Author Topic: They were Punished Because They Did not Mourn For Jerusalem  (Read 1704 times)

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Offline edu

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They were Punished Because They Did not Mourn For Jerusalem
« on: August 07, 2011, 05:09:15 AM »
For the sake of Ease I am relying on the translation of Soncino to tractate Gittin page 57 found at Halakha.com

Once when R. Manyumi b. Helkiah and R. Helkiah b. Tobiah and R. Huna b. Hiyya were sitting together they said: If anyone knows anything about Kefar Sekania of Egypt, let him say.
One of them thereupon said; Once a betrothed couple [from there] were carried off by heathens who married them to one another. The woman said: I beg of you not to touch me, as I have no Kethubah {Soncino: According to Rabbinic law it is forbidden or a man to live with his wife unless he made out for her a kethubah.} from
you. So he did not touch her till his dying day. When he died, she said: Mourn for this man who has kept his passions in check more than Joseph, because Joseph was exposed to temptation only a short time, but this man every day. Joseph was not in one bed with the woman but this man was; in Joseph's case she was not his wife, but here she was.
 The next then began and said: On one occasion forty bushels [of coin] were selling for a denar, and the number went down one, and they investigated and found that a man and his son had had intercourse with a betrothed maiden on the Day of Atonement, so they brought them to the Beth din and they stoned them and the original price
was restored.
The third then began and said: There was a man who wanted to divorce his wife, but
hesitated because she had a big marriage settlement. He accordingly invited his friends{‘Soncino: Shoshbin’ ‘best men’, ‘Groomsmen’;} and gave
them a good feast and made them drunk and put them all in one bed. He then brought the white of an egg and scattered it among them and brought witnesses {Soncino: To prove that they had abused his wife. } and appealed to the Beth din. There was a
certain elder there of the disciples of Shammai the Elder, named Baba b. Buta, who said: This is what I have been taught by Shammai the Elder, that the white of an egg contracts when brought near the fire, but semen becomes faint from the fire. They tested it and found that it was so, and they brought the man to the Beth din and flogged him and made him pay her Kethubah.
Said Abaye to R. Joseph: Since they were so virtuous, why were they punished? — He replied: Because they did not mourn for Jerusalem, as it is written; Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all ye that love her, rejoice for joy with her all ye that mourn over her.{Soncino cites: Isa. LXVI, 10}.