Study Sanhedrin folio 104B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר לו אחד מהם לחבירו: גמל שמהלכת לפנינו סומא באחת מעיניה, וטעונה שתי נודות, אחת של יין ואחת של שמן, ושני בני אדם המנהיגים אותה, אחד ישראל ואחד גוי. אמר להן [שבאי]: עם קשה עורף! מאין אתם יודעין?
One of the captives said to the other: The camel that is walking ahead of us is blind in one of its eyes and laden with two wineskins, one filled with wine and one filled with oil. And two people are driving the camel, one a Jew and one a non-Jew. The captor said to them: Stiff-necked people, from where do you know these matters that you cannot see?
אמרו לו: גמל מעשבים שלפניה, מצד שרואה אוכלת, מצד שאינה רואה אינה אוכלת. וטעונה שתי נודות, אחת של יין ואחת של שמן; של יין מטפטף ושוקע, ושל שמן מטפטף וצף. ושני בני אדם המנהיגים אותה, אחד גוי ואחד ישראל; גוי נפנה לדרך, וישראל נפנה לצדדין.
They said to him: We know that the camel is blind from the grass that is before it, as from the grass on the side that it sees, it eats, and from the grass on the side that it does not see, it does not eat, i.e., it eats grass from only one side. And we know that it is laden with two wineskins, one filled with wine and one filled with oil, as wine drips and sinks into the ground and oil drips and floats on the surface, and we see the difference on the ground. And we know that two people are driving the camel, one a Jew and one a non-Jew, as the non-Jew defecates on the road and the Jew, in the interests of modesty, goes to the sides of the road to defecate.
רדף אחריהם ומצא כדבריהם. בא ונשקן על ראשן, והביאן לביתו ועשה להן סעודה גדולה. והיה מרקד לפניהם ואמר: ברוך שבחר בזרעו של אברהם ונתן להם מחכמתו, ובכל מקום שהן הולכין נעשין שרים לאדוניהם. ופטרן [והלכו] לבתיהם לשלום.
The captor pursued the camel and its drivers to determine whether the statements of the captives were accurate, and found that the reality was in accordance with their statements. He came and respectfully kissed them on their head, and brought them to their house and prepared a great feast for them. And he was dancing before them and said: Blessed is He who chose the descendants of Abraham and granted of His wisdom to them, and in every place that they go they become princes to their lords. And he released them and they went to their houses in peace.