Study Berakhot folio 5B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
and buries his sons, all his transgressions are forgiven.
R' Yoḥanan said to him: What is your source for this? Granted, if one engages in Torah and acts of charity, his transgressions are forgiven, as it is written: “With mercy and truth, iniquity is expiated” (Proverbs 16:6); mercy refers to acts of charity, as it is stated: “He who pursues charity an
An answer was provided to R' Yoḥanan when a certain elder taught him in the name of R' Shimon bar Yoḥai: This conclusion is derived from a verbal analogy between the words iniquity and iniquity. Here, it is written: “With mercy and truth, iniquity is expiated,” and there it is written: “He repays t
R' Yoḥanan said: tzara'at and suffering due to children are not afflictions of love.
The Talmud asks: Is tzara'at not an affliction of love? Didn’t we learn in a baraita: If one has any of the 4 signs of tzara'at (Leviticus 13) they are nothing other than an altar of atonement?