Study Yoma folio 54B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
כאיש המעורה בלוייה שלו. אמר ריש לקיש: בשעה שנכנסו גוים להיכל ראו כרובים המעורין זה בזה, הוציאון לשוק ואמרו: ישראל הללו, שברכתן ברכה וקללתן קללה — יעסקו בדברים הללו? מיד הזילום, שנאמר: ״כל מכבדיה הזילוה כי ראו ערותה״.
It means like a man joined and clinging to his livaya, his partner, i.e., his wife. In other words, the cherubs appeared to be embracing one another. Reish Lakish said: When non-Jews destroyed the Second Temple and entered the Sanctuary, they saw these drawings of cherubs clinging to one another. They peeled them from the wall, took them out to the market, and said: These Jews, whose blessing is a blessing and whose curse is a curse, due to their great fear of God, should they be occupied with such matters, making images of this kind? They immediately debased and destroyed them, as it is stated: “All who honored her debase her because they have seen her nakedness” (Lamentations 1:8).
ושתיה היתה נקראת. תנא: שממנה הושתת העולם. תנן כמאן דאמר מציון נברא העולם, דתניא, רבי אליעזר אומר: עולם מאמצעיתו נברא, שנאמר: ״בצקת עפר למוצק ורגבים ידובקו״.
§ The Mishnah taught that a stone sat in the Holy of Holies and it was called the foundation [shetiyya] rock. A Sage taught in the Tosefta: Why was it called shetiyya? It is because the world was created [hushtat] from it. The Talmud comments: We learned the Mishnah in accordance with the opinion of the one who said that the world was created from Zion. As it was taught in a baraita that R' Eliezer says: The world was created from its center, as it is stated: “When the dust runs into a mass, and the clods cleave fast together” (Job 38:38). The world was created by adding matter to the center, like the formation of clumps of earth.
רבי יהושע אומר: עולם מן הצדדין נברא, שנאמר: ״כי לשלג יאמר הוי ארץ וגשם מטר וגשם מטרות עוזו״. רבי יצחק (נפחא) אמר: אבן ירה הקדוש ברוך הוא בים, ממנו נשתת העולם, שנאמר: ״על מה אדניה הטבעו או מי ירה אבן פנתה״.
R' Yehoshua says: The world was created from the sides, as it is stated: “For He said to the snow: Become the earth, likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of His mighty rain” (Job 37:6). This verse indicates that the rains fell from all sides, which led to the creation of the earth. R' Yitzḥak Nappaḥa said: God cast a stone into the sea, from which the world was created, as it is stated: “Upon what were its foundations fastened; or who laid its cornerstone?” (Job 38:6).