There are well-known stories found in the Gemara that made it to the storybooks. Yet there are stories that are equally important but haven’t been publicized simply because they are not suitable for all audiences.
The Gemara relates (Kiddushin 39b–40a) three incidents where great tzaddikim overcame enticement to sin. The first was an incident that occurred with Rabbi Chanina bar Pappi. A noblewoman attempted to convince Rabbi Chanina bar Pappi to act immorally with her. Seeing no alternative, he ran into a building filled with physical dangers to escape her. He stayed there until morning, when he left without a scratch. Wondering how he had exited the building unharmed, the rabbis asked him, “Who protected you?” He replied, “Two of the Caesar’s soldiers watched over me the entire night.” They suggested, “Perhaps you overcame a desire to act immorally, for we learned in a beraisa: If a person had the opportunity to act immorally but he held himself back, they perform a miracle for him.”
A powerful noblewoman tried to entice Rabbi Tzadok to commit an immoral act with her. He said, “I am feeling too weak. Is there something to eat here?” She said, “There is some non-kosher meat.” Rabbi Tzadok said, “What can be derived from this? It is fitting for the one who acts immorally with a gentile woman to be fed non-kosher meat.” She then lit the oven to cook the meat. Rabbi Tzadok then climbed into the oven. The woman exclaimed, “What are you doing?” Rabbi Tzadok told her that the one who commits this immoral act deserves to fall into the fire (of Gehinnom). She said, “If I had realized how severe a sin you considered this, I would not have bothered you in the first place.”
A similar incident happened with Rabbi Kahana. He was selling baskets and a noblewoman wished to entice him to commit an immoral act with her. He threw himself off a roof to avoid her. The prophet Eliyahu came and caught him. Eliyahu said to him, “You troubled us to travel 400 parsos to come and save you!”
Forty pages later, the Gemara records two other related incidents. It happened that some redeemed captive women were brought to the house of Rav Amram Chasida in Nahardea, since he had been instrumental in their release. They were placed in the second story of his house. The ladder was removed, thereby preventing access to the second floor. As one of the women passed by the hatch that was used as a passageway between the upper and lower stories of the house, a light shone into the house through the hatch, illuminating the beautiful face of one of the women.
Rav Amram was so taken by the beauty of this woman that he replaced the ladder under the hatch, though the ladder was ordinarily too heavy for one man to lift by himself! Overcome with desire, he began to ascend. When he reached the middle of the ladder, he froze in place and began to scream, “There is a fire in the house of Amram!”
The rabbis came running and saw that there was not any fire. Realizing that Rav Amram had been about to commit a sin, they shouted at him, “You have put us to shame!” He replied, “Better that you be shamed in the house of Amram in this world, and not be ashamed of him in the World to Come” (Kiddushin 81a).
Shortly after that story, the Gemara relates the story of Rebbe Chiya bar Ashi. Rebbe Chiya bar Ashi used to pray every day: “May Hashem save me from the yetzer ha’ra!” When his wife overheard him, she thought, “He is old already; why does he need to pray about this?” She adorned herself and disguised herself as a woman of ill repute. While Rebbe Chiya was learning in the garden, she walked back and forth in front of him. When Rebbe Chiya inquired who she was, she told him that she was a certain well-known woman. He asked her to sin with him. She said, “First fetch me that fruit on the top of the tree.” After he complied, they “sinned” together.
When Rebbe Chiya bar Ashi came home, he was so distraught that he had succumbed to temptation that he jumped into the oven that his wife was lighting. When his wife asked him what was upsetting him so, he told her what happened. She then told him not to worry because the woman with whom he had “sinned” was in fact his own wife! At first he didn’t believe her, but then she provided details proving her tale was true.
Rebbe Chiya was somewhat mollified that he did not commit an actual sin. Yet he was pained greatly because at the time he thought that he was sinning. He compared it to an individual who intended to eat pork but ended up eating kosher beef. That individual is still required to repent. Rebbe Chiya spent the rest of his life fasting until the anguish from his “sin” led to his untimely demise.
The first three stories demonstrate how tazddikim overcame their yetzer ha’ra. The fourth story demonstrates that although Rav Amram was about to sin, he used an ingenious technique to stop himself. However, what is the point of the fifth story? Why does the Talmud feel that we should know that Rebbe Chiya was willing to actually commit—and thought that he did commit—an immoral sin? In fact, the Talmud on the very same daf relates other incidents where Rebbe Akiva and Rebbe Meir were saved from immoral sin only by supernatural causes. Why are these stories necessary?
The Divrei Shaul explains that people may discount the first series of stories, arguing, “What’s the significance of the first stories, in which tzaddikim didn’t sin? They don’t have the same yetzer ha’ra as the rest of us commoners!” Therefore, the Gemara related the final stories. Tzaddikim do have the same yetzer ha’ra that we all have. Unfortunately, they may actually fail, just as we may fail. It’s a struggle for them and a struggle for us. Armed with this awareness, we can now relate to the stories of the tzaddikim who overcame their yetzer ha’ra. We can now be inspired by the righteous individuals who managed to successfully battle their evil inclination. Their fortitude and will-power should be a lesson to us all.
The Pele Yoetz adds that there is another lesson to be learned from the stories of the failure of tzaddikim. We may look derisively at individuals who succumbed to their temptations, thinking that it is such an easy nisayon to pass, and they failed it. In fact, Rebbe Meir and Rebbe Akiva initially had this attitude (Rashi on Kiddushin 81a). Yet when it was demonstrated how close they came to failure, they changed their point of view.
The following is a loose translation of the Sefer Oros Eilim (authored by the Pele Yoetz): “Because of this, one should not ridicule those drunkards and those that succumb to temptations, because their evil inclination ‘forced’ them. Rather, the man who is pure from these terrible plagues should thank Hashem for his lot, which is more precious than an enormous treasure.”
Maggid shiur and Rebbe at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway. He leads the Daf Yomi chaburah at Eitz Chayim of Dogwood Park in West Hempstead, and writes “Delving into the Daf” each week for The Jewish Home.
