Talmud - Menachot 53b מנחות נ״ג ב׳

In the phrase: Son of yadid, this yadid is Abraham, as it is written: “What has My beloved [lididi] to do in My house” (Jeremiah 11:15). This verse is referring to Abraham, as will be explained. In the phrase: And build yadid, this yadid is the Temple, as it is written: “How lovely [yedidot] are Your tabernacles” (Psalms 84:2). And with regard to the term in the phrase: For Yadid, this is the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it is written: “Let me sing of my Beloved [lididi]” (Isaiah 5:1).

In the portion of yadid; this yadid is the tribe of Benjamin, in whose territory the Temple was built, as it is stated that Moses blessed Benjamin in the following terms: “Of Benjamin he said: The beloved [yedid] of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him” (Deuteronomy 33:12). And let yedidim achieve atonement through it; these yedidim are the Jewish people, as it is written with regard to them: “I have given the dearly beloved [yedidut] of My soul into the hand of her enemies” (Jeremiah 12:7).

Rabbi Ezra stated another, similar homily: Let the good one come and receive the good from the Good for the good ones. He explained: Let the good one come; this good is Moses, as it is written about him: “And when she saw him that he was a goodly child” (Exodus 2:2). And receive the good; this good is the Torah, as it is written about the Torah: “For I give you a good doctrine; do not forsake my Torah” (Proverbs 4:2). From the Good; this is referring to the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it is written: “The Lord is good to all” (Psalms 145:9). For the good ones; these good ones are the Jews, as it is written with regard to them: “Do good, Lord, to the good ones” (Psalms 125:4).

Rabbi Ezra stated yet another homily structured in a similar manner. Let this one come and receive this from this One for this people. He explained: Let this one come; this is referring to Moses, as it is written about him: “For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:1). And receive this; this is referring to the Torah, as it is written: “And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 4:44). From this One; this is referring to the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it is written: “This is my God and I will glorify Him” (Exodus 15:2). For this people; these people are the Jews, as it is stated about them: “This people that You have gotten” (Exodus 15:16).

§ It was stated above that the verse: “What has My beloved to do in My house,” is a reference to Abraham. The Gemara homiletically interprets the complete verse and the one after it: “What has My beloved to do in My house, seeing that she has performed lewdness with many, and the hallowed flesh is passed from you? When you do evil, then you rejoice. The Lord called your name a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit; with the sound of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken” (Jeremiah 11:15–16). Rabbi Yitzḥak says: At the time when the First Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, Blessed be He, found Abraham standing in the Temple. He said to Abraham: “What has My beloved to do in My house?”

Abraham said to God: I have come over matters concerning my children, to discover why God is destroying the Temple and exiling them from Eretz Yisrael. God said to Abraham: The reason is that your children sinned, and therefore they are being exiled from the land. Abraham said to God: Perhaps they sinned unwittingly, and they do not deserve such a terrible punishment. God said to him: “Seeing that she has performed lewdness [hamzimmata],” i.e., her evil actions were intentional. Abraham further said to God: Perhaps only a minority of Jews sinned, and the rest of the people should be spared punishment. God said to him: “With many,” i.e., the majority of the people are culpable.

Abraham continued to contend: Even so, You should have remembered the merit of the covenant of circumcision, which would have protected them from retribution. God said to him: “And the hallowed flesh is passed from you,” as they neglected the mitzva of circumcision. Abraham persisted and said to God: Perhaps if You would have waited for them, they would have returned in repentance. God said to him: “When you do evil then you rejoice.” That is, it is proper for them to be punished without delay, and they should not be given time to repent, since when they sin and are not punished they rejoice and live at ease, and rather than repent they are encouraged to do more evil.

Once all his arguments had been refuted, Abraham immediately placed his hands on his head in an act of mourning, and was screaming and crying. And he said to God: Is it conceivable, Heaven forbid, that the Jewish people have no further opportunity for remedy? A Divine Voice emerged and said to him the continuation of the verse: “The Lord called your name a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit.” Just as with regard to this olive tree, its final purpose is fulfilled at its end, when its fruit is picked, so too, with regard to the Jewish people, their final purpose will be fulfilled at their end, i.e., they will ultimately repent and return to Me.

The Gemara analyzes the last part of the same verse: “With the sound of a great tumult [hamulla] He has kindled fire upon it, and its branches [daliyyotav] are broken” (Jeremiah 11:16). Rabbi Ḥinnana bar Pappa says: From the sound of the words [milleihen] of the spies that Moses sent to Eretz Yisrael and who brought back an evil report, the branches of the Jewish people were broken. As Rabbi Ḥinnana bar Pappa says: The spies said a serious statement at that moment: “They are stronger than us” (Numbers 13:31). Do not read the phrase as: “Stronger than us [mimmenu],” but rather read it as: Stronger than Him [mimmennu], meaning that even the Homeowner, God, is unable to remove His belongings from there, as it were. The spies were speaking heresy and claiming that the Canaanites were stronger than God Himself.

Rabbi Ḥiyya, son of Rabbi Ḥinnana, objects to this interpretation. This phrase: “With the sound of a great tumult [hamulla],” is problematic according to your claim that it is a reference to the words of the spies. According to your interpretation, it should have stated: With the sound of a word [mila]. Rather, Rabbi Ḥiyya interprets this phrase in accordance with the earlier explanation that these verses are referring to Abraham’s discussion with God at the time of the destruction of the Temple. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Abraham: I heard your voice, and I took pity [ḥamalti] on the Jewish people and will punish them less harshly. I had previously said that the Jews will be subjugated by four kingdoms: Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and each and every one of these kingdoms will subjugate them for the measure of time I had originally set for their subjugation to all four kingdoms put together.

But now that you have prayed for them, the Jewish people will be subjugated to each one of these four kingdoms only for the amount of time stipulated for each one separately. And there are those who say that God said the following to Abraham: I initially said that these kingdoms will rule over the Jews one after the other, each of them for a separate period. Now I decree that their dominion shall occur simultaneously in different geographical regions, which will shorten the overall duration of the subjugation.

The verse in Jeremiah compares the Jewish people to an olive tree: “The Lord called your name a leafy olive tree.” Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi says: Why were the Jewish people likened to an olive tree? It is to tell you that just as the leaves of an olive tree never fall off, neither in the summer nor in the rainy season, so too, the Jewish people will never be nullified, neither in this world nor in the World-to-Come. And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Why were the Jewish people likened to an olive tree? It is to tell you that just as an olive tree brings forth its oil only by means of crushing and breaking, so too, the Jewish people, if they sin, return to good ways only by means of suffering.

§ The mishna teaches that Rabbi Meir says: With regard to the leaven added to the dough to facilitate leavening, one separates part of the flour for the meal offerings from within the flour of the meal offerings themselves and leavens the meal offerings with it. Rabbi Yehuda maintains that one brings the leaven from another, aged, dough. The Rabbis subsequently questioned Rabbi Yehuda’s opinion, claiming that according to his ruling the measure of the meal offering would be lacking or would be greater than required. The Gemara inquires: What is the meaning of: Lacking or greater?

Rav Ḥisda said: If the leavening dough that was brought from elsewhere is stiff, as its flour was mixed with a small amount of water, and it is relatively small in volume, when this stiff leaven is measured with the fine flour, the amount of fine flour for the meal offering is found to be greater than a tenth of an ephah when the measuring vessel is filled. This is because it will be necessary to add more flour to make up for the small volume of leavening dough. Conversely, if the leavening dough is soft, i.e., its flour was mixed with a larger amount of water, its volume will be larger than it should be, which will mean that the measuring vessel will be filled with less fine flour than normal, and the amount of flour is found to be lacking.

The Gemara raises a difficulty with the interpretation of Rav Ḥisda: Why does it matter if the leavening dough is stiff or soft? Ultimately, when the one preparing the meal offering measures the leaven brought from elsewhere together with the fine flour used for the meal offering, he measures and reaches the requisite amount of a tenth of an ephah, as the measure is full either way.

Rabba and Rav Yosef both say: In order to achieve the appropriate measure it is necessary to know how much flour the substance contained before water was added and it became dough. The reason is that one measures the tenth of an ephah in accordance with the amount there was of the flour of the leavening dough before it was mixed with water, together with the fine flour of the meal offering, and not in accordance with their present volume.

The Gemara asks: But even according to the opinion of Rabbis, who hold that Rabbi Yehuda’s method may not be used because the amount might be lacking or be greater than it should be, let him take a little fine flour from the tenth of an ephah after it has been measured and found to be the requisite amount, and leaven it thoroughly outside the rest of the dough, and afterward bring it and knead it together with the rest of the dough. In this way it is possible to bring leaven from the outside and to be certain that the meal offering contains exactly the correct measure. The Gemara answers: One cannot proceed in this manner, due to a rabbinic decree. The reason for this decree is that people who would see this practice might mistakenly think that the leavened portion was not part of the original fine flour, and perhaps they will come to bring leavening dough for their meal offerings from elsewhere, i.e., leavening dough that has not been consecrated for the meal offering.

§ The Sages taught in a baraita: One may not leaven the meal offerings that come as leavened bread

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Menachot 53b explores homiletical wordplay linking terms like beloved and good to Abraham, Moses, the Temple, and the Jewish people through biblical verses.