Gitin (68a) I
gat me sharim and sharoth, and the delights of the sons of men, Shidah and
shidoth. ‘Sharim and Sharoth’, means diverse kinds of music; ‘the delights of
the sons of men’ are ornamental pools and baths. ‘Shidah and shidoth’: Here in
Babylon they translate as male and female demons. In the Palestine they say it
means carriages. R. Johanan said: There
were three hundred kinds of demons in Shihin, but what a shidah is I do not
know. The Master said: Here they
translate ‘male and female demons’. For what did Solomon want them? — As
indicated in the verse, And the house when it was in building was made of stone
made ready at the quarry, [there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of
iron heard in the house while it was in building]; He said to the Rabbis, How
shall I manage without iron tools]? — They replied, There is the shamir which
Moses brought for the stones of the ephod. He asked them, Where is it to be
found? — They replied, Bring a male and a female demon and tie them together;
perhaps they know and will tell you. So he brought a male and a female demon
and tied them together. They said to him, We do not know, but perhaps Ashmedai
the prince of the demons knows. He said to them, Where is he? — They answered,
He is in such-and-such a mountain. He has dug a pit there, which he fills with
water and covers with a stone, which he then seals with his seal. Every day he
goes up to heaven and studies in the Academy of the sky and then he comes down
to earth and studies in the Academy of the earth, and then he goes and examines
his seal and opens the pit and drinks and then closes it and seals it again and
goes away. Solomon thereupon sent thither Benaiahu son of Jehoiada, giving him
a chain on which was graven the Divine Name and a ring on which was graven the
Name and fleeces of wool and bottles of wine. Benaiahu went and dug a pit lower
down the hill and let the water flow into it and stopped [the hollow] With the
fleeces of wool, and he then dug a pit higher up and poured the wine into it
and then filled up the pits. He then went and sat on a tree. When Ashmedai came
he examined the seal, then opened the pit and found it full of wine. He said,
it is written, Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whosoever erreth
thereby is not wise, and it is also written, Whoredom and wine and new wine
take away the understanding. I will not drink it. Growing thirsty, however, he
could not resist, and he drank till he became drunk, and fell asleep. Benaiahu
then came down and threw the chain over him and fastened it. When he awoke he
began to struggle, whereupon Benaiahu said, The Name of your Master is upon you,
the Name of your Master is upon you. As he was bringing him along, he came to a
palm tree and rubbed against it and down it came. He came to a house and
knocked it down. He came to the hut of a certain widow. She came outand
besought him, and he bent down so as not to touch it, thereby breaking a bone.
He said, That bears out the verse, A soft tongue breaketh the bone. He saw a blind man straying from his way and
he put him on the right path. He saw a drunken man losing his way and he put
him on his path. He saw a wedding procession making its way merrily and he
wept. He heard a man say to a shoemaker, Make me a pair of shoes that will last
seven years, and he laughed. He saw a diviner practising divinations and he
laughed. When they reached Jerusalem he was not taken to see Solomon for three
days. On the first day he asked, Why does the king not want to see me? They
replied, Because he has overdrunk himself. So he took a brick and placed it on
top of another. When they reported this to Solomon he said to them, What he
meant to tell you was, Give him more to drink. On the next day he said to them,
Why does the king not want to see me? They replied, Because he has over-eaten
himself. He thereupon took one brick from off the other and placed it on the
ground. When they reported this to Solomon, he said, He meant to tell you to
keep food away from me. After three days he went in to see him. He took a reed
and measured four cubits and threw it in front of him, saying, See now, when
you die you will have no more than four cubits in this world. Now, however, you
have subdued the whole world, yet you are not satisfied till you subdue me too.
He replied: I want nothing of you. What I want is to build the Temple and I
require the shamir. He said: It is not in my hands, it is in the hands of the
Prince of the Sea who gives it only to the woodpecker, to whom he trusts it on
oath. What does the bird do with it? — He takes it to a mountain where there is
no cultivation and puts it on the edge of the rock which thereupon splits, and
he then takes seeds from trees and brings them and throws them into the opening
and things grow there. (This is what the Targum means by nagar tura). So they
found out a woodpecker's nest with young in it, and covered it over with white
glass. When the bird came it wanted to get in but could not, so it went and
brought the shamir and placed it on the glass. Benaiahu thereupon gave a shout,
and it dropped [the shamir] and he took it, and the bird went and committed
suicide on account of its oath. Benaiahu said to Ashmedai, Why when you saw
that blind man going out of his way did you put him right? He replied: It has
been proclaimed of him in heaven that he is a wholly righteous man, and that
whoever does him a kindness will be worthy of the future world. And why when
you saw the drunken man going out of his way did you put him right? He replied,
They have proclaimed concerning him in heaven that he is wholly wicked, and I
conferred a boon on him in order that he may consume [here] his share [in the
future]. Why when you saw the wedding procession did you weep? He said: The husband
will die within thirty days, and she will have to wait for the brother-in-law
who is still a child of thirteen years. Why, when you heard a man say to the
shoemaker, Make me shoes to last seven years, did you laugh? He replied: That
man has not seven days to live, and he wants shoes for seven years! Why when
you saw that diviner divining did you laugh? He said: He was sitting on a royal
treasure: he should have divined what was beneath him. Solomon kept him with him until he had built the Temple. One
day when he was alone with him, he said, it is written, He hath as it were
to'afoth and re'em, and we explain that to'afoth means the ministering angels
and re'em means the demons. What is your superiority over us? He said to him,
Take the chain off me and give me your ring, and I will show you. So he took
the chain off him and gave him the ring. He then swallowed him, and placing one
wing on the earth and one on the sky he hurled him four hundred parasangs. In
reference to that incident Solomon said, What profit is there to a man in all
his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun. And this was my portion from all my labour.
What is referred to by ‘this’? — Rab and Samuel gave different answers, one
saying that it meant his staff and the other that it meant his apron. He used
to go round begging, saying wherever he went, I Koheleth was king over Israel
in Jerusalem. When he came to the Sanhedrin, the Rabbis said: Let us see, a
madman does not stick to one thing only. What is the meaning of this? They
asked Benaiahu, Does the king send for you? He replied, No. They sent to the
queens saying, Does the king visit you? They sent back word, Yes, he does. They
then sent to them to say, Examine his leg. They sent back to say, He comes in
stockings, and he visits them in the time of their separation and he also calls
for Bathsheba his mother. They then sent for Solomon and gave him the chain and
the ring on which the Name was engraved. When he went in, Ashmedai on catching
sight of him flew away, but he remained in fear of him, therefore is it
written, Behold it is the litter of Solomon, threescore mighty met, are about
it of the mighty men of Israel. They all handle the sword and are expert in
war, every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Rab and Samuel differed [about Solomon]. One
said that Solomon was first a king and then a commoner, and the other that he
was first a king and then a commoner and then a king again.
