{"id":55986,"date":"2019-05-22T17:03:25","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T14:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55986"},"modified":"2022-12-15T08:34:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T06:34:34","slug":"samsons-riddle-in-halakhah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/samsons-riddle-in-halakhah\/","title":{"rendered":"Samson\u2019s Riddle In Halakhah"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[662,878,627],"acf":{"old_id":"55986","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"225","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A specious wager does not need to be honored","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samson, known in rabbinic literature as Samson the Hero (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ha-gibbor<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), was renowned for his extraordinary strength. It appears from the text of our chapter that he was quite a wit, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At his wedding party, Samson challenged his Philistine comrades with the following riddle, whose solution would earn them thirty linen cloaks and thirty changes of clothing: \u201cOut of the eater came food and out of the bold came sweet\u201d (v.14). Not surprisingly, they were unable to solve the riddle, because it was specific to a circumstance known only to Samson (slaying a lion and eating honey from its carcass, 6-8). In desperation to win, they coerced Samson\u2019s wife to coax the answer from him (15 ff.), and he gave them thirty changes of clothing that he had taken off an equal number of dead Philistines (19).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samson\u2019s wager is cited occasionally in halakhic literature as a precedent for settling wagers that involve an element of chicanery. Here is one contemporary example, courtesy of <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hashukei Hemed<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a talmudic commentary (on Baba Metzia 73b) by R. Yitzchak Zylberstein of Bnei Brak (1935-).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Offering a prize of $100, a teacher challenged his students to count how many times Rashi, in his Talmud commentary, says \u201cI do not know.\u201d One student came back with the correct answer, having looked it up on a computerized database. Does the teacher owe him the money?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In explaining that a specious wager does not need to be honored, Rabbi Zylberstein cited the case of Samson\u2019s riddle, pointing out that since Samson\u2019s friends resorted to a trick to answer it, he paid them only half of what he promised: thirty changes of clothing but not the thirty linen cloaks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He ruled that, in practice, the teacher does not have to pay the money because (a) such a wager is akin to gambling, and (b) the student should have understood that the teacher expected them to answer without resort to outside help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: James Jacques Joseph Tissot, &#8220;<em>Samson Puts Forth a Riddle<\/em>,&#8221; c. 1896-1902, The Jewish Museum, gift of the heirs of Jacob Schiff<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55988,"id":55988,"title":"Samson Puts Forth a 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