This fascinating example of fourth-century C.E. homiletics from the Land of Israel is preserved in the Babylonian Talmud. It seems to constitute the entire sermon, changed only slightly to fit its new context in the Talmud. The topic of the homily is the permissibility of putting out a lamp on the Sabbath for the benefit of a sick person.

The question was asked before Rabbi Tanhum of Nawe: What about extinguishing a burning lamp for the sake of a sick person on the Sabbath? Thereupon he commenced and said:

You, Solomon, where is your wisdom and where is your understanding? It is not enough for you that your words contradict the words of your father David, but they are self-contradictory! Your father David said: “The dead praise not the Lord” (Ps. 115:17), while you said: “Then I praise the dead who have died long since more than those who are living” (Eccl. 4:2), but yet again you said, “For a living dog is better than a dead lion” (Eccl. 9:4).

Yet there is no difficulty.108 As to what David said, “The dead praise not the Lord,” this is what he meant: Let a man always engage first in good deeds before he dies, for as soon as he dies, he may no longer engage in Torah and good deeds, and the Holy One, blessed be He, finds no praise in him. And this is what Rabbi Yohanan said. What is meant by the verse, “Among the dead [I am] free” (Ps. 88:6)? “A man becomes free of the Torah and good deeds.” When Israel sinned in the wilderness, Moses stood before the Holy One, blessed be He, with many prayers and supplications before Him, but He would not answer. Yet when he exclaimed, “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants!” (Ex. 32:13), he was immediately answered. Did not then Solomon well say, “Then I praise the dead who have died long since”?

Another interpretation: In worldly affairs, when a king of flesh and blood issues a decree, it is doubtful whether it will be obeyed or not, and even if you say that it is obeyed, it is obeyed during his lifetime but not after his death, whereas Moses our Teacher decreed many decrees and enacted numerous enactments, and they endure for ever and unto all eternity. Did then not Solomon well say, “Then I praise the dead who have died long since”?

Another interpretation: “Then I praise the dead, etc.” is in accordance with Rav Judah’s dictum in Rav’s name: What is meant by, “Show me a token for good that those who hate me may see it, and be ashamed” (Ps. 86:17)? David prayed before the Holy One, blessed be He, “Sovereign of the Universe! Forgive me for that sin!”109 “It is forgiven,” replied He. “Show me a token in my lifetime,” he entreated. “In your lifetime I will not make it known, but I will make it known in the lifetime of your son Solomon.” For when Solomon built the Temple, he wanted to take the Ark into the Holy of Holies, whereupon the gates stuck to each other. Solomon uttered twenty-four prayers, yet he was not answered. Then he opened [his mouth] and exclaimed, “Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in” (Ps. 24:7). They rushed upon him to swallow him up,110 crying, “Who is the King of glory?” He answered: “The Lord, strong and mighty” (Ps. 24:8). Then he repeated, “Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in.” Who then is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory, Selah” (Ps. 24:9–10); yet he was not answered. But as soon as he prayed, “O Lord God, turn not away the face of Your anointed; remember the good deeds of David Your servant” (2 Chron. 6:42), he was immediately answered. In that hour the faces of all David’s enemies turned black like the bottom of a pot, and all Israel knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, had forgiven him that sin. Did then not Solomon well say, “Then I praise the dead who have died long since”?

And thus it is written, “On the eighth day he (Solomon) sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown unto David his servant, and to Israel his people” (1 Kings 8:66). “And they went unto their tents” means that they found their wives clean; “joyful,” because they had enjoyed the luster of the Divine Presence; “and glad of heart,” because their wives conceived and each one bore a male child; “for all the goodness that the Lord had shown unto David his servant,” that He had forgiven him that sin; “and to Israel his people,” for He had forgiven them the sin of the Day of Atonement.

And as to what Solomon said, “for a living dog is better than a dead lion”—that is as Rav Judah said in Rav’s name: what is meant by the verse, “Lord, make me know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how short-lived I am” (Ps. 39:5)?

David said before the Holy One, blessed be He, “Sovereign of the Universe! Lord, let me know my end.”

“It is a decree before Me,” He replied, “that the end of a mortal is not made known.”
“And the measure of my days what it is”—It is a decree before Me that a person’s span of life is not made known.
“Let me know how short-lived I am”—He said to him: “You will die on the Sabbath.”

“Let me die on the first day of the week!”
“The reign of your son Solomon shall already have become due, and one reign may not overlap another even by a hairbreadth.”

“Then let me die on the eve of the Sabbath!”

He said, “For a day in your courts is better than a thousand” (Ps. 84:11); better the one day that you sit and engage in study than the thousand burnt-offerings which your son Solomon is destined to sacrifice before Me on the altar.

Every Sabbath day he (David) would sit and study all day. On the day that his soul was to be at rest, the angel of death stood before him but could not prevail against him, because Torah did not cease from his mouth. “What shall I do to him?” asked he. Now there was a garden before his house; so the angel of death went, ascended, and rustled the trees. David went out to see; as he was ascending the stairs, they fell under him. Thereupon he became silent and his soul had repose.

Solomon sent to the house of study: “My father is dead and lying in the sun; and the dogs of my father’s house are hungry. What shall I do?” They sent back: “Cut up a carcass and place it before the dogs; and for your father, put a loaf of bread or a child upon him and carry him away.” Did then not Solomon well say, “for a living dog is better than a dead lion”?

And as for the question which I asked before you: better a lamp of flesh and blood be extinguished than the lamp of the Holy One, blessed be He.

105. Trans. Heinemann and Petuchowski, Literature of the Synagogue, pp. 145–8.

106. In the book of Psalms of which David is traditionally said to be the author.

107. In the book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to Solomon.

108. In interpreting this seeming contradiction.

109. The sin he committed with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:1–27).

110. They believed that by “King of glory” he was referring to himself.

111. Ritually pure so that sexual relations were permitted.

112. On the occasion of the dedication of the Temple, a feast was held for fourteen days in the seventh month (1 Kings 8:2, 65), which, if it is assumed to have started on the first of the month, must have included the Day of Atonement, which then would not have been observed that year as a fast.

113. On the Sabbath the dead can neither be attended to nor be buried.

114. Of the Torah.

115. He stopped studying Torah, and, as a result, the angel of death prevailed and he passed away.

116. They may therefore devour the corpse.

117. Ordinarily not permitted on the Sabbath.

118. Only in this fashion—for the sake of the loaf of bread, as it were—may a corpse be moved on the Sabbath.

119. Actually, “which you asked before me.” According to Rashi, this circumlocution is an expression of humility on the part of Rabbi Tanhum.

120. As it is said, “The soul of man is the lamp of the Lord” (Prov. 20:27). The next text has, apparently, been omitted through a scribal error.

121. The lamp lit by human beings.

122. The soul of a human being.

123. He concludes that it is permitted to extinguish the physical lamp to preserve the spiritual lamp—the live human being.