Study Avodah Zarah folio 24A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בששים רבוא שכר, רב כהנא מתני בשמונים רבוא, והיו מפתחות מונחות תחת מראשותיו של אביו, ולא צערו.
for 600,000 gold dinars’ profit, and Rav Kahana teaches that it was 800,000 dinars’ profit. But the keys to the chest holding the jewels were placed under his father’s head, and he would not disturb him. It is evident from this story that the stones of the ephod may be purchased from non-Jews. If so, R' Eliezer’s reasoning cannot be based on Numbers 19:2, as an identical phrase appears in Exodus 25:2, and yet contributions to the Tabernacle may be accepted from non-Jews.
The Talmud answers that the phrase “onyx stones” (Exodus 25:7) concluded discussion of that matter. In other words, almost all the items listed in Exodus, chapter 25, for the contributions to the Tabernacle, are joined by the conjunction “and.” Before the verse mentions the stones for the ephod, it states “onyx stones,” without the conjunction “and.” This omission serves to disconnect these stones from the earlier phrase: “That they take” (Exodus 25:2), which means that the disqualification of items purchased from non-Jews for use in the Temple derived from this phrase does not apply to the items listed after that point, including the stones of the ephod. The Talmud asks: But isn’t it subsequently written: “And stones to be set,” by which the verse goes back and combines the list, so that the earlier verse applies once more? Accordingly, it should be prohibited to purchase any of the items listed in the verse from non-Jews.
ועוד, קתני סיפא: לשנה אחרת נולדה לו פרה אדומה בעדרו, נכנסו חכמי ישראל אצלו. אמר להם: יודע אני בכם שאם אני מבקש מכם כל ממון שבעולם אתם נותנין לי, עכשיו איני מבקש מכם אלא אותו ממון שהפסדתי בשביל אבא.
The Talmud adds: And furthermore, the latter clause teaches: In a subsequent year, a red heifer was born in Dama’s herd and the rabbis of Israel approached him, seeking to purchase the heifer. Dama said to them: I know concerning you that if I were to ask from you all the money in the world, you would give it to me. Now I am requesting from you only that amount of money which I lost by refraining from waking my father. This latter clause explicitly states that the rabbis intended to purchase a red heifer from a non-Jew, which contradicts the ruling of R' Eliezer.