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Gittin 57a

גיטין נ״ז ע״א

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Topic

The end of the אונקלוס story and the destructions of ירושלים, טור מלכא, כפר סכניא and ביתר

Overview

This amud finishes the story of אונקלוס, who raises טיטוס, בלעם and ישו from the dead. Each one says Israel is most important in the next world, and each is punished in a way that fits his sin. רבי אלעזר then closes the story of בר קמצא with a lesson: shame is so powerful that it led to the חורבן. Next the גמרא tells how טור מלכא was destroyed. A fight over a rooster and a hen was reported to the קיסר as a revolt. The hero בר דרומא fell because of his own words, and the Jews' celebration brought the Romans back. The גמרא describes how huge הר המלך once was and explains, with the image of a deer's skin, how ארץ ישראל can have held so many people. Three stories about the righteous town of כפר סכניא follow, and רב יוסף explains that it was punished for not mourning ירושלים. Finally, a cedar cut down for a broken carriage pole leads to the destruction of ביתר, where the bloodshed was enormous.

Opening lines

בְּמַאי דִּפְסַיק אַנַּפְשֵׁיהּ –

With what he decreed upon himself –

כֹּל יוֹמָא מְכַנְּשִׁי לֵיהּ לְקִיטְמֵיהּ

every day they gather his ashes

וְדָיְינִי לֵיהּ, וְקָלוּ לֵיהּ

and they judge him, and they burn him

וּמְבַדְּרוּ [לֵיהּ] אַשַּׁב יַמֵּי.

and they scatter him over the seven seas.

The steps (37)

  1. Responseטיטוס describes his own punishment
  2. Questionאונקלוס raises בלעם and asks whether to join Israel
  3. Responseבלעם's punishment
  4. Questionאונקלוס raises ישו and asks whether to join Israel
  5. Responseישו's punishment
  6. ProofSource for the punishment of boiling excrement
  7. ConclusionThe difference between Jewish sinners and the prophets of the nations
  8. ConclusionThe power of shame closes the בר קמצא story
  9. Statementטור מלכא was destroyed over a rooster and a hen
  10. StatementA small fight is reported as a revolt
  11. Statementבר דרומא fights and the קיסר prays
  12. Statementבר דרומא falls because of his own words
  13. Challengeדוד said the same words
  14. Resolutionדוד said it as a question
  15. Statementבר דרומא dies and the emperor decides to leave
  16. StatementThe Jews celebrate and the emperor comes back
  17. StatementThe massacre at the King's Mountain
  18. StatementThe verse about God swallowing יעקב's dwellings
  19. ProofBacking for the six hundred thousand cities
  20. StatementNaming the three largest cities
  21. StatementWhy the three cities had those names
  22. Challengeעולא says the place is too small
  23. ChallengeA heretic calls the Rabbis liars
  24. ResolutionThe land stretches like a deer's skin
  25. QuestionThree אמוראים ask for stories about כפר סכניא
  26. ResponseThe captive couple who kept apart
  27. StatementShe praises him as greater than יוסף
  28. ResponseThe price of grain rose, and the town searched for the sin
  29. ResponseA husband fakes his wife's adultery to avoid paying her כתובה
  30. Statementבבא בן בוטא exposes the trick and the husband is punished
  31. Challengeאביי asks why such a righteous town was punished
  32. ResolutionThey were punished for not mourning ירושלים
  33. StatementThe custom of planting trees for newborns in ביתר
  34. StatementThe broken carriage and the false report of rebellion
  35. StatementEighty thousand battle trumpets and blood reaching the sea
  36. ProofRivers that were one-third blood
  37. ProofSeven years of vineyards fertilized with blood