Before testifying in capital cases, witnesses are sternly reminded about gravity of their role. In fact, they are subjected to a significant speech on the subject, which is found in a mishnah on yesterday’s daf. Here is part of that speech:
You should know that cases of capital law are not like cases of monetary law. In cases of monetary law, a person who testifies falsely can give the money to the proper owner and his sin is atoned for. In cases of capital law, if one testifies falsely, the blood of the accused and the blood of his offspring (that he did not live to produce) are ascribed to the witness’s testimony until eternity, as we found with Cain, who killed his brother, as it is stated concerning him: “The voice of your brother’s blood (demei) cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). The verse does not state: Your brother’s blood (dam), in the singular, but rather, your brother’s blood (demei), in the plural. This serves to teach that the loss of both his brother’s blood and the blood of his brother’s offspring are ascribed to Cain …
You can correct a mistake in a case of monetary law. But once someone has been executed, you can’t give them life, nor can the children they might have sired had they lived ever come into existence. There is no reversing this decision. The lecture to capital case witnesses continues:
Therefore, Adam the first man was created alone, to teach you that with regard to anyone who destroys one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world. And anyone who sustains one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world.
This line is one of the most famous in the Talmud. And today’s daf explains the derivation as well: Adam, the first person, sired the entire world population. Had he been destroyed before doing that, his killer would have extinguished the entire world. Similarly, someone who destroys a person has not only extinguished their life, but prevented all of their offspring from coming into being — and thereby destroyed an entire potential world.
On today’s daf, this mishnah occasions the recitation of a series of rabbinic tales about the biblical Adam, including this one, which is also famous:
Reish Lakish says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “This is the book of the generations of Adam” (Genesis 5:1)? This verse teaches that the Holy One showed Adam every generation and its Torah interpreters, every generation and its wise ones.
In its original context, Genesis 5:1 introduces a simple genealogical list of the first humans. This midrashic reading, however, suggests that God gave Adam a glimpse of the great sages who would arise in every future generation. This means that Adam got to review the life of Rabbi Akiva, perhaps the greatest of the talmudic rabbis, who began his learning late in life but became greater than all his peers, reinventing the way the rabbis read scripture and raising an army of disciples. Akiva’s life ended tragically, when he was executed by the Romans for his participation in the Bar Kokhba revolt. Berakhot 61 recounts that, as the executioners were raking Rabbi Akiva’s flesh with iron combs, he used his final breaths to recite the Jewish creed, the Shema. His students, shocked, asked Akiva how he could recite an affirmation of God even as he was being brutally slaughtered. Akiva answered that this final act afforded him the opportunity to fulfill the Torah’s requirement that one should love God with all their soul. Akiva explained that by loving and affirming God, even as God was reclaiming that soul, he was finally able to fulfill that commandment. As he pronounced the last word of the Shema, he expired.
Taking in this scene, Adam is deeply touched, a feeling that will be shared by readers of this tale, even millennia after Rabbi Akiva’s death.
In the rabbis’ imagination, Adam is not the only biblical figure who previews the life and death of Rabbi Akiva. Menachot 29b describes Moses taking a celestial trip to Rabbi Akiva’s classroom to watch him educate students in his revolutionary method of interpreting Torah. Akiva’s readings are so erudite, Moses turns to God and exclaims:
Master of the Universe, You have a man as great as this and yet You still choose to give the Torah through me. Why? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me.
Moses said before God: Master of the Universe, You have shown me Rabbi Akiva’s Torah, now show me his reward. God said to him: Return to where you were. Moses went back and saw that they were weighing Rabbi Akiva’s flesh in a butcher shop. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, this is Torah and this is its reward? God said to him: Be silent; this intention arose before Me.
Whereas Adam was saddened by Rabbi Akiva’s brutal end, Moses is shocked. But same as before, God gives no explanation.
It’s a stark reality that the rabbis reflect on in these passages: Those who commit themselves to a life of Torah, even the greatest of them, are not shielded from the oppressive forces in the world, and their suffering may even be the will of God.
As I revisit these stories, like Adam, I am saddened. And like Moses, I wonder: This is Torah, and this is its reward?! Other times, I too ask myself: When I am afforded the opportunity to serve God with all of my soul, will I be able to do so? The silence that comes in response to both questions can be deafening.
Read all of Sanhedrin 38 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 24, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world.
Your donation to My Jewish Learning fuels endless journeys of Jewish discovery. With your help, My Jewish Learning can continue to provide nonstop opportunities for learning, connection and growth.
