Explosive Endings: Two Talmudic Tales of Supernaturally Killing Via Explosion (Shabbat 30b and Moed Katan 17a-b)
For other stories of supernatural explosions, see my piece on Rava and Bar-Sheshakh (פקע עיניה), and my forthcoming piece on the sugya at the end of Tractate Pesachim (פקע שידא and פקע חביתא)
Story of Supernaturally killing someone with wine (Shabbat 30b)
The Talmud recounts incidents where Sages dealt with people making potentially very harmful false claims about their families’ personal statuses. One man claimed that R' Yehuda HaNasi's wife and children were his.1 R' Yehuda HaNasi offered him wine, which caused the man to burst and die after drinking it.
Similarly, another man claimed to R' Ḥiyya that R' Ḥiyya’s mother was his wife and R' Ḥiyya was his son. R' Ḥiyya also offered him wine, with the same fatal result.
R' Ḥiyya noted that R' Yehuda HaNasi's prayers protected his children from being labeled illegitimate. R' Yehuda HaNasi’s prayer included a plea to be saved from impudent people and insolence, interpreted as preventing claims of illegitimacy.
כי הא דההוא דאתא לקמיה דרבי
אמר ליה: אשתך אשתי, ובניך בני.
אמר ליה: רצונך שתשתה כוס של יין?
שתה, ופקע.
ההוא דאתא לקמיה דרבי חייא,
אמר ליה: אמך אשתי, ואתה בני.
אמר ליה: רצונך שתשתה כוס של יין?
שתה, ופקע.
אמר רבי חייא: אהניא ליה צלותיה לרבי, דלא לשווייה בני ממזירי.
דרבי, כי הוה מצלי, אמר: ״יהי רצון מלפניך ה׳ אלהינו, שתצילני היום מעזי פנים ומעזות פנים״.
As in the case of that man who came before R' Yehuda HaNasi
and said to him: Your wife is my wife and your children are my children,
R' Yehuda HaNasi said to him: Would you like to drink a cup of wine?
He drank and burst and died.
Similarly, the Gemara relates: There was that man who came before R' Ḥiyya
and said to him: Your mother is my wife, and you are my son.
He said to him: Would you like to drink a cup of wine?
He drank and burst and died.
R' Ḥiyya said with regard to the incident involving R' Yehuda HaNasi: R' Yehuda HaNasi’s prayer that his children will not be rendered mamzerim, children of illicit relations, was effective for him.
As when R' Yehuda HaNasi would pray, he said after his prayer: May it be Your will, O Lord, my God, that You will deliver me today from impudent people and from insolence. Insolence, in this case, refers to mamzerut. It was due to his prayer that that man burst and was unsuccessful in disparaging R' Yehuda HaNasi’s children.
Story of Excommunicating and supernaturally killing a violent person (Moed Katan 17a-b)
This story involves an unnamed violent person (אלמא) harassing a Torah scholar. The scholar sought Rav Yosef's advice, who instructed him to excommunicate the aggressor.
Fearful of further harassment, Rav Yosef suggested a supernatural method:
Put the written ostracism in a jug.
Place the jug in a cemetery
Sound 1,000 shofar blasts over the course of 40 days.
The scholar executed this method, the jug burst, and the violent man died.
ההוא אלמא דהוה קא מצער ליה לההוא צורבא מרבנן,
אתא לקמיה דרב יוסף,
אמר ליה: זיל שמתיה.
אמר ליה: מסתפינא מיניה.
אמר ליה: שקיל פתיחא עליה.
כל שכן דמסתפינא מיניה.
אמר ליה: שקליה, אחתיה בכדא, ואחתיה בי קברי, וקרי ביה אלפא שפורי בארבעין יומין.
אזיל עביד הכי,
פקע כדא, ומית אלמא.
There was a violent person who caused suffering to a certain Torah scholar.
This Torah scholar came before Rav Yosef to ask what he should do.
Rav Yosef said to him: Go and ostracize him.
This Torah scholar said to him: I am afraid of him, that he will harass me even more.
Rav Yosef said to him: Take out, i.e., publish a written ostracism against him.
The Torah scholar said to him: All the more so I am fearful of him, for if I publicize the matter he will certainly come after me.
Rav Yosef said to him to do as follows: Take the written ostracism and place it in a jug, and set it down in a cemetery, where nobody is found, and sound a thousand, i.e., many, shofar blasts over the course of forty days.
That man went and did this.
The jug burst and the violent man died.
Interestingly, while the story is written in Aramaic, the quotes spoken are in Hebrew, indicating reliance on an earlier source, or known phrases:
אשתך אשתי, ובניך בני (in the story of Rebbe)
אמך אשתי, ואתה בני (in the story of R’ Hiyya)
רצונך שתשתה כוס של יין (in both stories)
For a previous part of this sugya, see my three-part series here: From Admonishment to Excommunication: The Talmudic Laws of Ostracism (Moed Katan 16a-b).