Avodah Zarah 65

On yesterday’s daf, Rav Yehuda taught that a Jew is prohibited from giving a holiday gift to a gentile due to the concern that they might use the gift, or the proceeds from its sale, for idol worship. Today, we read a story in which the same Rav Yehuda does exactly that:

Rav Yehuda sent a gift to (a gentile named) Avidarna on their festival day. Rav Yehuda said: I know of him that he does not worship idols. 

To explain the seeming incongruity of his actions, Rav Yehuda states that he knows Avidarna isn’t an idol worshiper and so giving him a gift isn’t an issue. The Gemara then brings another story about a rabbi who gives a gift to a gentile:

Rava brought a gift to bar Sheshakh on their festival day. Rava said: I know of him that he does not worship idols. Rava went and found him sitting up to his neck in rose water, and naked prostitutes were standing before him. Bar Sheshakh said to him: Do you have anything like this in the World to Come? 

Rava said to him: Ours is better than this. 

Bar Sheshakh said to him: Is there anything finer than this? 

Rava said to him: You have the fear of the government upon you; we will not have the fear of the government upon us (in the World to Come). 

Bar Sheshakh said to him: As for me, in any event, what fear of the government is there upon me? 

Rava brings a holiday gift to a Persian official named bar Sheshakh, who might not be an idol worshipper but does celebrate his holiday by bathing in rosewater surrounded by nude women. Bragging to his friend, bar Sheshakh asks Rava if there are any pleasures that compare in the World to Come. Rava answers by saying, in effect, these pleasures of the body are nothing. What’s really important is that now the fear of the government is upon us all, but that won’t be the case in the World to Come. From his perch as a wealthy aristocrat literally bathing in perfume, bar Sheshakh can’t imagine he has anything to fear. Rava, from his perch as a leader of the Jewish community, knows that the government is never to be trusted, especially — but not only — if you’re a Jew. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rava’s wisdom is proven correct:

While they were sitting, a certain royal officer came and said to bar Sheshakh: Rise, as the king requires you. As he was going out, he said to Rava: May any eye that wishes to see evil upon you burst, as it is clear that you were correct. Rava said to him: Amen. And then bar Sheshakh’s eye burst.

Summoned to an immediate audience with the king that requires him to leave all his pleasures behind, Bar Sheshakh isn’t as protected as he assumes. On his way out, he makes a cryptic comment wishing a burst eye on anyone who wishes evil upon Rava. Bar Sheshakh’s own eye then bursts, indicating perhaps that he was no true friend of Rava.

In naming the Jewish community’s reliance on a favorable government for its very survival, Rava articulates the precarious nature of Jews living as a minority in a majority culture. In this tale, the Talmud slyly sets up a hedonist who imagines himself immune from tyranny as a foil for Rava, who identifies the real danger in this world — and the freedom from it in the next. 

Read all of Avodah Zarah 65 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on August 22, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.