Talmud zu Jeschijahu 31:2

They asked Rebbi Eliezer, what is the status of the eleventh generation of a bastard? He said to them, bring to me a third generation and I shall declare him pure¹⁹⁶The same statement is in the Babli, 78b.. What is Rebbi Eliezer’s reason since he does not seem to follow Rebbi Ḥanina? As Rebbi Ḥanina said, once every sixty to seventy years the Holy One, praise to Him, brings a plague into the world to finish off the bastards and he takes the qualified ones with them in order not to publicize the sinners¹⁹⁷This describes the situation in the later Roman Empire where the plague had become endemic during the reign of the emperor Hadrian.. This parallels what Rebbi Levi said in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish: “In the place where the ascent offering has its throat cut before the Eternal, the purification sacrifice has its throat cut,¹⁹⁸Lev. 6:18; the purification sacrifice atones for inadvertent sins. In the Babli, Soṭah 32b, the statement is by R. Joḥanan in the name of R. Simeon bar Ioḥai.” in order not to publicize the sinners. What is the reason? “¹⁹⁹Is. 31:2. Also He is wise and brings evil;” should it not rather be “brings good”? But to teach you that even the evil that the Holy One, praise to Him, brings to the world, He brings in wisdom. “His word He did not remove,” why all this? “He overcomes the house of evildoers and accomplices of workers of iniquity.” That parallels what Rebbi Levi said in the name of Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish: “In the place where the ascent offering has its throat cut before the Eternal, the purification sacrifice has its throat cut,” in order not to publicize the sinners. Rav Huna said, no bastard lives more than thirty days²⁰⁰A convenient legal fiction which allows every male to marry every female without investigating his or her background. The same statement in the Babli, 78b.. When Rebbi Ze‘ira immigrated here, he heard voices call “he-bastard, she-bastard”. He said, what is this? There goes that of Rav Huna, since Rav Huna said, no bastard lives more than thirty days. Rebbi Jacob bar Aḥa said to him, I was with you when Rebbi Abba, Rav Huna said in the name of Rav: No bastard lives more than thirty days, when? If it is unknown. Therefore, if it is known, he lives²⁰¹In the parallel, Qiddushin 3:13, the argument is by Rebbi Uqba bar Aḥa. In the Babli, 78b, the entire argument is R. Ze‘ira’s, based on a statement of his teacher Rav Jehudah..