Bava Metzia (85a) When R. Zera emigrated to Palestine, he fasted a hundred fasts to forget the Babylonian Gemara, that it should not trouble him. He also fasted a hundred times that R. Eleazar might not die in his lifetime, so that the communal cares should not fall upon him. And yet another hundred, that the fire of Gehenna might be powerless against him. Every thirty days he used to examine himself to see if he were fireproof. He would heat the oven, ascend, and sit therein, but the fire had no power against him. One day, however, the Rabbis cast an envious eye upon him, and his legs were singed, whereafter he was called, ‘Short and leg-singed.’
Bava Basra (75a) R. Johanan explained when he once sat and gave an exposition: The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come bring precious stones and pearls which are thirty cubits by thirty and will cut out from them openings ten cubits by twenty, and will set them up in the gates of Jerusalem. A certain student sneered at him: Jewels of the size of a dove's egg are not to be found; are jewels of such a size to be found? After a time, his ship sailed out to sea where he saw ministering angels engaged in cutting precious stones and pearls which were thirty cubits by thirty and on which were engravings of ten cubits by twenty. He said unto them: ‘For whom are these?’ They replied that the Holy One, blessed be He, would in time to come set them up in the gates of Jerusalem. When he came again before R. Johanan he said unto him: ‘Expound, O my master; it is becoming for you to expound; as you said, so have I seen.’ He replied unto him: ‘Raca, had you not seen, would not you have believed? You are then sneering at the words of the Sages!’ He set his eyes on him and the student turned into a heap of bones.
If a Tzadik uses the evil eye, is he still a Tzaddik?
ReplyDeleteAlso, dove's eggs are not so large, there are crystals that can be larger. So the student was factually wrong - be very careful before sneering.
"He would heat the oven, ascend, and sit
ReplyDeletetherein, but the fire had no power against him. One day, however, the
Rabbis cast an envious eye upon him, and his legs were singed,
whereafter he was called, ‘Short and leg-singed.’"
A few points:
1) why were they "envious"?
2) why did he wish to forget the Bavli? Was it to be able to learn the way of the Yerushalmi?
3) A simple reading is that their spell caused the fireproofing to fail.
4) A "rational" reading - a story comes to mind of a motivation coach who would encourage people to do firewalks - barefoot. This was successful for a while, but on one occasion they all burned their feet. The motivaton coach was embarassed, but could nto understand, because he thought it was "mind over matter". in fact, the easy firewalks was over wood charcoal, which burns at a low enough temperature to walk on, albeit if each step is very quick. the disaster occurred when they walked on real coal, which burns at a much higher temepratue - hence the illusion was shattered.
So there are different ways of looking at the events. Even in this story, both explanations could be true - there could be a physical error or explanation, which was only actuated because of the curse of the Sages.
>When R. Zera emigrated to Palestine
ReplyDeleteYou know, I don't think that the Gemara used the P-word.
But it was an appropriate translation when the Soncino talmud was written. So what is your point?
ReplyDeleteWhen the Soncino was written, the word didn't have the implications it does now. Like the time years ago someone actually told me that the Talmud was written by Arabs and stolen by Jews because while we claim it's Babylonian, he saw a old copy called the Palestinian Talmud!
ReplyDeleteJerusalem Post used to be the Palestine Post.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wonder if half the miraculous stories chasidim tell about their rebbes is because they think "Well if the Chazal could, why not our guys?"
ReplyDeleteGood.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, those stories are much more restricted in their claims. Even Chief rabbi sacks zl, speaks about the Rebbe advising him to become a rabbi. And this is the miracle - because he ended up as a famous chief rabbi.
ReplyDelete