The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 9 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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NashimSederסדרנָשִׁים
SotahMasechtaמסכתסוטה
9Perekפרקט׳
12Mishnahמשנהי״ב
נושא · Topicמַה שֶּׁפָּסַק וְנִתְמַעֵט בַּחֻרְבָּןAfter the Churban: the Urim v'Tumim cease and nature's blessing fades
Mishnah סוטה ט׳:י״ב · Sotah 9:12
מִשֶּׁמֵּתוּ נְבִיאִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים, בָּטְלוּ אוּרִים וְתֻמִּים.
מִשֶּׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ,
בָּטַל הַשָּׁמִיר
וְנֹפֶת צוּפִים,
וּפָסְקוּ אַנְשֵׁי אֲמָנָה,
שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים יב) הוֹשִׁיעָה ה׳ כִּי גָמַר חָסִיד וְגוֹ׳.
רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ,
מִיּוֹם שֶׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, אֵין יוֹם שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ קְלָלָה, וְלֹא יָרַד הַטַּל לִבְרָכָה, וְנִטַּל טַעַם הַפֵּרוֹת.
רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, אַף נִטַּל שֹׁמֶן הַפֵּרוֹת.
When the early nevi'im died, the Urim v'Tumim ceased.
When the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed,
the shamir ceased,
and nofes tzufim,
and the men of faithfulness ceased,
as it is said, (Tehillim 12:2) "Save us, Hashem, for the pious have come to an end…"
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua:
from the day the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, there is no day without curse; the dew has not descended in blessing; and the taste has been removed from the fruit.
Rabbi Yossi says: also the fattiness of the fruit has been removed.
case/objectrestrictive rulingTannareasonpasuk/proof text
Transcript
Summary Chart
After the Churban: the Urim v'Tumim cease and nature's blessing fades▾
CaseRulingReason
What ceased when the early nevi'im died?The Urim v'Tumim—
What ceased when the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed?The shamir, the nofes tzufim, and the men of faithTehillim 12:2
What changed from the day of the Churban?Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel (in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua): No day passes without its curse; dew falls without blessing; the taste is removed from produce—
What did Rabbi Yossi add?Rabbi Yossi: Also the fattiness was removed from produce—
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
When the early prophets died, the Urim went still▾
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב
R' Yehoshua (ben Chananya) · Dor 2 · Yavneh — רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ

R’ Yehoshua ben Chananya was among Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s foremost talmidim — and a Levi who had sung on the duchan while the Bais still stood. After the Churban he became the voice of measured grief. When ascetics swore off meat and wine because the mizbeach was gone, he answered that to refuse all mourning is impossible, for the decree has come — but to mourn without limit is also impossible, for one may not bind the community to what it cannot bear (Bava Basra 60b). His was the steady hand that kept a shattered nation from grieving itself into despair.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
The shamir — worm or snake, and why no iron

Bartenura: a creature the size of a barley-corn, set over ink-scored stones, which split open on their own — ‘like a fig that splits in summer, lacking nothing.’ By it the Ephod and Choshen stones were opened b'milu'osam, whole and unchipped. (Rambam calls it a nachash, a stone-boring snake, not a worm.) Fitting that no iron touched them: iron is the sword's metal, which shortens life, and may not touch what serves to lengthen it. Avos counts the shamir among the ten wonders of the first twilight.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
What nofes tzufim was

Alongside the shamir, the mishnah mourns the loss of nofes tzufim, and the meforshim preserve a small debate over what this delicacy even was. Mishnat Eretz Yisrael gathers the views: the Talmud Yerushalmi and Bavli describe it as honey gathered by skimming; as fine flour that floats on a sieve, kneaded with honey and oil (Rav); or as two loaves left in the oven until they swell and meet (Levi). What the opinions share is the sense that nofes tzufim named the choicest sweetness of Eretz Yisrael — a small luxury of the land, quietly counted among the things that went out of the world.

Who are the early prophets?

Bartenura and Rambam agree precisely: all the prophets are the ‘early’ ones except the last three — Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the prophets of the Second Temple, called the latter ones. So the Urim v'Tumim's silence is dated to the very close of nevuah: when the last channels of prophecy went quiet, the Choshen went quiet with them.

The order encodes a chronology

Melechet Shlomo brings the Tosafos proof from the mishnah's sequence: the Urim v'Tumim lapsed earlier, with the early prophets, while the shamir survived all the way to the Churban — the list is not one moment but a staggered timeline. And it descends inward: a tool (shamir), a taste (nofes tzufim), then people (anshei amanah). A tool can be re-engineered and a sweetness re-bred; trustworthy people cannot be supplied from outside.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Sotah 9:11
The Sanhedrin falls; song ceases
Mishnah 9 of 41
Sotah 9:12
The Churban bends the natural order
Next →
Sotah 9:13
Taste, smell, and fullness fade from the fruit

More than a legal rupture

The series reads the Churban as more than a change in the law — the Chachomim saw it bend the order of the world itself. This mishnah is the heart of that reading: divine guidance through the Urim v'Tumim, stone shaped without iron by the shamir, the sweetness of nofes tzufim, the trustworthiness of people — each dimmed at once. The destruction reached past the Mikdash into the grain of creation.

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