Gittin - Daf 56
- The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza
The following three blatt discuss the churban of Bayis Sheini in detail, beginning with the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza. A man sent an invitation for his banquet to his friend Kamtza, but his enemy, Bar Kamtza, was mistakenly invited. When the host told him to leave, Bar Kamtza offered to pay for his portion, then half the feast, then the entire feast, but the host removed him. Bar Kamtza took the Rabbis’ silence to his abuse as acquiescence and slandered the Jews to the Caeser as rebelling. As “proof,” he told the Caesar to send a korban, in which he caused a disqualifying blemish that was not a blemish for gentiles. The Rabbis considered sacrificing it under the circumstances, but Rebbe Zechariah ben Avkulas said: יאמרו בעלי מומין קריבין לגבי מזבח – People will say blemished animals are offered on the mizbeiach! They suggested killing Bar Kamtza to prevent him from telling the Caesar that his korban was rejected, but Rebbe Zechariah stopped them. Rebbe Yochanan commented: ענוותנותו של רבי זכריה בן אבקולס – The tolerance of Rebbe Zechariah ben Avkulas in allowing Bar Kamtza to live, החריבה את ביתנו ושרפה את היכלנו והגליתנו מארצנו – destroyed our Beis Hamikdash, burned our Sanctuary, and exiled us from our land.
- Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai’s three requests of Vespasian
During Vespasian’s siege on Yerushalayim, and the ensuing famine brought on by the baryonei (a group agitating for fighting the Romans) burning the food storehouses, Abba Sikra (the head of the baryonei), secretly met with Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakkai, his uncle. Abba Sikra agreed to assist Rebbe Yochanan leave the city and suggested faking Rebbe Yochanan’s death and carrying him out in a coffin. When he met Vespasian, Rebbe Yochanan greeted him, שלמא עלך מלכא שלמא עלך מלכא – Peace upon you, O King! Peace upon you, O King! Although Vespasian denied being king, Rebbe Yochanan explained his prediction based on Vespasian’s conquering Yerushalayim, and his prediction was soon proven correct. Before heading back to Rome, Vespasian offered Rebbe Yochanan to make a request, and he made three: תן לי יבנה וחכמיה – Grant me Yavneh and its Sages (to be spared), ושושילתא דרבן גמליאל – the line of Rabban Gamliel (the eventual Nasi, from Dovid’s line), ואסוותא דמסיין ליה לרבי צדוק – and doctors to cure Rebbe Tzadok from his years of fasting. Rav Yosef (or Rebbe Akiva) declared about him: משיב חכמים אחור ודעתם יסכל – [Hashem] turns wise men backwards and makes their intelligence foolish. איבעי למימר ליה לשבקינהו הדא זימנא – [R’ Yochanan] should have said to leave the Jews alone this time! The Gemara explains that Rebbe Yochanan was afraid that Vespasian would not grant him anything.
- Titus’s wickedness, and his punishment through the gnat
Titus was sent in Vespasian’s place, and the Gemara describes his actions. He brought a harlot into the Kodesh Hakodoshim, spread out a sefer Torah, and sinned upon it. He slashed the paroches, from which blood miraculously bubbled out, which he took to mean that he had killed “himself” (a euphemistic reference to Hashem). He wrapped the utensils of the Beis Hamikdash in the paroches and brought them on a ship going back to Rome. When a storm threatened to drown him, he blasphemously declared that Hashem could only destroy His enemies with water. A bas kol issued forth: רשע בן רשע בן בנו של עשו הרשע – Evil one, son of an evil one, descendant of the evil Esav! בריה קלה יש לי בעולמי ויתוש שמה – I have a lowly creature in My world called the gnat. עלה ליבשה ותעשה עמה מלחמה – Go up to dry land and do battle with it! A gnat entered Titus’s brain and picked at his brain for seven years. Once, he passed a smith hammering, and the gnat stopped. For the next thirty days, he had a smith banging in his presence, until the gnat became accustomed to the sound and resumed. The Gemara describes its great size when Titus died.
