060a - אלו טרפות פרק שלישי, חולין דף ס, ע"א

"I will see Him."^[1]

He went and stood him facing the sun in the season of Tammuz.^[2]

להדי יומא - Facing the sun.

He said to him: Look at it.

He said: I cannot.

He said to him: Of the sun, which is one of the servants who stand before the Holy One, blessed be He, you say, "I cannot look at it" – the Shechinah, all the more so!

The Caesar said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya: I wish to prepare a meal for your God.

דאיצבית ליה נהמא - I will prepare a feast for Him.

He said to him: You cannot.

Why?

His hosts are too many.

He said: Even so.

He said to him: Go, prepare it on the bank of the Ravisa,

לגידא דרביתא - On the bank of a river named Ravisa.

where the world is spacious.

דרויח עלמא - So that His hosts could gather there; and he meant a place where the wind holds sway.

He toiled through the six months of summer.

A wind came and swept it all into the sea.

כנשיה לימא - Swept it into the sea.

He toiled through the six months of winter.

Rain came and sank it in the sea.

He said to him: What is this?

He said to him: These are the sweepers,

כנושאי - Those who sweep the house.

the sprinklers,

זלוחאי - Those who sprinkle the house with water because of the rising dust; and they had already finished eating all of this.

who go before Him.^[3]

He said: If so, I cannot.

אי הכי - If His hosts are so many, I cannot.

The Caesar's daughter said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya: Your God is a carpenter.

As it is written: (Tehillim 104) "Who lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters."^[4]

Tell Him to make me one masturisa.^[5]

מסתוריתא - Rashi gives its Old French equivalent.

He said: Very well.

He prayed for mercy concerning her, and she was struck with tzaraas.

They seated her in the market of Rome and gave her a masturisa.

For it was their custom that whoever was struck with tzaraas in Rome was given a masturisa, and he sat in the market and unravelled rags,^[6]

דוללי - Rags (Old French); this was the sign of those with tzaraas.

so that people would see him and pray for mercy for him.

One day he was passing by there.

She was sitting and unravelling rags in the market of Rome.

סתר דוללי - Unravelling (Old French).

He said to her: Is it a fine masturisa that my God gave you?

She said to him: Tell your God to take back what He gave me.

He said to her: Our God gives; He does not take back.

משקל לא שקיל - The good, once He has given it.

Rav Yehuda said: An ox – broad of belly and broad of hoof,

שור - Its way is to be broad-bellied and broad-hoofed – with a wide belly and wide hooves.

large its head and large its tail.

גנובתיה - Its tail.

And the reverse with a donkey.^[7]

What difference does it make?

For buying and selling.^[8]

And Rav Yehuda said: The ox that Adam HaRishon offered^[9]

שור שהקריב אדם הראשון - As we say in Lifnei Eideihen, in Masechta Avodah Zarah (8a).

had one horn on its forehead.

As it is said: (Tehillim 69) "And it shall please Hashem more than an ox, a bull, horned and hoofed."^[10]

מקרין מפריס - This refers to the ox of Adam HaRishon.

"Horned" (makrin) implies two!

מקרין תרתי משמע - As is usual with oxen.

Rav Nachman said: It is written "makren."^[11]

And Rav Yehuda said: The ox that Adam HaRishon offered – its horns came before its hooves.

קרניו קודמין לפרסותיו - For all oxen are born with their hooves, and their horns grow later; but those of the work of Creation were created in their full stature and with their horns, and when it came up out of the ground head first, its horns turned out to come before its hooves.

As it is said: "And it shall please Hashem more than an ox, a bull, horned and hoofed" – "horned" first, and then "hoofed."

This supports Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, for Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: All the works of Creation were created in their full stature,

בקומתן נבראו - Therefore its horns came first, for they were formed with it and came out first. And this is "an ox, a bull": on the day it was an ox it was as big as a bull. A day-old animal is called "ox," as it is written (Vayikra 22) "an ox… when it is born"; a "bull," we hold, is three years old (Parah 1:2).

with their consent they were created,

לדעתם - He told them that He would create them, and they consented.

in the form they chose they were created.

לצביונם - In the likeness they chose for themselves.

As it is said: (Bereishis 2) "And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their host" – do not read "their host" (tzeva'am) but "their chosen form" (tzivyonam).^[12]

Rabbi Chanina bar Pappa expounded: (Tehillim 104) "May the glory of Hashem endure forever; may Hashem rejoice in His works."

This verse was said by the Prince of the World,^[13]

שר העולם - The appointed angel.

at the time the Holy One, blessed be He, said (Bereishis 1) "after its kind" of the trees,

באילנות - Of them it is said "after its kind, bearing fruit after its kind." But of the seed-plants it is not said "after its kind" in their command; yet at their coming forth it is said: "yielding seed after its kind."

the grasses reasoned a kal vachomer for themselves^[14]:

If the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted a jumble, why did He say "after its kind" of the trees?

And further, a kal vachomer: if of the trees, whose way is not to come up in a jumble,

שאין דרכן לצאת בערבוביא - For they are large and their branches many, and they are not fit to grow packed close together, only spread apart.

the Holy One, blessed be He, said "after its kind,"

אמר הקב"ה למינהו - That each tree should come up by itself, at a distance from its fellow, so that it is recognisable.

we, all the more so!

אנו - For we are many, and our way is to come up close together and intermingled; if we are not careful that each herb comes up by itself, we will not be distinguishable from one another – all the more so.

At once each and every one came up after its kind.

The Prince of the World opened and said: "May the glory of Hashem endure forever; may Hashem rejoice in His works."

ישמח ה' במעשיו - For all of them are careful with His commands.

Ravina asked: If one grafted two kinds of grass one onto the other^[15] –

בקומתן נבראו - He does not mean that they were created standing, for we say in perek Echad Dinei Mamonos (Sanhedrin 38b) of Adam HaRishon: "In the fourth hour the soul was cast into him; in the fifth he stood on his feet." Rather, "in their stature" means that their whole stature was complete from their beginning.

אל תיקרי צבאם אלא צביונם - The Aruch explains that all of them derive from tzivyonam, which means beauty, as in (Yeshayahu 4) "for beauty and for glory"; and since they are in their beauty, that is "in their stature" and "with their consent," for beauty comes only once one has grown as fully as needed. One can also say that "stature" derives from the sense of standing upright.

פסוק זה שר העולם אמרו - According to those who explain that Chanoch is Metatron^[16] – as the paytan composed, "Mighty Metatron, who was turned to fire, announces" – and say that he is the Prince of the World – as the paytan composed, "The serving prince, called 'youth,' he is Metatron, the honoured and awesome"; and we say in the first perek of Yevamos (16b) that "I have been a youth and also grown old, and I have not seen" – this verse was said by the Prince of the World: there is a difficulty from here, which implies that the Prince of the World existed in the six days of Creation. Perhaps these are aggados that disagree with each other, and whoever holds that Metatron is the Prince of the World does not hold that Chanoch is Metatron. Alternatively, the paytan called Metatron "youth" not because of the verse "I have been a youth," but because it is written in Sefer Yosippon that Metatron has seven names, and he counts "youth" among them. And we also find that "youth" is the name of an angel, as it is written (Zecharyah 2) "Run, speak to this youth."

הרכיב שני דשאין זה על גב זה מהו - And if you ask: it is a Mishnah in Masechta Kilayim, first perek (Mishnah 7): "One may not plant a tree into a tree, nor a vegetable into a vegetable"; and we also learned (there, Mishnah 8): "One may not put a gourd seed into a mallow, because it is a vegetable into a vegetable"? One can answer that he asks about outside Eretz Yisrael, where kilayim of seeds is permitted but grafting trees is forbidden, as at the end of the first perek of Kiddushin (39a), which expounds "your field" to exclude kilayim of seeds outside the Land; and grafting trees is forbidden, since it is written (Vayikra 19) "[My statutes…] your animal you shall not crossbreed with another kind; your field you shall not sow with mixed seed": as with an animal it is by crossbreeding, so with the field it is by grafting; and as with an animal it applies both in the Land and outside it, so with the field. So he asks whether grafting seed-plants counts like grafting trees, since "after its kind" is written of them, or not. Alternatively, he asks even about the Land, according to Rabbi Oshaya, who says [one is not liable] until he sows wheat, barley and a grape pip in one throw of the hand^[17]; for perhaps the Mishnah of Kilayim follows the Rabbis. Alternatively, he asks about other kilayim of seeds, according to the Rabbis, for it says in HaKometz Zuta (Menachos 15b): "Hemp and arum the Torah forbade; other seeds, no." Alternatively, he asks about Bnei Noach^[18], who are permitted kilayim of seeds but forbidden grafting trees, as stated in perek Arba Misos (Sanhedrin 60a). We derive it from what is written (there) "My statutes you shall keep" – statutes I already ordained for you: "your animal you shall not crossbreed… your field you shall not sow with mixed seed," meaning by grafting, like the animal. And "that I already ordained for you" refers to Bnei Noach, of whom "after its kind" is written, of trees and of animals, and "after its kind" implies a prohibition of kilayim, as is shown at the end of Shor SheNagach es HaParah (Bava Kamma 55a), where it asks: "If one crossbred two species of the sea, what is the law? Do we learn ‘after its kind,’ ‘after its kind’ from dry land or not?" So we ask whether grafting vegetable on vegetable is like grafting tree on tree and is included in "your field." And though "after its kind" is written, "My statutes, that I already ordained for you" was needed, for we would not have known that "after its kind" comes to forbid kilayim had "My statutes" not been written; and without "after its kind," we could not have derived it from "My statutes" alone, for I would have said: the statutes I already ordained for you at Marah.^[19] And if you ask: it challenges there, "But now, ‘and you shall keep My statutes’ – what statutes that I already ordained are there?" – but what is the difficulty? We apply the verse to Bnei Noach only because we also find "after its kind" written in the work of Creation! One can answer: in any case it challenges well, for just as this one does not refer to Bnei Noach, that one too does not; and it answers that there "My statutes" is written after "and you shall keep," but here "My statutes" is written before "you shall keep."

Notes

1. 1. The story begins on the previous amud: the Caesar asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya to see his God; told that he could not, he insisted, "I will see Him."
2. 2. Tekufas Tammuz – the summer season, which begins at the longest day of the year, when the sun is at its strongest.
3. 3. The wind and the rain that ruined the feast were only servants who sweep and sprinkle before Him, and they had already eaten everything (Rashi) – showing how many His hosts are.
4. 4. Tehillim 104:3. Hamekareh comes from korah, a beam – as if He lays beams; hence she called Him a carpenter.
5. 5. Rashi renders it with an Old French word. From the story that follows, it was the implement given in Rome to those struck with tzaraas, who sat with it in the market.
6. 6. Tosfos on [Yevamos 63a] (ד"ה זבין ולא תיזול) cite this phrase, as "סתר זוללי בשוקא," for Rabbeinu Chananel's explanation that תיזול there refers to weaving.
7. 7. That is, a good donkey is narrow of belly and hoof, and small of head and tail.
8. 8. To know, when buying, which animal is choice.
9. 9. Avodah Zarah 8a: on the day Adam was created, when the sun set he feared that the world was returning to chaos on his account; when dawn rose and he saw that this is the way of the world, he offered an ox.
10. 10. Tehillim 69:32.
11. 11. The word is read makrin but written without a yud, makren; from the written form we learn that it had a single horn.
12. 12. Bereishis 2:1. "Do not read… but…" (אל תקרי) is a drasha drawn from another reading of the word; it does not uproot the plain meaning.
13. 13. The Prince of the World – the angel appointed over the world. See Tosfos below.
14. 14. In the command (Bereishis 1:11) "after its kind" is said only of the trees, but at their coming forth (1:12) it is said of the grasses too. So [Rashi, Bereishis 1:12].
15. 15. Kilayim – the Torah's prohibition of sowing different species together and of grafting one species onto another. Ravina's question continues on the next amud.
16. 16. Chanoch – of whom it says "and he was no more, for God took him" (Bereishis 5:24); tradition holds that he became the angel Metatron. Sefer Yosippon, cited below, is a Hebrew chronicle of the Second Temple period.
17. 17. According to Rabbi Oshaya, one is liable for kilayim of the vineyard by Torah law only if he sows wheat, barley and a grape pip in a single throw of the hand.
18. 18. Bnei Noach – all mankind, commanded in the seven Noachide laws; according to the view cited in Sanhedrin 60a, they are also forbidden to crossbreed animals and to graft trees.
19. 19. At Marah Yisrael were given some commandments before the giving of the Torah (Shemos 15:25).