Study Avodah Zarah folio 18A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הוגה את השם באותיותיו. והיכי עביד הכי? והתנן: אלו שאין להם חלק לעולם הבא — האומר אין תורה מן השמים, ואין תחיית המתים מן התורה. אבא שאול אומר: אף ההוגה את השם באותיותיו!
pronounce the ineffable name of God with all of its letters, i.e., as it is spelled. The Talmud asks: And how could he do that? But didn’t we learn in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 90a): These are the people who have no share in the World-to-Come: One who says that the Torah is not from Heaven or that there is no source from the Torah for the resurrection of the dead. Abba Shaul says: Also one who pronounces the ineffable name as it is written, with all of its letters, has no share in the World-to-Come.
להתלמד עבד, כדתניא: ״לא תלמד לעשות״, אבל אתה למד להבין ולהורות.
The Talmud answers: R' Ḥanina ben Teradyon did it to teach himself, as it is taught in a baraita with regard to the prohibition against sorcery: “You should not learn to do” (Deuteronomy 18:9); this indicates: But you may learn to understand and to teach. In other words, certain prohibitions do not apply when one is acting only in order to acquire knowledge of the subject.
אלא מאי טעמא אענש? משום (הוגה) [דהוגה] את השם בפרהסיא [הוה], ועל אשתו להריגה דלא (מיחה) [מחתה] ביה. מכאן אמרו: כל מי שיש בידו למחות ואינו מוחה נענש עליו.
The Talmud asks: Rather, what is the reason that he was punished? The Talmud answers: He was punished because he would pronounce the ineffable name of God in public, instead of privately. And his wife was condemned to execution by decapitation because she did not protest his doing so. From here the rabbis stated: Anyone who has the capability to protest effectively the sinful conduct of another and does not protest is punished for that person’s sin.
ועל בתו לישב בקובה של זונות, דאמר רבי יוחנן: פעם אחת היתה בתו מהלכת לפני גדולי רומי, אמרו: כמה נאות פסיעותיה של ריבה זו, מיד דקדקה בפסיעותיה. והיינו דאמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש: מאי דכתיב ״עון עקבי יסובני״? עונות שאדם דש בעקביו בעולם הזה מסובין לו ליום הדין.
The Talmud asks: And why was his daughter condemned to sit in a brothel? As R' Yoḥanan says: Once, the daughter of R' Ḥanina ben Teradyon was walking before the nobles of Rome, and they said to each other: How pleasant are the steps of this young woman. Upon hearing this, she immediately took care to keep walking in such a fashion that her steps would continue to be pleasing to them. And this is the same as that which R' Shimon ben Lakish says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “The iniquity of my heel encircles me” (Psalms 49:6)? It means that the sins that a person tramples with one’s heel in this world, i.e., dismisses and pays no attention to them as they seem to lack importance, e.g., the way that one walks, come and encircle him on the Day of Judgment.