תּלמוד אויף בראשית 49:8

HALAKHAH: “If somebody eats at his father-in-law’s,” etc. In earlier times¹⁹⁶The only time when the Roman government could be supposed to act officially in the manner described was during Hadrian’s persecution in the aftermath of the war of Bar Kokhba. they decided on a persecution in Judea because they had a tradition from their forefathers that Jehudah had killed Esaw¹⁹⁷“Esaw” is a code name for Rome; e. g., Eccl.rabba to 5:7. The story that Jehudah killed Esaw when the latter wanted to kill Jacob at Isaac’s funeral is in Midraš Soḥer ṭob 18:32, mentioned in Sifry Deut. 348, quoted in Yalquṭ Šim‘ony 162. In the tradition of the Babli, Soṭa 13a, Esaw was killed by Ḥushim ben Dan at Jacob’s funeral., as it is written¹⁹⁸Gen. 49:8.: “Your hand is on your enemies’ neck.” They went and enslaved them¹⁹⁹After the war of Bar Kokhba, most of the Jewish population of Judea were sold as slaves. and raped their daughters; they decided that a soldier²⁰⁰Greek στρατιώτης. In the considerably toned down version of the Babli, 3b, it was only the general, ἡγεμών, who would exercise a ius primae noctis over girls married on Wednesdays. would have sex with her first. They decreed that her husband should come to her when still in her father’s house²⁰¹After the preliminary marriage.; for when she knows that her husband’s fear is on her she is drawn after him²⁰²The commentaries and S. Lieberman emend נִגְרֶרֶת to נִגְדֶּרֶת “she is fenced in.” This emendation has to be rejected since it is understandable that one should want the girl to be drawn to her husband and not to the soldier with whom she otherwise would have her first sexual experience.. But is she not in the end being used for sex by a soldier? She is raped, and a rape victim is permitted to her husband²⁰³Sifry Num. 7, based on Num. 5:13.. What did Cohanot do? They were hiding them. Why did they not also hide the daughters of Israel? That becomes talk²⁰⁴If everybody does it, it cannot be kept secret. and the government hears it; then these and those will be taken together. What kind of a sign did they have? The talk of a cook²⁰⁵Greek μάγειρος, ὁ, “cook, butcher”. in town: There is a wedding meal, there is a wedding meal²⁰⁶While in biblical Hebrew מִשְׁתֶּה is any festive meal, in rabbinic Hebrew the term is used exclusively for wedding festivities. Since one could not speak of weddings during the persecution, one spoke of the cook.; there is light in Beror-Ḥayil²⁰⁷Beror-Ḥayil was the residence of Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai after the first war with the Romans; it must have been in the imperial domain of Jabneh, in the plain. Lights were lit to indicate an invitation to attend a forbidden circumcision, just as the presence of a professional cook indicated a wedding.: a week for a son, a week for a son. When the persecution ended, the custom did not end. Rebbi Hoshaia’s²⁰⁸He taught in Galilee 100 years after the Hadrianic persecution. His family was from Judea, where his father still lived (Niddah 3:3, 50 c 1. 71). daughter-in-law was pregnant when she married definitively.

“If Mordecai be of the seed of the Judah.” They said to him: If he comes from the other tribes, you could prevail over him, but if he is from the tribe of Judah or of Benjamin, Ephraim or Manasseh, you will not prevail over him. “Judah” as it is written, “Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies” (Genesis 49:8). The others, because it is written of them, “Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up your might” (Psalms 80:3).