Siyyum for Perek Ben Sorer u-Moreh Talmud Study Study Buddies Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5779

§ Apropos the discussion of the obligation to allow oneself to be killed rather than engage in forbidden sexual intercourse, the Gemara notes that Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: There was an incident involving a certain man who set his eyes upon a certain woman and passion rose in his heart, to the point that he became deathly ill. And they came and asked doctors what was to be done with him. And the doctors said: He will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not engage in sexual intercourse with him. The doctors said: She should at least stand naked before him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not stand naked before him. The doctors suggested: The woman should at least converse with him behind a fence in a secluded area, so that he should derive a small amount of pleasure from the encounter. The Sages insisted: Let him die, and she may not converse with him behind a fence. The Gemara comments: Rabbi Ya’akov bar Idi and Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani disagree about this issue. One of them says: The woman in question was a married woman, and the other one says: She was unmarried. The Gemara tries to clarify the issue: Granted, according to the one who says that she was a married woman, the matter is properly understood. Since the case involved a severely prohibited forbidden relationship, the Sages did not allow any activity hinting at intimacy. But according to the one who says that she was unmarried, what is the reason for all this opposition? Why did the Sages say that the man must be allowed to die, rather than have the woman do as was requested? Rav Pappa says: This is due to the potential family flaw, i.e., harm to the family name, as it is not permitted to bring disgrace to the entire family in order to save the lovesick man. Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Ika, says: This is so that the daughters of Israel should not be promiscuous with regard to forbidden sexual relations. Were they to listen to the doctors’ recommendations, Jewish women might lose moral restraint. The Gemara asks: But if the woman was unmarried, let the man marry her. The Gemara answers: His mind would not have been eased by marriage, in accordance with the statement of Rabbi Yitzḥak. As Rabbi Yitzḥak says: Since the day the Temple was destroyed, sexual pleasure was taken away from those who engage in permitted intercourse and given to transgressors, as it is stated: “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant” (Proverbs 9:17). Therefore, the man could have been cured only by engaging in illicit sexual interaction.

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R. Yaakov bar Idi said in the name of R. Yochanan: One heals with anything except idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and spilling blood. R. Pinchas asks: to this point, the ruling is for when someone said, bring me leaves used for idol worship, and they were brought to him. What if someone said, bring me generic leaves, and they were brought from idol worship? Learn it from this: R. Yonah had a fever attack. They brought him from the penis of Dori [a statue, comparable to Mannekin Pis in Brussels] and he drank. They brought to R. Aha and he did not drink. R. Mana said, if my father R. Yonah had known where it was from, he would not have drunk.

R. Huna said, it was taught in a baraita that one does not heal via forbidden sexual relations, as it was taught: "[violating] Shabbat is permitted in exceptional cases, but forbidden sexual relations are not permitted even in exceptional cases for the betrothed maiden." Would [violating] Shabbat be permitted, and not for healing? And forbidden sexual relations are never permitted, not even for healing.

This is not the end of the matter. For if one said to another, bring me a married woman, even if only for the purpose of hearing her voice. It happened that one man was attracted to a woman to the point of a dangerous illness in the days of R. Eliezer. They came and asked him, can she parade before him, so that he lives? He said, he should die, and not do it. May he hear voice, in order not to die? He said, he should die, and not do it.

What was the situation? R. Yaakov bar Idi and R. Yitzhak bar Nachman. One said she is married, one said she is single. For the one who says she is married, fine. And for the one who says she is single? Didn't Bar Kicha become attracted to a woman in the days of R. Eliezer, and he permitted him? Here a single woman, but here a married woman? Even if you were to say, here and here [both] single, explain that he set eyes on her while she was still married [before she was widowed or divorced].

Some want to say, she was a women of substance and did not want to marry. Everything which he did was forbidden; therefore he permitted nothing to him.

(1) We will return to you, Perek ____ [fill in the name of the chapter], and you will return to us; our mind is on you, Perek ____, and your mind is on us; we will not forget you, Perek ____, and you will not forget us – not in this world and not in the next world.

(2) May it be Your will, our G-d, and the G-d of our fathers, that we should be loyal to Your Torah in this world, and it should be with us in the next world. Chaninah bar Pappa, Rami bar Pappa, Nachman bar Pappa, Achai bar Pappa, Aba bar Pappa, Rafram bar Pappa, Rachish bar Pappa, Sorchav bar Pappa, Ada bar Pappa, Daro bar Pappa.

(3) Please make it sweet, G-d our G-d, the words of Your Torah. In our mouths, and in the mouths of your nation the House of Israel. And it should be that we, all of us, our children and the children of your nation the House of Israel, that we should all know Your name and learn Your Torah. [Psalms 119:98] "Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me." [Psalms 119:80] "Let my heart be complete in Your statutes, in order that I may not be put to shame." [Psalms 119:93] "I will never forget Your precepts; for with them You have quickened me." [Psalms 119:12] "Blessed are You O G-d, teach me Your statutes."

(4) We give thanks before You, Lord, our G-d and G-d of our fathers, for you gave us a share among those who sit in the study hall, and not among those who sit on street corners. For we arise early, and they arise early; we arise for words of Torah, and they arise for words of emptiness. We work, and they work; we work and receive a reward, and they work and do not receive a reward. We run, and they run; we run towards eternal life, and they run to a pit of desolation. As it says: (Psalms 55:24) "And You, O Lord, bring them down into a pit of desolation, people of blood and deceit will not live out half of their days; and I, I will trust in You."

(5) May it be your will, Lord my G-d, just as You have helped me to complete tractate _____, so too may you help me to start other tractates and books, and to complete them, to learn and to teach, to observe and to enact and to fulfill all the words of the teaching of your Torah with love. And may the merit of all of the Tannaim and Amoraim and Torah scholars be present for me and for my descendants, to ensure that the Torah does not depart from my mouth and from the mouths of my descendants for all eternity. And may the following be fulfilled for me: (Proverbs 6:22) "When you walk, it will lead you, when you lie down, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will speak with you." (Proverbs 9:11) "For through me your days will be multiplied, and the years of your life will be increased." (Proverbs 3:16) "Length of days is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor." (Psalms 29:11) "G-d will give strength to his nation, G-d will bless his nation with peace."

(6) ...May your great name be made holier and greater, in this world that he is destined to renew and to give life to the dead and raise them to eternal life, to build the city of Yerushalayim, and complete the Beis HaMikdosh in its midst. And to uproot idol worship from the Land, return the service of the Heaven to its place, and the Holy One Blessed Be He shall rule in his majesty and splendor in our lives, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future; and say, Amen. May his great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored elevated and lauded be the Name of the holy one, Blessed is he- above and beyond any blessings and hymns, Praises and consolations which are uttered in the world; and say Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life, upon us and upon all Israel; and say, Amen.