to visit him. He said to him: Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied: Neither they nor their reward.^[9] He said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand and he^[10] raised him.

R. Johanan once fell ill and R. Hanina went in to visit him. He said to him: Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied: Neither they nor their reward. He said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand and he raised him. Why could not R. Johanan raise himself?^[11] — They replied: The prisoner cannot free himself from jail  !=< .^[12]

R. Eleazar fell ill and R. Johanan went in to visit him. He noticed that he was lying in a dark room,^[13] and he bared his arm and light radiated from it.^[14] Thereupon he noticed that R. Eleazar was weeping, and he said to him: Why do you weep? Is it because you did not study enough Torah? Surely we learnt: The one who sacrifices much and the one who sacrifices little have the same merit, provided that the heart is directed to heaven.^[15] Is it perhaps lack of sustenance? Not everybody has the privilege to enjoy two tables.^[16] Is it perhaps because of [the lack of] children? This is the bone of my tenth son! — He replied to him: I am weeping on account of this beauty^[17] that is going to rot in the earth. He said to him: On that account you surely have a reason to weep; and they both wept. In the meanwhile he said to him: Are your sufferings welcome to you? — He replied: Neither they nor their reward. He said to him: Give me your hand, and he gave him his hand and he raised him.

Once four hundred jars of wine belonging to R. Huna turned sour. Rab Judah, the brother of R. Sala the Pious, and the other scholars (some say: R. Adda b. Ahaba and the other scholars) went in to visit him and said to him: The master ought to examine his actions.^[18] He said to them: Am I suspect in your eyes? They replied: Is the Holy One, blessed be He, suspect of punishing without justice? — He said to them: If somebody has heard of anything against me, let him speak out. They replied: We have heard that the master does not give his tenant his [lawful share in the] vine twigs. He replied: Does he leave me any? He steals them all! They said to him: That is exactly what the proverb says:^[19] If you steal from a thief you also have a taste of it!^[20] He said to them: I pledge myself to give it to him [in the future]. Some report that thereupon the vinegar became wine again; others that the vinegar went up so high that it was sold for the same price as wine.

It has been taught: Abba Benjamin says, All my life I took great pains about two things: that my prayer should be before my bed and that my bed should be placed north and south. 'That my prayer should be before my bed'. What is the meaning of 'before my bed'? Is it perhaps literally in front of my bed? Has not Rab Judah said in the name of Rab (some say, in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi): How do you know that when one prays there should be nothing interposing between him and the wall? Because it says: Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed?^[21] — Do not read 'before my bed', but 'near^[22] my bed'. 'And that my bed should be placed north and south'. For R. Hama b. R. Hanina said in the name of R. Isaac: Whosoever places his bed north and south will have male children, as it says: And whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure,^[23] who have sons in plenty.^[24] R. Nahman b. Isaac says: His wife also will not miscarry. Here it is written: And whose belly Thou fillest with Thy treasure, and elsewhere it is written: And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold there were twins in her womb.^[25]

It has been taught: Abba Benjamin says, When two people enter [a Synagogue] to pray, and one of them finishes his prayer first and does not wait for the other but leaves,^[26] his prayer is torn up before his face.^[27] For it is written: Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, shall the earth be forsaken for thee?^[28] And more than that, he causes the Divine Presence to remove itself from Israel. For it says Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?^[29] And 'rock' is nothing else than the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says: Of the Rock that begot thee thou wast unmindful.^[30] And if he does wait, what is his reward? —

Notes

1. An allusion to R. Johanan himself, who was a great scholar and a charitable man, and was bereft of his children.
2. Ibid. XVI, 6.
3. Ibid. XXI, 21.
4. Ibid. XXIII, 23.
5. Jer. XXXII, 18.
6. Which are enumerated in Mishnah Nega'im I, I.
7. In Palestine where a leprous person had to be isolated outside the city (cf. Lev. XIII, 46), leprosy was not regarded as 'chastisements of love' owing to the severity of the treatment involved.
8. Who died in his lifetime. The Gemara deduces from that saying that he regarded the death of children as a chastisement of love. Aruch understands this to have been a tooth of the last of his sons which he preserved and used to show to people who suffered bereavement in order to induce in them a spirit of resignation such as he himself had in his successive bereavements.
9. The implication is that if one lovingly acquiesces in his sufferings, his reward in the world to come is very great.
10. R. Johanan. He cured him by the touch of his hand.
11. If he could cure R. Hiyya b. Abba, why could not he cure himself?
12. And the patient cannot cure himself.
13. R. Eleazar was a poor man and lived in a room without windows.
14. R. Johanan was supposed to be so beautiful that a light radiated from his body, v. B.M. 84a.
15. Men. 110b.
16. Learning and wealth. Or perhaps, this world and the next.
17. I.e., the beautiful body of yours.
18. You may perhaps have deserved your misfortune through some sin.
19. Lit., 'what people say'.
20. Even if your tenant is a thief this does not free you from giving him his lawful share.
21. Isa. XXXVIII, 2.
22. Near in time. He used to pray immediately after rising.
23. The word may mean treasure and also north.
24. Ps. XVII, 14.
25. Gen. XXV, 24.
26. The synagogues were outside the town and it was dangerous to remain alone.
27. I.e., rejected.
28. Job. XVIII, 4. The homiletical interpretation of the verse is: 'Your prayer will be thrown into your face, if on your account the earth or synagogue is forsaken'.
29. Ibid.
30. Deut. XXXII, 18.