Talmud do Hioba 38:14

Rebbi commanded three things on his death-bed: My widow should not move from my house; do not eulogize me in small towns; and he who served me during my lifetime should also serve me in death. “My widow should not move from my house,” is that not a Mishnah? “The widow who said, I cannot possibly move from my husband’s house …” Rebbi Dositheos said, that they should not say, this is the house of the patriarchate and must serve the patriarchate. Rebbi Eleazar bar Yose said, as we have stated: “She lives in the houses just as she lived while her husband was overseas, she uses silver and gold vessels just as she used to while her husband was overseas, she is fed just as she was fed while her husband was overseas.” “Do not eulogize me in small towns” because of the quarrels. “He who served me during my lifetime should also serve me in death;” Rebbi Ḥananiah from Sepphoris said, for example Yose Ephrati and Joseph from Haifa. Rebbi Ḥizqiah added, do not use many shrouds on me and let my coffin have holes at the bottom. These words say that Rebbi was buried in a single shroud since Rebbi said, not as a man left, he will come. But the rabbis say, just as a man left, he will come. It was stated in the name of Rebbi Nathan: The garment that went with a person to the grave will come back with him. What is the reason? (Job 38:14) “The seal turns itself around like clay, they appear in dress.” Antoninus asked Rebbi, what is the meaning of what is written: “The seal turns itself around like clay?” He said to him, He Who brings the generation clothes it.

Rebbi commanded three things on his death-bed⁷⁰In addition to the two Yerushalmi sources mentioned in the previous Note, there is a Babylonian source Ketubot 103. Since the Mishnah mentions shrouds, there follows a lengthy insertion about burials.: My widow should not move from my house; do not eulogize me in small towns; and he who served me during my lifetime should serve me in my death. “My widow should not move from my house,” is that not a Mishnah? “The widow who said, I cannot possibly move from my husband’s house …⁷¹Mishnah Ketubot 12:3: “If a widow said, I cannot possibly move from my husband’s house, the heirs may not say, go to your father’s house and we shall support you there, but they support her and give her an apartment corresponding to her standard of living.” The Mishnah does not require that the widow keep the identical apartment she occupied during her marriage, only an equivalent one. In the tradition of the Babli, Rebbi’s widow was not the mother of his children, his heirs.” Rebbi Dositheos⁶⁹In the parallel in Ketubot 12:3 (fol. 35a), ר׳ דוסא. In the parallel Gen.rabba 100(3), ר׳ דוסתאי, Dositheos. The text in Gen.rabba seems to be the original text from which the one here is an abbreviation. said, that they should not say, this is the house of the patriarchate and must serve the patriarchate⁷²In the opinion of Gen.rabba, the argument would have been valid if the house of the patriarch had been built with public money. But since Rebbi built his house with his own money, his successor could not occupy this house.. Rebbi Eleazar bar Yose said, as we have stated⁷³The Babylonian version is in Babli Ketubot 103a and, in shortened form, in Tosephta Ketubot 11:5: The woman whose husband died lives in the houses she lived in during her husband’s lifetime, uses slaves and handmaidens, silver and gold vessels she used during her husband’s lifetime, for so he writes to her (in the marriage document): You shall live in my house and be supported by my property as long as you are a widow in my house.: “She lives in the houses just as she lived while her husband was overseas, she uses silver and golden vessels just as she used to while her husband was overseas, she is fed just as she was fed while her husband was overseas.” “Do not eulogize me in small towns” because of the quarrels⁷⁴That there should not be competition among places which were not really able to provide decent eulogizers. The Babli (loc.cit. 103b) explains that in small villages the crowds are too small to give the honor due.. “He who served me during my lifetime should serve me in my death;” Rebbi Ḥananiah from Sepphoris said, for example Yose Ephrati and Joseph from Haifa. Rebbi Ḥizqiah added, do not use many shrouds on me and let my coffin have holes at the bottom⁷⁵(Cf.Šulḥan ‘ārûkh Yôrē Dē‘ā¶362.) In Gen. rabba, the explanation is that the body should decompose rapidly. It is talmudic doctrine that the soul suffers during decomposition of the body and, except for those sinners whose place is in hell, the suffering stops when only the bones are left (Babli Berakhot 18b).. These words say that Rebbi was buried in a single shroud since Rebbi said, not as a man left, he will come⁷⁶At Resurrection.. But the rabbis say, just as a man left, he will come. It was stated in the name of Rebbi Nathan⁷⁷The quote in Yalquṭ Sim‘oni Job 924 reads: R. Jonathan.: The garment that went with a person to the grave will come back with him. What is the reason? (Job 38:14) “The seal⁷⁸The “seal” of a person are the characteristics differentiating him from all others: voice, looks, and thinking [Sanhedrin Yerushalmi 3:13 (fol. 22b), Babli 38a]. turns itself around like clay, they appear in dress.” Antoninus⁷⁹A Roman emperor of the Severan dynasty who reputedly was a crypto-Jew. Since all emperors of that dynasty adopted the name of Antoninus together with that of Augustus, speculations about the identity of this Antoninus are rather futile. asked Rebbi, what is the meaning of “The seal turns itself around like clay?” He said to him, He Who brings the generation clothes it⁸⁰God will not only create the flesh as described in Ezechiel’s vision of the dry bones but the clothing with it, as He did for Adam. An echo of this discussion is in Babli Sanhedrin 90b, bottom..

Whosoever rescues garments from the dead⁶⁰Cf. Sanh. 48a, b (Sonc. ed., pp. 321f). If parents piled on the bier garments belonging to their child as an expression of grief and as a sign that they renounced everything that belonged to him. Saving the garments constituted an act of returning lost property; but when the articles touched the bier they were regarded as designated for the dead. robs the dead. There are times when a man may rescue them and times when he may not. [48b] If the garments have not touched the bier he may rescue them, but if they have touched the bier he may not. We, however, instruct people not to seize them.⁶¹V inserts ‘but did not [the Sages] say’ which GRA deletes. And whoever piles up garments on the dead commits a transgression because of the law which forbids wilful destruction,⁶²The Rabbis derived a law against the wanton destruction of articles from Deut. 20, 19; cf. Shab. 129a (Sonc. ed., p. 644, n. 1). according to the view of R. Meir. R. Eliezer b. Ẓadoḳ said: It disgraces him. Rabban Gamaliel said: He causes maggots to breed upon [the dead]. R. Nathan said: The garment which goes down with him to the grave will come back with him in the time to come,⁶³In the Resurrection; cf. j.Keth. XII, 3, 35a, Sanh. 90b (Sonc. ed., p. 607). as it is stated, It is changed as clay under the seal; and they stand as a garment.⁶⁴Job 38, 14; לְבו·שׁ, a garment, is homiletically read as לָבו·שׁ, ‘as he is dressed’.