דחוף ללמוד - על הדחף ללמוד בבית המדרש

“Avram the Hebrew was told.” Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Nechemyah, and the sages [disagree]. Rabbi Yehudah says: the entire world is on one side and he is on the other side [the word for “side” in Hebrew is מעבר , which stems from the same root עבר ]. Rabbi Nechemyah says: Because he is of the descendants of Ever [the son of Shem, the son of Noah]. The sages say: he is from the other side of the river and that he speaks in the Hebrew tongue.

What were the origins of Rabbi Eliezer ben [Hyrcanus]? He was twenty-two [years old] and he had never studied Torah. One day [he said: I will go and study] Torah with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. His father, Hyrcanus, said to him: You will not eat until you have plowed a full plot of ground.²The word for eat in this sentence is טועם, which literally means taste, and it is thus possible that Hyrcanus may have also meant: You will not taste the Torah until…. He got up and plowed a full plot of ground. It is said that it was Friday, and so he went and ate with his father-in-law. But some say that he ate nothing from six hours before the Sabbath until six hours after the Sabbath. When he was on the road he saw a stone that looked like food and he took it and put it in his mouth. And some say that it was cow dung. He went and spent the night in an inn. Then he continued on, until he came before Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai in Jerusalem. Soon Rabbi Yohanan noticed Eliezer’s terrible breath. Rabbi Yohanan said: Eliezer, my son, have you eaten anything today? Eliezer said nothing. Rabbi Yohanan asked again and again; Eliezer said nothing. He sent a message to the inn, asking: Did Eliezer eat anything when he stayed with you? They replied: We thought perhaps he would be eating with the rabbi. He said: [I, likewise, thought perhaps he had eaten with you. Meanwhile, between our two assumptions, we ended up neglecting Eliezer. So Rabbi Yohanan said to Eliezer: Just as you have had this terrible smell coming from your mouth, so will you one day have a great reputation from the Torah coming from you.
His father, Hyrcanus, heard that he had gone to study Torah with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. He said to himself: I will go and force Eliezer to swear off any claim to my property. It is said that on that day, Rabbi Yohanan was sitting and interpreting Torah in Jerusalem, and all the great minds of Israel were sitting before him. He heard that Hyrcanus had come, and he spoke to the guards and said: If he tries to sit here,³In this specific place. do not let him. He did try to sit, and they did not let him. So he went up several rows until he found a place near Tzitzit ben HaKeset, Nakdimon ben Gurion, and Kalba Savua. He sat down next to them, nervously. It is said that on that day, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai looked at Rabbi Eliezer and said: Open our session with an interpretation. He replied: I cannot open. Rabbi Yohanan and the other students pressured him until he stood up ([and opened]) with an interpretation that no ear had ever heard before. At every word that came out of his mouth, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai would stand up and kiss him on the head (and say to him: Eliezer, my rabbi, you have taught me truth!). Before the gathering ended, Hyrcanus stood up and said: Gentlemen, I came here in order to have my son swear off any claim to my property. But now all of my property will be given to my son Eliezer, and all his brothers will [get nothing!].
And why was that man called “Tzitzit HaKeset”? Because he would lean on a silver⁴The word silver in Hebrew is kesef, and an alternate version of Avot d’Rabbi Natan names him “Tzitzit HaKesef.” bed at the head of all the great minds of Israel.⁵See Gittin 56a.
They say about the daughter of Nakdimon ben Gurion that her bed was worth twelve thousand gold dinars, and that she would spend a gold dinar every week on cooking spices, and that she was waiting for levirate marriage.⁶See Deuteronomy 25:5–10.
And why was he called “Nakdimon ben Gurion”? Because the sun once came out (nakdah) for his sake. Once, the Jews were going up to Jerusalem for a festival, and they did not have water to drink. [Nakdimon ben Gurion] went up to a [gentile] general and said: Lend me the rights to twelve springs of water from now until a certain date in the future, and if I do not give you back twelve springs worth of water, I will give you twelve bars of silver. So they set a date. When the time came, the general sent a messenger, saying: Send me either the twelve springs worth of water or the twelve bars of silver. He replied: Wait, the day has still not ended. The general laughed at him and said: What, all year there has been no rain, and today you expect rain to fall? The general then went off to the bathhouse, quite pleased with himself. Nakdimon ben Gurion went to the study hall, wrapped himself in a prayer shawl, and stood in prayer and said: Master of the World, You know well that it is not for my own honor that I did this, nor for the honor of my father’s house, but only for Your honor, so that there would be water for those going up to the festival. Immediately, the sky filled with clouds and it began to rain so hard that it filled all twelve springs of water and then some. He sent a message to the general, saying: Send me money for the extra water you now have. The general replied: The sun has already set and the water that has fallen is now in my property. He went back to the study hall, wrapped himself in his prayer shawl, and stood in prayer and said: Master of the World, make a miracle for me at the end of the day as You did at the beginning. Immediately, the wind blew and the clouds parted, and the sun was shining. (The two met and the general said to Nakdimon: Now I know that the Holy Blessed One does not disturb the order of the world except for your sake.)
And why was he called “Kalba Savua”? Because anyone who went into his house as hungry as a dog (kelev) would come out of his house satiated (save’a). And when the emperor Vespasian came to destroy Jerusalem, the Zealots wanted to burn everything good in it to the ground. Kalba Savua said to them: Why do you want to destroy this city and burn everything good in it to the ground? Wait here for me and I will go in my house and show you what I have. He went in and found that he had enough grain to feed everyone in Jerusalem for twenty-two years. He immediately ordered that they pile it up, sift it, grind it, refine it, knead it, bake it, and prepare food for everyone in Jerusalem for twenty-two years. But [the zealots] would not listen to him. So what did the people of Jerusalem do? They brought calves and dragged them into pens, and then would grind them up in the mud.⁷It is unclear whether these were calves – agalim; just the hide of the calves; or wagons – agalot. In any case, the idea is that they were desperate and ate whatever they could. The people of Jerusalem would also boil straw and eat it. Those who were positioned on the walls of Jerusalem would say: If someone will give me five dates, I will go down and take five heads from Vespasian’s men. Vespasian examined their excrement and saw that there was no grain in it and said to his soldiers: These people who are eating nothing but straw are still killing you! If they could eat and drink all that you do, imagine how many more of you they would have killed!

[Yosei ben Yoezer said:] Let your house be a gathering place for the sages.
How so? This teaches us that a person’s house should always be open to the sages, and to their students, and their students’ students, so that a person should be able to say to his friend: I will save a place for you there! Another explanation: How should your house be a gathering place for the sages? When a student of the sages enters and says: Teach me! – if you have something to teach, teach it, but if not, let him go on his way. He should not sit before you on a bed, or a chair, or a bench. He should sit before you only on the ground. And anything that comes out of your mouth, he should accept with reverence, fear, quaking, and trembling. Become dirty in the dust of their feet. How so? When a Torah scholar enters the city, do not say: I don’t need him. Instead, go to him. And do not sit next to him on a bed, or on a chair, or on a bench. Rather, sit before him on the ground, and accept upon yourself every word that comes from his mouth with fear and reverence, trembling and sweating, just as our forefathers accepted what they heard at Mount Sinai with fear and reverence, trembling and sweating.
Another explanation: Become dirty in the dust of their feet: This refers to Rabbi Eliezer; And drink in their words thirstily: This refers to Rabbi Akiva.
What were the origins of Rabbi Akiva? They say that he was forty years old and had still not learned anything. Once, he was standing at the mouth of a well and he said: Who carved a hole in this stone? They said to him: It is from the water, which constantly [falls] on it, day after day. And they said: Akiva, don't you know this from the verse (Job 14:19), “Water erodes stones”? Rabbi Akiva immediately applied this, all the more so, to himself. He said: If something soft can carve something hard, then all the more so, the words of Torah, which are like steel, can engrave themselves on my heart, which is but flesh and blood. He immediately went to start studying Torah. He went with his son and they sat down by the schoolteachers. He said to one: Rabbi, teach me Torah! He then took hold of one end of the tablet, and his son took hold of the other end. The teacher wrote down aleph and beit for him, and he learned them (aleph to tav, and he learned them; the book of Leviticus, and he learned it). And he went on studying until he learned the whole Torah. Then he went and sat before Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua. My masters, he said, open up the sense of the Mishnah to me. When they told him one law, he went off and sat down to work it out for himself. (This aleph – what was it written for? That beit – what was it written for?) Why was this thing said? He kept coming back, and kept asking them, until he reduced his teachers to silence. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: I will give you a parable to tell you what this was like: Like a stonecutter who was hacking away at the mountains. One time he took his pickaxe in his hand, and went and sat on top of the mountain, and began to chip small stones away from it. Some people came by and asked him: What are you doing? He said to them: I am going to uproot the mountain and throw it into the Jordan! They said to him: You cannot uproot the entire mountain! But he kept hacking away, until he came to a big boulder. So he wedged himself underneath it, pried it loose, and threw it into the Jordan. And he said to it: Your place is not here, but there! This is what Rabbi Akiva did to Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Tarfon. Rabbi Tarfon said to him: Akiva, it is about you that the verse says (Job 28:11), “He stops up the streams so that hidden things may be brought to light.” For Rabbi Akiva has brought to light things which are kept hidden from human beings.
Every day, he would bring a bundle of sticks, half of which he would sell to support himself and half he would use for kindling. His neighbors came and said to him: Akiva, you are choking us with all this smoke. Sell it all to us instead, and then buy oil with the money, and study by the light of a candle. He said to them: But I take care of many of my needs with it. I study [by its light]. I warm myself [by its fire]. And then I can [make it into a bed and] sleep on it.
All the poor will one day be judged against Rabbi Akiva, for if one says to them: Why did you never study? [And they say: Because] we were poor! then we will say to them: But wasn’t Rabbi Akiva even poorer, completely impoverished? [And if they say: It is because of our babies, we will say: But didn’t Rabbi Akiva] have sons and daughters as well? (But they will say: It is because) he merited to have his wife Rachel [to help him].
He was forty years old when he went to study Torah, and after thirteen years, he was teaching Torah to the masses. It was said that he did not leave the world until he had tables full of silver and gold, and he could go up to his bed on golden ladders. His wife would go out in a fancy gown and with golden jewelry with an engraving of Jerusalem on it.¹See Shabbat 59a. His students said: Rabbi, you are embarrassing us with what you have done for her. He said to them: She suffered greatly with me for the sake of Torah. What were the origins of Rabbi Eliezer ben [Hyrcanus]? He was twenty-two [years old] and he had never studied Torah. One day [he said: I will go and study] Torah with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. His father, Hyrcanus, said to him: You will not eat until you have plowed a full plot of ground.²The word for eat in this sentence is טועם, which literally means taste, and it is thus possible that Hyrcanus may have also meant: You will not taste the Torah until…. He got up and plowed a full plot of ground. It is said that it was Friday, and so he went and ate with his father-in-law. But some say that he ate nothing from six hours before the Sabbath until six hours after the Sabbath. When he was on the road he saw a stone that looked like food and he took it and put it in his mouth. And some say that it was cow dung. He went and spent the night in an inn. Then he continued on, until he came before Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai in Jerusalem. Soon Rabbi Yohanan noticed Eliezer’s terrible breath. Rabbi Yohanan said: Eliezer, my son, have you eaten anything today? Eliezer said nothing. Rabbi Yohanan asked again and again; Eliezer said nothing. He sent a message to the inn, asking: Did Eliezer eat anything when he stayed with you? They replied: We thought perhaps he would be eating with the rabbi. He said: [I, likewise, thought perhaps he had eaten with you. Meanwhile, between our two assumptions, we ended up neglecting Eliezer. So Rabbi Yohanan said to Eliezer: Just as you have had this terrible smell coming from your mouth, so will you one day have a great reputation from the Torah coming from you.
His father, Hyrcanus, heard that he had gone to study Torah with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. He said to himself: I will go and force Eliezer to swear off any claim to my property. It is said that on that day, Rabbi Yohanan was sitting and interpreting Torah in Jerusalem, and all the great minds of Israel were sitting before him. He heard that Hyrcanus had come, and he spoke to the guards and said: If he tries to sit here,³In this specific place. do not let him. He did try to sit, and they did not let him. So he went up several rows until he found a place near Tzitzit ben HaKeset, Nakdimon ben Gurion, and Kalba Savua. He sat down next to them, nervously. It is said that on that day, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai looked at Rabbi Eliezer and said: Open our session with an interpretation. He replied: I cannot open. Rabbi Yohanan and the other students pressured him until he stood up ([and opened]) with an interpretation that no ear had ever heard before. At every word that came out of his mouth, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai would stand up and kiss him on the head (and say to him: Eliezer, my rabbi, you have taught me truth!). Before the gathering ended, Hyrcanus stood up and said: Gentlemen, I came here in order to have my son swear off any claim to my property. But now all of my property will be given to my son Eliezer, and all his brothers will [get nothing!].
And why was that man called “Tzitzit HaKeset”? Because he would lean on a silver⁴The word silver in Hebrew is kesef, and an alternate version of Avot d’Rabbi Natan names him “Tzitzit HaKesef.” bed at the head of all the great minds of Israel.⁵See Gittin 56a.
They say about the daughter of Nakdimon ben Gurion that her bed was worth twelve thousand gold dinars, and that she would spend a gold dinar every week on cooking spices, and that she was waiting for levirate marriage.⁶See Deuteronomy 25:5–10.
And why was he called “Nakdimon ben Gurion”? Because the sun once came out (nakdah) for his sake. Once, the Jews were going up to Jerusalem for a festival, and they did not have water to drink. [Nakdimon ben Gurion] went up to a [gentile] general and said: Lend me the rights to twelve springs of water from now until a certain date in the future, and if I do not give you back twelve springs worth of water, I will give you twelve bars of silver. So they set a date. When the time came, the general sent a messenger, saying: Send me either the twelve springs worth of water or the twelve bars of silver. He replied: Wait, the day has still not ended. The general laughed at him and said: What, all year there has been no rain, and today you expect rain to fall? The general then went off to the bathhouse, quite pleased with himself. Nakdimon ben Gurion went to the study hall, wrapped himself in a prayer shawl, and stood in prayer and said: Master of the World, You know well that it is not for my own honor that I did this, nor for the honor of my father’s house, but only for Your honor, so that there would be water for those going up to the festival. Immediately, the sky filled with clouds and it began to rain so hard that it filled all twelve springs of water and then some. He sent a message to the general, saying: Send me money for the extra water you now have. The general replied: The sun has already set and the water that has fallen is now in my property. He went back to the study hall, wrapped himself in his prayer shawl, and stood in prayer and said: Master of the World, make a miracle for me at the end of the day as You did at the beginning. Immediately, the wind blew and the clouds parted, and the sun was shining. (The two met and the general said to Nakdimon: Now I know that the Holy Blessed One does not disturb the order of the world except for your sake.)
And why was he called “Kalba Savua”? Because anyone who went into his house as hungry as a dog (kelev) would come out of his house satiated (save’a). And when the emperor Vespasian came to destroy Jerusalem, the Zealots wanted to burn everything good in it to the ground. Kalba Savua said to them: Why do you want to destroy this city and burn everything good in it to the ground? Wait here for me and I will go in my house and show you what I have. He went in and found that he had enough grain to feed everyone in Jerusalem for twenty-two years. He immediately ordered that they pile it up, sift it, grind it, refine it, knead it, bake it, and prepare food for everyone in Jerusalem for twenty-two years. But [the zealots] would not listen to him. So what did the people of Jerusalem do? They brought calves and dragged them into pens, and then would grind them up in the mud.⁷It is unclear whether these were calves – agalim; just the hide of the calves; or wagons – agalot. In any case, the idea is that they were desperate and ate whatever they could. The people of Jerusalem would also boil straw and eat it. Those who were positioned on the walls of Jerusalem would say: If someone will give me five dates, I will go down and take five heads from Vespasian’s men. Vespasian examined their excrement and saw that there was no grain in it and said to his soldiers: These people who are eating nothing but straw are still killing you! If they could eat and drink all that you do, imagine how many more of you they would have killed!

The Gemara raises an objection. It is stated: “And it shall be that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within” (Ezekiel 44:17). This verse is referring to the Yom Kippur service, as during the year the High Priest performed the service in eight priestly vestments made partially of wool. Two verses later the prophet says: “And when they go forth into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall remove their garments in which they serve, and lay them in the sacred chambers, and they shall put on other garments, so that they do not sanctify the people with their garments” (Ezekiel 44:19). The Gemara infers: What, doesn’t “other” mean more important than the first set of linen garments? The Gemara rejects this: No, although “other” means different garments, it means garments inferior to them, the first set of linen garments. The High Priest does not don a second set of garments to effect atonement; rather, he dons them in deference to God to remove the spoon and the coal pan from the Holy of Holies. Rav Huna bar Yehuda, and some say Rav Shmuel bar Yehuda, taught: After the public service concluded, a priest whose mother had made him a priestly tunic may wear it and perform an individual service while wearing it, such as removal of the spoon and the coal pan, which is not a service in and of itself, provided he transfers it to the possession of public. All services performed by the priest must be performed while he is wearing sacred garments owned by the public, as all the Temple vessels are. The Gemara asks: This is obvious; once he transfers it to the possession of the public, it is Temple property like any other vessel that an individual donates to the Temple. What is novel in this statement? The Gemara answers: Lest you say that the concern is that since he is the one wearing it perhaps he will intend to retain ownership and will not transfer it wholeheartedly; therefore, it teaches us that if he transfers possession to the public, that is not a concern. Apropos this halakha, the Gemara relates: They said about the High Priest Rabbi Yishmael ben Pabi that his mother made him a tunic worth one hundred maneh. He donned it and performed an individual service and transferred possession of it to the public. And similarly, they said about the High Priest Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsum that his mother made him a tunic worth twenty thousand dinars, but his fellow priests did not allow him to wear it because it was transparent and he appeared as one who is naked. The Gemara asks: And could he be seen through a garment made to the specifications of the priestly vestments? Didn’t the Master say: The threads of the priestly vestments were six-fold? Since the clothes were woven from threads that thick, his body could not have been seen through them. Abaye said: It is like wine in a thick glass cup. His flesh could not actually be seen, but since it was very fine linen, it was somewhat translucent and his skin color was discernible. § Apropos the great wealth of Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsum, the Gemara cites that which the Sages taught: A poor person, and a wealthy person, and a wicked person come to face judgment before the Heavenly court for their conduct in this world. To the poor person, the members of the court say: Why did you not engage in Torah? If he rationalizes his conduct and says: I was poor and preoccupied with earning enough to pay for my sustenance and that is why I did not engage in Torah study, they say to him: Were you any poorer than Hillel, who was wretchedly poor and nevertheless attempted to study Torah? They said about Hillel the Elder that each and every day he would work and earn a half-dinar, half of which he would give to the guard of the study hall and half of which he spent for his sustenance and the sustenance of the members of his family. One time he did not find employment to earn a wage, and the guard of the study hall did not allow him to enter. He ascended to the roof, suspended himself, and sat at the edge of the skylight in order to hear the words of the Torah of the living God from the mouths of Shemaya and Avtalyon, the spiritual leaders of that generation. The Sages continued and said: That day was Shabbat eve and it was the winter season of Tevet, and snow fell upon him from the sky. When it was dawn, Shemaya said to Avtalyon: Avtalyon, my brother, every day at this hour the study hall is already bright from the sunlight streaming through the skylight, and today it is dark; is it perhaps a cloudy day? They focused their eyes and saw the image of a man in the skylight. They ascended and found him covered with snow three cubits high. They extricated him from the snow, and they washed him and smeared oil on him, and they sat him opposite the bonfire to warm him. They said: This man is worthy for us to desecrate Shabbat for him. Saving a life overrides Shabbat in any case; however, this great man is especially deserving. Clearly, poverty is no excuse for the failure to attempt to study Torah. And if a wealthy man comes before the heavenly court, the members of the court say to him: Why did you not engage in Torah? If he says: I was wealthy and preoccupied with managing my possessions, they say to him: Were you any wealthier than Rabbi Elazar, who was exceedingly wealthy and nevertheless studied Torah? They said about Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsum that his father left him an inheritance of one thousand villages on land, and corresponding to them, one thousand ships at sea. And each and every day he takes a leather jug of flour on his shoulder and walks from city to city and from state to state to study Torah from the Torah scholars in each of those places. One time as he passed through the villages in his estate and his servants found him, did not recognize him, and, thinking he was a resident of the town, they pressed him into service [angarya] for the master of the estate. He said to them: I beseech you; let me be and I will go study Torah. They said: We swear by the life of Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsum that we will not let you be. The Gemara comments: And in all his days, he never went and saw all his possessions and his property; rather, he would sit and engage in the study of Torah all day and all night. And if a wicked man comes to judgment, the members of the court say to him: Why did you not engage in Torah? If he said: I was handsome and preoccupied with my evil inclination, as I had many temptations, they say to him: Were you any more handsome than Joseph, who did not neglect Torah despite his beauty? They said about Joseph the righteous: Each and every day, the wife of Potiphar seduced him with words. In addition, the clothes that she wore to entice him in the morning, she did not wear to entice him in the evening. The clothes that she wore to entice him in the evening, she did not wear to entice him in the morning of the next day. One day she said to him: Submit to me and have relations with me.
He said to her: No.
She said to him: I will incarcerate you in the prison. He said to her: I do not fear you, as it is stated: “God releases prisoners” (Psalms 146:7).
She said to him: I will cause you to be bent over with suffering.
He said: “God straightens those who are bent over” (Psalms 146:8).
She said I will blind your eyes.
He said to her “God opens the eyes of the blind” (Psalms 146:8).
She gave him a thousand talents of silver to submit to her, “to lie with her and be with her” (Genesis 39:10), and he refused. The Gemara elaborates: Had he submitted to her to lie with her in this world, it would have been decreed in Heaven that he would be with her in the World-to-Come. Therefore, he refused. Consequently, Hillel obligates the poor to study Torah, Rabbi Elazar ben Ḥarsum obligates the wealthy, and Joseph obligates the wicked. For each category of people, there is a role model who overcame his preoccupations and temptations to study Torah. MISHNA: The High Priest comes and stands next to his bull, and his bull was standing between the Entrance Hall and the altar with its head facing to the south and its face to the west. And the priest stands to the east of the bull, and his face points to the west. And the priest places his two hands on the bull and confesses. And this is what he would say in his confession: Please, God, I have sinned, I have done wrong, and I have rebelled before You, I and my family. Please, God, grant atonement, please, for the sins, and for the wrongs, and for the rebellions that I have sinned, and done wrong, and rebelled before You, I and my family, as it is written in the Torah of Moses your servant: “For on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins; you shall be clean before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). And the priests and the people who were in the courtyard respond after he recites the name of God: Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever and all time.