Study Gittin folio 7A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
למימרינהו בניחותא, כי היכי דליקבלו מיניה. אמר רב אשי: אנא לא שמיעא לי הא דרבה בר בר חנה, וקיימתיה מסברא.
say them with calmness so that they will accept instruction from him. Rav Ashi said: I did not hear this statement of Rabba bar bar Ḥana, and yet I fulfilled it through my own reasoning.
אמר רבי אבהו: לעולם אל יטיל אדם אימה יתירה בתוך ביתו, שהרי אדם גדול הטיל אימה יתירה בתוך ביתו והאכילוהו דבר גדול.
R' Abbahu says: A person should never impose excessive fear upon the members of his household, as a great man imposed excessive fear upon his household and they fed him something that carried a great prohibition.
ומנו? רבי חנינא בן גמליאל. האכילוהו סלקא דעתך?! השתא בהמתן של צדיקים אין הקדוש ברוך הוא מביא תקלה על ידם, צדיקים עצמן לא כל שכן?
The Talmud asks: And who was this individual? The Talmud answers: R' Ḥanina ben Gamliel. The Talmud asks: Would it enter your mind to say that they actually fed him forbidden food? Now consider that God does not cause an error to be performed through the animals of the righteous. With regard to the righteous themselves is it not all the more so? How can you say that R' Ḥanina ben Gamliel ate forbidden food?
אלא בקשו להאכילו דבר גדול. ומאי ניהו? אבר מן החי.
Rather, it means that they sought to feed him something that carried a great prohibition. And what was this? A limb from a living animal. One day the animal they brought him was missing a limb, and as the members of his household were very fearful they severed a limb from a living animal to make his meal appear whole, and he almost ate it.
שלח ליה מר עוקבא לרבי אלעזר: בני אדם העומדים עלי, ובידי למסרם למלכות, מהו?
§ After mentioning letters sent from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia and the issue of scoring parchment, the Talmud relates: Mar Ukva, the Exilarch in Babylonia, sent a letter to R' Elazar, who was in Eretz Yisrael, in which the following was written: With regard to people who stand over and torment me, and I have the power to deliver them into the hands of the government, what is the halakha? May I hand them over to the authorities or not?
Text data via Sefaria: William Davidson Edition - English and William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic, CC-BY-NC; edition provenance: Koren. Display terminology has been modernized for readability.