Rose Water and Decadence: Rava and the Pleasure-seeking Bar-Sheshakh (Avodah Zarah 65a)
Intro and summary
The Talmudic passage describes an encounter between Rava, a major Talmudic sage (4th generation Babylonia), and Bar Sheshakh, a non-Jewish government minister, during a non-Jewish festival (איד).1
Rava visits Bar Sheshakh, bringing a gift, stating that Bar-Sheshakh does not worship idols, and it is therefore halachically permitted to give him a gift on a non-Jewish holiday.
He finds Bar Sheshakh indulging in luxury: immersed in rose water (וורדא) and surrounded by naked prostitutes. He rhetorically asks Rava whether the Jewish concept of the World-to-Come (עלמא דאתי - Olam Haba) offers anything superior. Rava asserts that the Jewish afterlife is indeed superior, highlighting the absence of earthly fears such as governmental oppression.
As they converse, a royal officer interrupts, summoning Bar Sheshakh to the king, which ironically confirms Rava's point about the omnipresence of such fears. As Bar Sheshakh leaves, he blesses Rava, wishing that anyone who casts the evil eye upon Rava (עינא דבעי למיחזי לכו בישותא), that person’s eye should burst (פקע). Subsequently, Bar Sheshakh's own eye bursts.
The passage
רבא אמטי ליה קורבנא לבר שישך ביום אידם
אמר: ידענא ביה, דלא פלח לעבודת כוכבים
אזל, אשכחיה דיתיב עד צואריה בוורדא, וקיימן זונות ערומות קמיה
א"ל: אית לכו כה"ג לעלמא דאתי?
א"ל: דידן עדיפא טפי מהאי
א"ל: טפי מהאי מי הוה?!
א"ל: אתון, איכא עלייכו אימתא דמלכותא, אנן לא תיהוי עלן אימתא דמלכותא
א"ל: אנא מיהא, מאי אימתא דמלכותא איכא עלי?!
עד דיתבי, אתא ההוא פריסתקא דמלכא
א"ל: קום, דקבעי לך מלכא
כי נפיק ואזיל, א"ל: עינא דבעי למיחזי לכו בישותא, תיפקע
א"ל רבא: אמן
פקע עיניה דבר שישך
The Gemara relates: Rava brought a gift to a minister named bar Sheshakh on their festival day.
Rava said: I know of him that he does not worship idols.
Rava went to him and found him sitting up to his neck in rose water, and naked prostitutes were standing before him.
Bar Sheshakh said to him: Do you have anything as fine as this in the World-to-Come?
Rava said to him: Ours is better than this.
Bar Sheshakh said to him: Is there anything finer than this?!
Rava said to him: You have the fear of the government upon you; we will not have the fear of the government upon us in the World-to-Come.
Bar Sheshakh said to him: As for me, in any event, what fear of the government is there upon me? I am a powerful man.
While they were sitting, a certain royal officer [peristaka] came
and said to bar Sheshakh: Rise, as the king requires you to appear before him.
As he was going out, he said to Rava: May any eye that wishes to see evil upon you burst, as it is clear that you were correct.
Rava said to him: Amen.
And then bar Sheshakh’s eye burst.
On this word, see Hebrew Wiktionary:
לשון חז"ל — יום חג של נוכרים.
The word likely is etymologically related to the Arabic eid / id (properly transliterated into Hebrew as עיד). See, for example, Hebrew Wikipedia, “עיד אל-פיטר” (Eid al-Fitr):
עיד אל-פיטר (בערבית: عيد الفطر, בתעתיק מדויק: "עיד אלפטר", "חג שבירת הצום"
And see Wiktionary on the Arabic word:
Borrowed from Aramaic, compare Classical Syriac ܥܺܐܕܳܐ (ʿēḏā).
It is also etymologically related to the biblical Hebrew word for holiday, mo’ed (מועד)