Study Avodah Zarah folio 5B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בלחם הקלקל״. בני כפויי טובה, דכתיב: ״האשה אשר נתתה עמדי היא נתנה לי מן העץ ואכל״.
this light bread” (Numbers 21:5), despite the fact it was the highest-quality food. Moses further called them children of ingrates, as it is written that after sinning and eating from the tree of knowledge, Adam said: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:12). Adam complained that the woman had been given to him in order to cause him to sin, whereas in fact she had been given to him to serve as a helpmate.
אף משה רבינו לא רמזה להן לישראל אלא לאחר ארבעים שנה, שנאמר: ״ואולך אתכם במדבר ארבעים שנה״, וכתיב: ״ולא נתן ה׳ לכם לב וגו׳״. אמר רבה: שמע מינה לא קאי איניש אדעתיה דרביה עד ארבעין שנין.
Yet even Moses our teacher, who said this to the Jewish people, did not allude to the Jewish people until after 40 years that they should have stated this request, as it is stated: “And I have led you 40 years in the wilderness” (Deuteronomy 29:4), which shows that Moses was speaking 40 years after the revelation at Sinai. And at that point it is written: “But YHWH has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day” (Deuteronomy 29:3). Rabba said: Conclude from here that a person does not understand the opinion of his teacher until after 40 years, as Moses said this to the Jewish people only after 40 years of learning Torah.
אמר רבי יוחנן משום רבי בנאה, מאי דכתיב: ״אשריכם זרעי על כל מים משלחי רגל השור והחמור״? אשריהם ישראל בזמן שעוסקין בתורה ובגמילות חסדים, יצרם מסור בידם ואין הם מסורים ביד יצרם, שנאמר: ״אשריכם זרעי על כל מים״, ואין זריעה אלא צדקה, שנאמר: ״זרעו לכם לצדקה וקצרו לפי חסד״, ואין מים אלא תורה, שנאמר: ״הוי כל צמא לכו למים״.
R' Yoḥanan says in the name of R' Bana’a: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Happy are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth freely the feet of the ox and the donkey” (Isaiah 32:20)? Happy are you Israel; when they, i.e., the Jewish people, engage in Torah study and in acts of kindness, their evil inclination is given over to them, and they are not given over to their evil inclination, as it is stated: “Happy are you that sow beside all waters.” And the term sowing is referring to nothing other than performing charitable deeds, as it is stated: “Sow to yourselves according to charitableness, reap according to mercy” (Hosea 10:12). And the term waters is referring to nothing other than the Torah, as it is stated: “Ho, every one that thirsts, come for water” (Isaiah 55:1).