Commentary for Nedarim 81:11

משום דרב יהודה דאמר רב יהודה דיבורא קשיא לעינא ומעלי לאישתא אמר רבא האי אישתא אי לאו דפרוונקא דמלאכא דמותא מעלי

and who can extinguish that? R. Alexandri also said in the name of R. Hiyya b. Abba, — others state, R. Joshua b. Levi said: When a man's end has come, all have dominion over him, for it is written, And it will be that whosoever findeth me will slay me.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen. IV, 14; thus Cain, thinking that his end had arrived, recognised that everything would have power to slay him. ');">⁸</span> Rab deduced it from this verse: They stand forth this day to receive thy judgments: for all are thy servants.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. CXIX, 91. I.e., all become servants to carry out God's judgment of doom. ');">⁹</span> Rabbah b. Shila was told that a tall man had died. [Now it happened thus:] This man was riding on a little mule and when he came to a bridge, the mule shied and threw the man, and he was killed. Thereupon Rabbah applied to him the verse, They stand forth this day to receive thy judgments etc. Samuel saw a scorpion borne by a frog across a river, and then stung a man, so that he died. Thereupon Samuel quoted, They stand forth this day to receive thy judgments etc.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Though a scorpion cannot swim, he was carried across by the frog, in order to fulfil God's judgment. ');">¹⁰</span> Samuel said: Only a sick person who is feverish<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'when he is wrapped in heat'. ');">¹¹</span> may be visited. What does this exclude? It excludes those concerning whom it has been taught by R. Jose b. Parta in R. Eliezer's name, viz., One must not visit those suffering with bowel [trouble], or with eye disease, or from headaches. Now the first is well, the reason being through embarrassment;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' He has his bowels frequently moved. ');">¹²</span> but what is the reason of the other two? — On account of Rab Judah's dictum, viz., Speech is injurious to the eyes and to [people suffering from] headaches.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This is the reading of Asheri; cur. edd. add, 'and is good for fever' and Wilna Gaon amends likewise. ');">¹³</span> Raba said: Feverishness, were it not a forerunner of the angel of death,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Both in the Bible and in the Talmud death is regarded as coming to man through an angel. Thus we find mention of the 'angel of the Lord' destroying 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp (II Kings XIX, 35); the destroying angel (II Sam. XXIV, 15); 'the angel of the Lord' whom David saw standing 'between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem' (I Chron. XXI, 15). In the Talmud this angel is frequently referred to, and he was conceived as causing death by dropping gall into the mouth of the victim; 'A.Z. 20b; v. J.E. IV, 480ff. ');">¹⁴</span> it would be as salutary

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