Righteousness or Witchcraft? Rav Naḥman’s Daughters And The Captivity and Miraculous Escape of Rav Ilish (Gittin 45a)
Birds, Boiling Pots, and Betrayal: Rav Naḥman’s Daughters and Rav Ilish’s Journey
This passage narrates a dramatic story about Rav Naḥman’s daughters and Rav Ilish, with themes of captivity, miracles, and evaluating righteousness.
Outline
Rav Naḥman’s Daughters’ Apparent Piety
Birds' Warnings and a Miracle
Testing the Daughters’ Faith
Escape and Consequences
Reevaluation of the Daughters’ Feat
The Passage
Rav Naḥman’s Daughters’ Apparent Piety
Rav Naḥman’s daughters could stir boiling pots with their bare hands, a feat attributed to their righteousness.
Rav Ilish (רב עיליש) questioned this in light of Ecclesiastes 7:28, which implies the rarity of finding virtuous women.
His words invoked the evil eye, leading to their captivity, along with Rav Ilish himself.
בנתיה דרב נחמן בחשן קדרא בידייהו.
קשיא ליה לרב עיליש,
כתיב:
״אדם אחד מאלף מצאתי
ואשה בכל אלה לא מצאתי״,
הא איכא בנתיה דרב נחמן!
גרמא להו מילתא, ואשתביין,
ואישתבאי איהו נמי בהדייהו.
The Gemara relates that Rav Naḥman’s daughters would stir a boiling pot with their bare hands, and people thought that the heat did not harm them due to their righteousness.
Rav Ilish had a difficulty with a verse,
as it is written:
“A man one of a thousand I have found,
and a woman among all those have I not found” (Ecclesiastes 7:28).
Aren’t there Rav Naḥman’s daughters, who were exceptionally righteous?
These words caused them to be taken captive, due to the evil eye,
and Rav Ilish was also taken captive with them.
Birds' Warnings and a Miracle
While in captivity, a man who understood bird language translated the calls of a raven and a dove.
The raven warned Rav Ilish to escape, but he dismissed it as unreliable.
When the dove repeated the warning, Rav Ilish interpreted it as a divine sign, as Israel is compared to a dove. He decided to attempt an escape.
יומא חד הוה יתיב גביה ההוא גברא, דהוה ידע בלישנא דציפורי.
אתא עורבא, וקא קרי ליה.
אמר ליה: מאי קאמר?
אמר ליה: ״עיליש ברח, עיליש ברח״.
אמר: עורבא שקרא הוא, ולא סמיכנא עליה.
אדהכי, אתא יונה וקא קריא.
אמר ליה: מאי קאמרה?
אמר ליה: ״עיליש ברח, עיליש ברח״.
אמר: כנסת ישראל כיונה מתילא, שמע מינה מתרחיש לי ניסא.
One day a certain man was sitting with him in captivity who knew the language of birds.
A raven came and called to Rav Ilish.
Rav Ilish said to the man: What is the raven saying?
He said to him that it is saying: Ilish, escape; Ilish, escape.
Rav Ilish said: It is a lying raven, and I do not rely on it.
In the meantime, a dove came and was calling out.
Rav Ilish said to the man: What is it saying?
He said to him that the dove said: Ilish, escape; Ilish, escape.
Ilish said: The Congregation of Israel is compared to a dove; I conclude from the dove’s words that a miracle will happen for me, and I can attempt to escape.
Testing the Daughters’ Faith
Before fleeing, Rav Ilish decided to visit Rav Naḥman’s daughters to assess their faithfulness and proper conduct before deciding whether to escort them back home.
He decided to eavesdrop on them in the outhouse, as he believed women discuss everything there (including secrets).
He overheard them expressing a preference to stay with their captors, whom they now considered their husbands, and planning to avoid being found and redeemed by their original husbands from Neharde’a. This convinced him of their lack of loyalty.
אמר: איזיל אחזי בנתיה דרב נחמן, אי קיימן בהימנותייהו – אהדרינהו.
אמר: נשי, כל מילי דאית להו, סדרן להדדי בבית הכסא.
שמעינהו דקאמרן:
עדי גוברין, ונהרדעי גוברין,
לימא להו לשבוייהו דלירחקינהו מהכא, דלא ליתו אינשין ולישמעי וליפרקינן.
Rav Ilish said: Before I leave, I will go and I will see Rav Naḥman’s daughters. If they remained steadfast in their faith and are acting appropriately, then I will take them with me and I will return them to their home.
He said: Women tell all of their secret matters to each other in the bathroom, so he went there to eavesdrop on them.
He heard them saying:
These captors are now our husbands, and the men of Neharde’a to whom we are married are our husbands.
We should tell our captors to distance us from here so that our husbands should not come to this area and hear that we are here, and redeem us, and take us home. They preferred to remain with their captors.
Escape and Consequences
Rav Ilish escaped with the man who understood bird language.
A miracle allowed Rav Ilish to cross a river safely on a ferry (מברא), but the man was caught and killed.
קם, ערק, אתא איהו וההוא גברא.
לדידיה איתרחיש ליה ניסא, עבר במברא,
וההוא גברא, אשכחוה וקטלוה.
Upon hearing this Rav Ilish arose and escaped. He and that man who knew the language of the birds came to a river crossing.
A miracle happened for him and he crossed the river on a ferry,
and the captors found that man and killed him.
Reevaluation of the Daughters’ Feat
Upon the daughters' return from captivity, Rav Ilish declared that their ability to stir boiling pots was not due to righteousness but witchcraft, overturning their earlier perceived piety.
כי הדרן ואתן,
אמר: הוו קא בחשן קידרא בכשפים.
When Rav Naḥman’s daughters were returned and they came back from their captivity,
Rav Ilish said: They would stir the pot with witchcraft, and that is why they were not burned by the boiling pot, but it was not due to their righteousness.