לא שרו לן עורבא ולא אסרו לן יונה

have they permitted a raven for us nor have they prohibited a dove for us. They merely tell us matters stated explicitly in the Torah.

רבא כי הוו מייתי טריפתא דבי בנימין קמיה כי הוה חזי בה טעמא להיתירא אמר להו תחזו דקא שרינא לכו עורבא כי הוה חזי לה טעמא לאיסורא אמר להו תחזו דקא אסרנא לכו יונה

The Gemara relates with regard to Rava: When they would bring a possible tereifa from the house of Binyamin before him, when he would see in it a reason to permit its consumption, Rava would say to them: See that I am permitting a raven for you, as this is an animal that appeared forbidden. When he would see in it a reason to prohibit its consumption, Rava would say to them: See that I am prohibiting a dove for you.

רב פפא אמר כגון דאמר הני רבנן רב פפא אישתלי ואמר כגון הני רבנן ואיתיב בתעניתא

Rav Pappa says: The epikoros mentioned in the mishna is referring to one who conducts himself like one who says: Those Sages, with contemptuous overtones. The Gemara relates that Rav Pappa himself forgot in one instance and said: Like those Sages, and he observed a fast to achieve atonement for expressing himself in that manner.

לוי בר שמואל ורב הונא בר חייא הוו קא מתקני מטפחות ספרי דבי רב יהודה כי מטו מגילת אסתר אמרי הא [מגילת אסתר] לא בעי מטפחת אמר להו כי האי גוונא נמי מיחזי כי אפקירותא

The Gemara relates: Levi bar Shmuel and Rav Huna bar Ḥiyya were mending mantles for the sacred scrolls of the school of Rav Yehuda. When they reached the scroll of Esther they said: This scroll of Esther does not require a mantle, as it is not as significant as the other sacred scrolls. Rav Yehuda said to them: A statement of that sort also seems to express irreverence like the irreverence typical of an epikoros, as you should not have referred to the scroll of Esther as: This scroll.

רב נחמן אמר זה הקורא רבו בשמו דאמר רבי יוחנן מפני מה נענש גיחזי מפני שקרא לרבו בשמו שנאמר (מלכים ב ח, ה) ויאמר גחזי אדני המלך זאת האשה וזה בנה אשר החיה אלישע

Rav Naḥman says: An epikoros is one who calls his teacher by his name and does not call him Rabbi, as Rabbi Yoḥanan said: For what reason was Gehazi punished? It is due to the fact that he called his teacher by his name, as it is stated: “And Gehazi said: My lord the king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha revived” (II Kings 8:5).

יתיב רבי ירמיה קמיה דרבי זירא ויתיב וקאמר עתיד הקב"ה להוציא נחל מבית קדשי הקדשים ועליו כל מיני מגדים שנאמר (יחזקאל מז, יב) ועל הנחל יעלה על שפתו מזה ומזה כל עץ מאכל לא יבול עלהו ולא יתם פריו לחדשיו יבכר כי מימיו מן המקדש [המה] יוצאים והיה פריו למאכל ועלהו לתרופה א"ל ההוא סבא יישר וכן אמר ר' יוחנן (יישר) אמר ליה ר' ירמיה לרבי זירא כי האי גונא מיחזי אפקרותא

§ The Gemara relates: Rabbi Yirmeya sat before Rabbi Zeira, and sat and said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, will cause a river to emerge from the Holy of Holies, and alongside it all sorts of delicacies will grow, as it is stated: “And the river upon its bank, on this side and on that side shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall its fruit fall; it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because their waters emerged from the Sanctuary; and its fruit shall be for food and its leaf for medicine” (Ezekiel 47:12). A certain elder said to Rabbi Yirmeya: Well done, and so Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Well done. Rabbi Yirmeya said to Rabbi Zeira: Does a statement of that sort, when one who is not a Torah scholar says to a Sage that his statement is correct, seem like the irreverence typical of an epikoros?

אמר ליה הא [האי] סיועי קא מסייע (ליה) [לך] אלא אי שמיע לך הא שמיע לך כי הא דיתיב רבי יוחנן וקא דריש עתיד הקב"ה להביא אבנים טובות ומרגליות שהן שלשים על שלשים אמות וחוקק בהם עשר ברום עשרים ומעמידן בשערי ירושלים שנאמר (ישעיהו נד, יב) ושמתי כדכוד שמשותיך ושעריך לאבני אקדח וגו' לגלג עליו אותו תלמיד אמר השתא כביעתא דצילצלא לא משכחינן כולי האי משכחינן

Rabbi Zeira said to him: But isn’t he supporting your statement? He meant no disrespect. Rather, if you heard that at times supporting the statement of a Sage is irreverent, this is what you heard: It is like that case in which Rabbi Yoḥanan sat and taught: The Holy One, Blessed be He, is destined to bring precious stones and jewels that are thirty by thirty cubits, and He will bore in them an opening ten cubits wide by twenty cubits in height and place them to serve as the gates of Jerusalem, as it is stated: “And I will make your pinnacles of rubies and your gates of carbuncles” (Isaiah 54:12). A certain student mocked him and said: Now, at present, we do not find precious stones comparable in size to the egg of a palm dove. Will we find stones as large as those that you described?

לימים הפליגה ספינתו בים חזינהו למלאכי השרת דקא מנסרי אבנים טובות ומרגליות אמר להו הני למאן אמרי עתיד הקב"ה להעמידן בשערי ירושלים כי הדר אשכחיה לר' יוחנן דיתיב וקא דריש א"ל רבי דרוש ולך נאה לדרוש כשם שאמרת כך ראיתי אמר לו ריקה אם לא ראית לא האמנת מלגלג על דברי חכמים אתה יהב ביה עיניה ועשאו גל של עצמות

Sometime later that student’s ship set sail at sea. He saw the ministering angels cutting precious stones that size. He said to the angels: For whom are these stones? The angels said to him: The Holy One, Blessed be He, is destined to place them at the gates of Jerusalem. When the student returned, he found Rabbi Yoḥanan, who was sitting and teaching. The student said to him: My teacher, teach, and it is fitting for you to teach. Just as you said with regard to the precious stones, so I saw. Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: Good-for-nothing, if you did not see it, you would not believe it? You are one who mocks the statements of the Sages. Rabbi Yoḥanan directed his eyes toward him in anger and rendered him a pile of bones.

מיתבי (ויקרא כו, יג) ואולך אתכם קוממיות ר"מ אומר מאתים אמה כשתי קומות של אדם הראשון רבי יהודה אומר ק' אמה כנגד היכל וכותליו שנאמר (תהלים קמד, יב) אשר בנינו כנטיעים מגודלים בנעוריהם בנותינו כזויות מחוטבות תבנית היכל וגו'

The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita to the statement of Rabbi Yoḥanan that the gates will be twenty cubits high. The Sages engaged in a dispute concerning the interpretation of the verse: “And I made you go upright [komemiyyut]” (Leviticus 26:13). Rabbi Meir says that in the end of days people will be two hundred cubits tall, the equivalent of twice the height of Adam the first man, who was one hundred cubits tall. Rabbi Yehuda says: People will be one hundred cubits tall, corresponding to the height of the Sanctuary and its walls, as it is stated: “For our sons are as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as cornerstones, carved in the fashion of a palace” (Psalms 144:12), indicating that the sons and daughters will be one hundred cubits tall, the height of the Sanctuary. If the people are that tall, how will they enter gates twenty cubits high?

כי קאמר ר' יוחנן לכוי דבי זיקא

The Gemara answers: When Rabbi Yoḥanan says that the openings would be twenty cubits high he is referring to the windows through which wind enters. The gates through which people enter will extend considerably higher.

מאי ועלהו לתרופה ר' יצחק בר אבודימי ורב חסדא חד אמר להתיר פה של מעלה וחד אמר להתיר פה של מטה

§ Apropos the river that will emerge from the Holy of Holies, the Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase: And its leaf for medicine [literufa]? Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Avudimi and Rav Ḥisda disagree. One says: This is an abbreviation for the phrase: To unlock the mouth [lehattir peh] that is above, i.e., the leaf heals the mute. And one says: That is the abbreviation, but it means to unlock the mouth that is below, a euphemism for healing the womb of a barren woman.

איתמר (נמי) חזקיה אמר להתיר פה אילמין בר קפרא אמר להתיר פה עקרות ר' יוחנן אמר לתרופה ממש מאי לתרופה ר' שמואל בר נחמני אמר לתואר פנים של בעלי הפה

It was also stated that other Sages engaged in a dispute concerning this matter. Ḥizkiyya says that the reference is: To unlock the mouth of mutes, and bar Kappara says that the reference is: To unlock the mouth of barren women. Rabbi Yoḥanan says: The reference is to actual medicine. The Gemara asks: According to that opinion, what is the meaning of the term: For medicine [literufa]? Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says: It is an abbreviation meaning to beautify the countenance [letoar panim] of the keepers of the mouth [peh], i.e., the Sages, who labored with their mouths to study Torah in this world.

דרש ר' יהודה ברבי סימון כל המשחיר פניו על דברי תורה בעולם הזה הקב"ה מבהיק זיויו לעולם הבא שנאמר (שיר השירים ה, טו) מראהו כלבנון בחור כארזים

Rabbi Yehuda, son of Rabbi Simon, taught: For anyone who blackens his face while toiling over matters of Torah in this world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, shines his brightness in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “His locks are curly black as a raven” (Song of Songs 5:11), and thereafter it is written: “His countenance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars” (Song of Songs 5:15), followed by: “His palate is like sweets” (Song of Songs 5:16). One who engages in sweets, i.e., Torah study, in this world, until he is blackened, black as a raven, is privileged to shining brightness in the World-to-Come.

אמר ר' תנחום בר' חנילאי כל המרעיב עצמו על דברי תורה בעולם הזה הקב"ה משביעו לעולם הבא שנאמר (תהלים לו, ט) ירויון מדשן ביתך ונחל עדניך תשקם

Rabbi Tanḥum, son of Rabbi Ḥanilai, says: With regard to anyone who starves himself over matters of Torah in this world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, satisfies him in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “Your judgments are like the great deep” (Psalms 36:7), indicating that God is exacting with the righteous and does not reward them in this world, and it is stated thereafter: “They are abundantly satisfied with the plenty of Your house, and You feed them drink of the river of Your pleasures” (Psalms 36:9).

כי אתא רב דימי אמר עתיד הקב"ה ליתן לכל צדיק וצדיק מלא עומסו שנאמר (תהלים סח, כ) ברוך ה' יום יום יעמס לנו האל ישועתנו סלה א"ל אביי וכי אפשר לומר כן והלא כבר נאמר (ישעיהו מ, יב) מי מדד בשעלו מים ושמים בזרת תכן

When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, will give each and every righteous person His handful, as it is stated: “Blessed be the Lord, Who day by day bears our burden; God is our salvation, Selah” (Psalms 68:20). Abaye said to him: And is it possible to say so, that the Holy One, Blessed be He, will give them His handful? But wasn’t it already stated: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure” (Isaiah 40:12)? And if the span of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is as great as the heavens, how can a person receive a handful from the Holy One, Blessed be He?

אמר מאי טעמא לא שכיחת באגדתא דאמרי במערבא משמיה דרבא בר מרי עתיד הקב"ה ליתן לכל צדיק וצדיק ג' מאות ועשרה עולמות שנא' (משלי ח, כא) להנחיל אוהבי יש ואוצרותיהם אמלא יש בגימטריא תלת מאה ועשרה הוי

Rav Dimi said: What is the reason that you are not familiar with matters of aggada? As they say in the West, Eretz Yisrael, in the name of Rava bar Mari: The Holy One, Blessed be He, will give every righteous person 310 worlds as it is stated: “To bequeath to those who love Me substance [yesh]; and I will fill their treasuries” (Proverbs 8:21). In terms of its numerical value, the word yesh, spelled yod, shin, is 310, indicating that God grants the righteous a full measure.

תניא ר' מאיר אומר במדה שאדם מודד מודדין לו דכתיב (ישעיהו כז, ח) בסאסאה בשלחה תריבנה

In a related matter, it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir says: In accordance with the measure that a person metes out for others the heavenly court metes out for him, i.e., the response is commensurate with the action, as it is written: “In full measure [besasse’a] when You send her away do You contend with her” (Isaiah 27:8). The term besasse’a is interpreted as bese’a se’a, meaning that one receives a measure [se’a] commensurate with the measure [bese’a] that he meted out.

אמר ר' יהושע וכי אפשר לומר כן אדם נותן מלא עומסו לעני בעולם הזה הקב"ה נותן לו מלא עומסו לעולם הבא והכתיב (ישעיהו מ, יב) שמים בזרת תכן ואתה אי אומר כן איזו היא מדה מרובה מדת טובה מרובה או מדת פורענות

Rabbi Yehoshua said to Rabbi Meir: And is it possible to say that if a person gives his handful to a pauper in this world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives him His handful in the World-to-Come? But isn’t it written: “And meted out heaven with the span” (Isaiah 40:12)? He asked how one can receive so bountiful a reward. Rabbi Meir answered him: And you do not say so? Which of God’s attributes is greater? Is the attribute of reward greater or is the attribute of punishment greater?