Pt2 "Alas!": Thirteen Additional Stories Regarding the Reliability and Validity of Testimony About a Husband’s Death in the Context of Remarriage (Yevamot 121b-122b)
“Ḥasa has drowned”; “Desecreate Shabbat, or I will kill you”; “the Jew who was with me on the road"; "group of collared people"; "60 people who were walking on the road to the siege of Betar"
Part two of a three-part series. The first part is here. This part contains stories #4-8 (see the outline in the first part). Continuation of the previous three-part series: “Endless Water” (Yevamot 121a-b), final installment of that series here.
Story of “Who is from the house of Ḥasa? Ḥasa has drowned!”
A gentile announced that an otherwise-unknown person named Ḥasa had drowned.1 Reacting to this, Rav Naḥman exclaimed, using a name of God, that “the fish ate Ḥasa!”.
Although Rav Naḥman did not formally rule on the matter, his statement led to Ḥasa’s wife remarrying without any community objection.
An additional opinion is quoted stating that Rav Naḥman did indeed issue a formal ruling permitting the remarriage. He reasoned that Ḥasa, being that he was a prominent man,2 it would have been widely known if he had survived the drowning. The lack of any news about Ḥasa supported the conclusion that he had indeed died.
ההוא דהוה קאמר ואזיל: ״מאן איכא בי חסא? טבע חסא״.
אמר רב נחמן: האלקים! אכלו כוורי לחסא!
מדיבוריה דרב נחמן, אזלא דביתהו דחסא ואינסבא, ולא אמרו לה ולא מידי.
[...]
איכא דאמרי, אנסבה רב נחמן לדביתהו,
אמר: חסא גברא רבה איתיה, אם איתא דסליק — קלא אית ליה למילתא.
[...]
There was also a certain gentile who was going around saying: Who is from the house of Ḥasa? Ḥasa has drowned.
Rav Naḥman said: By God! The fish have eaten Ḥasa.
The Gemara relates: Due to Rav Naḥman’s statement, although he did not issue a court ruling permitting it, Ḥasa’s wife went and married, and no one said anything to her to protest this action.
[...]
There are those who say that Rav Naḥman actually issued a ruling and allowed his wife to marry.
He said: Ḥasa is a great man; if it was so that he emerged from the water the incident would have generated publicity. Since nothing was heard from Ḥasa in a long while, it can be assumed that he died.
[...]
Story of “Harvest the fodder and give it to my animals on Shabbat, and if not, I will kill you!”
The Gemara recounts a situation where a gentile threatened an unnamed Jew, saying he would kill him if he did not feed his animals on Shabbat. The gentile referenced a previous incident where he claimed to have killed another Jew for not cooking a pot of food on Shabbat.
The wife of the Jew mentioned in this threat heard about the gentile's claim, and approached Abaye to ask if she could remarry based on this testimony. Abaye delayed her case for Three Pilgrimage Festivals,3 periods when sages gathered to study, but he was unable to resolve the uncertainty during these times.
She was then advised by Rav Adda bar Ahava to consult the more senior sage Rav Yosef. Rav Adda bar Ahava adds that Rav Yosef is noted for his sharp analytical skills4 in halakhic matters.W
hen she presented her case to Rav Yosef, he resolved it based on a specific baraita (this part is technical, and I skip it).
ההוא גוי דהוה קאמר ליה לישראל:
קטול אספסתא, ושדי לחיו[ת]אי בשבתא,
ואי לא — קטילנא לך כדקטילנא לפלוני בר ישראל,
דאמרי ליה: בשיל לי קדירה בשבת, ולא בשיל לי, וקטילתיה.
שמעה דביתהו, ואתאי לקמיה דאביי.
(שהיתא) תלתא ריגלי.
אמר לה רב אדא בר אהבה: זיל לקמיה דרב יוסף, דחריף סכינא.
אזלה קמיה.
פשט מהא מתניתין:
[...]
The Gemara relates that a certain gentile said to a Jew:
Harvest the fodder and give it to my animals on Shabbat,
and if not, I will kill you like I killed so-and-so the Jew,
for I said to him: Cook me a pot of food on Shabbat, and he didn’t cook it for me, so I killed him.
The wife of the missing Jew heard the gentile say that he killed her husband, and she came before Abaye to ask if she was permitted to remarry.
He deferred the ruling in her case for three pilgrim Festivals, on which the Sages gather together to study, but he could not resolve this uncertainty on any of those occasions.
Rav Adda bar Ahava said to her: Go before Rav Yosef, whose knife is sharp, i.e., he has keen insight into halakhic matters, and ask him to decide your case.
She went before him
and he resolved the case based on this baraita:
[...]
Story of “Alas for the Jew who was with me on the road, for he died, and I buried him!”
Abba Yudan of Tzaydan5 recounted an incident where a Jew and a gentile were traveling together. After their journey, only the gentile returned and reported that the Jew had died and that he had buried him.
Based on the gentile's testimony, unnamed Sages decided to trust his statement and permitted the widow of the deceased Jew to remarry.
אבא יודן איש ציידן אמר:
מעשה בישראל וגוי שהלכו בדרך,
ובא גוי ואמר: ״חבל על יהודי שהיה עמי בדרך, שמת בדרך, וקברתיו״,
והשיאו אשתו.
Abba Yudan of Sidon said:
An incident occurred involving a Jew and a gentile who traveled on the road,
and later the gentile came and said: Alas for the Jew who was with me on the road, for he died, and I buried him.
And the Sages relied upon this statement and allowed his wife to marry.
Story of “Alas for the group of collared people, for they died, and I buried them!”
There was an incident involving a group of people who were taken captive and each was shackled with a collar6 around his neck, being led to Antioch.7 Later, a gentile came forward and reported that this group of collared individuals had died, and he had buried them.
Based on the gentile's account, the Sages permitted the wives of these deceased individuals to remarry.
ושוב מעשה:
בקולר של בני אדם, שהיו מהלכין לאנטוכיא,
ובא גוי אחד ואמר: ״חבל על קולר של בני אדם, שמתו, וקברתים״,
והשיאו את נשותיהם.
And there was another incident
involving a group of people who had been taken prisoner, each of whom was shackled with a collar around his neck, and they were walking to Antioch.
And some time later a certain gentile came and said: Alas for the group of collared people, for they died, and I buried them.
And the Sages allowed their wives to marry.
Story of “Alas for those 60 people who were walking on the road to Betar, for they died, and I buried them!”
In another reported incident, sixty individuals were on their way to the siege at Betar.8 Subsequently, a gentile reported that these sixty people had died on the road to Betar and that he had buried them.
Based on this testimony, the Sages permitted the wives of these deceased individuals to remarry.
ושוב מעשה:
בששים בני אדם, שהיו מהלכין לכרכום ביתר,
ובא גוי ואמר: ״חבל על ששים בני אדם שהיו מהלכין בדרך ביתר, שמתו, וקברתים״
והשיאו את נשותיהם.
And there was yet another incident involving sixty people who were walking to the siege [karkom] of Betar,
and later a gentile came and said: Alas for those sixty people who were walking on the road to Beitar, for they died, and I buried them.
And the Sages allowed their wives to marry.
There are a few sages in the Talmud whose patronymics contain the name Hasa, but it’s impossible to know if they’re related this specific Hasa.
גברא רבה - literally: “a great man”.
ריגלי - ”The Three Pilgrimage Festivals or Shalosh Regalim (Hebrew: שלוש רגלים, romanized: šāloš rəgālīm, or חַגִּים, ḥaggīm), are three major festivals in Judaism—two in spring; Passover, 49 days later Shavuot; and in autumn Sukkot”.
So, in this context, essentially meaning around a year.
These study sessions are an early manifestation of what became know as the (Yarchei) Kallah:
“a […] convention that was held twice a year in Babylonian Academies […] after the beginning of the amoraic period, in the two months Adar and Elul.
חריף סכינא - literally: “a sharp knife”.
ציידן. This is the town in the eastern Galilee, near the Kinneret, known as Bethsaida in English, and as בית ציידה in Talmudic literature.
This is the not the major Phoenician city Sidon, as Tzaydan is often incorrectly translated, including by Steinzaltz here. See discussion here. Sidon is transliterated as צידון in the Bible and in Talmudic literature.
The Abba Yudan of Tzaydan mentioned in our text may be identical with Abba Gurion of Tzaydan, see אבא גוריון איש צידן.
אנטוכיא - a major Hellenistic and Roman city, today the city of Antakya in modern-day southern Turkey.
At the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 135 CE.