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Rabbi Meir, Elisha b. Avuyah, and Bruriah
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A
Rebbi Zevadiah, the son-in-law of Rebbi Levi, reported the following happening. Rebbi Meïr used to preach in the synagogue of Ḥamata every Friday evening. There was a woman who used to hear him. Once he extended his sermon. She went and wanted to come to her house but found the light had gone out. Her husband asked her, where have you been? She said to him, to hear the preacher’s voice. He said to her, so and so, that this woman will not enter here into her house unless she went and spat into the preacher’s face. Rebbi Meïr saw this in the holy spirit and faked pain in his eyes…
Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 1:4:3
Rebbi Meïr was sitting and preaching in the House of Study of Tiberias when his teacher Elisha passed by riding on a horse on the Sabbath. They came and told him, your teacher is outside. He stopped his sermon and went out to him. He asked him, what did you preach today? He told him,
and the Eternal blessed the end
etc. He asked him, what did you explain about this? He answered him,
and the Eternal added double all that Job had owned
; that he doubled his money. He said, woe for those who are lost and not found, your teacher Aqiba did not preach this but…
Jerusalem Talmud Chagigah 2:1:10
Despite this, it occurred that
there was
one
whose father said to him: Climb to
the top of
the building and fetch me chicks. And he climbed to
the top of
the building and dispatched the mother
bird
and took the young,
thereby simultaneously fulfilling the mitzva to dispatch the mother bird from the nest and the mitzva to honor one’s parents,
but upon his return he fell and died. Where is the goodness of the days of this one, and where is the length of days of this one? Rather…
Kiddushin 39b:8
Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai said: Great is peace, as all blessings are included in it. “The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace” (Psalms 29:11).
Ḥizkiya said two [statements]. Ḥizkiya said: Peace is great, as in the regard of all the
mitzvot, it is written: “If you see…if you encounter” (Exodus 23:4–5); “if…will happen” (Deuteronomy 22:6). If a mitzva happens to present itself to you, you are obligated to perform it, and if not, you are not obligated to perform it…
Vayikra Rabbah 9:9
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; one of patient spirit is better than one of proud spirit” (Ecclesiastes 7:8).
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning.” Rabbi Meir was sitting and expounding in the study hall of Tiberias, and his teacher, Elisha, was passing in the marketplace, riding on a horse on Shabbat. They said to Rabbi Meir: ‘Your teacher Elisha is coming and passing in the marketplace on Shabbat.’ He emerged to him. [Elisha] said to him: ‘In what were you engaged?’ [Rabbi Meir] said to him: ‘“The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his…
Kohelet Rabbah 7:8:1
Another interpretation, “you shall call to it for peace” – see how great the power of peace is. Come and see, a flesh-and-blood human, if he has an enemy, he looks for and seeks out what [harm] to do to him. What does he do to him? He goes and seeks a man greater than he is, to cause harm to that enemy. But the Holy One blessed be He is not like that. Instead, all the idolaters anger Him and yet they go to sleep and all their souls ascend to Him [during their sleep]. From where is this derived? It is as it is stated: “In whose hand is the life of every living being” (Job 12:10)…
Devarim Rabbah 5:15
“The priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and erase it in the water of bitterness” (Numbers 5:23).
“[The priest] shall write these curses.” Why water? It is from the place that she came. And dirt; it is to the place that she is going. “Shall write” – it is before Him to whom she is destined to give a reckoning.
“Curses” – does he perhaps write all the curses in the Torah? The verse states: “These.”
“The priest” – the verse disqualified an Israelite.
“In a scroll” – but not on paper…
Bamidbar Rabbah 9:20
GEMARA:
The Sages taught: After Rabbi Meir’s death, Rabbi Yehuda said to his students: Do not let the students of Rabbi Meir enter here,
into the house of study,
because they are vexatious and they do not come to study Torah, but they come to overwhelm me with
their
halakhot
.
Nevertheless,
Sumakhos,
a student of Rabbi Meir,
forced his way and entered
the house of study.
Nazir 49b:5
§
And furthermore,
it is told:
Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei were walking on the road
together.
Rabbi Meir would analyze names
and discern one’s nature from his name, while
Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei were not
apt to
analyze names. When they came to a certain place, they looked for lodging
and
were given
it.
They said
to the innkeeper:
What is your name? He said to them:
My name is
Kidor.
Rabbi Meir
said
to himself: Perhaps one can
learn from this that he is a wicked person…
Yoma 83b:12
The Sages taught: After the death of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda said to his students: Do not let the students of Rabbi Meir enter here
into our house of study,
because they are vexatious [
kanteranim
]. And they do not come to study Torah,
but
rather they come to overwhelm me with
halakhot
. Sumakhos,
a student of Rabbi Meir,
pushed and entered
anyway.
He said to them: This
is what
Rabbi Meir taught me:
With regard to a priest
who betroths
a woman
with his portion
of the offerings…
Kiddushin 52b:13
Ravina said
in response: What is the difficulty?
But is it not
so that when
anyone sees Rabbi Meir
studying Torah
in the study hall,
it is
as though he is uprooting the highest of mountains and grinding them into each other?
Rabbi Meir was a greater scholar than Reish Lakish, so it was fitting for Reish Lakish to speak of him with reverence.
Sanhedrin 24a:8
It is related that there was
a certain steward who was in Rabbi Meir’s neighborhood who was selling land
belonging to the orphans
and purchasing slaves
with the proceeds,
and Rabbi Meir did not allow him
to do this, as the practice is contrary to
halakha
.
They showed him in his dream
the words:
I wish to destroy and you build?
He understood this as a sign that God wanted the orphans to suffer financial collapse, and therefore it would be preferable to allow the steward to continue his practice…
Gittin 52a:13-14
The Gemara relates:
Rabba bar Sheila found Elijah
the prophet, who had appeared to him. He
said to
Elijah:
What is the Holy One, Blessed be He, doing?
Elijah
said to him: He is stating
halakhot
transmitted by all of the Sages, but in the name of Rabbi Meir He will not speak. He said to him: Why?
He replied:
Because he learned
halakhot
from the mouth of
Aḥer
. He said to him: Why
should he be judged unfavorably for that?
Rabbi Meir found a pomegranate
and
ate its contents
while
throwing away its peel…
Chagigah 15b:11
On the topic of Rabbi Meir and his Torah study, the Gemara cites an additional statement.
Rabbi Aḥa bar Ḥanina said: It is revealed and known before the One Who spoke and the world came into being that in the generation of Rabbi Meir there was no
one of the Sages who is
his equal. Why
then
didn’t
the Sages
establish the
halakha
in accordance with his
opinion? It is
because his colleagues were unable to ascertain the profundity of his opinion.
He was so brilliant that he could present a cogent argument for any position…
Eruvin 13b:3-5
“Stay tonight, and it will be, in the morning, if he will redeem you, good, he will redeem; but if he will be unwilling to redeem you, I will redeem you, as the Lord lives, lie until the morning” (Ruth 3:13).
“Stay tonight” – tonight you are lying without a man, but you will not lie another night without a man. “It will be in the morning, if he will redeem you, good, he will redeem; but if he will be unwilling to redeem you…” Rabbi Meir was sitting and expounding in the study hall in Tiberias, and Elisha his teacher was passing through the marketplace riding a horse on Shabbat…
Ruth Rabbah 6:4
GEMARA:
Rav Yehuda says
that
Shmuel says in the name of Rabbi Meir: When I was studying Torah before Rabbi Akiva,
as his disciple,
I used to put iron sulfate into the ink
with which I wrote Torah scrolls,
and he did not say anything to me
in protest. Afterward,
when I came
to learn Torah
before Rabbi Yishmael, he said to me: My son, what is your vocation? I said to him: I am a scribe [
lavlar
]
who writes Torah scrolls.
He said to me: My son, be careful
in your work,
as your work is the work of Heaven…
Sotah 20a:9
it would not be sacrificed.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s son
said to him: Who are these
Sages
whose water we drink but whose names we do not mention?
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi
said to him:
They are
people who sought to abolish your honor and the honor of your father’s house.
His son
said to him,
citing the verse:
“Their love as well as their hatred and their envy is long ago perished”
(Ecclesiastes 9:6): That was long ago and they have already died. Therefore, there is no harm in mentioning their names…
Horayot 14a:1-2
They
then
went
and
engraved the image of Rabbi Meir at the entrance of Rome
where it would be seen by everyone, and they
said: Anyone who sees
a man with
this face should bring him
here.
One day,
Romans
saw
Rabbi Meir and
ran after him,
and
he ran away from them
and
entered a brothel
to hide.
Some say
he then escaped capture because
he saw
food
cooked by gentiles
and
dipped [
temash
] this
finger
in
the food
and tasted
it
with that
other finger…
Avodah Zarah 18b:3
The Gemara challenges this statement:
Is that so? Didn’t Rav Yehuda say
that
Shmuel said in the name of Rabbi Meir: When I studied with Rabbi Akiva
as his disciple,
I used to put iron sulfate into the ink, and he did not say anything to me. But when I came
to study
with Rabbi Yishmael, he said to me: My son, what is your vocation? I replied: I am a scribe [
lavlar
]
who writes Torah scrolls.
He said to me: My son, be careful in your vocation, as your vocation is heavenly service…
Eruvin 13a:9
The Gemara relates:
Rabbi Meir would ridicule transgressors
by saying it is easy to avoid temptation.
One day, Satan appeared to him as a woman
standing
on the other side of the river.
Since
there was no ferry
to cross the river,
he took hold of a rope bridge and crossed
the river.
When he reached halfway
across
the rope bridge,
the evil inclination
left him and said
to him:
Were it not for
the fact that
they proclaim about you in heaven: Be careful with regard to Rabbi Meir and his Torah…
Kiddushin 81a:13
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