Talmud sur Shevi'it 1:7

Rav commanded to the family of Rav Aḥa, Rebbi Immi commanded to his own family, if you go out on the fast day¹³Usually, “fast day” is one of the days of penitence called in case of a drought, as described in Tractate Ta`anit. However, since the Babli states (Ta`anit11b) in the name of Rav’s colleague R. Jeremiah bar Abba that this kind of fast day is not practiced in Babylonia, Rav’s instructions to the family of Rav Aḥa can only refer to the Fast Day, the Day of Atonement, where it is customary to prostrate oneself during the recitation of Rav’s composition Alenu at the mention that “we prostrate ourselves” and during the enactment of the Temple ceremony of the day. Cf. Note 18. you should not incline normally¹⁴Face down on the floor. The examples following refer to the daily prayers which morning and afternoon have three parts. The first, the “eighteen benedictions” are said standing, the second, “falling down on one’s face”, is said while bending down, and the third, a recitation of biblical verses, is said sitting up straight. Following the majority opinion here and the unquestioned prescription of the Babli (Megillah22b) one may not put down one’s face to the ground but must bend it sideways. This presumes that the synagogue had a stone floor (as shown by the archeological evidence in Galilee.) There would be no need to turn one’s head on a dirt floor or on carpets.. Rebbi Jonah inclined on his side; Rebbi Aḥa inclined on his side. Rebbi Samuel said, I saw Rebbi Abbahu inclining normally. Rebbi Yose said, I pointed out a difficulty before Rebbi Abbahu, is it not written¹¹Lev. 26:1. The connection to be made between משׂכית and מרקוליס is not clear., a maskit stone you shall not put up in your land to bow down on it. Explain it if he fixed a place for it. But is it not written¹⁵2S. 15:32. A “high place” on the Mount of Olives which however had not to be destroyed since there was neither altar nor stone floor., it was when David arrived at the mountaintop where one bows down before God? Except bowing down which is not on the ground. Does there exist bowing down which is not on the ground? They fell down with their faces to the ground and bowed down¹⁶2Chr.7:3.. Rebbi Abbahu added up to give thanks to the Eternal for He is good; Rebbi Mana added up to for eternal is His kindness to Israel¹⁷The additions of RR. Abahu and Mana are in the verse, except for the addition “on Israel” which are not in this verse nor in any other biblical occurrence of the formula give thanks to the Eternal for He is good, for eternal is His kindness.. Rebbi Joḥanan said to Rebbi Ḥiyya bar Abba: Babylonian, two things came from you, the stretching out on the Fast Day¹⁸Prostrating oneself with outstretched arms and legs. Since the only day one did this in Babylonia was the day of Atonement, it must refer to that day., and the willow of the Seventh Day¹⁹Hitting the floor with a bunch of willow twigs on the Seventh Day of the Festival of Tabernacles; an ancient custom to induce ample rains in the coming winter.. The rabbis of Caesarea say, also this blood letting²⁰Traditions of good and bad days for blood letting.. It follows what Rebbi Immi said, the Babylonians in the name of the rabbis there: They permitted prostrating only on a public fast, and only on the side²¹To avoid violating Lev.26:1. These now are Babylonian instructions for the Palestinian fast days for rain which were not practiced in Babylonia.. The younger Rebbi Yannai in the name of his fathers: Anybody who is not qualified like Joshua that if he falls on his face the Holy One, praise to Him, would tell him, get up²²Jos.7:10., should not fall down, in the case of an individual [praying] for the community²³An individual praying in public for the relief of a public calamity may not prostrate himself unless he claims for himself a status at least equal to Joshua’s. A private person praying for private needs may prostrate himself as much and as long as he feels necessary. Babli Megillah22b in the name of R. Eleazar..

Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ decreed three things⁹⁶In the Babli, Šabbat 14b, he is credited only with the institution of the ketubah and a decree about impurity of metal vessels (Note 102). “The institution of the ketubah” probably means the formulation of the ketubah as a contract, which was unnecessary as long as the sum due was paid, or at least earmarked, as bride money. His decrees can be dated to the reign of his sister Shlomzion (Salome), widow of Alexander Yannai, 79–69 B.C.E.: That a person should use his wife’s ketubah in his business dealings. And that children have to go to school⁹⁷In the Babli, Baba batra 21a, universal mandatory schooling is attributed to the post-Herodian High Priest Joshua ben Gamla. The Babli also notes that before Joshua ben Gamla’s time there was organized higher instruction only for youths 16 years and older. This cannot refer to Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ’s institution reported in the Yerushalmi since by no stretch of the imagination can a 16 year old teenager be called תִּינּוֹק.. Also, he decreed impurity for glass ware⁹⁸Biblical impurity applies only to kinds of vessels and implements mentioned in the rules of impurity: earthenware and metal (Lev. 6:21), leather and textiles (Lev. 13:49), bone and wood (Num. 31:20). Other vessels cannot become impure; to this fact one attributes the great number of stone vessels found on archeological sites of the Second Temple period. (Similarly intrinsically pure vessels made of cow dung have not survived for the archeological record.) The impurity of glass vessels, unknown to Moses, is purely rabbinical. One has to take the information that the impurity of glass ware “was decreed” by the head of the Synhedrion with a grain of salt. Most probably, he simply codified the rules which were popularly observed before, when the Pharisees obtained the leadership in the state. The reasons given in the Babli Šabbat 16a/b for the rules are inconsistent since the rules, derived from popular observance without any scriptural basis, are inconsistent as a mixture of two different sets of rules. Glass vessels are compared to earthenware vessels since the former are made from sand, the latter from clay. They are also compared to metal vessels since if broken they can be melted down and made into new vessels.. But did not Rebbi Ze‘ira, Rebbi Abuna say in the name of Rav Jeremiah: Yose ben Yo‘ezer from Ṣereda and Yose ben Joḥanan⁹⁹The heads of the pre-Maccabean Ḥassidim sect; cf. Gen. rabba 65(18). from Jerusalem decreed impurity for Gentile lands¹⁰⁰Here also, a long-standing popular observance (cf. Amos 7:17) was codified which attributed to the earth of Gentile lands (within or without the Holy Land) the impurity of rotting human bodies. and glass ware; Rebbi Yose said, Rebbi Jehudah bar Ṭabbai¹⁰¹The co-head with Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ in the leadership of the Pharisees under Shlomzion.? Rebbi Jonah said, Jehudah bar Ṭabbai and Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ decreed on metal vessels¹⁰²The possible impurity of metal vessels is biblical (Note 98). Following the Babli Šabbat 16b, what they decreed was that metal impure by the impurity of the dead should not become pure by being melted down, but only by sprinkling with water containing ashes of the red cow. The political background of this decision (which seems to contradict biblical rules, Num. 31:22–23) and the reliability of the Babli in this respect is difficult to establish.; Hillel and Shammai decreed on the purity of hands¹⁰³They codified the rules that hands which were not all the time consciously guarded from impurity after being washed are impure in the second degree and, therefore, impart impurity to fluids, heave, and sacrifices but not to solid profane food (cf. Demay 2:3, Notes 136–137; Babli Šabbat14b).. ¹⁰⁴From here to the end of the Chapter, the text is from Ševi‘it 1:7, following Note 55 (variants noted ש). Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun in the name of Levi: That was the current practice; they forgot it¹⁰⁵There was no rule-making authority in the time between the two Yoses and Simeon ben Sheṭaḥ and Jehudah ben Ṭabbai., but the later ones got up and agreed to the opinion of the earlier ones to teach you that everything the Court insists on will come to be in the end just as Moses was told on Sinai; as Rebbi Mana said (Deut. 32:47): “For it is not an empty word, from you,” if it is empty it is from you because you do not exert yourself about it. “Because it is your life,” when is it your life? At the time that you exert yourself!