daf bit: Bava Kama 60

[cellio]

The mishna discusses liability in the case of one who sets a fire (and the thorns nearby catch, and then the stacks of corn). Commenting on this in the g'mara, Rabbi Shmuel ben Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: calamity comes upon the world only when there are wicked people in the world, but it always begins with the righteous. When does fire break out? When there are thorns nearby. Rabbi Yosef added: once permission has been granted to the Destroyer [I assume this is the angel of death], he does not distinguish between righteous and wicked, and, further, he begins with the righteous, as it says: I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. (60a)

(I have to wonder, in saying that the righteous are consumed first, whether the rabbis are engaging in exegesis -- drawing meaning from the text -- or eisegesis -- reading meaning into it based on the many martyrs and victims of foreign conquest.)

The g'mara goes on to discuss safe travel practices to avoid bumping into the Destroyer. When there is a famine in the city the Destroyer walks boldly down the center of the road so you should stick to the sides, but when all is well he has to slink around beside the road so you should walk in the center. I wouldn't have thought that trying to dodge the Destroyer would do any good.

Comments

Re: parsing the Aramaic

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Using the Soncino Classics software from Davka yields 13 uses of the term in the Bavli:

Berachot 16b -- "umesatan hamashchit" (sounds like the Xian Satan)
Berachot 35b (twice, both as "ish mashchit"
Berachot 62b -- "mal'ach hamashchit"
Shabbat 55a (twice)
B. Kamma 60a (here we are)
Sanhedrin 102a (twice)
Makkot 20a and 20b
Zevachim 17a
Zevachim 116a