Taanit 9

Raba said: Once he has begun [to make mention] he should not discontinue. And so said R'Shesheth: Once he has begun he should not discontinue.

Rab also retracted his statement. For R'Hananel said in the name of Rab: One counts twenty-one days from New Year<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [I.e., from the first day of New Year to the eighth day of the Festival of Tabernacles. This is despite the general rule that where a Jewish month has two New Moon days, the days of the month are counted from the second day].');">¹</span>

and begins to make mention in the same way as one counts Ten Days [of Penitence] from the New Year until the Day of Atonement; and once he has begun he should not discontinue. And the law is, once he has begun he should not discontinue.

THE END OF NISAN, AS IT IS SAID: AND HE CAUSETH TO COME DOWN FOR YOU THE RAIN, THE FORMER RAIN AND THE LATTER RAIN, AT THE FIRST.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Joel II, 23. E.V. 'at first'.');">²</span> <big><b>GEMARA: </b></big>R'Nahman said to R'Isaac: Does then the former rain [fall] in Nisan?

The former rain surely [falls] in Marcheshvan. It has been taught: Former rain, [falls] in Marcheshvan and latter rain in Nisan.

He replied: Thus said R'Johanan, This verse<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., Joel I, 4.');">³</span> was fulfilled in the days [of the prophet] Joel, the son of Pethuel, That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten etc.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Joel I, 4.');">⁴</span>

In that year, although Adar had passed yet no rain had fallen, and it was not until the first of Nisan that the first rain, came down. Thereupon the prophet said to Israel, 'Go and sow' - They replied, If a man has a kab<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A measure of capacity equal to one-sixth of a se'ah.');">⁵</span>

of wheat or two kabim of barley, should he eat them and keep himself alive, or sow them and die? He answered: 'Despite this, go and sow' - A miracle happened for them and they discovered whatever [grain] which was hidden [in the chinks of] the walls and in the ant-holes; they proceeded to sow on the second, on the third, and on the fourth and the second rain came down on the fifth of Nisan; on the sixteenth of Nisan they offered the 'Omer;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Glos.');">⁶</span>

and thus it so came about that the grain which should take six months to ripen ripened in eleven days.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' From the fifth of Nisan to the sixteenth.');">⁷</span> To that generation was applied the scriptural verses, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

Though he goeth on his way weeping that beareth the measure of seed etc.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. CXXVI, 5-6.');">⁸</span> What is the meaning of, 'Though he goeth on his way weeping that beareth the measure etc.'? - Rab Judah said: When the ox is ploughing, on his forward journey he weeps, but on his return journey he eats the young green from the furrows - And this is the force of the words, 'He shall come home with joy' - What is the meaning of, 'Bearing his sheaves'? - R'Hisda said: Others say it was taught in a Baraitha: The stalk was then one span and the ear two spans.

R'Nahman said to R'Isaac: What is the meaning of the scriptural verse, For the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' II Kings VIII, 1.');">⁹</span> What had they to eat during these seven years? - He replied: Thus said R'Johanan, In the first year they ate what was stored up in the houses, in the second what was in the fields, in the third the flesh of clean animals, in the fourth the flesh of unclean animals, in the fifth the flesh of forbidden animals and reptiles, in the sixth the flesh of their sons and daughters and in the seventh the flesh of their own arms and thus the verse of Scripture was fulfilled, They eat every man the flesh of his own arms.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Isa, IX, 19. tk');">¹⁰</span>

Further, R'Nahman said to R'Isaac: What is the meaning of the scriptural verse, The Holy One in the midst of thee and I will not come in to the city?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Hosea XI, 9- The A.V.renders, I will not come in fury. Cf. Tosaf, s.v. vrcuja vrcj');">¹¹</span> [Surely it cannot be that] because the Holy One is in the midst of thee I shall not come into the city! He replied: Thus said R'Johanan: The Holy One, blessed be He, said, 'I will not enter the heavenly Jerusalem until I can enter the earthly Jerusalem'.

Is there then a heavenl Jerusalem? -Yes; for it is written, Jerusalem thou art builded as a city that is compact together.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ps. CXXII, 3. Stressing the word R. Johanan adduces from the verse that Jerusalem has a a companion (or prototype) in heaven. Both are said to be situated exactly opposite each other. [The verse in Hosea is thus taken to mean: There is a holy (city) in thy midst');">¹²</span> R'Nahman further said to R'Isaac: What is the meaning of the verse, But they are altogether brutish and foolish; the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. X, 8. urgcu rgc');">¹³</span>

- 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]