Three Oaths - Other Midrashim Concerning The Three Oaths

Other Midrashim Concerning The Three Oaths

There are several other Midrashim that pertain to the Three Oaths and they are primarily recorded in Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah which is also known as Midrash Hazita:

• "If it is a wall", if Israel would have ascended like a wall from Babylon, the Temple would not have been destroyed during that period for a second time. Rabbi Zeira went to the marketplace to buy something. He said to the one who was weighing: that was weighed very fairly. He responded: Do not depart from here Babylonian because your ancestors destroyed the Temple. At that moment Rabbi Zeira said, are not my ancestors the same as the ancestors of this one?! Rabbi Zeira entered the house of study and heard the voice of Rabbi Sheila who was sitting and teaching: 'If it is a wall', if Israel would have ascended like a wall from the Exile, the Temple would not have been destroyed a second time. He said: the unlearned person taught me well.

• R. Yossi bar Chanina said, “There are two oaths here, one for Israel and one for the nations. Israel swore not to rebel against the nations, and the nations swore that they would not overly burden Israel, for by doing so they cause the end of days to come prematurely.

• Rabbi Chelbo says...And do not ascend like a wall from the Exile. If so, why is the King Messiah coming? To gather the exiles of Israel.

• When Reish Lakish would see Jews from the Exile gathering in the marketplace in the Land of Israel he would say to them, 'Scatter yourselves.' He said to them: 'When you ascended you did not do so as a wall, and here you have come to make a wall.'