Talmud do Izajasza 28:78

Rebbi Samuel ben Naḥman understood it from the following verse (Is. 28:25): “He puts wheat, śorāh, barley; nismān and spelt are its limit.” “He puts wheat”, that is wheat³⁰The rabbinic equivalents to the biblical Hebrew names are given for all five kinds.. “Śorāh” is foxtail and why is it called śorāh? Because it is made in a line³¹The expression חטה שׂוֹרה probably means “ripe wheat”, cf. Accadic šer‘u “ripe grain”. All expressions are explained here as names of grains. The interpretation of שׂורה as שׁורה shows that in Talmudic times in Galilee, š was heard as s, under the influence of Greek. Cassuto in his biblical commentary accepts the interpretation as genuine.. “Barley”, that is barley. “Nismān” is oats. “Spelt” is spelt. “Its limit”, bread: So far the definitions of bread. Does one infer anything from tradition³²The common name for Prophets and Hagiographs. These are sources of moral teachings but have no standing as books of law.? Rebbi Simon said, since it is written (Is. 28:26): “He instructs in the law, his God will teach him,³³This interpretation, in contrast to that of the next paragraph, follows the masoretic division of the text.” it is as if it were a word of the Torah³⁴But the next paragraph immediately contradicts this statement; there is no source of biblical law other than the Torah. {Prophets and Hagiographs are used as basis for rabbinic decrees.}.

Rebbi Samuel ben Naḥman understood it from the following verse (Is. 28:25): “He puts wheat, śorāh, barley; nismān and spelt are its limit.” “He puts wheat”, that is wheat³⁰The rabbinic equivalents to the biblical Hebrew names are given for all five kinds.. “Śorāh” is foxtail and why is it called śorāh? Because it is made in a line³¹The expression חטה שׂוֹרה probably means “ripe wheat”, cf. Accadic šer‘u “ripe grain”. All expressions are explained here as names of grains. The interpretation of שׂורה as שׁורה shows that in Talmudic times in Galilee, š was heard as s, under the influence of Greek. Cassuto in his biblical commentary accepts the interpretation as genuine.. “Barley”, that is barley. “Nismān” is oats. “Spelt” is spelt. “Its limit”, bread: So far the definitions of bread. Does one infer anything from tradition³²The common name for Prophets and Hagiographs. These are sources of moral teachings but have no standing as books of law.? Rebbi Simon said, since it is written (Is. 28:26): “He instructs in the law, his God will teach him,³³This interpretation, in contrast to that of the next paragraph, follows the masoretic division of the text.” it is as if it were a word of the Torah³⁴But the next paragraph immediately contradicts this statement; there is no source of biblical law other than the Torah. {Prophets and Hagiographs are used as basis for rabbinic decrees.}.

Rebbi Simon said, those women who say: we shall not send our sons to the communal school; if he is good at learning he will learn [by himself]; they do not act well, but (Is. 28:29): “He shall be instructed in his God’s law, it will teach him.”

BARAITHA.⁶²K 20. Children meet the Divine Presence, as it is stated, A seed shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation.
GEMARA. The question was asked: Do [young children by their death] atone for the sin of their fathers or not? Come and hear: R. ‘Aḳiba went to a certain place⁶³A cemetery. where he met a man⁶⁴i.e. a ghost. carrying a heavy load on his shoulder with which he was unable to proceed, and he was crying and groaning. He asked him, ‘What did you do [in your lifetime]?’ He replied, ‘There is no forbidden act in the world which I left undone, and now guards have been set over me who do not allow me to rest’. R. ‘Aḳiba asked him, ‘Have you left a son?’ He answered, ‘By your life! do not detain me because I fear the angels who beat me with fiery lashes and say to me, “Why do you not walk quickly?” ’. R. ‘Aḳiba said to him, ‘Tell me, whom have you left?’⁶⁵H emends the text according to the version in Menorath Hamma’or IX. He replied, ‘I have left behind my wife who was pregnant’. R. ‘Aḳiba then proceeded to that city and inquired, ‘Where is the son of So-and-so?’ [The inhabitants] replied, ‘May the memory of that wicked person⁶⁶lit. ’may his bones be ground to dust’ an imprecation against a wicked person. be uprooted’. He asked them the reason, and they said, ‘He robbed and preyed upon people and caused them suffering; what is more, he violated a betrothed girl on the Day of Atonement’. He made his way to the house and found the wife about to be delivered of a child. He waited until she gave birth to [a son], circumcised him and, when he grew up, took him to the Synagogue to join in public worship. Later R. ‘Aḳiba returned to that [cemetery] and [the ghost] appeared to him and said, ‘May your mind be [always] at rest because you have set my mind at rest’.⁶⁷This story indicates that a child can atone for a parent’s sins.
With what do young children [who die] occupy themselves? It has been taught:⁶⁸Cf. ‘A.Z. 3b (Sonc. ed., p. 10) where it is said that God sits and instructs schoolchildren who died in infancy. An angel is appointed over them who teaches them Torah, Mishnah, halakoth and ’aggadoth; as it is stated, Whom shall one teach knowledge? And whom shall one make to understand the message? Them that are weaned from the milk, them that are drawn from the breasts.⁶⁹Isa. 28, 9. To what age does this apply? [To children who die] up to five or six years of age who have not tasted sin.
It has been taught:⁷⁰There is no Talmudic source for this teaching. Every day an angel goes from before the Holy One, blessed be He, to destroy the world and make it revert to its original [chaos], but when the Holy One, blessed be He, looks upon the schoolchildren and scholars who sit in their Houses of Study His anger immediately turns to mercy.
Resh Laḳish said in the name of R. Judah the Prince:⁷¹Cf. Shab. 119b (Sonc. ed., p. 591). The world endures for the sake of the breath of schoolchildren. R. Papa said to Abbai, ‘What about my and your [breath]?’ He replied, ‘The breath of one in whom there is sin is not like the breath of one in whom there is no sin’. Whereupon [R. Papa] retorted, ‘As the world proceeds it deteriorates.⁷²Cf. B.B. 91b (Sonc. ed., p. 378) where instances are given. As R. Joḥanan said: I remember the time when boys and girls of sixteen and seventeen years of age used to gather in the marketplace⁷³B.B. reads: ‘took walks together in the open air’. [52b] and there was no fear of their sinning’. He replied, ‘Therefore was their merit different. For R. Joḥanan said: I remember the time when a child would break a piece of bread⁷⁴B.B. reads: ‘a carob pod’. and a line of honey ran down over both his arms’. He asked, ‘Which verse [illustrates this]?’ He giveth thee in plenty the fat of wheat.⁷⁵Ps. 147, 14.

⁹³Babli 54b. Rebbi Joḥanan said, why is it called Foundation Stone? Because on it the world is based. Rebbi Ḥiyya stated:⁹⁴Tosephta 2:14. “Why is it called Foundation Stone? Because on it the world is based.. It is written⁹⁵Ps. 50:1–2., a psalm of Asaph; the power, God, the Eternal, spoke and called the earth, etc., from Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appears. And it says⁹⁶Is. 28:16., behold I founded in Zion a stone, etc.”

²¹³A different version of the entire paragraph in Babli, 16a. Rebbi Jacob bar Idi in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi: It happened that the Sages visited Rebbi Dosa ben Hyrkanos²¹⁴A contemporary of Rabban Joḥanan ben Zakkai, already old at the time of the destruction of the Temple. He was almost blind in his old age. to ask him about the daughter’s co-wife. They said to him, are you the one who permits co-wives? He said to them, what did you hear? Dosa ben Hyrkanos? They said to him, ben Hyrkanos. He said to them, my brother Jonathan is exceedingly sharpminded²¹⁵Interpretation of Rashi. and of the students of the House of Shammai. Be careful with him, he has three hundred arguments about the daughter’s co-wife. They went to him. He sent and wrote to him²¹⁶R. Dosa to Jonathan., be careful because the Sages of Israel will visit you. They came and he placed them before him. He lectured²¹⁷About his 300 reasons to permit the co-wives to the brothers. but they did not understand, repeatedly. They started to get drowsy. He said to them, why are you getting drowsy? He started pelting them with pebbles. But some people said, they entered in one door and left in three²¹⁸Defeated.. He sent to say to him²¹⁹Jonathan to Dosa., why did you send to me, the people want to learn and you said to me, these are the Sages of Israel? They came to him²²⁰R. Dosa. and said to him, what do you say in the matter? He said, on this stone²²¹A stone used to crush spices. sat the prophet Ḥaggai and testified to three things: On the daughter’s co-wife that she can be married into priesthood²²²Following the House of Hillel., on Ammon and Moab that they tithe for the poor in a Sabbatical year²²³Mishnah Yadayim 3:3., and on proselytes of Palmyra that they are acceptable to marry into the congregation²²⁴They are reputedly the children of Gentiles from Jewish women. The statement objects to the opinion (Halakhah 7:6) that the child of a Gentile and a Jewish woman, who certainly has to be counted as Jewish, is a bastard. It is known from the Babli that the soldiers of Odenathus of Palmyra in his campaigns in Babylonia abducted Jewish women for their own use.. He said, lift my eyelids so I can see the Sages of Israel. He saw Rebbi Joshua and said to him: “To whom will one teach knowledge²²⁵Is. 28:9. “To whom will one teach knowledge, to whom impart understanding, to those weaned from milk, removed from the breasts.” This determines the start of school for outstanding scholars at age 2. As usual, the part of the verse not quoted is the one intended.?” I remember that his mother brought his crib to the Synagogue that his ears should cling to the words of the Torah. [He saw] Rebbi Aqiba, and said to him: “Lion cubs will be poor and hungry²²⁶Ps. 34:11: “Lion cubs will be poor and hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.” R. Aqiba at the outset was an ignorant seeker of the Lord..” I know of him that he is a man strong in Torah. He saw Rebbi Eleazar ben Azariah and said to him: “I was a youth but became an elder²²⁷Ps. 37:25. A pun is intended; זָקַנְתִּי “I grew old” is turned into “I was appointed as an elder” at age 16, cf. Berakhot 4:1, Note 118..” I know of him that he is the tenth generation from Ezra and their eyes are similar. Rebbi Ḥanina from Sepphoris said, Rebbi Tarphon also was with them and he addressed him as he did Rebbi Eleazar ben Azariah.