Study Rosh Hashanah folio 26B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
קבען פלניא. לא הוה ידע מאי קאמר ליה. אתא שאיל בי מדרשא, אמר ליה: גזלן אמר לך, דכתיב: ״היקבע אדם אלהים וגו׳״. אמר ליה רבא מברניש לרב אשי: אי הואי התם, הוה אמינא ליה: היכי קבעך? במאי קבעך? ואמאי קבעך? וממילא הוה ידעינא. ואיהו סבר: מילתא דאיסורא קאמר ליה.
So-and-so keva’a from me. Levi did not understand what that man was saying to him, as he did not know the meaning of the word kava. So he went and asked in the study hall. They said to him: That man said to you: He robbed me, as it is written: “Will a man rob [hayikba] God?” (Malachi 3:8). Rava from a place called Barnish said to Rav Ashi: Had I been there in Levi’s place I would have tried to uncover the meaning of the word in a different way, for I would have said to him: How did he keva’a you? With what did he keva’a you? And why did he keva’a you? And from his answers I would have understood on my own what was being said. The Talmud comments: And Levi, who did not do this, thought that the man was talking about a matter of prohibition and not a monetary matter, and so asking the man these questions would not have helped, as they are relevant only to monetary matters.
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי ״סירוגין״. שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דחזתנהו רבנן דהוו עיילי פסקי פסקי, אמרה להו: עד מתי אתם נכנסין סירוגין סירוגין.
The Talmud continues its discussion of unusual words: The rabbis did not know the meaning of the word seirugin, which is found in a Mishnah. One day they heard the female slave in R' Yehuda HaNasi’s house say to the rabbis whom she saw entering the house not all at once, but intermittently: How long should you enter seirugin seirugin? and from this they understood that the word seirugin means: At intervals.
לא הוו ידעי רבנן מאי ״חלוגלוגות״. יומא חד שמעוה לאמתא דבי רבי דחזית לההוא גברא דקא מבדר פרפחיניה, אמרה ליה: עד מתי אתה מפזר חלוגלוגך.
It is similarly recounted that the rabbis did not know the meaning of the word ḥaloglogot, which is mentioned in various mishnayot and baraitot. One day they heard the female slave in R' Yehuda HaNasi’s house say to a certain man whom she saw scattering his purslane plants: How long should you scatter your ḥaloglogot? So they understood that ḥaloglogot means purslane.