{"collection":"Texts of Judaism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_hl_hl53_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_jud_hl_hl53_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_jud_hl_hl53_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/hl/hl53.htm","summary":"This is a compilation of excerpts from the Babylonian Talmud \u2014 specifically Bava Bathra and Sanhedrin \u2014 presented with brief editorial framing and a passage from the medieval commentator Rashi. The text moves through three loosely connected subjects: a ranking of the eighty disciples of Hillel, with praise for the encyclopedic learning of Yochanan ben Zacchai despite being ranked last; a legal dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and the sages over whether women may be executed by hanging; and an extended narrative explaining why Simeon ben Shetach hanged eighty witches in Askelon in a single day, which technically violated the rule against multiple executions. The Rashi story at the center is a morality tale in which a Rabbi and a wicked publican are mistakenly buried in each other's places, and a grieving disciple learns through a dream-vision that divine justice operates on a longer timeline than human funerals suggest. A distinctive feature is the matter-of-fact treatment of supernatural elements \u2014 witches losing their power when lifted off the ground, Gehenna's door-hinges creaking in a sinner's ears, a Rabbi touring Paradise \u2014 embedded within what are otherwise procedural legal discussions. Readers drawn to rabbinic storytelling, Talmudic legal reasoning, or the intersection of folklore and religious law will find this a compact but representative sample of that tradition.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"LXXX.","tradition":"Texts of Judaism","translated_text":null,"word_count":860}