Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

"Over the nest of a bird Your mercy extended, but over that man (אותו האיש) Your mercy did not extend." (Berachot 5:9)

If, along the road, you chance upon a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. (Deut. 22:6-7)

Talmud (Berakhot 33b) - Why is a person who says "we give thanks, we give thanks," silenced? Because it appears that he is worshipping a dual deity. Why [is he silenced for saying] "for favors let Your Name be remembered"? This means for the good but not for the bad, but we are taught that a person most bless the Lord in misfortune equally as in good times. But what is the reason regarding "as far as the nest of a bird does Your mercy reach"? Two amoraim from the land of Israel – Rabbi Jose bar Avin and Rabbi Jose bar Zbeida – disagreed on this point. One said because it lead to jealousy of the act of Creation; the other said because it states that the characteristic of the Holy One, blessed be He, is mercy when it is none other than issuing verdicts. Once someone came to pray before Rabbah and said, "You had compassion for a bird's nest; show compassion and have mercy on us." Rabbah said, "Look how this Sage knows to please his Master!" Abaye said to him, "But we are taught to silence such a person." Rabbah only wanted to quiz Abaye.

However, the latter term is specifically mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud, in the answer to the second of the four sons. I believe that here, too, the reference was to the Hebrew Christians. It is a legitimate assumption that the second son, , labeled a rasha, represented the new force threatening Judaism — Christianity. The various versions of the answer to be given to the rasha reflect different periods in Jewish history. I believe that the earliest version of the answer is to be found in the seventeenth chapter oiMechilta . The interrogating son is called ben rasha. This passage states that "this one is a wicked son who has excluded himself from the Jewish community. himself from the Jewish community. Inasmuch as he has excluded himself from the community, you, too, must exclude him from the community. . . . Due to your self- exclusion from the community; if you had been there [in Egypt] you would not have been redeemed." This version most likely dates from the first century, when the Judeo-Christians still considered themselves Jews. Most Jews regarded them in the same light. The author, however, asserts emphatically that the Judeo-Christians had excluded themselves from the Jewish community by embracing Christianity and urged all Jews to exclude the members ...

y.Meg.4.10

[A] He who says, ``May the good ones bless you,`` lo, this is the way of heresy.
[He who says the following rhyme:] ``Even to a bird`s nest do your mercies extend, May your name be remembered for good, `` [or]
[C] ``We give thanks, we give thanks`` - they silence him.
[D] He who changes the pronouns [when reading] the pericope of the prohibited relationships [Lev.18] - they silence him.
[E] He who says, ```And you shall not give any of your seed to make them pass through fire to Molech ` (Lev.18.11) means, `And you shall not give of your seed to impregnate an Aramaean``` - [that is, one must not have sexual relations with an Aramaean woman] - they silence him with a rebuke.
y.Meg.4.10 I
[A] He who says, ``May the good ones bless you `` [m.Meg.4.10A]:[This indicates belief in] two dominions [one made up of good, the other made up of evil].
R. Phineas in the name of R. Simon [T4], ``It is as if he lays a reproach against the measures of the Holy One, blessed be he.``
y.Meg.4.10 II
[A] He who says, ``Even to a bird`s nest do your mercies extend`` [m.Meg.4.10B]:
[C] ``But to me your mercies do not extend.`` [This is a reproach; God cares for small things but not for the one who makes the statement.]
[D] R. Yose in the name of R. Simon [T4], ``It is as if he places a limit on the measures [of justice] of the Holy One, blessed be he.``
y.Meg.4.10 II:2
[A] Even to a bird`s nest do your mercies extend [m.Meg.4.10B]:
There is a Tannaite authority who teaches that the Mishnah is read, Even upon...
[C] There is a Tannaite authority who teaches that the Mishnah is read, Upon.... [That is, Upon a bird`s nest do your mercies rest.]
[D] He who says that it reads, ``Upon...,`` supports the view of R. Phineas.
[E] He who says it reads, ``Even to...,`` supports the view of R. Yose.
[F] Said R. Yose b. R. Bun, ``They do not do well, for they treat the measures of the Holy One, blessed be he, as acts only of mercy, [when in fact they are decrees].``
[G] Those who translate [Lev.22.28] ``My people, children of Israel, just as we are merciful in Heaven, so you must be merciful on earth; whether the mother is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill both her and her young both in one day,`` - those translators do not do well, for they treat the decrees of the Holy One, blessed be he, [merely] as acts of mercy.
y.Meg.4.10 III
[A] ``We give thanks, we give thanks`` - they silence him [m.Meg.4.10D]:
Said R. Samuel [BA1] b. R. Isaac [T5 or PA3]: ``For the mouths of liars will be stopped`` (Ps.63.11) .
[C] That is the case in public prayer. But in private, it represents supplications.
[D] Along these same lines, [If someone said,] ``Amen, Amen,`` or ``Hear, Hear.``
y.Meg.4.10 III::2]
[A] An announcer who stands before [and serves] a sage does not have the right to shorten [what the sage says] or to add to what he says or to change [what he says], unless the [announcer] was his [the sage`s] father or his master [t.Meg.3.4].

A-issa is the Madonna (simply, that is, "the woman"). Completely cryptic and indecipherable — and that was to be foreseen — is the term Odo, with which, when it was absolutely unavoidable, one alluded to Christ, lowering one's voice and looking around with circumspection.

The sensational trial of the most prominent members of the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy, accused of vilifying the Christian religion was held in Milan in the spring of 1488. In reply to inquisitors demanding the name used by Jews with reference to Jesus of Nazareth, Salomone da Como, one of the accused, answered unhesitatingly: "Among ourselves we call him "Ossoays" ("that man", from the Hebrew oto' ha-ish, according to the German pronunciation), or Talui ("the hanged one", "the crucified one"), or Talui ("the hanged one", "the crucified one"), while, when speaking to Christians, we always refer to him as “Christ” [Latin «Quomodo (judaei) vocant Iesum de Nazaret quem adorant christiani? [...] Dicit quod (inter se) vocant Ossoays et Talui et quando locunt cum chri- stianis vocant Christo»]. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZV4VA ... 22&f=false

Abulafia argued against the messianic claims of Jesus by saying that the Torah alluded to him in the verse (Dt 31:16) and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers (אֱלֹהֵי נֵכַר) of the land. The numerical value of the Hebrew letters forming the words "the gods of the strangers" are perfectly equivalent to the Hebrew W, adding both to 316. Flavius Mithridates remarks that a greater mystery is hidden in the Biblical passage: if one also adds the next word in the Hebrew of the Bible (the earth = הָאָרֶץ), summing up to 612, a numerical equivalence can be obtained with the phrase, “Jesus and Mary." Wirszubski argued that Mithridates, "almost twenty years after his conversion", was thus repeating an anti-Christian interpretation by parodying Abulafia's style. The fact that the Epistula de Secretis by Paulus de Heredia, later quoted also by Petrus Galatinus, could use the very same use the very same gematria as a Kabbalistic confirmation of Christianity shows that it is far from sure that Mithridates did not think of reversing Abulafia's anti-Christian pointe in order to please his patron. https://books.google.com/books?id=fPYxC ... 22&f=false

אותו האיש

6. In the Jewish dialect of Tripoli and other locations in Libya, the expression אותו האיש (utu ha ish, "that same man") or shortened to אותו (utu,"the same") was used as a name for the prophet Mohammed, and later came to denote any Moslem named Mohammed. For example, in this expression: 'nbbat bisah** zani utu l-d-dakkan - "On Pesah eve14 an Arab by the name of Mohammed came to my store". (Some individuals used the expression, including its shortened version, as a name for Jesus Christ.)

The use of "אותו האיש" as a designation confined to Jesus Christ is known to us from the late Midrashic literature, e.g. in the XD'O "pj? QETI KITHX published by A. Jellinek: ("For we know not what to do and our eyes are upon you, for innocent blood has been spilt among your people Israel because of that same man [אותו האיש]."). The usage was also well-known in Yiddish.16 It is found in Judeo-Italian as well; here, however, its pronunciation was modified, and
the expression was also shortened: odo.17 We don't know how the expression in this usage found its way into the Arabic of Libyan Jewry: Did Libyan Jews draw it directly from an ancient Hebrew source, or do we have before us the result of a contact, of whatever sort, with Italian Jewry?

It comes as no surprise that in a Moslem country which had no Christian population in the past18 a name for Jesus should be diverted to the Islamic prophet. The reduction of the meaning of אותו האיש to anyone called Mohammed and the contraction of the expression to אותו (and in Judeo-Italian to odo) with the elimination of the head of the phrase, are innovations which may be understood as natural processes within a living spoken language. (Additional names for the prophet Mohammed and for Moslems of that name are well-known in North African Jewish dialects.)19

13 Compare what has been written about in Moroccan Judeo-Arabic and in Yiddish (Bar-Asher 1978, p. https://books.google.com/books?id=H3IOA ... 8Q6AEIJjAA

How much was the sound of Bil'am? Ribbi Yohanan said: 60 Milin. Ribbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: 70 nations heard the voice of Bil'am. Ribbi El'azar Hakefar says: Hashem put power in his voice and it would rise up from one end of the earth to the other end - because he foresaw the nations bowing down to the sun and to the moon and to the stars and to wood and to stone. And he foresaw that there was a man, the son of a woman, who in the future will rise because he wants to make himself a god and to cause the entire world to stray. Therefore, He gave power in his voice that all the nations of the world would hear. And he would also say, "Pay attention so as not to stray after that man (oto ha'ish), as it is written, "God is not a man (ish), that He should lie," and if he says that he is a god, then he lies. And he is destined to lead people astray and say that he is going away and coming back at the end times. [For this, it is written,] "When He hath said, will He not do it?" See what is written, "And he took up his parable, and said: Alas, who shall live after God hath appointed him?" Bil'am said, "Alas, who shall live from that nation that followed after that man (oto ha'ish) who made himself a god?"

Did not Rab Judah say in Rab's name: 'May this man (אותו האיש) indeed be remembered for blessing — his name is R. Judah b. Baba; were it not for him, the laws of kenas would have been forgotten in Israel.' Forgotten? Then they could have been learned. But these laws might have been abolished; because once the wicked Government ... [Sanhedrin 13b - 14a]

Rab Judah said in Rab's name: In truth, that man (אותו האיש), Hananiah son of Hezekiah by name, is to be remembered for blessing: but for him, the Book of Ezekiel would have been hidden, for its words contradicted the Torah.18 What did he do? Three hundred barrels of oil were taken up to him and he sat in an upper chamber and reconciled them. [Shab 13b]

the concluding words refer to school children, from the time of the regulation of Joshua b. Gamala, of whom Rab Judah has told us in the name of Rab: Verily the name of that man (אותו האיש) is to be blessed, to wit Joshua ben Gamala, for but for him the Torah would have been forgotten from Israel. [Baba Bathra 21a]

Four entered the Garden [or Paradise]. One cast a look and died. One cast a look and was stricken [or went mad]. One cast a look and cut among the shoots. One entered safely and departed safely. Ben Azzai cast a look and was stricken. Of him Scripture says: "If you have found honey, eat only enough for you" (Prov. 25 : 16). Ben Zoma cast a look and died. Of him Scripture says: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints Psalms 116:15. Aher cast a look and cut among the shoots. Who is Aher? Elisha ben Abuyah, who slew the masters of the Torah. They say: He used to kill every every disciple he saw mastering the Torah.” Moreover, he used to enter the schoolhouse, and when he saw the pupils in the presence of the teacher, he would say, “What are these doing here? This one should be a mason. should be a carpenter. This one should be a fisherman. This one should be a tailor.” When they heard this, they would leave the teacher and go and become workmen. Of him Scripture says, “Let your mouth not lead you into sin” (Eccles 5:5) For he ruined his own deeds (שחיבל מעשה ידיו של אותו האיש).

Also at the time of the persecution they [the Romans] made [the Jews] carry burdens [on the Sabbath], and the Jews arranged it so that two people should share one load, because of the rule that two people doing one piece of work [are not liable in regard to a Sabbath violation]. Elisha said, "Make them carry the loads by themselves." They went and made them carry them by themselves, but they arranged to unload in a kar- melit [an area that cannot be classified either as private or as public space], so that they might not bring them out from private to public ground [which is forbidden]. Elisha said, "Make them carry bottles" [which would get broken if left lying]

R. Aqiba entered safely, and departed safely. Of him Scripture says: “Draw me after you, let us run” (Song of Songs 1:4). Rabbi Meir was sitting teaching in the schoolhouse of Tiberias. Elisha, his master, passed by riding on a horse on the Sabbath day. They came and said to him, "Look, your master is outside." He stopped his teaching and went out to him. He said to him, "What were you expounding today?" [Meir] said to to him, “And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning Job 42:12 Elisha said to him: With what [verse] did you begin to expound it? He said to him, "And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42 : 10), for he doubled for him all his wealth. [F] Elisha said, "Alas for the things that are lost and not found [masters of Torah]. Aqiba, your master, did not explain it thus, but, 'And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job from [i.e. , because of] his beginning' on account of the merit of the commandments and good deeds that he possessed in his former state." [G] [Elisha] said to him, "And what else have you been expounding? [H] He said to him, "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning" (Eccles. 7:8). He said to him, "How did you begin to expound it?" [J] He said to him, "[By comparing it] with a man who begot children in his youth and they died, then in his old age he started again. The end of the matter was better than its beginning. [Also by comparing it] with a man who did business in his youth and lost money, while in his old age he made a profit. This is an application of 'the end of a thing is better than its beginning.' [It applies] to a man who learned Torah in his youth and forgot it, while in his old age he learned and remembered it [lit., kept it alive]. The end of the matter was better than its beginning."

[K] [Elisha] said, "Alas for the things that are lost and not found. Aqiba your master did not explain it thus "'the end of a thing is better than its beginning' so long as it is good from its beginning."

"And so it happened to me. My father, Abuyah, was one of the important people in Jerusalem. When the day of my circumcision came, he invited all the important people of Jerusalem and sat them down in one room, with R. Eliezer and R. and R. Joshua in another room. [M] When they had eaten and drunk they began stamping their feet and dancing. [N] "R. Eliezer said to R. Joshua, "While they are occupying themselves in their way we will occupy ourselves in our way.' So they sat down and engaged in the study of the Torah, from the Pentateuch to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings. And fire fell from heaven and surrounded them. [O] "Abuyah said to them, 'My masters, have you come to burn my house down around me?' [P] "They said, 'God forbid! But we were sitting searching around in the words of the Torah from the Pentateuch to the Prophets, and from the Prophets to the Writings and the words were as alive as when they were given from Mt. Sinai.

[Q] "And the essential attribute of their being handed over at Sinai? They were given only by fire: 'And the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven' (Deut. 4:11). [R] "Abuyah, my father, said to them, 'My masters, if this is the power of the Torah, if this son of mine lives I will dedicate this son of mine to Torah.' Because his [original] intention was not for the sake of heaven, therefore it was not realized with this man (באותו האיש)