Avodah Zarah, Daf Heh, Part 4
Introduction
The first tanna in the baraita we learned yesterday did not read the sin of the calf as causing Israel to lose their mortality. But this seems to contradict the verse in Psalms 82:6.
ות"ק נמי הכתיב "אכן כאדם תמותון" מאי מיתה? עניות, דאמר מר ארבעה חשובים כמתים אלו הן עני סומא ומצורע ומי שאין לו בנים.
Then how does the first Tanna explain the phrase: You shall indeed die ? What may be meant here by dying? Poverty, for a Master has said: Four are regarded as dead and they are: the poor, the blind, the leprous, and the childless.
The first tanna would interpret the verse you shall indeed die not as referring literally to death, but as referring to other types of suffering people that are regarded as if they are dead.
עני דכתיב (שמות ד, יט) "כי מתו כל האנשים" ומאן נינהו דתן ואבירם. ומי מתו מיהוי הוו? אלא שירדו מנכסיהם.
סומא דכתיב (איכה ג, ו) "במחשכים הושיבני כמתי עולם".
מצורע דכתיב (במדבר יב, יב) "אל נא תהי כמת".
ומי שאין לו בנים דכתיב (בראשית ל, א) "הבה לי בנים ואם אין מתה אנכי".
The poor, as it is written, For all the men are dead (Exodus 4:19). Who are these men? Datan and Aviram.
But were they then dead? Rather they had lost their property.
The blind, as it is said: He has made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead (Job 3:6).
The leprous, as it is said, Let her not, I pray, be as one who is dead (Numbers 12:12).
The childless, as it is said, Give me children, or else I die (Genesis 30:1).
The Talmud now offers prooftexts that all of these types of people are regarded as if they are dead. Exodus 4:19 is God s words to Moses telling him to return to Egypt for all of the people who wished him dead in Egypt are now themselves dead. But according to the midrash, those in Egypt who wished him dead were none other than Datan and Aviram, who later rebel against Moses in the wilderness. They are called here dead because they had already lost their property.
The other prooftexts are relatively straightforward. The verse from Numbers is stated by Moses with regard to Miriam who becomes leprous when she speaks out against Moses. The verse from Genesis is stated by Rachel, when she is still childless.
תנו רבנן (ויקרא כו, ג) "אם בחקתי תלכו" אין אם אלא לשון תחנונים.
וכן הוא אומר (תהלים פא, יד) "לו עמי שומע לי [וגו’] כמעט אויביהם אכניע" ואומר (ישעיהו מח, יח) "לו הקשבת למצותי ויהי כנהר שלומך וגו’ ויהי כחול זרעך וצאצאי מעיך" וגו’.
Our Rabbis taught: If you walk in my statutes (Leviticus 26:3) the word if is nothing but an appeal. So too it says, Would that my people would listen to Me that Israel would walk in my ways . . . I should soon subdue their enemies (Psalms 81:14); And it says, Had you listened to my commandments: Then your peace would be like a river your seed like the sand, their issue [as many as its grains] (Isaiah 48:18).
All of these verses here are part of a general program to show that God pleaded with Israel to accept the commandments.