Volume II.
TRACT SABBATH
SECOND EDITION, RE-EDITED, REVISED AND ENLARGED
BOSTON NEW TALMUD PUBLISHING COMPANY
100 BOYLSTON STREET
[1896]
CHAPTER XVI.
REGULATIONS CONCERNING ARTICLES WHICH MAY BE SAVED FROM A CONFLAGRATION ON SABBATH.
p. 243
Ema Shalom, the wife of R.
Eliezer, who was also a sister of R. Gamaliel the Second, encountered
a philosopher in her neighborhood who was a judge, and had the reputation of being inaccessible to bribery. R. Gamaliel and his
sister wished to ridicule him and prove that he was
accessible to bribery. Ema Shalom brought him a golden candle. He
asked her what she wanted, so she answered: "My
father is dead, and I wish to inherit some of his possessions." The judge said: "Go, I will order that you be given
your share." Said she: "Thou canst not order it so, because our law
decrees, that wherever there is a son a daughter cannot inherit."
Answered the judge: "Since you Israelites are in exile, your law given
you by Moses has been revoked, and a new law was given you by which
daughters may inherit equally with sons." On the morrow came R. Gamaliel
and brought him a Libyan ass, and told him that he did not wish to let
his sister inherit. Said the judge: "After thy sister left I consulted the
law again, and found that the new law said: 'I did not come to abolish the
Mosaic law, neither to increase nor to diminish it.' Hence it must remain as in the old law, that
where a son is left a sister must not inherit." Said Ema Shalom to the
judge: "May God make thy light as bright as a candle." Said R. Gamaliel
to her (in the presence of the judge): "An ass came along and
extinguished thy candle."
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