Талмуд к Йоэль 3:5

Rebbi Judan said in his own name⁴⁸In Yalqut Shim‘oni Joel (#537), the paragraph and the next one are quoted in a shortened form in the name of Rebbi Yehudah in the name of Rebbi Jeremiah.: Flesh and blood has a protector. If someone is in trouble, he does not enter the protector’s place suddenly but rather stands at his door and calls his slave or familiar and that one will say: the man X is standing at the door of your courtyard. Maybe he will make him enter, maybe he will let him stand. But the Holy One, praise to Him, is not like this: If a human is in trouble, he should cry neither to Michael nor to Gabriel, rather he should cry to Me and I shall answer him immediately; that is what is written (Joel 3:5): “Every one who calls on⁴⁹The sentence is slightly ambiguous; one could also translate “who invokes the Name”; that is the meaning given to the verse in the next paragraph. the name of the Eternal will escape.”

Rebbi Phineas said: It happened to Rav⁵⁰In the parallel in Yalqut Joel, the story is told of “some man.” This seems to be a more correct version, since Rav spent his time in the Yeshivah of Rebbi in Shephar‘am and Beth She‘arim in Western Galilee. Also, the setting fits much more the time of the military anarchy after the murder of Alexander Severus when Rav had long since returned to Babylonia. that he was ascending from the hot springs of Tiberias⁵¹“Of Tiberias” is missing in the Rome manuscript. that he met Romans. They asked him, of whose party are you? He said, of Sophianus⁵²In Yalqut Joel, the name is Popianus. The name is unidentifiable [could be Pompeianus (E. G.)]. [Z. Frankel wants to emend the name to (Septimius) Severus; but this identification is impossible for many reasons (it would require that Rav stayed at the Yeshiva of Rebbi at least 25 years, that Severus should have ever been in Galilee, and that in Galilee one spoke Hebrew with a German pronunciation that identified waw and phe, v and f.)] The setting looks much more like that of a local conflict that was possible only during the military anarchy. The history of that period is not detailed enough to enumerate all local rulers. (There is a Roman surname Sophus.); they let him go. The next morning, they came to him and asked him, how long did you carry on with these Jews? He asked them, why? They said to him, we met a Jew and asked him, of whose party are you? He said, of Sophianus. He asked them, what did you do to him? They said to him, it was enough, we let him go. He said to them, you did well. And if a person who attaches himself on to the party of a human is saved, someone who attaches himself to the Holy One, praise to Him, so much more. That is what is written (Joel 3:5): “Every one who calls on⁵³The sentence is slightly ambiguous; one could also translate “who invokes the Name”; that is the meaning given to the verse in the next paragraph. the name of the Eternal will escape.”

Rebbi Alexandri said, it happened that a prefect by the name of Alexander sat and judged a robber⁵⁴Note the exact transliteration of Greek λῃστής.. He asked him, what is your name? Alexander! He said, Alexander, go to Alexandria⁵⁵So that people should not say, Alexander was executed. Alexandria was a very big city in which one more robber would not make a difference.. And if a person whose name is the name of a human is saved, someone whose name is that of the Holy One, praise to Him, so much more. That is what is written (Joel 3:5): “Every one who is called by the name of the Eternal will escape.”