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Sanhedrin 38b

סנהדרין ל״ח ע״ב

Learn Sanhedrin 38b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Sanhedrin 38b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Teachings about אדם הראשון's creation and sin, and how to answer heretics who claim the פסוקים show more than one God.

Overview

This amud is full of אגדה about אדם הראשון and about answering heretics. It begins with where אדם's body was taken from and an hour-by-hour timeline of the day he was created, sinned and was sent out of גן עדן. רב then tells how הקב"ה consulted groups of angels before creating man, and how He keeps bearing with mankind even when people sin. More teachings follow: אדם's huge original size, his speaking Aramaic, and three views of how serious his sin was. This leads to the משנה about knowing how to answer an אפיקורוס. רבי יוחנן limits that duty to a non-Jewish heretic. He also shows that whenever heretics point to a plural word for God, the answer is right beside it. The גמרא then explains the plural 'thrones' in דניאל in three ways. It closes with two stories of answering heretics, one by רב אידית and one by a launderer who learned his answer at רבי מאיר's lectures.

Opening lines

גּוּפוֹ מִבָּבֶל,

His torso was from Babylonia,

וְרֹאשׁוֹ מֵאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל,

and his head was from the Land of Israel,

וְאֵבָרָיו מִשְּׁאָר אֲרָצוֹת.

and his limbs were from the other lands.

עַגְבוֹתָיו,

His buttocks:

The steps (42)

  1. Statementאדם הראשון's body came from different lands
  2. Statementרב אחא adds where the buttocks came from
  3. StatementThe twelve hours of אדם's first day
  4. StatementA wild animal rules only over someone who seems like an animal
  5. StatementGod consults the angels before creating man
  6. StatementThe first two groups of angels object and are burned
  7. StatementThe third group lets God do as He wishes
  8. StatementAfter the flood and the tower, God still bears with mankind
  9. Statementרב: אדם stretched from one end of the world to the other
  10. Statementרבי אלעזר: אדם reached from the ground to the sky
  11. ChallengeDo the two readings contradict each other?
  12. ResolutionBoth describe the same distance
  13. Statementאדם הראשון spoke Aramaic
  14. Proofאדם saw רבי עקיבא's generation and said this פסוק
  15. Statementרב: אדם הראשון was a מין
  16. Statementרבי יצחק: אדם hid his מילה
  17. Statementרב נחמן: אדם denied God
  18. StatementBe ready to answer a heretic
  19. StatementOnly a non-Jewish heretic should be answered
  20. StatementThe answer to heretics is always right next to their proof
  21. ProofMore examples: the answer is in the same פסוק
  22. QuestionWhy use plural words at all?
  23. ResponseGod consults with His heavenly court
  24. ChallengeConsulting the court does not explain the two thrones
  25. Resolutionרבי עקיבא: one throne for God and one for דוד
  26. Rejectionרבי יוסי: one throne for judgment and one for kindness
  27. QuestionDid רבי עקיבא accept רבי יוסי's view?
  28. ResponseAnother ברייתא shows רבי עקיבא accepted it
  29. Rejectionרבי אלעזר בן עזריה: a throne and a footstool
  30. StatementOnly someone skilled like רב אידית should answer heretics
  31. ChallengeThe heretic: why 'come up to ה׳' and not 'to Me'?
  32. Resolutionרב אידית: the speaker was מטטרון
  33. ChallengeThe heretic: then let us worship him
  34. Resolution'Do not rebel against him' means 'do not swap Me for him'
  35. ChallengeThe heretic: then why say 'he will not forgive your sins'?
  36. ResolutionWe refused the angel even as a guide
  37. ChallengeA heretic questions the wording of the פסוק about סדום
  38. ResolutionA launderer answers using the example of למך
  39. Questionרבי ישמעאל asks where the launderer learned this
  40. ResponseThe launderer heard it at רבי מאיר's lecture
  41. StatementHow רבי מאיר divided his lectures
  42. Statementרבי מאיר's three hundred fox parables