בבא מציעא דף פד ע"א

Such a thing came to his hand as well.^[1]

כי האי מעשה לידיה - the king had appointed him to seize thieves and bandits.

Eliyahu met him and said to him: How long will you hand over the people of our G‑d to be killed?

He said to him: What can I do? It is the king's decree!

He said to him: Your father fled to Asia; you flee to Laodicea.^[2]

When Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon would meet each other, a pair of oxen could walk in between them and not touch them.

לגבי הדדי - face to face.

בקרא דתורי - a yoke of oxen.

בינייהו - between the two of them, beneath their bellies, since their bellies were large.

A certain matron said to them: Your children are not yours.

מטרוניתא - a gentile noblewoman.

אינם שלכם - for you cannot have relations with your wives.

They said to her: Theirs is bigger than ours. — All the more so!

שלהן גדול משלנו - our wives' bellies are bigger than ours.

כ"ש - since her desire is greater, and you cannot be with them, they consort with others.

Some say that they said this to her: (Shoftim 8:21) For as the man is, so is his strength.

כי כאיש גבורתו - the organ of relations. Another explanation: “theirs is bigger” — a woman's desire is greater than a man's.

Some say that they said this to her: Love compresses the flesh.

אהבה דוחקת את הבשר - and since their desire exceeds ours, the flesh of us both is pressed together.

But why did they need to answer her at all? Is it not written (Mishlei 26:4): Do not answer a fool according to his folly?

So as not to bring slander upon their children.^[3]

Rabbi Yochanan said: The limb of Rabbi Yishmael [son of Rabbi Yosi] was like a flask of nine kavim.^[4]

Rav Pappa said: The limb of Rabbi Yochanan was like a flask of five kavim.

And some say: of three kavim.

That of Rav Pappa himself was like the baskets of Harpania.

כי דקורי דהרפנאי - baskets made in Harpania.

Rabbi Yochanan said: I am the one who remains of the beautiful men of Yerushalayim.

אישתיירי - I have remained.

One who wishes to see the beauty of Rabbi Yochanan should bring a silver goblet fresh from the smith's fire, fill it with the seeds of a red pomegranate, set a crown of red roses around its rim, and place it between the sun and the shade — that radiance is a glimpse of the beauty of Rabbi Yochanan.

שופרי - the radiance of his appearance and the glow of [the skin of] his face.

מבי סילקי - as it comes out of the craftsman's shop, golden from the look of the fire's flame.

בי סילקי - as it comes up out of the fire.

פרצידי - seeds.

ונהדר ליה כלילא - let him ring its mouth, around its rim, with red roses.

זיהרורי - the rays that go out from it over the face of the earth.

מעין - and not all of it.

Is that so? But Mar said: The beauty of Rav Kahana is a glimpse of the beauty of Rabbi Abahu; the beauty of Rabbi Abahu is a glimpse of the beauty of Yaakov Avinu; the beauty of Yaakov Avinu is a glimpse of the beauty of Adam HaRishon^[5] — and Rabbi Yochanan is not counted!

Rabbi Yochanan is different, for he did not have the splendor of the face.

הדרת פנים - a beard.

Rabbi Yochanan would go and sit at the gates of the place of immersion.^[6] He said: When the daughters of Israel come up from a mitzvah immersion, let them meet me, so that they will have sons as beautiful as I am and as learned in Torah as I am.

The Rabbanan said to him: Is the master not afraid of the evil eye?^[7]

He said to them: I come from the seed of Yosef, over whom the evil eye has no power, as it is written (Bereishis 49:22): Yosef is a fruitful son, a fruitful son by the eye.

And Rabbi Abahu said: Do not read “by the eye” (alei ayin) but “above the eye” (olei ayin).

עולי עין - they rise above the eye, and the eye is below them, so it cannot have power over them.

Rabbi Yosi bar Chanina said: From here — (Bereishis 48:16) And may they multiply like fish in the midst of the land: just as fish in the sea are covered by water and the eye has no power over them, so too the eye has no power over the seed of Yosef.

One day Rabbi Yochanan was bathing in the Yarden. Reish Lakish saw him^[8] and leapt into the Yarden after him.

חזייה ריש לקיש - for he was a bandit.

שוור - leapt.

He said to him: Your strength is for Torah.

אמר ליה - Rabbi Yochanan [said to him].

חילך לאורייתא - how fine is your strength for bearing the yoke of Torah.

He said to him: Your beauty is for women.

שופרך - your beauty.

לנשי - is fit for women.

He said to him: If you return, I will give you my sister, who is more beautiful than I am.

He accepted.

He wanted to go back to bring his clothes, and could not get back.

ולא מצי - to leap as before, for once he took the yoke of Torah upon himself, his strength weakened.

He taught him Scripture and Mishnah and made him into a great man.

One day they were disputing in the study hall: The sword, the knife, the dagger, the spear, the hand sickle and the harvest sickle — from when do they become susceptible to tumah? From the time their work is finished.^[9] And when is their work finished? Rabbi Yochanan said: From when he fires them in the furnace. Reish Lakish said: From when he plunges them into water.^[10]

הסייף והסכין - it is a Mishnah in Maseches [Keilim] (chapter 14, mishnah 5).

הפיגיון - a dagger; in the vernacular, אשפי'.

ומגל יד ומגל קציר - sickles; in the vernacular, פלציל"א.

משיצרפם - in the vernacular, דקינ"ו.

He said to him: A bandit knows his banditry.

ליסטאה בליסטיותיה ידע - since you were a bandit, you are expert in these tools of the bandit's trade.

He said to him: And what good did you do me? There they called me Rebbe, and here they call me Rebbe!

ר' קרו לי - I was the master of the bandits and their chief.

He said to him: The good I did you is that I brought you under the wings of the Shechinah.

Rabbi Yochanan was hurt.

Reish Lakish fell ill.^[11]

His sister came, weeping. She said to him: Do it for the sake of my children.

אתאי אחתיה - Rabbi Yochanan's sister, the wife of Reish Lakish.

וקא בכיא קמיה - before Rabbi Yochanan, that he should pray for her husband.

He said to her (Yirmiyahu 49:11): Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive.

עזבה יתומיך אני אחיה ואלמנותיך עלי תבטחו - it is a pasuk in Yirmiyah.

Do it for the sake of my widowhood!

He said to her (Yirmiyahu 49:11): And let your widows trust in Me.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish died, and Rabbi Yochanan grieved after him greatly.

מצטער - he regretted having caused his death, for he could find no disciple as accomplished as he was.

The Rabbanan said: Who will go and settle his mind? Let Rabbi Elazar ben Pedas go,^[12] whose teachings are sharp.

He went and sat before him. To everything that Rabbi Yochanan said, he said to him: There is a beraisa that supports you.

He said: Are you like the son of Lakish?!

When I would say something, the son of Lakish would raise twenty-four objections against me, and I would give him twenty-four answers, and through this the teaching became clear of itself.^[13] And you say: There is a beraisa that supports you?! Do I not know that I speak well?!

He went about tearing his clothes and weeping, and saying: Where are you, son of Lakish, where are you, son of Lakish! And he cried out until his mind left him [from him].

דשף דעתיה - his mind was uprooted from him and he went mad.

The Rabbanan prayed for mercy for him, and he died.

Tosafos

אמר רבי יוחנן איבריה דרבי ישמעאל כו' - these things were written so as not to bring slander on people who are built so.

אמר ר' יוחנן אנא אשתיירי משפירי ירושלים - Rabbi Yochanan lived long after the Churban; rather, it means: I remain of their family. And since Rabbi Yochanan mentioned that he differed from other people in one thing, he mentioned also that he differed in beauty.

יתיב אשערי טבילה - and what we say in Arvei Pesachim (Pesachim 111a), One who meets a woman as she comes up from a mitzvah immersion — a spirit of lust takes hold of him, refers to one who comes upon her by chance; but Rabbi Yochanan, who sat there regularly — that is not “meeting.” Alternatively, there it speaks of one who meets her as she comes up from the river while still unclothed.

אי הדרת בך כו' - From here Rabbeinu Tam^[14] said that Reish Lakish at first knew a great deal, but threw off the yoke of Torah, became an am ha'aretz and took up banditry — since he says If you return, which implies: to be as at first, and not to throw the yoke of Torah off yourself. And he also says What good did you do me? There they called me Rebbe — meaning, at first too they called me Rebbe, but I forgot. And what Rashi explained, that “Rebbe” means the master of the bandits, does not seem right, even though we find in Maseches Avodah Zarah (17b): Why do they call you Rebbe? — I am the master of the weavers. And this is what we say in Perek Kol Kisvei (Shabbos 119b): Reish Lakish said to Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah: So have I received from my fathers — and some say, from your fathers — any city that has no schoolchildren, etc. — which implies that before Rabbi Yochanan taught him, he had learned from others.

אי הדרת בך - below it is evident that he married her, since it says His sister came, weeping before him; and he was not concerned that people would say “it was for her sake that he returned,” as there is such a concern below (85a).

הסכין והפגיון מאימתי מקבלין טומאה - Rabbeinu Tam asked: we learned in Maseches Keilim, chapter 14: The sword and the knife — from when do they receive tumah? The sword, from when he polishes it; the knife, from when he sharpens it — which is neither like Rabbi Yochanan nor like Reish Lakish. And it seems that that Mishnah speaks of blades that rusted and are being restored, as it is taught in the Tosefta:^[15] A sword and a knife that rusted are tahor; once he polished and sharpened them, (they receive tumah); but at their first making, their completion is as explained in our sugya. And it seems that “polished” refers to the sword and “sharpened” to the knife, even though it is stated in the plural; and so the Tosefta now matches the Mishnah.

Notes

1. 1. The story continues from the previous amud, where Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Shimon was appointed by the Roman authorities to arrest thieves and bandits. Now, Rashi explains, the king appointed Rabbi Yishmael son of Rabbi Yosi to the same task.
2. 2. Eliyahu's answer: your father fled from the authorities to Asia; you too can flee, to Laodicea, rather than carry out their orders.
3. 3. Had they stayed silent, the matron's claim would have stood, and their children would have been suspected of being born of other men. That is why answering her was proper here despite the pasuk.
4. 4. A kav is a measure of volume. The Gemara records how large these Sages were; Tosfos notes this was written so that no slander would be spread about people built this way.
5. 5. Mar's statement ranks a chain of beauty, each a reflection of the one above it, back to Adam HaRishon. If Rabbi Yochanan was so beautiful, the question is why he is missing from the chain.
6. 6. The place where women immerse at the end of their niddah, after which they return to their husbands. Rabbi Yochanan wanted to be the first person they saw, so that their children would resemble him.
7. 7. Ayin hara, the “evil eye,” is harm that comes from the envious gaze of others. The Rabbanan feared that showing himself before so many would draw it upon him.
8. 8. Reish Lakish is Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, who became Rabbi Yochanan's great partner in learning and his brother-in-law. At this time, Rashi says, he was a bandit; Tosfos below brings Rabbeinu Tam's view that he had learned Torah earlier and abandoned it.
9. 9. A metal object can become tamei only once it is a finished utensil; raw metal or a half-made blade cannot. This list is a Mishnah in Keilim (14:5, per Rashi), and the question is which stage of the craftsman's work counts as finishing it.
10. 10. The smith first heats the blade in the furnace and then plunges it into water to harden it. Rabbi Yochanan holds that the firing completes it; Reish Lakish holds that only the plunging into water does.
11. 11. Reish Lakish fell ill as a result of Rabbi Yochanan's hurt: he was punished for having caused it.
12. 12. Rabbi Elazar ben Pedas was a leading disciple of Rabbi Yochanan, known for the sharpness of his reasoning. The Rabbanan sent him to take Reish Lakish's place as Rabbi Yochanan's partner in learning.
13. 13. Reish Lakish's objections forced every point to be tested and defended, and so the halachah came out clear. A supporting proof only confirmed what Rabbi Yochanan already knew.
14. 14. Rabbeinu Tam is Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir, a grandson of Rashi and a leading Tosafist.
15. 15. The Tosefta is a collection of Tannaitic teachings arranged in the order of the Mishnah, often adding to it.