Commentary for Taanit 9:14

- He replied: Thus said R'Johanan, There is one thing that brings about the perdition of the wicked in Gehenna<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A play upon the word the root of which () in the Pi'el means, to destroy, to remove. The wicked, by following the instructions of idols that are but wood, find themselves fooled and are carried off into Gehenna.');">¹⁴</span> and that is, idolatrous worship. Here it is written, 'The vanities by which they are instructed' and elsewhere [of the idols] it is written, They are a vanity, a work of delusion.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. X, 15.');">¹⁵</span> R'Nahman further said to R'Isaac: What is the meaning of the verse, For my people have committed two evils?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. II, 13.');">¹⁶</span> Were they only two? Has he then ignored the fact that they were twenty-four?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [Aliter: 'Has he forgiven them the twenty-four?'] The twenty-four sins enumerated in Ezek. XXII; according to some commentators the sins in transgressing the commandments contained in the twenty-four canonical books of Scripture. [Some take twenty-four as a round number. For rag other renderings v. Aruchs.v. ].');">¹⁷</span> - He [R'Isaac] replied: There is one [evil]

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