Талмуд к Берешит 11:2

The maternal uncle of Rebbi Ada⁵²Rav Ada bar Ahava. had rolled up the kaftan of Rav on the Great Fastday⁵³Yom Kippur. The Babylonian scholars never prayed without wearing the kaftan with the precribed belt. It seems that the Yeshivah of Rav had an intermission between Musaph and Minḥah on Yom Kippur.. He said to him: When you see the sun on top of the date palms⁵⁴Since their synagogues were outside the cities in the fields, the sun on top of the date palms may indicate a rather early hour but probably inside the timeframe admitted by Rebbi Yehudah., give me my kaftan so that we may pray Minḥah. And when the sun is on top of the date palms it is daytime. As⁵⁵The text הכא makes no sense. In the absence of manuscript evidence, the text has been left unchanged but the translation follows Levi Ginzberg’s conjecture that one has to read כְּהָא “As to that”, by a simple metathesis of two letters. The argument is that in a deep valley running N-S, the sun on the top of trees on the slopes of the valley designates a rather early time. Rebbi Yoḥanan said (Is. 44:27): “He Who said to the deep: dry up!”, that is Babylonia, the filth⁵⁶Latin situs “situation; filth”. of the world. Rebbi Yoḥanan said⁵⁷This paragraph is an aggadic interruption about Babylonia; the discussion of Rav’s action is continued in the following paragraph. This group of sermons is also found three times in Midrash rabba: Gen.rabba 37:4, Threni rabba, Petiḥta 23, Eccl. rabba 12:7. In the first two, there is an additional explanation of Shinear: A land whose (Jewish) rulers study Torah as youths (but do not continue studying as adults.): Why is it called “the deep”, because there the dead of the Deluge were submerged, (Jer. 51:49) “Also in Babylonia the slain of Israel will fall, also in Babylonia the corpses of all the earth⁵⁸Only in the Deluge the slain were of all mankind. did fall.” It is written (Gen. 11:2) “They found a valley in the land Shinear and dwelt there.” Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish said, why is it called Shinear? Because there the dead of the Deluge were thrown⁵⁹Taking שנער as shaf‘el of the root נער “to pour out”; a later explanation refers to נער “to be a youth”.. Another explanation: Because they die in strangulation⁶⁰In the Targumim, תשנוּק means “strangulation.” However, in Syriac the words means “suffering”, which makes sense here., without light⁶¹Since they had no olive oil, they had to use sesame oil which does not adhere well to wicks. Public hot baths were a characteristic institution of the provinces of the Roman empire. or public baths. Another explanation: Shinear, because they are stripped of miẓwot, without terumah and without tithes⁶²While in old times the exiles tried to fulfill the “obligations that are incumbent on the Land of Israel” also in Babylonia, in Talmudic times they were no longer observed there.. Another explanation: Shinear, because its rulers die as youths. Another explanation: Shinear, because it produced a hater and enemy of the Holy One, praise to Him. Who is that? That is Nebuchadnezzar the evil one.