Tosefta Sotah 13:2-4 reads as follows:
13:2 A.
When the first Temple was destroyed, the kingship was removed from the House of
David.
B. The Urim and Thummim ceased [M. Sot. 9:12A].
C. The cities of refuge came to an end,
D. as it is said, The
governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until
there should be a priest to consult the Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:63).
E. This is like a man who says to his friend, “Until the
dead will live,” or, “Until Elijah will come.”
13:3 A.
When the latter prophets died, that is, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, then
the Holy Spirit came to an end in Israel.
B. But even so, they made them hear [Heavenly messages]
through an echo.
C. M‘ŚH S̆: Sages gathered together in the upper room of
the house of Guria in Jericho, and a heavenly echo came forth and said to them,
“There is a man among you who is worthy to receive the Holy Spirit, but his
generation is unworthy of such an honor.”
They all set their eyes upon Hillel the elder.
D. And when he died, they said about him, “Woe for the
humble man, woe for the pious man, the disciple of Ezra.”
13:4 A.
Then another time they were in session in Yabneh and heard an echo saying,
“There is among you a man who is worthy to receive the Holy Spirit, but the
generation is unworthy of such an honor.”
B. They all set their eyes upon Samuel the Small.
C. At the time of his death what did they say? “Woe for
the humble man, woe for the pious man, the disciple of Hillel the Elder!”
D. Also he says at the time of his death, “Simeon and
Ishmael are destined to be put to death, and the rest of the associates will
die by the sword, and the remainder of the people will be up for spoils.
“After this, great disasters will fall.”
This he said in Aramaic.
E. Also concerning R. Judah b. Baba they ordained that
they should say about him, “Woe for the humble man, woe for the pious man,
disciple of Samuel the Small.” But the times did not allow it. (The Tosefta:
Translated from the Hebrew with a New Introduction, 2 vols. [trans. Jacob
Neusner; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002], 1:885-86)
John R. Levison offered the
following commentary on this text:
More serious is the misinterpretation of this text, which
is incorrectly interpreted to mean that, with the end of the succession of the
canonical prophets, the holy spirit was replaced by a voice, the bat qôl
(בַּת קוֹל). The bat qôl (lit. “daughter of the voice”) informs the sages who are gathered together
that Hillel is worthy of the spirit but cannot receive it because of the evil
generation to which he belongs. This interpretation violates the literary
context of t. Soṭah 13:2-4, which illustrates a straightforward principle: “When
a righteous person comes into the world, good comes into the world . . . and
retribution departs from the world” (10:1). Tosefta Soṭah 13:2-4, understood according
to this principle, indicates that the holy spirit is present because one
person, Hillel, is worthy of it. This affirms the spirit’s presence—not its
absence. (John R. Levison, In Search of the Spirit, 2 vols.
[Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2023], 1:59)
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