Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b, Too much wine and luxury, the Northern Kingdom forgot Torah and forgot herself

Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under Talmud, Torah Observance

This passage from Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b gives a very good illustration of what the Jewish impression was of the non-Jewish Northern Kingdom of Israel (they were Hebrew, but they weren’t “Jewish” as we generally think today):

“R. Helbo said: The wine of Perugitha and the water of Diomsith cut off the Ten Tribes from Israel. R. Eleazar b. ‘Arak visited that place. He was attracted to them, and [in consequence] his learning vanished. When he returned, he arose to read in the Scroll [of the Torah]. He wished to read, Hahodesh hazeh lakem [This month shall be unto you, etc.], [instead of which] he read haharesh hayah libbam. But the scholars prayed for him, and his learning returned.”

Read the entire tractate here: Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 147b

Perugitha was a region in the Northern Kingdom of Israel known for it’s wine. Although not all agree:

“When he returned to Palestine, he could no longer read Hebrew properly! Perugitha was identified by Neubauer as Phrygia; the editors of the Soncino edition of the Talmud in English identify it with Pelugta, or Pethugta, a place apparently in northern Palestine, mentioned in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 5.3 as producing wine which led Jews astray. However, the anecdote about Rabbi Eleazar is more appropriate to an area of non-Semitic speech outside Palestine; I prefer to retain Neubauer’s original identification.” -Sheppard, A.R.R. Anatolian Studies, Vol. 29, 1979 (1979), pp. 169-180

If Sheppard truly understood how far the Northern Kingdom had drifted from her original nature and culture, he would not feel so compelled to interpret Perugitha as Phrygia. The rabbis of the Southern Kingdom believed it was the luxuries and pleasures of the Northern Kingdom which turned their hearts away from the Most High and His Torah, ultimately leading to their exile and loss of identity in Media and else where. It has been the House of Jewdah’s fierce hold on the Torah which has helped maintain her identity as a people for the last 3500 years. Without the Torah, Ephraim quickly became a melting pot within the cultures of numerous surrounding peoples.

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