Commentary for Gittin 113:23

תניא רבי אליעזר הגדול אומר שני נחלים יש בבקעת ידים אחד מושך אילך ואחד מושך אילך ושיערו חכמים שני חלקים מים ואחד דם במתניתא תנא שבע שנים בצרו עובדי כוכבים את כרמיהן מדמן של ישראל בלא זבל

was destroyed.' <font>It was the custom when a boy was born to plant a cedar tree and when a girl was born to plant a pine tree, and when they married, the tree was cut down and a canopy made of the branches.</font> One day the daughter of the Emperor was passing when the shaft of her litter broke, so they lopped some branches off a cedar tree and brought it to her. The Jews thereupon fell upon them and beat them. They reported to the Emperor that the Jews were rebelling, and he marched against them. He hath cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lam. II, 3. ');">²⁰</span> R. Zera said in the name of R. Abbahu who quoted R. Johanan: These are the eighty [thousand]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This word is bracketed in the text. ');">²¹</span> battle trumpets which assembled in the city of Bethar when it was taken and men, women and children were slain in it until their blood ran into the great sea. Do you think this was near? It was a whole <i>mil</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [J., reads 'four mils'. The site of Bethar is still uncertain, v. JE. s.v.]. ');">²²</span> away. It has been taught: R. Eleazar the Great said: There are two streams in the valley of Yadaim,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Rappaport, 'Erech Millin refers this to the Roman devastation of the Jewish quarter in Alexandria in the days of Alexander Tiberius. The Valley of Yadayim ('Hands') is thus the Delta of the Nile. Graetz, Geschichte IV, p. 425 places this in the Bar Cochba war and identifies the Valley with Beth Rimmon Valley.] ');">²³</span> one running in one direction and one in another, and the Sages estimated that [at that time] they ran with two parts water to one of blood. In a Baraitha it has been taught: For seven years the Gentiles fertilised<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'gathered the vintage from.' ');">²⁴</span> their vineyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.

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