Sanhedrin 68a

סנהדרין ס״ח ע״א

Learn Sanhedrin 68a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

From whom did רבי עקיבא learn the cucumber כישוף? The story of רבי אליעזר's death, and the rule that כישוף may be learned in order to understand and teach.

Overview

Just before this, the גמרא said that רבי עקיבא learned the laws of כישוף, such as making cucumbers appear, from רבי יהושע. Now it challenges this with a long ברייתא about the death of רבי אליעזר. The sick רבי אליעזר, who was under a ban, shows his mind is clear. He rebukes the חכמים for never coming to learn from him. He mourns that so much of his תורה was never asked about, except the laws of planting cucumbers, which only רבי עקיבא asked about and saw him perform. He answers the חכמים' questions about טומאה and dies saying the word 'טהור'. רבי יהושע then lifts the ban, and רבי עקיבא mourns him bitterly. The גמרא answers that רבי עקיבא first heard it from רבי אליעזר without understanding it, and only later understood it from רבי יהושע. It then asks how רבי אליעזר could perform כישוף at all, and answers that doing it in order to learn and teach is permitted. With this the פרק ארבע מיתות ends.

Opening lines

The steps (24)

1. ChallengeDid רבי עקיבא really learn this from רבי יהושע?
2. ProofThe ברייתא begins: visiting the sick רבי אליעזר
3. Statementהורקנוס is scolded for removing his father's תפילין
4. Statementרבי אליעזר explains: first take care of the serious prohibitions
5. StatementThe חכמים enter and sit four אמות away
6. StatementWhy have you come, and why not until now?
7. Statementרבי אליעזר predicts harsh deaths, harshest for רבי עקיבא
8. Statementרבי אליעזר mourns over his two arms
9. StatementHow little he took, and how little was taken from him
10. StatementThree hundred laws of a bright white mark that nobody asked about
11. StatementLaws of planting cucumbers that only עקיבא asked about
12. StatementThe story of planting and uprooting cucumbers
13. QuestionThe Sages ask about leather-covered objects
14. ResponseThey can become impure and are purified as they are
15. QuestionThe last question: a shoe still on its last
16. ResponseHe answers 'pure' and passes away
17. Statementרבי יהושע announces the ban is lifted
18. Statementרבי עקיבא meets the funeral in deep grief
19. Statementרבי עקיבא's eulogy for his teacher
20. ChallengeDid רבי עקיבא learn the cucumber magic from רבי אליעזר?
21. ResolutionHe learned from both, but רבי יהושע explained it
22. ChallengeHow could רבי אליעזר perform magic?
23. ResolutionLearning in order to understand and teach is permitted
24. Conclusionהדרן — Closing ארבע מיתות