Talmud with Power of Shame Sample
ISBN-10 1–891662–87-2 ISBN-12 9781891662874 Copyright © 2007 Joel Lurie Grishaver Photo credits: Page 1 © Jerzy Kolacz/The Image Bank; page 9 © Sanford/Agliolo/CORBIS; page 12 © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS; page 18 © Stephen Schildbach; page 23 © Image.com/CORBIS; page 25 © Royalty-Free/ CORBIS; page 32 © Joe Baker; page 38 © Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS; page 50 © Image: © Royalty-Free/Corbis. Published by Torah Aura Productions. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Torah Aura Productions, 4423 Fruitland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90058 (800) BE–TORAH • (800) 238–6724 • (323) 585–7312 • fax (323) 585–0327 Website www.torahaura.com manufactured in the united states of america Table of Contents
How to Use this Book ...... 4
Embarrassing Cases (A Warm-Up) ...... 6
The Introduction ...... 8
The Mishnah: Bava Metzia 4 10...... 9
The Gemara: Bava Metzia 58b-59a (Act 1)...... 11
Intermission: Threading the Gemara...... 30
Hevruta Text 1: Kamza and Bar Kamza Gittin 55b ...... 32
Hevruta Text 2: The Meanings of Shame (Orhot Tzaddikim) ...... 35
The Gemara: Bava Metzia 59a-59b (Act 2)...... 38
The Epilogue...... 45
The Origins of the Excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer...... 48
Mishnah: Brakhot 4 1...... 49
Rabban Gamliel vs . Rabbi Yehoshua: Brakhot 27b-28a...... 50
The Answers to Embarrassing Cases...... 60
The Real World...... 64 How to Use this Book
Flip through this book and you will find a collection of pieces, much more than just the Mishnah and Gemara (the two parts of the Talmud) that are advertised on the cover . The parts and the pieces can be used in a number of different orders and in a number of different ways . Embarrassing Cases (A Warm-Up) (pages 5-6) is a set of legal cases that involve balancing embarrassment against other issues . When can we allow a person to choose to embarrass him/her self? To what degree can we embarrass people in order to help them change their behavior? What do we do in cases where our discomfort leads to the embarrassment of another person (and more)? These cases help to frame the issues and suggest future applications of the passages we will study . Like your old high school textbooks, The Answers to Embarrassing Cases can be found in the back (page 60 ff) . Feel free to look at these Rabbinic solutions after you have struggled with and discussed the cases . The Introduction (page 8) sets the context of our passage in the Talmud and sets the context for the discussion that begins on page 9 . The Mishnah (pages 9-10) is the first historical layer of the Talmud . It was written in the Land of Israel by Rabbis who were called Tanna’im . This happened between 160 B .C .E . and 210 C .E . The Mishnah (now know as “our Mishnah”) takes the discussion the Talmud has been having on ONA’AH (fraud) and moves it into a new area, ONA’AT DIBBUR (Fraud with Words) . It attempts to define this concept . The Gemara (pages 11-29) is the next historical layer of the Talmud . Written in Babylonia by a group of Rabbis called Amora’im, the Gemara was created between 200 and 500 C .E . The Tanna’im were part-time Rabbis who did other things and met either in the late afternoon or during breaks between harvests . The Amora’im were full-time Rabbis who were part of full-time Academies, Yeshivot . The Mishnah was their curriculum and they explored it, looking into the motivation for the laws it taught and into new applications of these laws . This Gemara explores ways in which words can shame others . Only the first half of the Gemara is present in this section . Then we take a break . On pages 30 and 31 is a section called Threading the Gemara . This is a presentation of the structure of how the Gemara was assembled and how this jumble of tangents actually form a logical progression . This is a good way to
review the first half of the Gemara and anticipate the second half . Feel free to return to these pages when you have completed the sugia . A sugia = One Mishnah plus all the Gemara that discusses it . It is one conversation . Two Hevruta Texts. Hevruta is an Aramaic word that means “the friendship group ”. It is a classic way of studying . First you study a text with a friend, the two of you having a deep and personal conversation about it . Then you share your insights with the whole class and your teacher, explicating this text further . These two texts—Kamza and Bar Kamza, a Talmudic story; and a selection from Orhot Tzaddikim, a medieval (or Renaissance) text on ethics— are ways of expanding our focus on the impact of shame . They can be used at the beginning of every class session as a warm-up . They can be used as a one or two week break in the study of the Gemara . They can be skipped (and left for home reading) if timing is tight . The Gemara continues (pages 38-48) with one of the most famous stories in the Talmud, the story of Akhnai’s stove . This argument deals with shame and its implication in other ways . After “our sugia” is finished we have included another Talmudic story that we have called: The Origins of the Excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer . Here is a story whose focus is both the power of shame and the power of an apology . One of its key characters is Rabban Gamliel II, who is the persecutor in “our sugia” and also one of the victims . This earlier story defines his character and also teaches about shame and the power of an apology . This story could be studied as an introduction to our Talmudic passage or left as we have done as an epilogue .
Embarrassing Cases (A Warm-Up)
To get “warmed-up” for our Talmudic passage we are going to start with six cases that involve issues of embarrassment and shame . Judaism is against shaming anyone . (No surprise!) But each of these cases involves deciding if the mitigating circumstances are severe or significant enough to allow (or require) some embarrassment . They will get us ready for our sugia (Talmudic dialogue) and its implications . Working with your fellow students, find the best “verdict” for each situation .
The Ethics of Dwarf Tossing A dwarf goes to his rabbi and asks if he can take part in a dwarf tossing game in a local bar . In the game the dwarf wears a harness and people take turns throwing him as far as they can . The dwarves are thrown onto gym mats, and they readily volunteer because they are paid well . They even get a medical benefits package . Our dwarf asks his rabbi: “If the danger is minimal and I agree to take part, is there anything wrong with such an activity?”
Rabbi Israel Salanter Responds Once while on a lecture tour, the nineteenth century Rabbi Israel Salanter accepted an invitation for dinner on Shabbat . When he and his host were about to sit down for the meal, the man grew angry at his wife for forgetting to cover the two hallot . The woman was ashamed in the presence of such a distinguished guest and ran off to the kitchen where there she remained . In that situation, what should Rabbi Salanter do? Rabbi Salanter was a mussar master . Mussar is the Jewish discipline of studying ethical behavior . What do you think he did?
Twin “Nic-o-teens” In Wisconsin, a pair of twin boys, Bradley and Gavin, started smoking when they were twelve . Now they are sixteen and their mother has tried everything to get them to stop . Finally, she goes for a neighbor’s suggestion . She puts up “wanted posters” of them at every gas station and convenience store around town—telling people not to buy cigarettes for them and to call the police if they see them smoking . They had regularly gotten their “smokes” by getting people of legal age to do the buying for them . The boys go to court to stop their mother from doing this . Does a mother have the right to publicly embarrass her sons this way? Is she doing the right or the wrong thing here?
Can “Sludge” Be a Sign of Friendship? When David was eight or nine the other campers used to call him “Sludge ”. It was an insult tied to his inability to keep his things in order . Now he’s fourteen, and some of his friends have started using it again . They think it is an act of friendship—he thinks it still hurts . What should Sean, the one friend to whom David told the whole story, do about it?
Synagogue Exposé Matt is president of the synagogue . Sandy edits the synagogue newsletter . Sandy hates the way Matt is running the shul . She thinks that he is picking all his friends for the important positions rather than choosing the best people . Sandy writes a nasty editorial criticizing Matt for the way he is doing his job . Matt goes to the rabbi and says that the newsletter should not be sent out because it is un-Jewish to embarrass a person . Sandy says that social criticism is a Jewish way of life . What should the rabbi do?
Facing Ugliness Each day, on their way to work, Danny and his friend Ari pass a truly ugly, deformed man, who sits on the street and sells pens and pencils . He has a deformed face, one deformed arm and no legs . Danny is really “turned off” by the sight of this man, and always looks away in order not to stare at the deformities . However, Ari say that Danny should not react to the ugliness in this manner, and SHOULD look at the man in order not to embarrass him . How should Danny and his friend view this person? Should they look or not look?
You’ll find the “answers” to these cases on pages 59–62. It would be really good if you could be patient enough to wait until the end of your studies to look at them. (Or do you read the end of a mystery before you get there?)
The Introduction Bava Metzia 58b-59b This piece of Talmud comes from tractate Bava Metzia (the Middle Gate) . It is in the section of the Talmud called Nezikin that means “damages,” but in law school it would be called “torts ”. In Nezikin are three books called “The Gates”: Bava Kamma (The First Gate), Bava Metzia (The Middle Gate) and Bava Batra (The Third or Final Gate) . In ancient Israel the elders would sit in the gates of the city and “judge between the people ”. I have always felt—without any textual proof—that the word Bava, gate, is a remembering of those times . Our passage is in the middle of a discussion of fraud . Fraud is over- charging or underpaying . This sugia (our discussion) introduces a new concept called Ona’at Dibbur , fraud-with-words .
58b-59b Talmud pages have two sides, “a” and “b ”. This is because they were originally printed one side per page at a time and then sewn together . Numbering pages with individual numbers started when printers learned how to print eight-page folios and the individual numbers were needed to know how to fold and cut the pages the right way . This text starts on the second side of page 58 and goes to the back side of page 59 .