Study Chagigah folio 14A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
קודם שנברא העולם, ולא נבראו. עמד הקדוש ברוך הוא ושתלן בכל דור ודור, והן הן עזי פנים שבדור.
before the creation of the world, but they were not created. The Torah was supposed to have been given 1,000 generations after the world was created, as it is written: “He commanded His word for 1,000 generations” (Psalms 105:8), but God gave it earlier, after only 26 generations, so that 974 generations should have been created but were not. God acted by planting a few of them in each and every generation, and they are the insolent ones of the generation, as they belonged to generations that should not have been created at all.
ורב נחמן בר יצחק אמר: ״אשר קומטו״ — לברכה הוא דכתיב. אלו תלמידי חכמים שמקמטין עצמן על דברי תורה בעולם הזה, הקדוש ברוך הוא מגלה להם סוד לעולם הבא, שנאמר: ״נהר יוצק יסודם״.
And Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said that the verse: “Who were snatched [kumtu]” (Job 22:16), is written for a blessing, as the verse is not referring to lowly, cursed people, but to the blessed. These are Torah scholars, who shrivel [mekamtin], i.e., humble, themselves over the words of Torah in this world. God reveals a secret to them in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “Whose foundation [yesodam] was poured out as a stream” (Job 22:16), implying that He will provide them with an abundant knowledge of secret matters [sod].
אמר ליה שמואל לחייא בר רב: בר אריא! תא אימא לך מילתא מהני מילי מעלייתא דהוה אמר אבוך: כל יומא ויומא נבראין מלאכי השרת מנהר דינור, ואמרי שירה ובטלי, שנאמר: ״חדשים לבקרים רבה אמונתך״. ופליגא דרבי שמואל בר נחמני. דאמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן: כל דיבור ודיבור שיוצא מפי הקדוש ברוך הוא נברא ממנו מלאך אחד, שנאמר: ״בדבר ה׳ שמים נעשו וברוח פיו כל צבאם״.
Shmuel said to Ḥiyya bar Rav: Son of great ones, come and I will tell you something of the great things that your father would say: Each and every day, ministering angels are created from the River Dinur, and they recite song to God and then immediately cease to exist, as it is stated: “They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23), indicating that new angels praise God each morning. The Talmud comments: And this opinion disagrees with that of R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani, as R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that R' Yonatan said: With each and every word that emerges from the mouth of God an angel is created, as it is stated: “By the word of YHWH the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts” (Psalms 33:6). The hosts of heaven are the angels, who, he claims, are created from the mouth of God, rather than from the River Dinur.