Commentary for Sanhedrin 77:16

אמר ליה ההוא מינא לרבי אבינא כתיב (שמואל ב ז, כג) מי כעמך כישראל גוי אחד בארץ מאי רבותייהו אתון נמי ערביתו בהדן דכתיב (ישעיהו מ, יז) כל הגוים כאין נגדו אמר ליה מדידכו אסהידו עלן דכתיב

A certain Min said to R. Abbahu: Your God is a priest, since it is written, That they take for me <i>Terumah</i> [wave offering].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the leaders. ');">³⁹</span> Now, when He had buried Moses,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ex. XXV. 2. Wave offering, as a rule, were given to Priests. ');">⁴⁰</span> wherein did He bathe [after contact with the corpse]?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Deut. XXXIV, 6. ');">⁴¹</span> Should you reply, 'In water: is it not written, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Lev. XXII, 4-6. ');">⁴²</span> — 'He bathed in fire,' he answered, 'for it is written, Behold the Lord will come in fire.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Isa. XL, 12. I.e., He could not bathe in water, relatively so scanty compared with Himself. ');">⁴³</span> 'Is then purification by fire effective?' 'On the contrary,' he replied, 'bathing [for purposes of purification] should essentially be in fire, for it is written, And all that abideth not the fire ye shall make to go through the water.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. LXVI, 15. ');">⁴⁴</span> A Min once said to R. Abina: It is written, And what one nation in the earth is like Thy people, [like] Israel.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. XXXI, 23. Essentially therefore, purification is by fire. ');">⁴⁵</span> Wherein lies their superiority: ye too are combined with us, for it is written, All the nations are as nothing before Him?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' II Sam. VII, 23. ');">⁴⁶</span> He answered: One of yourselves [Balaam] has already testified for us, as it is written,

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