Bechoros 8b

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Bekhorot 8b

Learn Bechoros 8b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Bechoros 8b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

The snake's seven-year pregnancy, and the story of רבי יהושע בן חנניה defeating the scholars of Athens

Overview

The גמרא finishes explaining why a snake carries its young for seven years, based on the order of the words in its curse in בראשית. It asks why we should not use the goat-to-cat ratio, which would give only fifteen months, and gives two answers: the word "all" in the פסוק, and the rule that a curse is read at its harshest. Then comes a story. The קיסר asks רבי יהושע בן חנניה how long a snake carries its young. He answers seven years and defends this against the Athens scholars' experiment. When he claims the Jewish חכמים are wiser, the emperor sends him to defeat the sixty Athens scholars and bring them back. רבי יהושע outwits a butcher and the guards, greets the scholars wisely, and wins a long contest of riddles, often by turning their impossible questions back on them. In the end he brings them onto his ship, sets sail, and takes some of their native soil with him. The story continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (62)

1. ResolutionThe order of the words in the verse decides the comparison
2. ChallengeWhy not use the goat-to-cat ratio of one to three?
3. ResolutionThe verse says all the animals, including the most cursed
4. ResolutionA curse is given in its harshest form
5. QuestionThe emperor asks how long a snake carries its young
6. Responseרבי יהושע answers: seven years
7. ChallengeThe Athens experiment showed three years
8. ResolutionThose snakes were already pregnant for four years
9. ChallengeBut they mated, so they could not already be pregnant
10. ResolutionSnakes mate like people do
11. ChallengeThe emperor: aren't the Athens scholars wise?
12. ResolutionWe are wiser than they are
13. StatementThe emperor's dare: beat them and bring them
14. QuestionHow many scholars are there?
15. ResponseSixty men
16. StatementA ship with sixty rooms
17. StatementBuying the butcher's head
18. StatementThe trap: show me the entrance
19. ChallengeThe butcher is afraid
20. ResolutionMark it with a bundle of reeds
21. StatementGuards inside and outside
22. StatementThe sandal trick gets rid of the guards
23. StatementThe problem of whom to greet first
24. StatementA greeting to everyone at once
25. QuestionThe sages ask why he has come
26. ResponseHe says he has come to learn wisdom
27. StatementThe stakes of the contest are set
28. QuestionThe first riddle: the rejected suitor
29. ResponseThe peg answer: his match may be higher up
30. QuestionWhy does a lender who lost money keep lending?
31. ResponseThe parable of the bundle of reeds
32. QuestionTell us some nonsense
33. ResponseThe mule that gave birth with an IOU around its neck
34. ChallengeBut can a mule give birth?
35. ResolutionThat's exactly why it's nonsense
36. QuestionHow do you salt salt that went bad?
37. ResponseWith a mule's placenta
38. ChallengeDoes a mule even have a placenta?
39. ResolutionAnd does salt spoil?
40. QuestionBuild us a house in the air
41. ResponseHe floats up and asks for building supplies
42. QuestionWhere is the center of the world?
43. ResponseRight here
44. ChallengeWho says so?
45. ResolutionBring ropes and measure
46. QuestionBring a pit from the field into the city
47. ResponseBraid ropes of bran and I will bring it
48. QuestionSew up a broken millstone
49. ResponsePull threads out of the mill and I will sew it
50. QuestionHow do you harvest a field of knives
51. ResponseWith a donkey's horn
52. ChallengeBut does a donkey have a horn
53. ResolutionBut is there a field of knives
54. QuestionWhich egg is from the black hen
55. ResponseWhich cheese is from the black goat
56. QuestionWhere does a dead chick's spirit leave the egg
57. ResponseIt leaves the way it came in
58. QuestionShow us an item not worth the damage it causes
59. ResponseThe big mat that forces you to break the gate
60. StatementEach elder is brought aboard and fooled by the sixty mattresses
61. Statementרבי יהושע tells the sailor to set sail
62. StatementOn the way, he takes out earth from their homeland