Study Bava Batra folio 21B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מאי טעמא עבדת הכי? אמר ליה, דכתיב: ״תמחה את זכר עמלק״. אמר ליה: והא אנן ״זכר״ קרינן! אמר ליה: אנא ״זכר״ אקריון. אזל שייליה לרביה, אמר ליה: היאך אקריתן? אמר ליה: ״זכר״.
What is the reason that you did that? Why did you kill only the males? Joab said to him: As it is written: You should blot out the males [zakhar] of Amalek, i.e., the male descendants of Amalek, who descend from Edom. David said to him: But we read the verse as stating: “You should blot out the remembrance [zekher] of Amalek” (Deuteronomy 25:19). Joab said to him: I was taught to read it as zakhar. Joab went and asked his childhood Bible teacher. Joab said to him: How did you read this word to us? The teacher said to him: I read it as zekher. The teacher had read it the proper way, but he failed to notice that his student had learned it incorrectly.
שקל ספסירא למיקטליה. אמר ליה: אמאי? אמר ליה, דכתיב: ״ארור עשה מלאכת ה׳ רמיה״. אמר ליה: שבקיה לההוא גברא דליקום בארור! אמר ליה, כתיב: ״וארור מנע חרבו מדם״! איכא דאמרי: קטליה, ואיכא דאמרי: לא קטליה.
Joab took a sword to kill him. The teacher said to him: Why do you want to kill me? Joab said to him: As it is written: “Cursed is he who does the work of YHWH with a slack hand” (Jeremiah 48:10), and you taught me incorrectly. The teacher said to him: Leave that man to remain as cursed. This is a sufficient punishment; there is no need to kill me. Joab said to him: It is also written: “And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood” (Jeremiah 48:10). There are those who say that Joab killed him, and there are those who say that he did not kill him. In any event, this episode demonstrates that an error learned in one’s childhood stays with him his whole life.