Avodah Zara 17
Summary
- The text presents the sugya’s rulings on assisting in constructing gentile institutions, the arrest of Rabbi Elazar for *minut*, and his admission that he once enjoyed a clever but heretical derash, which he identifies as a failure to heed הרחק מעליה דרכך. It elaborates the principle that one who repents from *minut*—and, in extreme attachment, even from *ervah*—may die from the overwhelming teshuva, illustrated by the story of רבי אלעזר בן דורדיא and Rebbe’s reaction that “יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת.” It records the choice of sages between a path by a פתח בית עבודה זרה and a פתח בית זונות, affirming distancing from idolatry and relying on Torah to guard from זימה, and it details the arrests and trials of רבי אלעזר בן פרטא and רבי חנינא בן תרדיון, highlighting the necessity of Torah with גמילות חסדים and the miraculous salvation of רבי אלעזר בן פרטא.
- The sugya states in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that there are three types of בסילקאות—of kings, of bathhouses, and of treasuries—explained by Rashi as strong royal structures. Rava says two are permitted and one is forbidden, with a mnemonic לאסור מלכיהם בזיקים to forbid the royal one because it serves unjust capital judgments, while an alternate version has Rava permitting all three. The apparent contradiction with the Mishnah’s ban on building בסילקי, גרדום, אצטדיון, ובימה is resolved by reading the Mishnah as referring to a בסילקי that is part of a גרדום, an אצטדיון, or a בימה, while the three independent בסילקאות are permitted.
- The arrest of Rabbi Elazar is for *minut*, and he is brought to the גרדום; the hegemon asks why a sage engages in “דברים בטלים,” and Rabbi Elazar replies נאמן עלי הדיין, intending the Judge in heaven while the hegemon assumes he means him. The hegemon declares דימוס פטור אתה, which Rashi identifies as an oath by the name of an עבודה זרה and, functionally, a term of mercy, while Ben Yehoyada analyzes the phrasing and Tosafot cites Yerushalmi that דימוס denotes רחמים; Binyan Shlomo harmonizes that they called their idol by its supposed midot. The Netziv (מרומי שדה) states that in that era “מינים” denotes Christians and that the charge targeted him as an early Christian, which explains his anguish upon release when he refuses consolation.
- The Avodat Avodah suggests two reasons for Rabbi Elazar’s inconsolability: either because he was arrested for *minut* and had benefited from a *davar minut*, or because his words allowed the hegemon to believe he agreed with idolatry. The Rema (Yoreh De’ah 157) rules that one may not explicitly claim to be an עובד כוכבים to save life, but one may use a לשון המשתמע לשני פנים; Rabbi Elazar was pained for not reaching this extra stringency, though he did not transgress.
- Rabbi Akiva asks whether a *davar minut* came to his hand and he enjoyed it, prompting Rabbi Elazar to recall Yaakov ish Kefar Sekhania citing כי מאתנן זונה קיבצה ועד אתנן זונה ישובו to permit using an *etnan zonah* to build a בית הכסא for the כהן גדול, “ממקום הטינופת באו למקום הטינופת ילכו.” Rabbi Elazar admits that he derived pleasure from the cleverness and declares that he thereby violated הרחק מעליה דרכך זו מינות and ואל תקרב אל פתח ביתה, which some identify with הרשות and others with a זונה. Rav Chisda sets the distance from the doorway of a זונה as four אמות, which Torat Chaim anchors in the linkage of פתח with a four-amot zone from Bava Batra.
- Lechem Setarim asks why Rabbi Elazar cites a verse from Nach instead of the Torah’s לא תחנם and analyzes Rambam (Avodah Zarah 10:4) that both praising the deeds of an עובד כוכבים and being מחבב their words fall under לא תחנם; he distinguishes between inward enjoyment and public praise but notes Rambam’s formulation may extend the prohibition even to internal חיבוב if it leads to making it beloved to others. The sages derive from כי מאתנן זונה that “כל זונה שנשכרת לבסוף היא שוכרת,” while Rabbi Pedat reads לא תקרבו as prohibiting only actual ערוה; Tosafot limits the conflict by treating further distancing as derabbanan with an אסמכתא not based on the verb’s literal meaning. The Netziv notes that using an *etnan* for a בית הכסא is indeed permitted and, per Tosafot, even for certain בדק הבית, so the Gemara asks what the רבנן do with the verse because no special derasha is needed to allow a בית הכסא.
- Ulla, upon returning from the beit midrash, kissed his sisters on their hands, and some report on their necks; Rashi describes post-tefila kissing of elders’ hands as דרך כבוד. The Rema, based on Sefer Chasidim and others, prohibits kissing a child in shul to avoid showing חביבות to people in a place of Hashem’s honor, while some Sephardi poskim distinguish דרך חיבה from דרך כבוד to justify the widespread practice of kissing a hakham’s hand. The Rambam decries affectionate touch of relatives when it is דרך תאווה and allows non-תאווה social contact, and contemporary pesak is illustrated by Rabbi Willig, Rav Schachter, and Rav Moshe Feinstein permitting a non-תאווה hug or kiss from a great-aunt, and by a report about Rav Shimon Shkop shaking a woman’s hand to avoid public embarrassment, though a rosh yeshiva protested the story’s reliability and Rav Schachter traced it to Rav Shimon’s son. The sugya notes an apparent contradiction that Ulla forbids general קריבה—invoking “לך לך אמרינן נזירא סחור סחור לכרמא לא תקרב”—yet kissed his sister, and Tosafot answers that for him she was “ככשורא,” i.e., entirely without תאווה.
- The phrase לעלוקה שתי בנות הב הב is read as two insatiable daughters in Gehinnom—*minut* and *reshut*—crying הבי הבי, or as Gehinnom calling for those two daughters, and the reading of כל באיה לא ישובון is explained to imply that even if they return they may not regain ארחות חיים. A woman confessed to Rav Chisda about severe עריות and was told to prepare תכריכין, with one version recording that she did not die because she did not truly repent well and another that she did die, with “קלה שבקלות” implying *minut*. The case of רבי אלעזר בן דורדיא recounts his exhaustive pursuit of זנות, the prostitute’s statement, his appeals to הרים וגבעות, שמים וארץ, חמה ולבנה, וכוכבים ומזלות, his realization that “אין הדבר תלוי אלא בי,” his crying until death, and the בת קול proclaiming “רבי אלעזר בן דורדיא מזומן לחיי העולם הבא,” prompting Rebbe to weep and say “יש קונה עולמו בכמה שנים ויש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת,” and “לא דיין לבעלי תשובה שמקבלין אותן אלא שקורין אותן רבי.” The Avodat Avodah explains that he is called “Rabbi” because he taught the public the power of teshuva and that one may acquire one’s world in a moment, the Maharsha reads Rebbe’s tears as grief over the lost potential of many years or the comparability of a single moment’s merit to many years, and Shevut Yaakov II:121 distinguishes his death from suicide as death from anguish. Ben Yehoyada interprets הניח ראשו בין ברכיו as fetal positioning indicating תשובה שלמה, while Yalkut Eliezer reads it as confessing that mind and heart were subjugated to lower instincts; Rashi attributes death after teshuva from *minut* to the crushing pain of uprooting such a drive, and the Maharsha adds that heaven’s mercy may remove one immediately to prevent relapse.
- Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Yonatan reached a fork with one path by a פתח בית עבודה זרה and one by a פתח בית זונות; one preferred the idolatry-side because the יצר for *avodah zarah* was suppressed, and the other chose the brothel-side to subdue the stronger יצר and receive reward. Tosafot derive a practice to avoid the doorway of a בית עבודה זרה as much as possible, and Tzitz Eliezer records a minhag of crossing the street and even reciting verses denouncing עבודה זרה when passing a church. The verse מזימה תשמור עליך תבונה תנצרכה is read as “מדבר זימה תשמר עליך תורה תנצרכה,” affirming that Torah safeguards from זימה.
- Rabbi Elazar ben Parta tells Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon, “אשריך שנתפסת על דבר אחד; אוי לי שנתפסתי על חמישה דברים,” but Rabbi Hanina replies, “אשריך שנתפסת על חמישה דברים ואתה ניצול; אוי לי שנתפסתי על דבר אחד ואיני ניצול,” because Rabbi Elazar engaged in Torah and גמילות חסדים while Rabbi Hanina focused on Torah alone. Rav Huna states that one who occupies himself only with Torah is like one who has no God, as in “וְיָמִים רַבִּים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לְלֹא אֱלֹהֵי אֱמֶת,” and the text reconciles reports about Rabbi Hanina’s tzedakah work by saying he was supremely trustworthy but did not do as much חסד as he could have.
- At trial they accuse him of learning Torah and theft, and he answers that if the latter were true he would not be a Torah scholar, implying both charges collapse. When asked why he is called “Rabbi,” he says “master weaver,” is tested with weaving implements, and a miracle occurs as a זיבורתא and a זיבורא position themselves to reveal דשתא and ערב, allowing him to identify them. When challenged for avoiding their בית עבודה זרה, he cites fear of trampling as an elder, and that day a man is trampled to death; when accused of freeing a slave, he denies it, Elijah appears disguised as a royal notable to warn against testifying against a miracle-protected man, and by a miraculous diversion of a letter the would‑be witness cannot appear, resulting in his rescue.
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