BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LITERATURES AND LINGUISTICS
NATURE, SOCIETY AND SELF: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE RABBAH BAR BAR HANNAH TALES
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
REBECCA ROSE GLUECK UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROFESSOR GERDA ELATA-ALSTER UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROFESSOR MARK GELBER
______
FEBRUARY 2007
1
BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LITERATURES AND LINGUISTICS
NATURE, SOCIETY AND SELF: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE RABBAH BAR BAR HANNAH TALES
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
REBECCA ROSE GLUECK UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROFESSOR GERDA ELATA-ALSTER UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROFESSOR MARK GELBER
Signature of student: ______Date: ______Signature of supervisor: ______Date: ______Signature of supervisor: ______Date: ______Signature of chairperson of the committee for graduate studies: ______Date: ______
FEBRUARY 2007
2
NATURE, SOCIETY AND SELF: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE RABBAH BAR BAR HANNAH TALES
ABSTRACT: The Babylonian Talmud ( Bava Batra 73 a-b) recounts the tales of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah, (3 rd century Amora who lived in Babylon and the Land of Israel). The enigmatic tales tell of incredible voyages and immense creatures. They are remarkable for their extreme hyperbole, and are often categorized as folktales or allegories. Based upon a gaonic tradition, I propose that the first ten tales are records of visionary and dream-like experiences, in which Rabbah confronts the mystery of Nature. Rabbah's vision quest may conflict with the prevalent Torah-centered viewpoint of the sages, which holds that Nature is just a reflection of Torah. I believe that Rabbah's tales present a myth-like view of Nature in which all beings share a sense of unity, and experience becomes an undifferentiated flow like the ocean's currents . Nature gives rise to symbols expressing concepts of the self, of social organization and of world-views. I propose that the tales present a vision of a society of individuated selves, living with Nature, in harmony with an evolutionary process, and not locked into a single world view. Rabbah may have been deeply troubled by the rift between Jewry in the Land of Israel and in Babylon, which developed at the outset of the Amoraic age. The desire to heal this rift finds expression in the tales. I am inspired by Freud's associative method of dream interpretation and employ a Freudian orientation in the interpretation of these tales.
3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of many years of intellectual growth and maturation. My university education has extended over some seventeen years. During this time, through the ups and downs, the joys and the despair, my mentor, Professor Gerda Elata-Alster with her wealth of knowledge and depth of insight, has been my guide and my support with her calmness of spirit and ever present smile. She has my gratitude and I thank her with all my heart. Throughout this period, Professor Efraim Sicher has always been there to guide, inform and expand my thoughts. He always encouraged me when I lost hope. He has my thanks and sincerest appreciation for his invaluable help. I deeply enjoyed my years at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, where the faculty of the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics taught and broadened my horizons beyond anything I had ever imagined. Each of my teachers has left an indelible impression on me, most notably Professor Mark Gelber, Dr. Chanita Goodblatt and Professor Yishai Tobin. They have my thanks and appreciation. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the department secretary, Suzanne Ganot, who has always been there for me with endless patience and her undefeatable smile. Her knowledge of departmental procedure and her willingness to go that extra mile helped me achieve my goals. In addition, I thankfully acknowledge the guidance provided by Professor Mayer Gruber, of the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, who introduced me to the fascinating realm of Talmudic Manuscripts and text critical analysis. I thank my parents, in-laws and children for their love, encouragement and continuous support and for being so understanding and patient with me, especially when things became difficult. Lastly, I thank my husband Rabbi Dr. Nathan Glick for his vital assistance in researching and translating the Talmudic texts. His uncanny ability to pull a volume off the shelf and open it to exactly the reference I need, has always amazed me. Nate, you are truly one of the greatest blessings G-d has gifted me. My love for you and my thanks, go beyond mere words. Above all, I give thanks to the Creator, for having brought me to this point in time. May it be Your will that Your Name be sanctified through me.
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TITLE PAGE Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Table of Contents 5 Introduction 9
ONE: The Tales and Their Context 1-1. Overview 13 1-2. The Tales' Place in the Talmudic Discourse 14 1-3. The Water Tales and the Desert Tales 15 1-4. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: Father and Son 17 1-5. The Travel Tales 20 1-6. Nature and Torah 23 1-7. Summary 24
TWO: The Tales: Testimony, Allegory or Folk Tales? 2-1. Overview 25 2-2. Testimony, Allegory or Empty Words? 25 2-3. The Tales as Folk Tales 29 2-4. Narrators: Religious and Secular 31 2-5. Parallels in the Literature of Antiquity 32 2-6. Sea, Earth and Heaven in Rabbinic Thought 35 2-7. Summary 36
THREE: The Tales as Visions 3-1. Overview 37 3-2. Ritba and the Geonic Tradition 38 3-3. Dreams and the Freudian Connection 39 3-4. Dreams as Emerging Self Concepts 42 3-5. Major Motifs of the Tales 48
5 3-6. Summary 54
FOUR: The Lives of Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: An Imaginative Reconstruction 4-1. Overview 55 4-2. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rav in The Land of Israel 56 4-3. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rav in Babylon 57 4-4. The Suppression of Rabbah Bar Hannah 60 4-5. Rabbah Bar Hannah and the Break with the Land of Israel 61 4-6. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah in the Land of Israel 63 4-7. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah in Babylon 66 4-8. Summary 68
FIVE: The Tales and Their Interpretations 5-1. Overview and Preliminary Comments 69 5-2. The Tales' Context 70 5-3. Tale W-1 74 5-3a. Textual Issues 74 5-3b. W-1: Fact or Vision? 75 5-3c. A Factual Apparition 76 5-3d. The Evil Omen 76 5-3e. Summary 78 5-4. Tale W-2 78 5-4a. Textual Issues 79 5-4b. Dividing Between Vision and Reality 82 5-4c. Babylonian Jewry, Waves and Ziggurats 83 5-4d. The Problems with Visions is that… 84 5-4e. The Wave, the Star, the Double and the Ideal 85 5-4f. Fire, Urination and the Origins of Society 86 5-4g. Rabbah Bar Hannah's Criticism of the Split 88 5-4h. The Dry Land and Mustard Seed 89
6 5-4i. W-1 and W-2, or is it W-2 and W-1? 91 5-4j. Summary 91 5-5. Tale W-3 92 5-5a. Textual Issues 93 5-5b. Rabbah Bar Hannah and the Acrobat 94 5-5c. The Demon of Light and Darkness 95 5-5d. The Trickster's Skill 96 5-5e. That Fateful Day 97 5-5f. Summary 99 5-6. Tale W-4 100 5-6a. Textual Issues 101 5-6b. Arrogant or Misunderstood? 102 5-6c. Fawn: Son of the Gazelle 103 5-6d. Waste and the Temple 104 5-6e. The Temple and Individuation 105 5-6f. A Happy Ending? 107 5-6g. Summary 107 5-7. Tale W-5 108 5-8. Tale W-6 110 5-9. Tale W-7 115 5-10. Tale W-8 117 5-11. Tale W-9 120 5-12. Tale W-10 122
5-13. Conclusions: Chronological Order 125 5-14. Conclusions: Thematic Order 126 5-15. Brief Summary of the Tales' Thematic Progression 127 5-16. The Influence of the Tales on Subsequent Jewish History 127
7 Notes Introduction 129 Chapter One: The Tales and Their Context 131 Chapter Two: The Tales: Testimony, Allegory or Folk Tales? 133 Chapter Three: The Tales as Visions 136 Chapter Four: The Lives of Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: An Imaginative Reconstruction 138 Chapter Five: The Tales and Their Interpretations 140
Works Cited Bibliographic, Internet and Lecture Sources 148 Hebrew Acknowledgements 155 Hebrew Abstract 156 Hebrew Cover Pages 157
8 Introduction
In the Babylonian Talmud ( Bava Batra 73 a-b) 1 we find a legal discussion concerning the buying and selling of a ship. As the rabbis discuss the laws concerning this purchase, the dialogue is interrupted by the tales of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah, hereby referred to as RBBH, (3 rd century Amora who lives both in Babylon and the Land of Israel). These tales tell of voyages across vast oceans and encounters with huge sea creatures. They tell of sighting gigantic antelope, snakes, fish, birds and frogs, and they recount incredible experiences of huge talking waves and bright sparks of light, of traveling at great speeds and traversing immense distances. They tell of the meeting of heaven and earth and of reaching the stars. It is common to the Talmudic convention to have folk-narratives and amazing tales as part of the discourse. However, the tales of RBBH are remarkable for their use of hyperbole, which has excited the wonder of scholars. The subsequent rabbinic tradition refers to the tales as the Aggadot of Rabbah 2 bar Bar Hana and they continue to fascinate readers. According to Alan Brill, as the interpretation of aggadic material became a concern of the rabbinic tradition during the eighteenth century, the interpretation of these tales emerged as an activity of many scholars. The tales seemed so enigmatic that it was felt that their interpretation held the key for understanding the whole of Judaism in a new light.3 My interest in these tales was kindled the first time I heard one told as part of a lecture. I became excited with deep emotions of awe and amazement as I sensed a depth of meaning contained in the few terse phrases. It was as if I was listening to a message conveyed across a gulf of time that spoke to my deepest intuitions. Over the years I have been exposed to rabbinic and Talmudic tales, many of which have strange or miraculous elements to them. RBBH's tales are unique, but to clearly determine what sets his tales apart from other forms of aggadic discourse would require a survey of the entire Talmud, which is beyond my capabilities. However, being that RBBH's tales are placed at the opening of an entire collection of rabbinic narrations told by other sages, I believe it is possible to show the unique character of his tales within the smaller framework of this collection. In any event, it should be noted that the redactor of the Talmud saw fit to place RBBH's tales in the lead position of this collection. It is these tales which interrupt,
9 quite abruptly, the flow of a purely legal discourse. Once the RBBH tales interrupt the flow, it is natural for other tales to be included as well, since aggadah is usually structured according to associative chains. Nevertheless, RBBH's tales are those that initially force themselves into the legal discussion, and this, I believe, is what can be considered an indication that they are uniquely enigmatic and fascinating. These tales give rise to many questions of which I relate to the following three: One, how do we categorize the genre of these tales? Two, why are these tales included in the redaction of the Talmud and what is their relevance to the legal discussion where they are found? And three, what is the function and meaning of these tales in their context? RBBH's tales have received both traditional and scholarly attention. Although there is no Rashi to this text, we do find two traditional commentaries printed alongside the tales. One is that of Rashi's grandson, Rabbi Shemuel ben Meir, known as the Rashbam (France, 1085-1174) and the other is the Tosafot (ed. France and Germany 14 th century). The aforementioned commentaries primarily deal with lexical issues and are essential to translating the tales. However, they do not attempt to explain what deeper meanings they may have. Later traditional commentaries, like Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Halevi Eidels, known by the acronym Maharsha (Poland, 1555-1631), interpret the tales as allegories referring to Jewish history. 4 Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, known as the Gaon of Vilna or the Gra (Lithuania, 1720-1797), interprets the tales as teaching ethical issues 5 and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (Ukraine, 1772-1810) sees kabbalistic themes in the tales.6 Rabbi Avraham Sutro (Germany 1784-1869) goes so far as to read the tales as eye- witness accounts.7 On the other hand, there are scholarly interpretations such as Louis Ginzberg who categorizes the tales as folk tales,8 and Judah David Eisenstein who claims the tales are historical allegories.9 In my thesis I discuss these attempts at categorization and point out their strengths and weaknesses. I will take note of recent work on Jewish and Talmudic folklore, and how this reflects on RBBH's tales. In conversation with and in contrast to the aforementioned readings, I will suggest an alternative reading, namely that RBBH’s tales are records of visionary and dreamlike experiences. This idea that the tales are records of visions and dreamlike experiences is first mentioned by Rabbi Yom Tov Ben Avraham Ashbili, known by the acronym Ritba (Spain, 13 th -14 th century), as a tradition originating with the Geonim.10 I suggest that
10 these tales reflect in part, the ordeals of RBBH’s personal life as I have attempted to reconstruct it based upon Talmudic material. In addition, the tales may also be records of RBBH's attempt to confront the enormity and incommensurability of Nature through visionary means. I believe they may inform us that morality comes from within Nature in the form of a desire for wholeness, connecting heaven and earth. RBBH may be asking us to acknowledge morality as stemming from within the self as it connects to Nature as opposed to morality dictated by an external authority. As for the Divine Presence in these tales, God sustains the boundaries between the Self, Society and Nature, thus enabling civilization to develop and evolve. I employ a Freudian orientation to identify the connection between RBBH's tales and his personal life. Sigmund Freud 11 shows how the development of society and the self is driven by powerful instincts for self-preservation, sex and even death, such that the relationship between the conscious self and the instincts might be "compared with that of a rider to his horse" (77). To the conscious mind, the natural instincts appear as "a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations…filled with energy…striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs." Freud also remarks that "what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the dream-work" (73). Since, according to my reading, the tales relate to RBBH's attempt to fathom Nature, I believe that Freud's work is relevant and helpful. In addition, I use Freud’s associative methods of dream interpretation to understand how these tales connect to the Talmudic text in which they appear. I draw on recent research into rabbinic dream interpretation which confirms the relevance of Freud's approach to understanding the Talmudic attitude towards dreams.12 I use the Freudian approach to understand the images contained within the tales and to show how these images link the tales in a unified progression. The result is a new translation of the tales, based upon a comparative reading of the standard Vilna edition of the Bavli and the highly important handwritten text of the Hamburg Codex. I consider my efforts to be successful in so far as I propose possible responses to the three questions about the categorization, relevance and meaning of the tales which I posited at the opening of my discussion. My thesis proceeds in the following way: In Part One, I discuss the textual and thematic aspects of the first ten tales. I believe these tales are a single unit based upon the
11 theme of water and water based life. I propose that the first several water tales may be attributed to RBBH's father, Rabbah Bar Hannah, whom I refer to as RBH. This is important, as I strongly believe that the relationship between RBBH and his father is wrought with a significance that provides a key for interpreting the tales as visions. This belief of mine is in contrast to most other commentators both traditional and scholarly, who make no note of the difference between the two personalities. In Part Two, I discuss the prior attempts at categorization by scholarly and traditional commentaries and to assess their strengths and weaknesses. In Part Three, I propose that the tales are records of RBBH's visions. I discuss rabbinic attitudes towards dreams and dream interpretations. I attempt to reconstruct possible aspects of RBBH's life based upon the recollections about him contained in the Talmud and I develop the theme of the interaction between the Self, Society and Nature as reflecting my construction of RBBH's personal life. In Part Four, I list the common major themes and symbols in RBBH's tales and provide possible meanings for them. I attempt to translate and interpret each of the ten tales based upon my research. Lastly, I show the unified progression within the tales depicting the emergence of a possible society that exists close to Nature and whose success is the result of its flexibility and adaptability. In order to facilitate my discussion of the various texts and personalities, I make use of the following terms and abbreviations. Whenever I mention the Babylonian Talmud, the Bavli for short, I refer to the standard Vilna edition. Often, the Vilna edition differs from the Hamburg Codex, so when contrasting the two texts, I refer to the Vilna edition by the letters VE and the Hamburg Codex by the letters HC. There are two central personalities of whom I speak of at great length, Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah whom I refer to as RBBH, and his father Rabbah Bar Hannah, whom I refer to as RBH. When I directly quote a passage from the Bavli, I am quoting from the series The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation by Jacob Neusner or Tzvee Zahavy 13 unless stated otherwise. In addition, I have the occasion to quote from the Talmud which was composed in the Land of Israel. While this is often referred to as the Palestinian Talmud, I follow the rabbinic tradition and refer to it as the Yerushalmi. When I directly quote a passage from the Yerushalmi, I cite Roger Brooks' translation edited by Neusner.14 All scriptural references are to the 1917 JPS translation of the Masoretic Text.15 For assistance with
12 Aramaic terms, I use Marcus Jastrow's A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. 16 Here is a brief list of the terms and abbreviations I use in this paper: Bavli - The Babylonian Talmud HC - The Hamburg Codex, a hand written version of the Bavli RBH - Rabbah Bar Hannah RBBH - Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah VE - The standard Vilna edition of the Bavli Yerushalmi - The Talmud of the Land of Israel, also known as the Palestinian Talmud
Chapter One The Tales and Their Context 1-1. Overview My purpose in this chapter is to examine the objective contours of RBBH's tales and their contextualization within the wider Talmudic text. As we approach this task we must bear in mind that RBBH was an early Amorah. His material was remembered, transmitted and commented on for hundreds of years before being placed in its current form and location within the Talmudic discourse by anonymous "redactors in the fifth 1 through seventh centuries". The influence of this redaction is felt in the way the various discussions or comments are ordered in the flow of the Talmudic discourse. There is an 2 all pervasive narrative voice known as the "stam hatalmud" , or the anonymous voice of the Talmud that holds everything together. When looking at RBBH's tales, their organization and their context, we are dealing not only with RBBH's own statements, but also with how subsequent generations had interacted with these tales, as well as how the redactor arranged and adapted them. When we eventually turn our attention to the comparative reading of the VE and the HC versions of the tales, I believe it becomes evident that the RBBH tales underwent more than one redaction.
13 1-2. The Tales' Place in the Talmudic Discourse The fifth chapter of Tractate Bava Batra, 73a, opens with a Mishna concerned with the buying and selling of ships. The issue is this: If one sells a ship without specifying its particulars , then what is included in that sale? Are only things that are integrally necessary to the ship included, or does the sale include those things that can be physically removed from it as well, such as the slaves, the stores, and other items? The Mishna answers by saying that the "mast, sail, and anchor and whatever steers it" (47) are considered parts of the ship and are automatically included in the sale. The Bavli comments to this Mishna by explaining the Hebrew words for sail, mast and anchor. It also explains that the general phrase "and whatever steers it" refers to the oars. The Gemara then quotes an alternative Tannaite source that differs from the Mishna listing other implements that may be considered integral parts of the ship, namely, "the wooden implements and the water tank on it" (47). It is at this point the Gemara cites two Tannaite opinions. One, Rabbi Nathan who claims that the ship's "rowboat" is included in the sale and two, Symmachus who claims that the ship's "lighter" is included in the sale. However, Rabbi Nathan and Symmachus are not arguing as the rowboat and the lighter both refer to small fishing boats. Both sages maintain that the small boat is automatically included in the sale of the ship, but since Rabbi Nathan was from Babylon and Symmachus was from the Land of Israel, each Rabbi used the word familiar to him. This is the actual point where the RBBH tales intrude into the legal discourse, so it may well be worthwhile to note the contents of this seemingly commonplace discussion. Immediately following the Gemara's legal discussion of what is included in the sale of a ship and of the name of the small dinghy, the Gemara introduces the first of the RBBH tales which deals with the way sailors on a ship fend off destructive waves. The shift between the legal discussion and the tales is abrupt and unexplained. According to Neusner, the aggadic material is placed here because of "the rather flimsy premise that once we are talking about parts of ships, we insert a major construction pertaining, in one way or another, to ships, the sea, seafarers and the like" (60). Still, I wonder if the mere association of the theme of ships and boats to RBBH's tales is really sufficient to explain why the redactor chose to place the tales where they suddenly intrude, instead of waiting until the end of the legal section to include them. I am not certain that the association
14 based upon ships and boats is the determining factor, especially when we note that the first tale to appear in the HC is not the same as in the VE. The tale which appears first in the HC is actually the second tale in the VE, which speaks of gigantic waves but makes no explicit mention of ships or boats at all. This leaves us to wonder which associative link causes the redactor to include RBBH's tales at this point. I hope to clarify this issue as my work progresses.
1-3. The Water Tales and the Desert Tales Looking at RBBH's tales we find two distinct groups. The first group of ten tales I refer to as "water tales" (W) and the second group of five tales I refer to as "desert tales" (D). The first group of ten water tales is comprised of distinct and separate little narratives, each with its own introductory phrase, "Said Rabbah," "Said RBBH" or "And said RBBH." The narration is direct and objective. There is an emphasis on visual experience, and all but one of these tales contain phrases with the verb 'to see' (Hebrew/Aramaic HaZaH ); "appears," "that we could see," "I personally saw," and "and we saw." The tales focus on some amazing phenomena of the natural world. In seven of these ten tales attempts are made to mathematically quantify the extreme proportions of such phenomena. The theme of water seems to provide a unifying thread. Even when the tales do not take place in a ship, boat, on the ocean or near a river, they still involve forms of life associated with water like fish, frogs and geese with rivers of oil flowing from them. Religious concerns and Scriptural references, while present in some tales, do not appear to be central. According to their order in the VE, the ten water tales are: W-1) Sailors defend their boat against a giant wave W-2) Two giant waves converse with each other. The travelers are lifted up towards a star. (As previously mentioned, the HC opens with W-2 after which W-1 follows) W-3) A supernatural creature performs feats of speed and accuracy while leaping over a river and juggling wine. W-4) A giant newborn fawn dams up the Jordan with its dung. W-5) A giant frog is eaten by a snake. The snake is eaten by a raven perching in a tree.
15 W-6) A dead fish washes up on shore destroying sixty cities. Its body parts are eaten and used for reconstruction. W-7) Travelers think they are on an island but it is really a giant fish. W-8) A ship races at incredible speed for three days and nights in order to cover the distance between the two fins of a single fish. W-9) Travelers encounter a giant bird standing with its feet in the ocean and its head in the sky. W-10) Travelers who are now in the desert, encounter geese that are so fat that oil flows from beneath them. RBBH asks them about the world to come, to which the geese reply by lifting up a wing and a leg. After these water tales, there appears the second group of five desert tales. These five tales are unlike the first ten in that they are contained in a unifying meta-narrative. RBBH tells of his journey in the desert with an Arab guide who is able to judge his location by sniffing the sand. The guide shows RBBH places and personalities from the biblical period, such as the Israelites who died in the desert, Mt Sinai, and the meeting place of heaven and earth. Unlike the first ten tales which deal primarily with nature, these tales take the reader or listener back to the formative events of the Torah. While the dead Israelites are described as being gigantic, there is no attempt made to quantify or mathematize them. RBBH's experience of these phenomena is not direct but mediated by his guide. The visual sense is de-emphasized when the Arab guide offers to point out these phenomena to RBBH by using the phrase, "Come on, and I'll show you" (49). The introductory word "show" determines what kind of experience RBBH is having. This word in Aramaic is not based upon the root HaZaH, "saw," but rather on the root HaVaH, "show, teach or tell." This root has a more general sense of revealing or explaining something, and incorporates the visual, verbal and textual way of experiencing. Moreover, the verbal aspect is greatly emphasized because of the meta-narrative that holds these five tales together which frames not just RBBH's own experiences, but the verbal discourse resulting from the telling of his experiences as well. The desert tales can be listed as follows: D-1) Introduction of the Arab guide, who can locate RBBH's geographic position by sniffing the sand.
16 D-2) RBBH is shown the Israelites who died during the forty years in the desert. He tries to take some of their purple blue fringes, but finds himself paralyzed. D-3) RBBH is shown Mt. Sinai, which is surrounded by giant scorpions that were like white asses. D-4) RBBH is shown the place where the rebellious associates of Korah continue to burn underground. D-5) RBBH is shown the place where heaven and earth meet Aside from the thematic and structural aspects, there is a textual basis for taking the desert tales as an independent unit. The text in the VE provides a mnemonic device for remembering the desert tales. The device is a brief phrase which can be memorized, containing major motifs of these tales. It reads "Like the sand of the purple blue scorpion stirred his basket".3 Such Mnemonic devices are scattered through the Talmud, and although their precise origin is unknown, they were used as aids to memorization when the Talmud was largely a remembered tradition. 4 While the HC does not contain this mnemonic device, it can at least be argued that at some time before or after the Talmud's redaction, the desert stories had a life of their own as a separate unit.
1-4. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: Father and Son It seems the Talmud's redactor had a secondary agenda. Let us look at the different opening phrases of the tales. In the VE, tales W-1, W-2, W-3 and W-4 open with the heading, "Said Rabbah ." Tales W-5 through the end of the desert tales open with the heading, "And said RBBH." I understand that the redactor is making a distinction between the first four tales (W-1 thru W-4) where a sage called Rabbah speaks, and the remaining tales (W-5 thru D-5) where RBBH expands upon the original tales of Rabbah. All the tales of RBBH (W-5 through D-5) are strung together in a continuous chain connected by the word "and" which in Aramaic and Hebrew is represented by the letter Vav . In this regard, the HC affirms that the opening water tales may be taken as a separate unit. It differs from the VE in two ways. First, it distinguishes between the first three water tales and the remainder of the tales by referring to the speaker of those tales
17 as Rabba, which is spelled with an Aleph at the end in contrast to the VE which spells it with a Heh , Rabbah. The remaining water tales are attributed to RBBH. This obviously confirms the notion that the opening tales originate with a sage not to be confused with RBBH. Second, the HC also explicitly attributes W-4 to RBBH, while in the VE it is attributed to Rabba. The HC also affirms that the desert tales should be taken as a distinct unit, as I will explain. In the HC the lead tale (W-2) opens with the heading, Said Rabba . The following two tales which are W-1 and W-3, begin with the heading, And said Rabba . These first three tales form a single chain. Tale W-4 is introduced by the heading, Said RBBH , making it clear that this tale initiates a new chain that is explicitly attributed to RBBH. From W-5 through W-10 the heading, And said RBBH appears at the beginning of each of the remaining water tales, effectively linking them by authorship. However, when introducing the first of the desert tales (D-1), the HC reads, Said RBBH , without the word And signaling that this tale initiates a new sequence and is to be read separately from the previous tales. It might be said that the HC maintains both sets of distinctions. It divides the tales both by author, (differentiating between Rabbah / Rabba and RBBH), and by theme, (differentiating between the water tales and the desert tales). Interestingly, I have found that the Vatican Codex Ebr. 115 contains two mnemonic devices, one for the desert tales (as in the VE), and one for the water tales W-4 through W-10, which are attributed to RBBH. This mnemonic device reads, "The fawn son of a frog ate sand between the fins of the wild Ziz and the geese".5 The two ways of classifying these tales either by theme (water vs. desert) or by speaker (Rabbah/Rabba vs. RBBH) give rise to a serious concern. It is strange that although Rabbah/Rabba and RBBH are different individuals, the distinction between them is not more strongly felt. The thematic unity of the water tales along with the sameness in spelling, Rabbah with a Heh , exhibited by the VE's text, seems to have obscured the distinction between the two sages, leading many traditional and academic commentaries to overlook it entirely. Presumably these commentaries surmise that it is the same person, RBBH who is the originator of the tales, contrary to the textual evidence. The tradition of rabbinic interpretation perceives a closeness and commonality to the water tales that overrides the issue of authorship. It is especially noteworthy that
18 the Gra, known for his clear headed scholarship and his willingness to emend mistaken texts, clearly attributes the opening water tales to RBBH. He even emends the Talmudic text to reflect that attribution. 6 Even among academic commentaries, Dan Ben-Amos and 7 Neusner are virtually alone in noting this difference between Rabbah/Rabba and RBBH. So the question is: If the opening water tales originated with a different sage, how do we account for the thematic unity that holds the tales together, a unity which leads the traditional commentaries to ignore the difference between the sages? I believe the answer can be found when making a few observations about RBBH. RBBH's actual name, according to the Rashbam, is Abba. This name literally means Father in Aramaic and was well used in his generation. The name Rabbah is more of a title, formed by contracting the phrase Rabbi Abba. Now, in the generation prior to RBBH there lived a sage called RBH, (Rabbi Abba the son of Hannah). The Tosafot 8 understands that RBBH, (Rabbi Abbah the son of the son of Hannah), was none other than this sage's son. At this point we can offer an explanation about the ambiguities of the classification. The original Rabbah Tales (W-1 thru W-4 in the VE, and W-1 thru W-3 in the HC), originate with the older Rabbah, RBH. The remaining tales are the son's, RBBH's expansion of his father's water tales. Consequently, when classifying the tales thematically, it is natural to highlight the distinction between the water tales and the desert tales and to gloss over the distinction between RBH and RBBH who are father and son, and who seem to share a common voice. Nevertheless, the redactor does attempt to insure that the tales are also classified according to who told them. The reader should note that I will continue, for simplicity's sake, to refer to both the water tales and the desert tales as RBBH tales, despite my assertion that the first of these tales are to be properly attributed to RBH. Unfortunately, the alternate spelling of Rabba as recorded in the HC presents some difficulties. Rabba spelled with an Aleph at the end is usually understood to refer to a completely different and highly prominent Amora, Rav Abba Bar Yosef, who lived well after both RBH and RBBH. In the Yeshiva world, his title is also pronounced Rava to differentiate between him and the others. Nevertheless, my belief that the opening water tales should be attributed to RBH is not necessarily disproven by the HC. It may well be that in certain circles RBH's title was actually spelled with an Aleph . Thus the HC
19 may be transmitting a variant and perhaps older tradition of Amoraic nomenclature. There is a remarkable tendency for Talmudic texts to misname RBH, replacing his name with that of RBBH to such an extent that according to the Encyclopedia Judaica , RBH 9 can only be identified in a Talmudic narrative by "context and chronology ." In opposition to this general tendency, the Jerusalem Codex Sanhedrin 5a refers to RBH correctly. There, indeed his title is spelled with an Aleph at the end.
1-5. The Travel Tales The RBBH collection of tales is comprised of the aforementioned water tales and desert tales. What follows is a collection of six tales that Neusner calls, "miscellaneous travel stories" (60). These tales are told by various sages from the middle Tannaic period to the late Amoraic period. This collection of tales is juxtaposed to the RBBH tales. It is this juxtaposition that seems to invite one to notice the similarities and contrasts between RBBH's tale telling and the tale telling practiced by other sages before and after him. I acknowledge this invitation, however briefly, in the conviction that some relevant insight will be gained. The travel stories (T) can be summarized as follows: T-1) Rabbi Yohanan sees a giant fish's head. Its eyes are like two moons and water flows from its nostrils like two rivers. T-2) Rav Safra sees a fish three hundred parsangs long. It has a message engraved on its horns saying that it is a minnow to feed the Leviathan. Rav Ashi comments that this fish is a sea goat. T-3) Rabbi Yohanan finds a treasure chest in the water which is set aside for a righteous woman in the world to come. It is guarded by sharks. A diver unsuccessfully attempts to bring up the chest but is attacked by a shark. T-4) Rabbi Judah the Indian finds a jewel that has the magical power to resurrect dead things. It is guarded by giant serpents. A mighty battle ensues between great creatures. The jewel is lost when it inadvertently brings the ship's supply of salted birds to life. These birds then fly off with this jewel.
20 T-5) Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, two Tannaic sages, are on a boat at night. Rabbi Yehoshua sees a great light. Rabbi Eliezer thinks it might have been the eye of the Leviathan. T-6) In the desert, Huna Bar Nathan discovers a patch of grass that has the power to re-unite dissected flesh, as well as a tree whose wood can burn for 12 months. This story is told by Rav Ashi. The opening tale of the travel stories (T-1) no doubt has elements of exaggeration, but these exaggerations are not extreme. It might well be that Rabbi Yohanan had indeed seen a whale (some of which have twin blow holes) and had been so overwhelmed that he had difficulty finding comparisons to describe what he saw. The oldest tale included, T-5, is similarly realistic in quality. On the ship, Rabbi Eliezer is asleep and Rabbi Yehoshua is awake. Rabbi Yehoshua sees a great light and he shudders. Rabbi Eliezer awakens and neither rabbi is certain of the reality of this unexplained light or of what it was. So the inclusion of T-1 and T-5 in this collection may be a hint at those experiences that are the origins of tale telling. One can have an encounter with something that is real, but so incommensurable with one's previous experience that it cannot be adequately described. The travel tales also introduce the themes of the Leviathan, the reward of the righteous in the world to come and the resurrection and re-integration of fragmented or dissected things. All three of these themes are related to Judaism's hope for the coming of a redeemed reality, where the dead will live and the scattered people of Israel will be made whole. The Leviathan is then seen as food for the righteous in the world to come. T-2 bears the message that no matter how amazing and grand any creature of the natural world is, it is just food for the wholly incommensurable vastness of the Leviathan, which in turn will be consumed by the righteous in the world to come! The world to come thus absorbs the natural world, conquering it and assimilating its powers. Referring to the Leviathan, Michael Fishbane 10 points out that this theme reveals a deep "tension between nature and culture," claiming that the monsters of the deep stand for "primitive desire" which contrasts to "cultivated virtue." The notion that the righteous will one day eat the flesh of these "creatures of instinct" represents the "transformative potential and ultimate triumph of (rabbinic) culture" (283). This triumph of rabbinic culture over nature is consistent with the tendency to see nature as subservient to that spiritual and miraculous
21 realm which can only be accessed by adherence to the Torah; the world to come. This has been referred to by Jeffrey Rubenstein 11 as the "Torah-centered worldview" (269). This worldview is a "widespread tradition" among the sages of the Talmud and asserts that "the cosmos exists because of, by means of, and for the sake of the Torah" (268). Insofar as the natural world exists in the merit of the Torah, it will eventually find itself assimilated into the Torah, or in the imagery of the sages, eaten by the righteous in the world to come. The Torah-centered worldview is best summed up by the notion expressed in the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 1:1) that the Torah is the blueprint for creation. The Torah is both older and greater than Nature. In light of the prevalence of the Torah-centered worldview, the travel tales (other than T-1 and T-5) take on a distinctly allegorical aspect. Allegory is defined as a narrative "that conveys a secondary meaning not explicitly set forth in the literal narrative…or express abstract ideas in terms of material objects."12 Since an allegory does not communicate directly, it is necessary for the author "to explain, at least initially, the theme to its audience" and to provide "vital clues as to the nature of the characters." Not to do so renders the allegory "obscure to its audience."13 Accordingly, the travel tales present the themes of the Leviathan/world to come, resurrection and reintegration, in an unambiguous manner. Admittedly, the overall message of the travel tales is not self evident, but at least one can easily discern what they are talking about. The key to their interpretation is placed in the hands of the reader. If we understand the travel tales as allegory, this may also explain why the two realistic tales, T-1 and T-5, are included. An allegorist is essentially a realist who uses a tale to express ideas. By placing realistic tales in the travel tales, the redactor may be indicating in an oblique way that the amazing and unrealistic travel tales in this collection are allegorical constructions. As for RBBH's water tales, there is no shared consensus as to the interpretive frame of reference nor are there any obvious guiding clues as to their meanings. This only serves to prompt the question as to whether these tales are, indeed, allegory. I have here identified two aspects of the travel tales (their affinity to the Torah- centered worldview, and their allegorical aspect) which when juxtaposed to the RBBH tales bring to light some of their interesting qualities, as I explain in the following section. Returning to the flow of the larger Aggadic collection, it can be briefly noted that
22 after the travel tales, the Bavli continues the theme of the Leviathan and the world to come, moving eventually to describe the reconstructed Jerusalem and the end of days.
1-6. Nature and Torah Based upon the observations I have gathered here, I believe it is possible to reach some tentative conclusions about the nature of the RBBH tales, and what may set these tales apart from similar rabbinic tale telling. The traditions of the other sages, as expressed in the travel tales, tend to view nature as subservient and ultimately reducible to the Torah. Nature is a result of the Torah, and it will, at the end of days, find itself assimilated back into the Torah. The RBBH water tales on the other hand, seem to portray an individual willing to confront nature without making it subservient to Judaism's hopes for the end of days. While the last of these water tales (W-10) has a tinge of eschatological concern, RBBH indicates that Nature has meaning beyond being consumed in the world to come. This tale tells of extremely fat geese that RBBH encounters in the desert. He asks the geese, "May we have a share of your meat in the world to come" (49)? In response, one goose lifts up a wing and the other lifts up a leg. This can be understood as signifying that the world to come both incorporates and makes use of Nature but only to a limited degree, because the righteous are only given a limited portion of the flesh. This is in stark contrast to the Leviathan in the other rabbinic myths which is completely consumed and whose skin is used to shelter the righteous in the world to come. The natural world is largely independent and operates with its own agenda. The RBBH tales find G-d in the natural world, but that world is more than a backdrop for Torah and rabbinic Judaism. It is a reality that must be encountered for what it is, on its own terms. I propose that RBBH was willing to take a stance outside the prevalent Torah-centered worldview of his era. This may account for the fact that religious concepts and attitudes are not predominant in the water tales. This attitude carries over into the desert tales as well. There, RBBH tries to engage and confront the origins of Torah by returning to the sites where Torah came into being, not guided by the tradition but rather by an outsider, the Arab guide, who mediates the encounter with these sites. Clearly, RBBH had the bravery to look outside Torah and
23 rabbinic culture in order to examine the relationship between Torah and Nature, while maintaining faith in that same Torah and the traditions of which he was an integral part. In addition, while the travel tales carry plain hints as to their possible allegorical meanings, the water tales are obscure, presenting images that fail to indicate any obvious conceptual frames of reference. My intuition is that the water tales are not to be read as allegories, for RBBH would have then provided some key to unlocking their hidden meaning. I concede that this is not a conclusive proof, yet the non-allegorical aspect of the water tales seems to arise from the intentional juxtaposition of the RBBH material and the travel tales by other sages, as presented by the Bavli's redactor. I return to this point later in the next chapter when I discuss the tales' categorization.
1-7. Summary To summarize our progress this far, I have introduced the RBBH tales, noting the particular point in the Bavli's legal discourse on the buying and selling of ships where the tales rather abruptly appear. I have tried to show that they are divided into two groups, which I have called water tales and desert tales. The first three water tales (and possibly the fourth) may be attributed to RBBH's father, RBH. This implies that the son was expanding his father's activity in the remaining water tales. The RBBH tales are followed by a brief collection of what I have called travel tales. The travel tales introduce the themes of the Leviathan and the world to come, which become the major themes explored in the voluminous aggadic collections which follow. Eventually, the Talmudic discourse reconnects to the legal issues related to ships end here. By contrasting the RBBH tales to some of the other material juxtaposed to it, I have tried to show that RBBH makes an attempt to stand outside the conventional point of view of rabbinic culture. I see RBBH as attempting to confront Nature on its own terms as a distinct ontological reality. In this way he raises a profound question: What is the relation of Torah to Nature? Since it is the individual self in the person of RBBH who raises the question, my continued investigation will hopefully bring us back to the triad mentioned in the title of this paper: Nature, Society and Self. All this is still very far from offering a conclusive interpretation of RBBH's tales but it helps us glean a deeper understanding of what might have been a part of his
24 intentions. As stated previously, I limit myself to discussing the first collection of water tales, leaving the additional collections for future investigations. I attempt to make use of the information gained here, especially regarding the tales' contextualization by the redactor in what appears to be a very specific and unlikely place. My method involves analyzing the associations created by this contextualization, and I take my inspiration from the work of a far distant descendant of rabbinic culture, Sigmund Freud.
Chapter Two The Tales: Testimony, Allegory or Folk-tales?
2-1. Overview The tales of RBBH have been the subject of both traditional rabbinic commentaries as well as scholarly academic commentaries. The traditional rabbinic commentaries have given rise to an entire literature in contrast to the scholarly academic tradition that has produced but little. In this chapter I survey what both traditions have contributed to my reading of the tales. I investigate some of the implications of contemporary folklore scholarship and do my best to show that the tales of RBBH are included in the Talmud because they contain significance and some kind of religious, moral or philosophical validity.
2-2. Testimony, Allegory or Empty Words? Rabbi Yehudah Feust has noted that methods for dealing with the aggadic sections of the Talmud have existed amongst traditional interpreters since the time of the Geonim. The RBBH tales were not commented upon in writing until the late 12th century when Ritba included several short interpretive hints in his comments on Baba Batra. During the 15 th , 16 th and 17 th centuries, commentaries proliferated.1 Referring back to Brill's lecture, the interpretation of these tales eventually achieves the status of an interpretative activity in its own right and those who engaged in it hoped to reveal the Torah's deepest secrets and to revitalize Judaism.2 I cannot say conclusively what causes the tales of RBBH to suddenly become the focus of such intense activity, but a possible explanation is suggested by Avraham Sutro .
25 Sutro was a rabbinic commentator who wrote during the emancipation, when traditional Judaism was under attack for being allegedly primitive or backwards, when compared to contemporary culture. Sutro states:
What is recounted in the Gemara concerning Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah, like various things about giant fish, the heretics make fun of them. However, anyone who knows about the natural sciences will see clearly that Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah was not speaking, heaven forbid, empty words, rather he was recounting the nature of the great fish called 'whale-fish'…Furthermore, what Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah said about the great fish is true, but he spoke in an exaggerated way. He is not being precise with his words and he brings forth things which do not exist and which are not possible. It is not that he meant to tell lies, heaven forbid. It is exaggerated language as we find in the Torah itself [statements like] cities fortified to heaven.3 [Translation mine]
This statement suggests that at the dawn of the modern age it became evident that the amazing creatures mentioned in RBBH's tales do not really exist. One cannot accept the stories as true but if they are not true then RBBH is lying or speaking empty words. That a Talmudic sage could intentionally fabricate a falsehood is a thought that could hardly be borne by a believer in the Bavli as a sacred text although heretics and unbelievers had no such qualms. As implied by Sutro, it seems that there were numerous people who looked to the tales of RBBH as proof that the Bavli contained falsehoods. In an age when religious authority was beginning to break down, the tales could be used to attack the authority of the Talmud. In the above passage, Sutro replies to the heretics with a two pronged attack. On the one hand he argues that there really are amazing things in the world as any scientist will attest. The Talmud, as a source of valid teachings, may certainly contain passages which describe the wonders of the natural world. At the same time Sutro argues that RBBH is also exaggerating for effect. Such exaggeration is a literary device and is not taken literally either by RBBH himself or his listeners. It is an accepted way of adding emphasis with solid biblical precedent. Unfortunately, Sutro fails to explain RBBH's tales. Biological science has indeed discovered amazing things, but nevertheless, an attempt to read the tales literally cannot be sustained (Feust, 136). The amazing
26 menagerie of the tales is simply too awesome to be located anywhere on the planet, and the hyperbole is so extreme that it doesn't add anything. One might say of an extremely large frog that it is as big as a cow, but to say it is as big as sixty houses as we find in tale W-5, goes far beyond what is useful for emphasis. Such exaggeration goes beyond hyperbole and approaches insanity. Sutro shares some valuable insights about what makes the RBBH tales so difficult and so fascinating. The Talmud as a sacred text is supposed to tell the truth. Since it is also a very vast and human document we can expect it to have some honest mistakes, some exaggerations or embellishments, some narratives whose historical veracity are questionable and other narratives that contain valuable messages as well as a certain amount of allegory with hidden meaning. In contrast, the RBBH tales look like fabrications and lies. What are they doing in a sacred text that presumes to be no less than a Torah of Truth? In the scholarly tradition, Louis Ginzberg 4 describes his experiences as a young yeshiva student. He describes how troubled he was when he encountered the tales. He does not tell us explicitly why the giant bird in tale W-9 and the geese in tale W-10 troubled him so, but it is not difficult to surmise from his narrative.
When I reached the tales of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah, doubts began to disturb my mind; my peace was particularly troubled by those geese who were so fat that they had streams of oil flowing from them and by the bird that was so big that the waters of the sea reached only to its ankles and its head split the heavens. My joy was great when I came across a book by one of the 'enlightened' of the older generation…from which I learned that these geese were neither fat nor thin and that the giant bird possessed neither feet nor wings, but that the whole tale was merely a flight of the imagination, or, as the ancients used to say, it was only a parable. (77)
Ginzberg's dilemma with the tales seems to be a question of how these tales could be true and his succinctly put answer is that since the tales are parables, they cannot be taken literally. Indeed, amongst the traditional commentaries, allegorical interpretations are the most prevalent. Having pondered them, I conclude that they fall into three major categories; historical, ethical and kabbalistic. The historical reading makes the tales correspond to some event in history. A noteworthy example is Ritba's interpretation of
27 tale W-4 about the day old giant fawn which he claims stands for Islam, a newborn religion that is reaching gigantic proportions .5 As Feust points out, this interpretation is seriously compromised by the fact that the rise of Islam took place hundreds of years after RBBH (132). Nevertheless, it is a fitting example of the historical approach. The Maharsha also took an historical approach to this same tale, claiming that the fawn symbolizes Joshua conquering the Promised Land. 6 The ethical approach understands the various aspects of the tales as representing character traits that need to be altered in order for an individual to grow spiritually. The tales reflect the battle between positive and negative traits that is ongoing in the individual. A good example of this approach is the Gra's interpretation of the fawn. He sees the newborn fawn as representing an arrogant student whose ego grows quickly, to monstrous proportions (Feldman, 50-1). The kabbalistic approach is hard to delineate since it makes use of the entire wealth of kabbalistic theory and allusions. Nevertheless, I think it can be said that kabbalistic interpretations view the stories as symbolizing and illustrating ongoing processes within the spiritual dimensions. These include the struggle between good and evil which is seen not only as a personal experience but as a part of a cosmic evolution. Returning to the tale of the giant fawn, Rabbi Nachman interprets it as symbolizing the Divine Glory which is exiled in the material world (II, 305). Among scholarly commentators, Eisenstein produced a small volume where he claims the tales are historical allegories. He rightly points out that the sages of the Talmud were adept in the art of speaking in subtle ways (5). This was considered a valuable skill since it could permit one to speak a message in the presence of many that would only be understood by the individual intended to receive it. This ability to convey secret messages in seemingly inconsequential speech may actually have been a tool for survival in the ancient world (9). Similarly, Rabbi S. H. Glick 7 claims in his notes to his translation of the Ein Yakov that RBBH's tales are:
…surely enveloped in clouds of figurative speech…Of course he could not have dared speak openly and plainly on account of the strict censorship of the Roman government, and he therefore chose the figurative manner in order to give vent to his pent-up mind, escaping, at the same time, the shrewd eyes of the government. (136 n 1)
28 Returning to the giant fawn, Eisenstein follows Ritba's lead in seeing the day old giant fawn as symbolic of an upstart and fast growing religion (31). Unfortunately, as Feust rightly points out, each of the allegorical interpreters reads the tales through his own pair of glasses (125), so to speak. It seems to me that the resulting interpretations probably tell you more about the beliefs and concerns of the interpreters than they do about the tales themselves. In my opinion, the fact that the attempts to read the water tales as allegories produced such widely divergent readings undermines the premise that RBBH was speaking allegorically. As I mentioned previously, one can only speak allegorically if one provides clear hints and signposts to help one's audience find the speaker's intention. The juxtaposition of the RBBH tales to travel tales T-1 thru T-5 highlights the obscure characteristics of the RBBH tales. The travel tales provide much clearer hints that connect to the concept of the world to come, such as the images of the Leviathan, the righteous woman's treasure chest, the jewel of resurrection and the grass of rejuvenation. In contrast, the water tale with the most explicit theological reference point is W-10, which clearly relates to the world to come. Nevertheless, the Maharsha, in attempting to track down some allegorical meaning for geese, can only find a Talmudic source that connects geese to wisdom. The Maharsha then speculates that the meaning of this tale is that in the world to come, the righteous will actually feast on ideas instead of material substance.8 But this interpretation rests upon an associative chain geese>wisdom>world to come which is far from self evident. This seems to indicate that the RBBH tales are not constructed in an allegorical fashion.
2-3. The Tales as Folk Tales Ginzberg, as we related previously, originally embraced an allegorical approach but eventually became disenchanted with it. He writes:
…when I reached maturity I realized that in truth the geese of Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah were real geese and the giant bird was literally a bird. When regarded as natural creations of folk imagination, they lost their strangeness and incomprehensibility. On the contrary, it would be all the more strange if we possessed no such tales… (77-8)
29
Ginzberg objects to allegorical interpretations because he refuses to see the images contained in the text as anything other than what they seem. He claims that RBBH's tales are simply fictitious creations of imagination. Obviously, according to Ginzberg, not everything in the Bavli must be imbued with some kind of truth or validity. Some tales are simply tales that are told for the pure pleasure of telling and hearing. Ginzberg implies that the Bavli's special status as a sacred text does not preclude the addition of fanciful and imaginative folk material, such as "popular fancies about angels and demons" (22) as well as "sorcery, magic, astrology, and other kinds of superstition." Ginzberg further claims that in the Bavli there is much that is "folkloristic and has very little to do with the theology of its authors… [T]he compilers of the Talmud saw no objection to including the popular fancies" (23). Likewise, Ben-Amos 9 declares that the RBBH tales are tall tales, and are examples of a folklore genre which "involves neither values nor morals nor beliefs" but whose "inherent nature…is virtually a lie" (114). The tall tale is one of the "humorous genres" (119) of folklore, and has the nature of being a "socially accepted and entertaining deception." The tall tale uses "the pretence of fact" while it playfully provides "all the clues to its actual falsity" (122). The tall tale is humorous because it sounds factual at first, but then, through "dimensional exaggeration" it turns into an obvious falsehood. As Ben-Amos puts it; "the final climactic realization of the true fictional nature of the tale leads to the explosion of this pretence of factuality" (123). I do not believe that Ben-Amos's position is adequate for dealing with the RBBH tales. By his own admission the tall tale is a complex "social game" (122) where the audience is taken from acceptance to disbelief and where humor is created by exploding the tale's pretense of truth. Thus an effective tall tale would require a minimum of plot and action through which the climactic explosion is brought about. However, as Ben- Amos himself notes, the RBBH tales do not have
a complete plot in the Aristotelian sense of action with a beginning, middle and end. It mainly consists of authoritative reports about natural phenomena…possessing extraordinary physical dimensions… [T]he narrative constituents of the tall
30 tale are not actions or characters but dimensions of the remote and present realities. (129)
I wonder how RBBH's tales would have played before a live audience. How entertaining would the tales have been? Nevertheless, both Ginzberg and Ben-Amos share the belief that the RBBH tales are best read as the products of folk imagination and that their inclusion in a sacred text, the Talmud, is incidental. To their way of thinking, why wouldn't the Talmud have entertainment in it?
2-4. Narrators: Religious and Secular Delving into subsequent research into Jewish folklore we come across a comparative study by Dov Noy, which affirmatively distinguishes between rabbinic storytelling and purely secular storytelling.10 Dov Noy notes that, "a clearly distinguished socio-cultural demarcation-line" divides between a rabbi or " darshan – a preacher who is a communal functionary authorized by the normative Jewish religious society" and the "secular narrator, who faces his public outside the synagogue." Both narrators may use the same material, however. The darshan will move towards a didactic goal while the secular narrator aims to "win the appreciative applause of his audience" (174-5). The secular narrator is a "creative artist." In contrast, the darshan is didactic and moves directly to a goal by "concentrating on a single associative element" (188). In his study of midrashic tales, Noy finds that when versions of folktales are recorded by the rabbinic tradition they follow the pattern of the darshan's tale. The midrashic tale might come "close to a folktale" in creativeness and complexity, but has "shortcomings, which a skilled narrator would probably amend" (194). Furthermore, David Kraemer shows 11 that the Bavli is not meant for a widespread popular readership, since the Bavli presents "the indeterminability of truth." It is addressed to "an elite, sophisticated community that can tolerate the indeterminacy that…the Bavli represents" (8). If so, I would expect the RBBH tales to adhere to a pattern of rabbinic tale telling and not that of popular folklore. These tales are included in the Bavli because they contain significance and some kind of validity which speaks to the hearts of the sages.
31 2-5. Parallels in the Literature of Antiquity When I look outside rabbinic tradition for parallels to the RBBH tales,12 my attention is drawn to a literary genre present in the ancient world, that of the Fantastic Voyage Narrative. According to Dr. Karen Ni-Mheallaigh in her research into ancient Greek fantasy,13 the fantastic voyage narrative was part of a "long tradition of fantasy in Greek literature" and such "fantastical journeys…are written in the form of truthful travel logs and historical texts." Interestingly, a Greek contemporary of RBH and possibly of his son RBBH, was Lucian of Samosata who resided in nearby Syria and who wrote, among other things, a satirical Fantastic Voyage Narrative which he entitled "A True Story."14 This literary work bears certain resemblances to the RBBH tales. In "A True Story" a boat is lifted up by a storm all the way to the moon, just as in tale W-2 the travelers are lifted up towards a star. In "A True Story" a giant fish grows an island in its stomach while in tale W-7 the fish actually turns into an island. In resemblance to "A True Story," the RBBH tales contain many passages which mathematize and quantify the giant things described by the author. However, unlike RBBH's tales, "A True Story" contains many references to creatures which are half human and half animal, a motif completely absent from the Talmudic text. The title "A True Story" is highly ironic since Lucian makes clear in the opening to his tale that everything he is about to tell us is completely false. Lucian begins by referring to authors of antiquity, including Homer, and chides them for lying:
Well, on reading all these authors, I did not find much fault with them for their lying, as I saw that this was already a common practice even among men who profess philosophy. I did wonder, though, that they thought that they could write untruths and not get caught at it. (251)
Then Lucian points out how his own true story differs from the fantastic voyage narratives of his predecessors:
…as I had nothing true to tell, not having had any adventures of significance, I took to lying. But my lying is far more honest than theirs, for though I tell the truth in nothing else, I shall at least be truthful in saying that I am a liar. I think I can escape
32 the censure of the world by my own admission that I am not telling a word of truth. Be it understood, then, that I am writing about things which I have neither seen nor had to do with nor learned from others--which, in fact, do not exist at all and, in the nature of things, cannot exist. Therefore my readers should on no account believe in them. (253)
Lucian expresses the belief that the teller of a fantastic voyage tale ought to be truthful, and that people who fabricate such tales are unscrupulous liars deserving of the "censure of the world." As for Lucian himself, since he was writing a fantastic voyage tale he was compelled by that literary convention to present his tale as true, and even to call it "A True Story." Lucian absolves himself from the crime of lying by at least being honest about it. But why could an author not tell an imaginative tale simply for the joy of telling it? Why could an imaginative person not tell a purely fictional story? Ni- Mheallaigh claims that in ancient times , "The Greeks seemed to have had an anxiety about writing pure fiction." In the absence of a legitimate concept of fiction an author must either be a journalist or a liar. Ni-Mheallaigh credits Lucian with originating the concept of a narrative which "plays a very clever game with the reader's mind," sounding true but being false and thus entertaining the reader. However, I am inclined to offer a different explanation as to why authors of fantastic journey stories were expected to be truthful. Within a given culture there are those whose function it is to provide knowledge that is not available to others by direct experience. In our day, we are familiar with journalists, explorers or scientists who mediate between our society and the unknown world that surrounds us. Their work demands of them a standard of professionalism and honesty in reporting, which precludes or at least limits the use of their imaginative faculties. In the ancient world this mediation between human society and the unknown world may have had the quality of a sacred function that demands truthfulness, as I shall attempt to show. Marcel Detienne discusses Greek myth and society.15 He notes that in the Greek world, Society is seen as occupying a "median position between beasts and gods." He claims that they perceived humanity as being suspended between "two symmetrical starting-points, one at the 'top', the other at the 'bottom'. They represent inverse orientations within the same conceptual area." Human beings receive some aspects of
33 their nature from the realm of the gods. Other aspects originate in the realm of the beasts. This sense of humanity's suspension between a divine realm and a beastly natural one is reinforced by the "daily practice of sacrifice of animals whose flesh is then eaten" (219) while the gods "alone receive the aromas, perfumes, the incorruptible substances…reserved for the immortals" (217-18). The act of sacrifice brings together the realms of the beastly, the human society and the gods, or as we might say, the three realms of Nature, Human Society, and the Transcendent. Human society cannot exist without being connected to the other two realms. I propose that the traveler in his narrative mediates between Society and Nature, going forth into its vastness, braving dangers, and returning with testimonies and true information which buttresses the sacred relatedness between Society and Nature. The traveler of the ancient world may have fulfilled a quasi-sacred task establishing the connection between Society and Nature and was expected not to betray that task by speaking untruths.16 It cannot be denied that by Lucian's day the role of the traveler had been reduced to lying for entertainment purposes. That is precisely the situation which Lucian decries. But we need not assume that RBBH had been similarly reduced. Since his tales were included in the Bavli, we can assume that he was telling travel tales as they ought to be told, imbued with some kind of religious, moral or philosophical message. Having mentioned the relationship between Nature and Society as portrayed in the ancient world, I briefly note the Greek philosophical tradition of the cynics 17 who likewise attempted to break out of Society and return to Nature by living a life outside of social convention. For instance, the philosopher Diogenes,
…uses his body to upend the conventional association of decorum with the good. He breaks etiquette by publicly carrying out activities an Athenian would typically perform in private. For example, he eats, drinks, and masturbates in the marketplace, and ridicules the shame felt when one’s body is unruly or clumsy.18
According to Detienne, the Cynic agenda comprised a radical "assault upon civilized life" advocating eating "raw food" and abolishing "the incest taboos," culminating in "cannibalism." It is possible that Diogenes succeeded far better than he intended in
34 returning to a completely natural state. Detienne relates the story how Diogenes met his death "when he fought with some dogs over a piece of raw octopus" (226).
2-6. Sea, Earth and Heaven in Rabbinic Thought Returning to our main topic, the sacred character of the RBBH tales is substantiated when we note that the three tiered cognitive structure of nature, human society and the transcendent found in ancient Greek thought, has a parallel in rabbinic thought as well. Fishbane has noted the existence of a similar three tiered structure in rabbinic mythmaking. From the bottom up they are:
sea, earth and heaven; together with their corresponding inhabitants: monsters and tutelary powers; human beings; angelic agents and God. This hierarchy…moves along a natural-supernatural axis with humans in between. (282)
It is noteworthy that the aspect of Nature which is associated in Greek thought with the realm of beasts is, amongst other motifs, associated with the sea in rabbinic thought. The rabbinic model stresses the centrality of human awareness and its powers of differentiation which divides and categorizes elements of the natural world. According to Boyarin,19 rabbinic thought "arrived at a rationalized perception of the world as nonsentient and wholly different from man" (98). Nevertheless, it preserved the older "myth-like view" which sees Nature as "a fully conscious and free-willed creature" (99). I believe the concept of the sea may stand for the myth-like view of Nature in which all beings, animate and inanimate, may share a sense of unity. Without the differentiations of rational categories, things merge into each other and experience becomes an undifferentiated flow much like currents in the ocean . Nature's self expression comes in a multitude of forms, but all forms are part of the same stream. Similarly, Jean-Pierre Vernant points out 20 that in Greek mythology, the sea deities have a "metamorphic capacity" as well as a "fluid, ambiguous and contradictory" (4) nature. I propose that when Nature flows through a person, it is felt as instinctual yearnings and drives, and is often manifest as what Freud 21 describes as "seething excitations…energy…a striving to bring about…satisfaction" (73). Thus the Rabbinic attitude may have seen Nature as
35 being an ever shifting ocean always below the threshold of conscious awareness, which like Freud's conception of the unconscious is ever present and never completely known.22 This radically alters the way we see RBBH as well as the image of the traveler in the tales. RBBH and his fellow travelers, in setting out upon the sea, are forging a connection between human society and the natural world which surrounds and sustains it. As the priest or the prophet may forge a connection with the transcendent, so the traveler forges a connection with Nature. This act is a similarly sacred one, since the three leveled hierarchy is a single system and there can be no transcendence without grounding in Nature. It now appears that RBBH above all, must have had a commitment to the truth when he took upon himself to confront and penetrate the natural world. His commitment to truth must have been strong enough to compel him to take a stand outside the Torah- centric point of view and come to terms with Nature as an independent ontological reality. It is this attitude that might have been the basis of his tales being included in the Bavli, which includes stories, myths and allegories that possess some element of validity.
2-7. Summary We have come full circle in our investigation. We have considered the problematic nature of the RBBH tales. Specifically, we have raised the question of their relevance. We have noted one traditional commentary who responds by claiming that RBBH's tales are factual, though exaggerated. We have discussed how most of the traditional commentaries as well as the scholarly commentary of Eisenstein have suggested allegorical readings. This opinion I find unsatisfactory as I do not find clear hints or signposts to guide the reader in decoding the tales. Thus, I feel allegorical interpretations are little more than projections of the commentator's own beliefs and concerns. As for Ginzberg's and Ben-Amos's suggestion that the tales should be read as works of folk imagination, I have replied by showing that RBBH's tales do not work as tall tales. In addition, rabbinic texts approach stories in a fundamentally different way than a teller of folktales would. The latter is concerned with the tale's ability to delight and entertain, while rabbinic literature sees storytelling as a way to teach a didactic message.
36 The tales seem to occupy a median position between factual testimony and allegory. Like factual testimony, the tales do not seem constructed to convey an abstract idea. Like allegory, they cannot be taken literally but do convey meaning and are worthy of being recorded in a sacred text. Whatever meaning they convey seems to be connected to the attempt to know Nature as an independent ontological reality. In the following chapter, I discuss what I believe is the tales' precise categorization, and advance the claim that RBBH's water tales are to be read as records of visions.
Chapter Three The Tales as Visions
3-1. Overview In response to the questions I raised in the previous chapter about the nature of the RBBH tales, I now propose what I consider to be the main point of this paper. The water tales, with the possible exception of W-1, can be best read as records of visions and dreamlike experiences. If we accept this notion then all the difficulties practically resolve themselves. The tales can now be read as literal descriptions of things that were seen. However, these things were not seen in the material world, but in the unique context of a dreamlike state. The tales are not allegories in the sense of being intentionally constructed to an author to convey a particular meaning, and yet they are certainly meaningful. It is possible that RBBH himself was not completely aware of all the meanings his visions contained. Perhaps the redactors of the Talmud were not completely aware of them either. Nevertheless, I believe my research shows that at least some general issues of the tales' meanings were understood by RBBH, his contemporaries and the redactors of the Bavli. The sages of the Bavli may have recorded the tales for posterity, perhaps in the hope that a future generation not so intimately involved in the Talmud's formative age, would have the perspective required to understand them more fully. This hope would justify their inclusion in the sacred text of the Talmud based upon the premises that there is some sort of unspoken meaning.
37 3-2. Ritba and the Geonic Tradition The Ritba, in an often quoted passage in his commentary to Baba Batra, makes the claim that the tales are records of visions and states that there is a geonic tradition to this effect. The following passage is my translation of the Ritba:
There are in the tales in this chapter things that are strange because they are unfamiliar with them but which are close to [the facts] for those who know their nature, such as the size of the fish in the sea and the greatness of the stormy waves. There are also aspects hinted at which were not visible to them through physical sight but rather through a vision in a dream. It happened that as the sages were traversing the ocean and they saw the wonders of Hashem may he be blessed and they meditated and contemplated awesome and wondrous things. Then as they slept they saw notions and wondrous things referring to the matters [they contemplated.] Furthermore, the Geonim wrote that wherever we find the phrase here 'I myself saw' it was in a dream vision.1
The Ritba allows the possibility that some of the tales are literally true, which we may take as being a sign of healthy open mindedness on the part of someone living at a time when most of planet earth was still unexplored territory. Interestingly, in his brief comments to the tales, he finds only one tale deserving of the description "close to [the facts]" or nearly realistic. This is tale T-1 where Rebbe Yohanan recounts his sighting of a giant fish lifting its head out of the water. This tale, as I pointed out earlier, may be consistent with the sighting of a large whale. Another interesting point is that the Ritba makes no interpretive remarks about tale W-1 which is about how sailors defend their ship against a giant wave. We have already noted that there is some disagreement between the VE and the HC over whether this tale comes first or second in the water tales. It may very well be that the Ritba did not have it in his text of the Talmud at all, which would be the likeliest explanation of why he ignored it. 2 In any event, this tale consists entirely of RBH telling over what he heard from sailors and therefore might not be a vision at all. As I will show when I discuss tale W-1 in greater detail, I am inclined to see it as a fairly realistic description of a kind of white magic practiced by Jewish sailors under duress.
38
3-3. Dreams and the Freudian Connection If indeed the RBBH tales are records of visions, it makes sense to approach them with a Freudian method. This is appropriate in light of some recent work by Hasan- Rokem 3 into the folklore of rabbinic dream interpretation. She notes the similarities between the Rabbis' methods of dream interpretation and those of their "distant 'descendant'," Sigmund Freud, "are striking, not least due to the focus on language, the interpretation of texts, and the linguistic associations" (97). There are three major sources in the rabbinic tradition that discuss dream interpretation: the Bavli, Berakhot 55b-57b; the Yerushalmi, Ma'aser Sheni at the end of Chapter 4; and Midrash Ekha Rabbah, section 1 paragraphs 14-18 in the Vilna Edition of that text. Of all these sources, the dream section of the Yerushalmi,4 is the most compact and seems to encapsulate the prevalent rabbinic attitudes towards dreams. I find four basic attitudes held by the sages towards dream interpretation: 1) A dream is a reflection of the dreamer's state of mind. As stated by Rabbi Yose, a dream is "precisely [on the topic of] what the person [had been thinking about]." Consequently, some sages ruled that, "Matters learned in a dream cannot serve to elevate or diminish…" (143). In other words, dreams are irrelevant for determining objective facts. 2) A dream reflects the dreamer's deepest desires. An example of this is the dreamer who saw that he was watering an olive tree with oil. To this dream Rabbi Ishmael replied, "The gentleman's soul will soon expire, for he has been intimate with his own mother" (143). 3) A dream foretells the future, but only according to the words of the interpreter. An example of this is the woman who told a dream to a group of students, who interpreted it as meaning her husband, would die. R. Eliezer scolded them and said "'You have killed someone! Why? Because a dream is fulfilled only in accord with the interpretation [given by a sage]'" (146). 4) A dream's content is encoded in a peculiar kind of language that is based upon the dreamer's experiences and thoughts. This language makes use of associative links,
39 symbolic representation and word-play. The following are two striking examples of how the Talmud decodes a dream into comprehensible language. The first example is the case where a dreamer reports: "'In a dream-vision, my leg (ragli ) was shortened!'" Rabbi Akiva replies, "'During the upcoming festival (…regel …) you will not have meat to eat.'" Another dreamer reports, "'In a dream-vision, my leg was huge!'" Rabbi Akiva likewise replies, "'During the upcoming festival, you will eat a lot of meat'" (146). Rabbi Akiva's interpretation rests upon a play of words. The Hebrew word for festival is ReGeL which is also the word for foot or leg. Thus the dream thoughts of not having meat to eat, or eating a lot of meat during the festival become translated and condensed into the image of the dreamers leg, the size of which is an indication of how much meat will be consumed. The second example is that of the individual who was told in his dream, "'Go to Cappodocia and you will find your father's property [awaiting your claim as heir].'" R. Yose Ben Halafta, having verified that the dreamer's father had never been to Cappodocia, replies "'Count off ten roof-rafters in your house and you will find your father's property [hidden there]'" (143). R. Yose Ben Halafta's subtle and surprising interpretation is explained by Hasan-Rokem:
Kappa is the tenth letter in the Greek alphabet, which is evidently hinted at by the journey to this foreign city. Docia hints at the Greek word for construction beams. (94-5)
If the Rabbi was correct, then the kernel of the dream was a visual concept, the tenth rafter. This image was represented in the dream by the name of the city, Cappodocia read as meaning 10 th rafter, through a combination of gematria and homophonic similarities. This rabbinic attitude towards dreams bears a resemblance to Freud's opinion as he states it in The Interpretation of Dreams .5 He notes there, that behind the "manifest content of dreams," there are to be found latent "dream thoughts" (311). These latent dream thoughts are translated into the images and experiences of the manifest dream, where they are represented in a kind of "pictographic script." In dreaming, the original dream thoughts are subject to "dream-work" (313) which translates and condenses them into the dream's manifest content.
40 Of the aforementioned rabbinic attitudes, Hasan-Rokem takes specific note of the second attitude, namely, that a dream reflects the dreamer's deepest desires. The Yerushalmi states: "A person once came before R. Ishmael b. R. Yose and told him, 'In a dream-vision, someone was watering an olive tree with oil.' [R. Ishmael] said to him, 'The gentleman's soul will soon expire, for he has been intimate with his own mother'" (143). Hasan-Rokem finds Rabbi Ishmael's interpretation of this case surprising in several respects:
First, it does not hinge on the dreamer's future but on his past and, in this regard, it does not resemble the pattern of dream interpretation in the ancient world…but rather the method of dream interpretation presented by Sigmund Freud...Like Freud, R. Ishmael assumes that the dream represents content that consciousness rejects and represses because it transgresses conventional moral restraints. As is true of Freud, the prohibitions breached in the dream, or the actual transgressions revealed by the dream, concern the most intimate family relations and become manifest in incest wishes, or even in actual incest. In my view, however, this….text is ambiguous as to whether R. Ishmael is accusing the man of actual sexual intercourse with his mother or is simply attacking him for his incestuous wishes for his mother in the past, which could not be, or were not, realized. (97)
On this last, Hasan-Rokem reads the text to mean that Rabbi Ishmael is not necessarily accusing the dreamer of committing incest, but rather of deeply wanting to. In this way, she turns the dream into a statement of repressed desire in keeping with Freud's basic attitude. I do not contest Hasan-Rokem's assertion that the dream of watering the olive tree with oil is a dream about incestuous desire. The dream itself seems to indicate this, since oil is a fuel that generates heat and fire. Consequently, it may likely stand for the desire that generates sexual gratification. In this respect the dream is about desire. However, the text implies that for Rabbi Ishmael, the dream tells of a fulfilled desire, not a repressed desire. Rabbi Ishmael sees the dream as expressing a consummated desire. But then if the incestuous desire has already been willfully consummated by the dreamer, what would be the function of the dream?
41 3-4. Dreams as Emerging Self Concepts I believe a partial answer might be that the dream, as Rabbi Ishmael understands it, is driven not only by the desire to perform the incestuous act, but by the desire to be punished for it, as well. This would then be an example of what Freud refers to as "'punishment dreams'," dreams whose motivating force is "a wish that the dreamer may be punished" (1998, 596). According to Rabbi Ishmael, the dreamer knows very well the crime he has committed. Now he wants to confess and come clean. However, the desire for punishment is censored by an equally strong desire to avoid the pain which punishment entails. Hence the dream-work cloaks the transgression in symbolic language so that when the dreamer reports the dream for interpretation, he will, in effect, be confessing without suffering the consequences. Ironically, since Rabbi Ishmael is a skillful dream interpreter, the confession actually takes place. Indeed, Rabbi Ishmael pronounces his sentence that "'The gentleman's soul will soon expire'." However, I believe that when we place the incestuous dream in its position in the Yerushalmi's narrative flow, additional insights may be found concerning how the Talmudic sages understood dreams and their interpretations. The account of the dreamer who had sex with his mother is followed by a similar account of a dreamer who had sex with his sister. This, in turn, is followed by an account of a dreamer who saw that he "'had three eyes'." R. Ishmael tells him that he is destined to become an oven maker. "'…two of the eyes [you saw] are your own, and one eye is the oven's [vent hole]'." Then follows an account of a dreamer who saw that he had "'four ears'." R. Ishmael tells him that he is destined to become a filler of wine casks. "'…two of the ears [you saw] are your own, and two ears are the cask's [handles]'." (As in Hebrew, the Aramaic terms for eyes and ears are actually used figuratively for openings and handles.) I find it odd that dreams, which according to Rabbi Ishmael signify the violation of a fundamental social taboo, are placed next to dreams which are interpreted as rather commonplace concerns about making a living. I propose this juxtaposition implies that – according to R. Ishmael - the energy which animates the dreams, at least in some cases, is the yearning to define one's self and to form a coherent self concept. I find it noteworthy that in R. Ishmael's interpretations, the future oven maker and wine cask
42 filler both visualize their future professions as represented by structural modifications of their bodily imagery. It is as if the dreams are saying: This is who I am becoming. The notion of self or self-concept is not emphasized in Freud's thought, and to a large extent actually belongs to a later development of Freudian thought. Referring back to the aforementioned article, "The Dissection of the Psychical Personality," Freud advances his model for one's personality as consisting of the self - which he calls the ego, the instinctual drives - which he calls the id, and the voice of society's dictates - which he calls the super-ego. Freud discusses his understanding of the conscious self as being the "poor ego" which serves "three tyrannical masters" namely, the instinctual drives, the constraints of the real world, and the voice of society and its dictates. As Freud sees it, the self's destiny to unsuccessfully attempt to "satisfy…or rather, to obey" its masters "simultaneously" (77), is a task which cannot be accomplished completely. Despite his belief in the self's basic weakness, Freud concedes that the self does have a certain power and capacity all its own. It is distinguished by "a tendency to synthesis…to a combination and unification" and is the "origin of the idea of time" (76). In Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought ,6 Black and Mitchell describe how continued research in Freudian tradition developed versions of what has been called "self-psychology" (165). In a self psychology, an "investigation of issues like creativity, feelings of internal coherence and viability, and functional harmony replaced traditional analytic attention to the vicissitudes of sexual and aggressive drive gratification." Ultimately, it was found that the task of the self is not just to balance the demands of instinctual drives, society and the real world, but rather to build a life which is "energized, creative, and personally meaningful" (164). In some contemporary Freudian thought, it is understood that the form which the self fashions into to harmonize its inner content and to adapt itself to its social and material environment, is the result of the "[s]ymbolic representation…for instinctual impulses…Thus the snake charmer, and the architect of skyscrapers…have found symbolic masturbatory equivalents" (191). Nevertheless, these symbolic activities which help define the inner and external identities of human selves are not completely reducible to masturbatory desires. "The snake or the skyscraper is always a penis, but never just a penis…but has become transformed and enriched through the symbolic process.
43 Symbolism is not a process of camouflage, but of mutual transformation" (192). It may be said that the symbolic transformation of natural instinctive drives brings about structure in the self which both harmonizes its diverse contents of the self, and provides a sense of meaning and purpose in life. I call this structure the Self-Concept and argue that a self concept is a representation of some aspect of Nature as it enters the self's awareness and is expressed as a symbol. It provides a pattern for the self's inner content, as well as a model for adapting to reality and finding meaning or direction in life. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle ,7 Freud tries to demonstrate the reality of two primary instincts that function within any organism, an instinct for life and an instinct for death. He attempts to show that the "life instincts or sexual instincts" are that which bring about the "union of a number of cells into a vital association" (44). I find it plausible that the self-concept, like a complex form of life, may be an expression of a natural yearning for connectedness as manifest within the various elements of psychical life, which also brings about a crucial differentiation between the self and others. As I understand self-concepts, they are expressions of Nature, as well as symbols adapted for the self. An authentic self concept is not something constructed artificially, that severs the self from Nature. This point is made by Claude Levi Strauss 8 in connection to the emergence of myths, using musical creativity as a paradigm. A musical composition makes use of a scale of tones. Such a scale is not natural insofar as the:
physical properties of any musical scale considerably exceed in number and complexity those selected by each system for the establishment of its distinctive features. It is nevertheless true that…all modal or tonal (or even polytonal or atonal ) systems depend on physical and physiological properties, selecting some from among the infinite number no doubt available, and exploiting the contrasts and combinations of which they are capable in order to evolve a code that serves to distinguish different meanings. (21-2)
Applying this insight to our discussion, it may be said in much simpler terms, that a concept is not found in Nature as a distinct form, yet its form still reveals to us a small part of what Nature is. An intriguing irony results from this: A concept is authentic insofar as it is partial, provisional, relative and rooted in Nature. When it is perceived as
44 something objective, complete and unchanging, it becomes inauthentic. An authentic concept, as it arises through symbolic representation, is both connected to Nature and apart from it. Returning to the dreams in which the dreamers perceive themselves as having three eyes or four ears, it seems plausible that Rabbi Ishmael's interpretation rests on the assumption that a person's occupation in life is an aspect of his/her self concept, and that such a self concept first emerges from Nature into conscious awareness as dream symbol. In this regard it is noteworthy that in Rabbi Ishmael's interpretation, the dreamers' occupations are presented as modifications to the dreamers' physical bodies. The dreams indeed give rise to new self concepts. This notion of the emerging self concept may explain why in the rabbinic tradition the dream can be of yearnings already present in the psyche of the dreamer as well as predictions of the dreamer's future. Once a new self concept emerges into the dreamer's awareness, the Rabbis understand that it can be very powerful in charting the dreamer's future and influencing the course of his/her life. The dream interpreter is central to this process for it is the interpreter that helps fashion this self-concept through the interpretive act, or as Rabbi Eliezer puts it, "A dream is fulfilled only in accord with its interpretation." The notion of the self concept also provides a possible explanation of why the Yerushalmi juxtaposes the motifs of incest and of making a living. The dreamers who are considered by Rabbi Ishmael to be incestuous taboo breakers, might be attempting to achieve a new kind of self concept, that of a purely natural organism beyond the constraints of society and its norms. This juxtaposition brings together the most conventional and socially acceptable self concepts and the most extravagantly anti-social and subversive self concepts. This suggests the possibility that both arise from the same process - the symbolic expression of natural energies. The notion that breaking the incest taboo may be related to achieving a self concept brings us back to the Cynics. The taboo breakers of the Yerushalmi may have been Cynics or influenced by them. At this time in history, Cynics were numerous in the Greco-Roman world. It is worthwhile to note what Foucault points out in one of his seminars:9
45 [I]t is a fact that the Cynics were very numerous and influential from the end of the First Century BC to the Fourth Century A. D. Thus in A. D. 165 Lucian – who did not like the Cynics – writes: "The city swarms with these vermin, particularly those who profess the tenets of Diogenes, Antisthenes, and Crates." It seems, in fact, that the self-styled 'Cynics' were so numerous that the Emperor Julian, in his attempt to revive classical Greek culture, wrote a lampoon against them scorning their ignorance, their coarseness, and portraying them as a danger for the Empire and for Greco-Roman culture.
As I pointed out previously, according to Detienne, the intentional breaking of the incest taboo was advocated by the cynics. This was part of their program for the "dismantling of society" to the point where nothing exists "but the pure individual, prior to society, prior to any collective life…so as to assert the rights of the individual against the collectivity, against any form of civilization" (226-7). It seems reasonable that the taboo breakers of the Talmudic narrative may have been driven by more than the incestuous yearnings of the pre-oedipal life, but by the existential desire to delineate their self concept as a pure individuality, beyond the confines of social convention. That being the case, this process cannot be carried to its fulfillment as long as the dreamer keeps his secret hidden, for by so doing he perpetuates society's hold over him. As long as the taboo exists in society, the dream, as an oblique form of self disclosure, is required to effect the complete realization of this radical self concept. At this point I must raise a question: If indeed the dream implies the emergence of a new self concept, then why is it that dreams do not speak plainly? Could not a future oven maker just dream he was making ovens? Could not a future filler of wine casks just dream he was filling wine casks? In response to this, I refer to Freud's brief article, "The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words,"10 which puzzles over the fact that dreams combine "contraries into a unity" or represent opposites "as one and the same thing" (155). Freud extensively quotes the philologist Karl Abel, who notes that ancient Egyptian language often exhibits the "unintelligible behaviour" (157) of using single words that carry "two meanings, one of which is the exact opposite of the other" (156). Abel explains this phenomenon claiming, "It is clear that everything on this planet is relative and has an independent existence only in so far as it is differentiated in respect of
46 its relations to other things…[Therefore,] every concept is in this way the twin of its contrary" (157) and "every experience must have two sides" (159). Freud maintains that Abel provides a helpful clue to understanding how it is that in dreams, images often stand for their opposites or combine two opposite meanings simultaneously. Freud concludes that this antithetical tendency in dreams is a "confirmation of the view we have formed about the regressive, archaic character of the expression of thoughts in dreams (161)." This seems to imply that in dreams one makes contact with that realm where everything is felt as an undifferentiated flow. We have previously referred to this realm as Nature and have noted that in rabbinic thought this is expressed by the image of the sea. Similarly, Freud fully acknowledges that his attempt to investigate the meaning of dreams "will lead us to a knowledge of man's archaic heritage, of what is psychically innate in him…[from] the earliest and most obscure periods of the beginnings of the human race" (1998, 588). It is from this archaic realm that dreams arise. As it turns out, one's self concept may be a gift granted from the undifferentiated flow of Nature, which becomes differentiated and clarified through the process of dreaming and interpreting dreams. Aside from the censorships and distortions to which the dream thoughts are subjected to by the agency of repression and denial, the imagery of dreams is obscure because the concepts contained by them are undifferentiated and antithetical. The rabbinic attitude stresses that dreams in their un-interpreted state are meaningful not as clearly formed messages waiting to be decoded, but rather as a composite of meanings waiting to be differentiated and made intelligible. Hasan-Rokem rightly asserts that to the Rabbis, "Dreams are texts of multiple meanings…An interpretation singles out one of all the possible meanings of the dream, and determines its fate to come true" (105). I am now in a position to state what I believe is the key to understanding the water tales of RBBH as visions. In the rabbinic view of dreaming and interpreting, the dreamer discloses to the interpreter a symbol of an emerging self concept. The interpreter attempts to analyze the symbol, but make no attempt to see past it, into Nature itself. The symbol is as far as either the dreamer or the interpreter can see. However RBBH's visions go beyond that kind of dreaming and interpreting in that Nature it self, at least in some of its aspects, appears in symbolic guise. In RBBH's visions, Nature makes an appearance and the emergence of the self concept from Nature can be discerned. Now we may contrast
47 RBBH's attempt to confront Nature through dreamlike visions, and the Cynic's program of a deliberate return to Nature. Unlike the Cynics, RBBH does not attempt to re-immerse himself into Nature in order to understand it. One cannot be a follower of the Cynics and remain within the framework of Halacha. In any event, a return to an undifferentiated natural state of being may not provide any helpful knowledge since it may involve the obliteration of the self altogether, insofar as Nature is outside human thought and awareness. In fact, the fear of loosing one's self in Nature may find expression in the tales as the fear of drowning. Instead, RBBH seeks a symbolic vision that will convey a sense of what Nature is like. The symbol for Nature turns out to be the image of the sea and by extension, water in general. I believe that RBBH may have made some significant discoveries about Nature and the emergence of self concepts. Once again, there is no way to know how much of the symbolism of his visions was understood by RBBH, his contemporaries or the Bavli's redactors. Nevertheless, I believe my interpretations and analyses of the tales indicate that at least some of the symbolism was meaningful to the Talmudic Sages. I maintain that one of RBBH's discoveries can be stated as follows. Notions of spatial and temporal dimensions are irrelevant to Nature. Therefore a single pulse of natural energy can give rise to a concept on one of three levels. It may arise as an individual self concept, a concept wide enough to organize an entire society, or a concept expansive enough to organize an entire world view. This implies that there may be strong parallels between the psychodynamics of an individual self and the processes which govern an entire society. This parallel is recognized by Freud, who asserts that "the evolution of civilization has…a far-reaching similarity with the development of an individual" (1952, 801). I discuss these three kinds of concepts at greater length in the course of this paper.
3-5. Major Motifs of the Tales Now I believe we are in a position to explore the meanings of some of the major motifs we find in the ten water tales. I will expound on five of these motifs which are: the sea ; the dry land ; the ship ; the gigantic animals , and mathematization or the use of numerical proportions . As I have formerly stated, the ten water tales of RBBH are
48 records of the attempt to confront Nature on its own terms while standing outside society in general and outside the Torah-centered world view in particular. The Sea with its waves symbolizes Nature itself as it remains beyond the reach of human reason and differentiated thought. It is undifferentiated and full of currents and energies which may be felt in the form of instincts or desires. I have already developed this notion at length, but I believe there is some value in showing how widespread and well known this symbol is. In A Dictionary of Symbols,11 J. E. Cirlot writes;
…the two most essential aspects of the ocean are its ceaseless movement and the formlessness of its waters. It is a symbol, therefore, of dynamic forces and of transitional states between the stable ... and the formless… [referring to Zimmer's observation, Cirlot continues] … the ocean is 'immense illogic' -- a vast expanse dreaming its own dreams and asleep in its own reality, yet continuing within itself the seeds of its antitheses. (230)
Similarly, in his Civilization and Its Discontents ,12 Freud talks about an oceanic feeling as being …a sensation of eternity , a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded, something 'oceanic' ... it is a feeling of indissoluble connection, of belonging inseparably to the external world as a whole. (767)
The movement of the undifferentiated energy of Nature in the direction of complexity and differentiation can be viewed as a wave rising out of the sea. This may be analogous to Freud's notion of the life instinct or Libido. The opposite tendency of a differentiated complex structure to return to its origin in Nature would thus be the collapse of a wave. This may be analogous to Freud's concept of the death instinct. As I mentioned previously, any concept may be taken on one of three levels. On the first level it may structure the life of a single person, as in the case of self concepts which emerge in the symbolism of dreams. On the second level it may structure the life of an entire society and on the third level it may structure how the universe is perceived and understood. Let me focus on the notion that a society can be thought of as a wave. Insofar as people in that society are embedded in the wave, they cannot accurately know it. They
49 are unaware of their society's dependence upon Nature's energy. They may take the concept that animates their society as being absolute and unchanging since as far as they can tell, the way their society is structured is the only way a society should be. Nature, on the other hand, presents a challenge to the validity of any single world view. The reality of Nature ultimately is far closer to madness than to rationality, as Michel Foucault notes 13 in his article, "The Ship of Fools" that madness looks upon Nature and apprehends it as
an obscure and aquatic element, a dark disorder, a moving chaos, the seed and death of all things, which opposes the mind's luminous and adult stability (13).
The Dry Land by contrast to the sea, can be understood as a symbol of the self differentiation and independent awareness. Even if a society is a wave, the individuals of which it is composed, in so far as they have the freedom to become individuated selves, may be said to exist on dry land. Standing on dry land implies that an individual has the ability to know that their society is but one possible form of Nature's energy. The dry land perspective permits the critique of society's assumptions about the way things should be organized. When standing on dry land an individual self may become aware of how concepts arise within consciousness. The individual self would then be aware that all such concepts, however powerful and illuminating they may be, are necessarily provisional and open to continued change and evolution. The capacity for vision provided by the dry land perspective is also a limitation. For every concept that can be seen and understood, there are others that cannot be assimilated. As Levi Strauss puts it, "the empirical material is too abundant to be all accepted indiscriminately" (341). Being self aware implies that something always remains hidden. The notion that something always remains hidden may be part of the rabbinic understanding of dry land as a symbol. The Bavli, Hullin 127a, quotes a Tannaic statement 14 that "Every [kind of creature] that there is on dry land, there is in the sea except for the weasel" (217). This teaching is based upon the similarity of a biblical word for dry land HaLeD, found in Psalms 49:2, to the Hebrew word for weasel HuLDah . The implication of this is that the weasel HuLDah, is unique to dry land HaLeD . Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, a student of Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, provides a helpful
50 explanation for this strange aggadah.15 Based upon rabbinic usage, he argues that the root HLD in Hebrew is related to the notion of covering up or hiding . The weasel is called HuLDah because it hides underground with all of its things, in tunnels. Thus the weasel in rabbinic thought may symbolize the tendency for some things to remain hidden from awareness. The realm of Nature (the sea) and its undifferentiated flow of being, have no capacity for hiding, covering up or denial. There are no weasels in the sea. The Ship now presents itself as a new kind of society. It is a community of individuated selves. Each individual has already stood on dry land and has become differentiated to some extent from the societal wave. Now individual selves gather together to share their concepts and to dialogue about them. The ship represents a way of living with Nature yet without falling into its madness or death. It is possible to live this way because, as I pointed out earlier, symbolic representation offers a way to be connected to nature and apart from it at the same time, when concepts are not absolute but open to change and evolution. Such a society lives in a state of indeterminacy, in harmony with an evolutionary process but not locked into a single world view. The ship may represent just such a society that lives in close harmony with the sea, riding its waves and its currents, flowing with its vicissitudes, and sustained by the faith that its journey is guided by a divine will. The relatedness of the themes of Ships and Divine guidance is hinted at in tale W-3 and substantiated by verses 23-30 in psalms 107:
They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in the great waters---These saw the works of the LORD, And His wonders in the deep;…He made the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof were still. Then were they glad because they were quiet, And He led them unto their desired haven.16
The very structure of the ship as outlined in the opening Mishna is indicative of the evolutionary process. The ship has an anchor which connects it to the sea's depths. It sustains the life of those on board and keeps them from drowning. Its mast points towards heaven and may be seen as representing the axis mundi . In addition, the ship is used for transporting valuable goods. In this regard the ship is like the language used for dialogue. Members of this society of individuals share their concepts by expressing them in
51 language, and sending them off across the interpersonal space to be heard and understood by others. This way of expressing concepts may actually make them comprehensible to the speaker, since nothing is really understood well until it is communicated to another person. Furthermore, it is the act of dialogue that enables diverse concepts to interact, grow and evolve. The Gigantic Animals which populate RBBH's tales, strike me as being guides and teachers. They appear in his visions and are filled with some meaning that may be intuited or understood. RBBH acknowledges that our self concepts, societal concepts and world-view concepts which we often take to be creations of autonomous human thought are actually given to us or communicated to us by Nature. The most notable example of this can be seen in tale W-6. There, a giant fish washes up from the sea to feed and sustain an incredible number of cities and societies and whose very bones serve as material for construction. In Totem and Taboo, Freud relates to the notion of the Totem animal,17 claiming it is the
object of veneration of a group of men and women who take their name from the totem and consider themselves consanguineous offspring of a common ancestor, and who are firmly associated with each other through common obligations towards each other as well as by the belief in their totem. (142)
The totem animal is sacrificed and eaten, thus establishing a social bond that is
nothing else than the life of the sacrificial animal which lived on its flesh and blood and was shared by all the participants by means of the sacrificial feast. (184)
The emergence of self and social concepts from Nature seems to be expressed in the veneration and sacrifice of the totem animal. The totem animal is venerated because it serves as a symbolic point of contact between human society and Nature. It is sacrificed and consumed so that the concepts it communicates can be assimilated both by the individual and the larger social group. The totem animal is not just a substitute for a murdered father but a living link between human society and Nature through which new
52 concepts are received, the ingestion of which stands at the foundation of society, as Freud notes. Mathematization and Numerical Proportions found in most of the tales, serve to take objects or animals which are ordinarily small and expand them to immense proportions. This becomes less puzzling when we remember that the images which appear in the RBBH's tales convey meanings that derive from Nature and the unconscious. Freud, writing of the unconscious, makes the following observations:
As a result of certain psycho-analytic discoveries we are today in a position to embark on a discussion of the Kantian theorem that time and space are 'necessary forms of thought'. We have learned that unconscious mental processes are "timeless". This means in the first place that they are not ordered temporally, that time does not change them in any way and that the idea of time cannot be applied to them." (1961, 22)
I take this to imply that the realm I refer to as Nature, is similarly of timeless quality, and this notion helps significantly in my interpretation of tale W-3. For the time being, I note that if there is no sense of time outside of consciousness, then there is no sense of spatial distance or magnitude either. The difference between large and small is rooted in the notion of space and spatial dimensions. These, like time are necessary forms of conscious thought. The unconscious, Nature or the sea of the RBBH tales is not subject to distinctions of size or magnitude. This accounts for the incredible dimensions of the waves, creatures and other aspects in the tales. A self concept emerging from Nature can be as small as an individual's personality, as gigantic as an entire society or vast enough to encompass the cosmos, providing a world-view for understanding the universe. Thus I understand that in fact, the creatures in RBBH's visions are both ordinary and gigantic all at the same time. This connects to the mathematization prevalent in the visions. In a number system, the largest numbers are ultimately equivalent to the smallest ones. There is no essential difference between the numbers one hundred and one thousand. They are all the number one in different scales of counting. Thus, giving mathematical measurements to the natural phenomenon both expands them to limitless proportions and brings them back down to ordinary human size or minimizes them limitlessly.
53 3-6. Summary Looking back over our progress in this chapter, I can summarize it as follows: I presented what I believe is the core of this thesis, that the RBBH tales are records of visions experienced by RBBH, and that other sages of the Talmud may have like minded visionaries, as the Ritba suggests. I examined some of the rabbinic attitudes towards dreaming and dream interpretation, and noted the similarities between their attitudes and those of Freud. Unlike Freud who says dreams are representations of repressed desires, the rabbis viewed dreaming, at least in part, as a process where new self concepts emerge from the archaic, fluid and undifferentiated realm of Nature. The process of having a dream interpreted is an integral part of the differentiation and clarification of that concept. Once a self concept emerges into conscious awareness, the rabbis believed it can exert a powerful influence on the course of future events, at the very least as a self fulfilling prophecy. In light of the above, it seems that RBBH's attempt to confront Nature is, in effect, an attempt to grasp in symbolic means the origin from which concepts emerge. He is willing to recognize that perhaps many of society's key concepts are not the free creations of human rationality, but gifts given to human beings from Nature. Since the notions of space and time are not applicable to nature, there is no specific magnitude for concepts. A concept can provide a form for structuring a single human personality, a society or an entire world view. This is why the waves and creatures of his tales are expanded to such immense proportions. The wave is an ordinary wave. The fawn, the fish, the frog and the other creatures are likewise completely ordinary. But when they appear in the visions they become symbols conveying concepts. Then there is no limit to their vastness. Based upon these notions I have proposed a basic understanding to what I see as the basic themes of these tales; the Sea, the Dry Land, the Ship, the Gigantic Animals and Mathematization or Numerical Proportions. Having decided to approach the RBBH tales as visions, I think it is fitting that we attempt to reconstruct as much as I can about his life, as well as the life of his father, RBH whom I have credited with originating the opening tales of the collection. Just as the dream-work makes use of the events and experiences of the dreamer's life to construct its symbolic language, I would expect a vision to make use of the facts and events of the
54 visionary's life in generating its symbolic language, even if the ultimate message of the vision is of wider significance. In this respect, my proposed methodology goes beyond the allegorical methods used by the previous commentators, as I will attempt to ground my reading of the tales in the life struggles of RBH and RBBH. It is to this task that I now turn, in the next chapter.
Chapter Four The Lives of Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: An Imaginative Reconstruction
4-1. Overview In this chapter I will attempt a reconstruction of the life of RBBH, as far as that is possible. I believe this is essential because if the RBBH tales are records of visions, then those visions arise out of the visionary's personal life as well as the cultural context in which the visionary lives. As Freud points out regarding dream interpretation, "[O]ur method of interpreting dreams cannot be applied unless we have access to the dreamer's associative material (1998, 274). To some extent we can think of the Talmud itself as a network of associated images and concepts out of which the visions grow. Thus I am greatly assisted by the traditional commentaries that brilliantly bring together far flung associative elements from every part of the Talmud. Without their assistance I would hardly be able to begin. Nevertheless, the uniqueness of my approach lies, I believe, in the attempt to connect the visions to the personal lives of RBH and his son, RBBH, to the extent that one can glimpse at their lives. I am aware that the Talmud is not essentially a historical document, but I hope to show that there is enough fragmentary material recorded therein that when the fragments are put together, a credible picture emerges. I take as my starting point the assumption voiced by the Tosafot to which I referred in chapter one, that RBBH was the son of RBH. Taking this as a starting point helps bring together numerous events in a cohesive and comprehensible way. It shows RBBH to be a significant character in the development of the Talmud not just because he transmitted the teachings of the sages of the Land of Israel to the Babylonian academies,
55 but also because he was a member of one of the most prestigious scholarly families of Babylonian Jewry. Before proceeding, I must re-iterate how difficult it is to tell RBH and RBBH apart in a Talmudic narrative due to the text's tendency to replace RBH's name with that of RBBH. RBH can only be identified by context and chronology. Basing myself upon the Tosafot in Sanhedrin 5a, as mentioned in chapter one, I work with the assumption that Rabbah who interacts with Rav is RBH, while Rabbah who interacts with Rabbi Yohanan in the Land of Israel, or with Rav Yehuda in Babylon is RBBH. All this will become clear as I proceed.
4-2. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rav in The Land of Israel The patriarch of that family was Abba Bar Aha Karsela from the Babylonian town of Kafri.1 He had five sons: Aivu, Hannah, Shela, Marta and Rabbi Hiyya. Rabbi Hiyya traveled to the Land of Israel, accompanied by his sons Yehudah and Hezekiah. There he became a pupil-colleague of Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi, the redactor of the Mishna, and whose yeshiva was located in Bet Shearim and later in Tzipori.2 Rabbi Hiyya set up his yeshiva in Tiberias, where he taught and collected Tannaic material on his own. Rabbi Hiyya was instrumental in reviving Torah study in the Land of Israel after the Hadrianic persecutions. The arrival of Rabbi Hiyya and his sons made a positive impression on the Jewish community. Even as Rabbi Hiyya was committed to rebuilding the Land of Israel, he was skeptical about the Jewish community's long term viability, in the face of the Roman Empire's persecutions. Thus he thought it was important to prepare teachers who would travel to Babylon, which was governed by the friendlier Persian Empire, and perpetuate Torah there. With this aim in mind, he taught his two nephews, Abba Bar Aivu and Abba Bar Hannah, who joined Rabbi Hiyya in the Land of Israel.3 These two cousins both named Abba, travel to the Land of Israel study diligently with Rabbi Hiyya and Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi. Eventually both are ready for ordination after which they are to return to Babylon. According to the Bavli, Sanhedrin 5a, Rabbi Hiyya intercedes with Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi and asks him to ordain the two cousins. Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi replies by giving full ordination to Abba Bar Hannah conferring upon him the authority to decide matters of ritual law, judicial law and sacrificial law. However, Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi does not give full ordination to Abba Bar Aivu. This
56 cousin only receives the authority to decide matters of ritual and judicial law, but not matters of sacrificial law. The Talmud proposes two possible reasons why Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi withheld the final level of ordination from Abba Bar Aivu. It is possible that Abba Bar Aivu was over qualified in the area of sacrificial law. He had such subtle knowledge that his rulings might have been misunderstood. It is also possible that Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi was attempting to bolster the respect the Jews of Babylon would feel for Abba Bar Hannah by granting him a higher level of ordination than that of his cousin, Abba Bar Aivu. It appears that Abba Bar Aivu had a certain charisma that Abba Bar Hannah lacked. Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi, who appreciated Abba Bar Hannah's learning, tried to compensate for this natural imbalance.4 Incidentally, although Abba Bar Aivu attempts to acquire full ordination at a later time, he never receives it. As time went on the two cousins became known by their titles. Abbah Bar Hanna became RBH, but in the case of Abba Bar Aivu the change in title was much more dramatic. His yeshiva in Sura flourished as did his reputation, so that he became known in the Bavli simply as Rav.5 This is an indication of his renown, meaning that he is so central a figure in Talmudic tradition that he has no need for a personal name. Rav's influence on the development of the Bavli cannot be overstated. He is considered to be a link between the Tannaic and the Amoraic period with the authority to override the opinion of a Tanna. His statements appear nearly fifteen hundred times in the Bavli alone. Even the sages of the Land of Israel acknowledged him as a great authority and teacher of Halacha. He was so revered that after his death the dust from his grave was considered by many to have medicinal powers.
4-3. Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rav in Babylon In stark contrast to Rav, RBH seems to have left little or no impression. He is hardly mentioned. In the handful of instances when he does appear in the Bavli, we find him repeating teachings in the name of Rav (Nidda, 47a), asking halachic questions of him (Bava Batra, 52a), and deferring to Rav when the latter contradicts him (Shabbat, 50a). He is known to have lectured regularly and his teaching was considered necessary for the well being of the people (Moed Katan, 21a). Yet it also seems that Rav supervised these lectures and had no difficulty in silencing RBH when he disagreed with the lectures'
57 contents (Hullin, 100a). There are only two instances in Hullin, 8b and Menachot, 39a-b, where RBH actually argues with Rav. In the first instance the argument concerns the use of a non-Jew's knife for ritual slaughtering. In the second instance the argument concerns the proper way to tie ritual fringes, tsitsit.6 Despite Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi's efforts to insure that RBH was as well regarded as his more charismatic cousin, RBH seems to have been completely marginalized and enveloped in Rav's dominating shadow. There is an oft quoted story about RBH recorded in Bava Metsia, 83a. RBH was a wine merchant and some of his workers broke a number of wine casks. RBH evidently concluded that the workers had been negligent so he confiscated their cloaks in lieu of payment for the damages. The incensed workers complained to Rav and asked him to intervene. Rav compelled RBH not only to return the cloaks but to pay the workers their wages. Rav was aware that this was not correct according to the letter of the law but he held that as an employer and being responsible for his workers' well being, he felt that RBH should hold to a more selfless standard of behavior. The first impression one often receives from this story is one of admiration for Rav who stands up for the common worker and who is sensitive to their needs and frustrations. One might be impressed with Rav's insistence that there is a higher standard of ethics than the letter of the law and his willingness to demand even of his own cousin adherence to this standard. As Dr. David J. Schnall7 puts it,
…the case of Rabbah and his porters stands as a powerful precedent and model for employee relations in Jewish practice. Whether from legal reasoning or moral and ethical sensibility, employers are called upon to exhibit a charitable nature in their dealings with workers. The tradition demands that they be treated with lenience and understanding especially when they suffer want. They may be due compensation for their time though the employer has suffered loss and damage.
However, once we get past these initial impressions, all sorts of questions arise. If we imagine RBH as a successful and wealthy wine merchant then Rav's ruling makes more sense. But perhaps RBH was not so well off. We are told that the worker claimed to be impoverished but we do not know anything about how the loss of the wine impacted on RBH's well being. Were the workers hapless and deserving of sympathy or were they
58 willfully negligent with property that is not theirs? Even if we expect a higher code of ethical behavior from spiritual leaders, whose job is it to decide exactly what this code demands? Who is the real victim or victims? Is not RBH, favored disciple of Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi and holder of a higher level of ordination than that of Rav, qualified to decide what is right in this situation? Might not Rav have respected his cousin's ability to make that decision on his own? It is because of these questions that I believe there is more here than what meets the eye. A second story about RBH and Rav appears in the BT Kiddushin, 59a, which illustrates the negative and possibly hypocritical attitude that Rav had towards his cousin. The Talmud recounts how RBH gave some money to Rav so that he might purchase a certain plot of land on his behalf. The Talmud tells us how Rav then purchased this same plot of land for himself, apparently abusing the trust that his cousin had placed in him. This seems to be unethical behavior on Rav's part. Knowing that RBH was interested in the plot, Rav should not have abused his role as an agent to buy the land for himself! Yet the Talmud justifies Rav's behavior by explaining that the plot of land was located in an area owned by an exclusive clique of land owners who did not consider RBH respectable enough to be one of their neighbors. However, they did respect Rav enough to permit him to buy the plot for himself. I find it striking that here, Rav did not demand of himself a higher standard of ethical behavior above the letter of the law! Try and imagine how RBH felt when he learned that the plot of land he wanted seems to have been deceptively bought by none other than his cousin Rav, under the presumption that the other landowners didn’t think him important enough to be in their clique! Would it not have been praiseworthy for Rav, who was supposedly so sensitive to the needs of others, not to have bought the land out from under his cousin RBH, and to have fought on behalf of his fallen honor? I believe that Rav shows signs of conceit and that his behavior was wrong, insulting and improper. I suspect that RBH was subjected to a largely unconscious process of marginalization and subjugation to Rav's authority and personality. This may have been carried out both by Rav himself as well as by members of his family and community, possibly without malicious intent. RBH was perhaps the only person who could have countered Rav's influence, and considerable effort must have been exerted to
59 keep this from happening. How else could we explain the puzzling fact that the recipient of the highest level of ordination communicates virtually nothing of the teachings he heard at the feet of Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi and Rabbi Hiyya?
4-4. The Suppression of Rabbah Bar Hannah I believe the water tales of the RBBH collection provide evidence that such a process of marginalization and subjugation, which I will from now on refer to as the suppression of RBH, took place not only in his lifetime but afterwards as well, and is reflected even in the redaction and transcription of the Talmud hundreds of years later as I will now explain. In my approach to the RBBH tales and other Talmudic sources, I draw considerable inspiration from Freud's methods which demonstrate the need to look for gaps and distortions in a text or in a dream, as indications of a psychic agency that "exercises a censorship" (1998, 177) upon what is being stated. It should be recalled that we have attributed the first several water tales to RBH, whom the narrator of the Talmud refers to simply as Rabbah (with a Heh in the VE or with an Aleph in the HC ). It makes sense for the tales of these two sages to be linked together because they were a father and son pair. Unfortunately, this also seems to erase the memory of RBH who becomes largely confused with RBBH. I presume that the redactor could have, had he wished, found a way to emphasize the continuity between RBH's tales and those of his son RBBH without sacrificing RBH's identity as a separate person. Indeed this may have been the intention of the HC in writing Rabba with an Aleph , although this actually creates even more confusion as this spelling is generally associated with an altogether different Amorah who lived some time later. Having the text read "Rabba Bar Hannah" (with an Aleph ), would have eliminated all confusion, but this is precisely the approach not taken. So I take this to be a case of suppression , where the identity of RBH has been obscured and wiped out. The ambiguity of the text reflects the redactor's inner conflict. On the one hand he feels the urge to tell us about RBH, but a second psychical agency of censorship intervenes to largely obscure the message. The tendency for RBH to be wiped out of Talmudic texts is quite startling once one notices it, and RBBH provides the means for accomplishing this. In virtually every instance where RBH appears in the Bavli, the name RBBH is substituted. This is true not
60 only of the VE, but of the other manuscript versions I have consulted, but for the Jerusalem Codex (Yad Harav Herzog, 1) which refers correctly to Rabba Bar Hanna and spells it with an Aleph , in Sanhedrin 5a. Obviously, the similarity between the names RBH and RBBH is practically an open invitation to scribal errors. Yet how can one explain that scribal errors always turn RBH into RBBH and not the other way around? In addition, RBBH's own name embodies in itself the erasure of his father's identity by referring back directly to his grandfather, Hannah. I have found no source which discusses how rabbinic titles were chosen. I assume they grew up quite spontaneously as members of the academies and the wider Jewish communities talked about the various sages and teachers. I doubt RBBH chose his title on his own. As such, it may encapsulate evidence of a widespread tendency to suppress the memory of RBH. I am advancing the possibility that in Rav as well as in the wider Jewish community for many years afterwards, there was a deep-seated and un-expressed unease with the character of RBH which made it necessary to suppress him. This psychological activity eventually became part of the Talmudic tradition thus influencing both the redactors and generations of copyists.
4-5. Rabbah Bar Hannah and the Break with the Land of Israel If we were to attribute baser motives to Rav, we might claim that it was jealousy pure and simple that compelled him to eliminate the only person who could have been his equal in bringing the Torah of the Land of Israel to Babylon. However, I believe the truth is more subtle. It was the opinion of Rabbi Hiyya their uncle who taught both RBH and Rav, that the Jewish community of the Land of Israel might not survive as a viable center for Judaism under the stress of Roman persecutions (Pesahim, 87b). The education of Rav and RBH was intended as a first step in shifting the religious center of gravity from the Land of Israel to Babylon.8 Eventually, this is precisely what happened. By the time Rav founded his yeshiva in the Babylonian town of Sura, the sages of the Land of Israel were no longer functioning as a central legislative and decision making group. This function was now being taken up by the yeshivas in Babylon.9 Considering the theological importance of the Land of Israel, this could not have been an easy transition. The Land of Israel in rabbinic theology is the place of the Divine presence. Could one
61 willfully abandon this location without feeling as if one had abandoned a mother or a father? In the meanwhile, the leading rabbis of the Land of Israel at the time of Rav, Rabbi Yohanan and his student-colleague Resh Lakish, were deeply angry and resentful. Mordechai Shalev notes that when Babylonian Jews would congregate in the streets of Tiberias, Rabbi Yohanan would be filled with prophetic rage and claimed that these foreign Jews were rejected by God. Resh Lakish even blamed Babylonian Jews for the destruction of the second temple as well as the cessation of prophecy and the disappearance of the divine presence from the world.10 I believe that when we consider this volatile and emotionally ambivalent context, we may find the clue for what made RBH so troubling. Rav advocated making a break with the Land of Israel and bringing Babylonian Judaism to independence, knowingly abandoning the ideal of the Land of Israel as the center of the Torah world. That is in effect what he accomplished. RBH may have had a different attitude. He believed that Babylonian Judaism should continue to invest its resources and manpower in sustaining the Jewish community in the Land of Israel as well as its rabbinic institutions in the face of Roman persecution, perhaps hoping that Divine intervention would complete what human efforts could not. If that is so, then the very person of RBH may have represented to Rav and the other Babylonian sages a reproach for their chosen plan of action. Not only might he have disagreed with some of their plans, but his presence might have awakened feelings of guilt over what they had set their minds to do. I suggest that we not underestimate the symbolic significance of and the guilt aroused by the thought of abandoning the Land of Israel. I believe that the opening RBH section of the water tales reflects the issues I have outlined here, and that RBH, being a marginal character and an outsider in Babylonian Jewish society, began his visionary path when he pondered the changes taking place in Babylonian Jewry. Needless to say, I will return to this when I frame my comments to the water tales.
62 4-6. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah in the Land of Israel In any event, it comes as no surprise that RBH's son, eventually to be known as RBBH, sets off for the Land of Israel to study under Rabbi Yohanan. His motivations may have been ideological or he may have simply felt that he had no future in the place where his father had been so abused. He studied diligently and well, thus becoming a major repository of Rabbi Yohanan's teachings. However, there are indications that things did not go smoothly for him interpersonally, as we see from the following story as recounted in the Bavli, Yoma, 9b. RBBH encounters Resh Lakish bathing in the Jordan River. RBBH extends his hand to help Resh Lakish out of the water. However, Resh Lakish is not appreciative and instead, he exclaims, "By God, how I hate you!"11 Resh Lakish vents his anger not only on RBBH but on Babylonian Jews in general, castigating them for not coming to the Land of Israel to build the second temple and thus being the cause of Judaism's spiritual decay. Incidentally, the crime of which the Babylonian Jews are guilty according to Resh Lakish happened hundreds of years before. But as I pointed out previously, if the Babylonian community had made a deliberate choice to create its own independent institutions and divert its resources to building itself, then Resh Lakish would have good reason to see present day Babylonian Jews as standing in for their ancestors. In addition, Resh Lakish must have been angry at or at least annoyed by RBBH personally. A likely explanation is that providing service to a sage, shimush hakhamim , is an integral part of the course of study and a privilege conferred upon advanced students.12 By offering to assist Resh Lakish, RBBH most likely was trying to be helpful but from Resh Lakish's point of view, this was a sign of presumptuousness and arrogance. Having related this story, the narrator casts doubt on whether it was really RBBH who offered his hand and whether it was really Resh Lakish who stood in the water. Regardless, I maintain that it was RBBH or at least someone with whom RBBH identified deeply. I base this assertion upon the evidence of tale W-4 which tells of a giant newborn fawn that stops up the Jordan River with a ball of its dung. Without going into the full length interpretation, I cannot help but mention that according to the Gra, the newborn fawn stands for a young, unlearned but arrogant and presumptuous student, whose pride pollutes the pure river of Torah learning. I concur with this reading up to a
63 point. The one day old fawn represents a student. However, unlike the Gra, I see the student as young and inexperienced, not presumptuous. He is simply unfamiliar with the proper etiquette of Rabbi/disciple relationships. He wants to present a gift to the esteemed Rabbi. That gift is rather heartlessly rejected at the shores of the Jordan River. The young student accepts this humiliation as his rite of passage and as part of the personal suffering he must undergo in order to merit living in the Land of Israel. In his article, "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: Infantile Sexuality," 13 Freud makes the noteworthy claim that symbolically, feces represent the child's earliest attempts at giving his parents a gift:
The contents of the bowels…are clearly treated as a part of the infant's own body and represent his first 'gift': by producing them he can express his active compliance with his environment. (1953, 186)
Hence on the most accessible level of its meaning, the vision replays the story of RBBH's encounter with Resh Lakish at the Jordan River. Rabbah is a newborn student who is trying to please an esteemed Rabbi with the gift of his assistance. His gift is rejected. The damming of the Jordan River is reminiscent of the biblical story of how the Israelites crossed the Jordan when entering the Promised Land as the Maharsha explains.14 Thus the total meaning seems to say, Yes, my gift was shown to be a ball of dung and rejected, yet the pain of this rejection is a necessary part of my becoming a resident of the Land of Israel. With the current animosity towards Babylonian Jewry, it is likely that RBBH never quite felt himself entirely at home. He may have found himself stuck between two cultures; alienated from his ancestral home, yet not entirely welcome in Rabbi Yohanan's yeshiva either. If I am correct in my understanding of tale W-4, this would indicate that RBBH's visionary quests begin in the early years of his residence in the Land of Israel. As an outsider, he has the courage to challenge the consensus of opinion. His attempt to question the relationship between Torah and Nature as discussed at the end of chapter one, arises from his willingness to take a position outside the Torah-centered view and outside the framework of rabbinic society. Like his father before him, RBBH's outsider
64 status may have provided the psychological impetus for the emergence of visionary experiences. What compelled RBBH to return to Babylon? No explicit answer is provided in the Talmud, but we do have that Rabbi Yohanan may have strongly disapproved of visionary experiences that were not the result of meditating on Scripture. This approach of Rabbi Yohanan may have conflicted with RBBH's aspirations. In the Bavli, Baba Batra, 75a, there is a section dealing with Rabbi Yohanan's teaching on redemption. There we are told of a statement that Rabbi Yohanan once made:
The Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to bring jewels and pearls that are thirty cubits by thirty and will cut out openings from them ten cubits by twenty, setting them up at the gates of Jerusalem. (53)
One of the students expressed skepticism that pearls and jewels of such size could ever exist. While on a sea voyage, that student had a vision of angels hewing up just such stones.15 Upon his return to the Yeshiva, he reported the vision to Rabbi Yohanan as a verification of Rabbi Yohanan's teaching. However, Rabbi Yohanan was not pleased and he exclaimed, "'Empty-headed idiot! If you had not seen, you would not have believed! So you ridicule the teachings of sages'." Rabbi Yohanan stared at the student and he "turned into a heap of bones" (54). This story tells quite explicitly that Rabbi Yohanan did not approve of visionary or other kinds of experiences being used to verify the teachings of the sages. Rabbi Yohanan evidently believes that the teachings of the sages are a completely sufficient and autonomous source of religious experience and that they are derived from the application of midrashic methods to scripture. As Maharsha points out, Rabbi Yohanan arrives at his ideas by pondering scripture, and not by other methods be they visionary, scientific or philosophical.16 Rabbi Yohanan is obviously convinced of the Torah-centered view that we discussed in chapter one which holds that the Torah is its own reality and subsumes all other categories of experience into itself. If so, it would be foolish to try and verify the words of the sages through any other means. The fact that Rabbi Yohanan is himself the teller of two of the travel tales does not necessarily mean that Rabbi Yohanan advocates visions. I have
65 previously noted the likelihood of the travel tales containing both factual reports and allegories. Rabbi Yohanan's seeing mentioned in T-1 may be taken literally, while his seeing in T-3 may be understood as the intellectual seeing of a valid Torah idea resulting from the deep contemplation of scripture. Such contemplations may augment midrashic methods.17 It seems that Rabbi Yohanan's attitude is in direct conflict with RBBH's visionary agenda. It would be tempting to propose that the student whom Rabbi Yohanan turned into a heap of bones was actually RBBH himself. It would then turn out that turning someone into a heap of bones may actually mean to humiliate someone so badly that he no longer finds it possible to find his place in the Yeshiva. Still I am inclined not to identify the student with RBBH since the student was interested in seeking verification of the heavenly sphere while as we know, RBBH was interested in Nature and history. In any event, if indeed Rabbi Yohanan was antagonistic to the visionaries, this could explain why RBBH saw fit to leave and return to Babylon. It would have been difficult for him to pursue visions with his teacher's scathing disapproval.
4-7. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah in Babylon Upon his return to Babylon, RBBH settled in Pumpedita. It seems that in the intervening years, things had changed in Babylon. Rav had died and his position was inherited by one of his disciples, Rav Yehudah. After an initial, uncomfortable phase, RBBH found he was respected and appreciated. He made a significant impact upon the Babylonian yeshivas and succeeded in transmitting some two hundred of Rabbi Yohanan's teachings from the Land of Israel to Babylon. His visions were likewise appreciated, remembered and even commented upon by subsequent Amoraim as is attested by the tales themselves. The Bavli, Shabbat 148a, records the story of RBBH's initial acclimatization in Babylon where Rav Yehudah presided over the Yeshiva in Rav's stead. Considering the difficulties that RBH had experienced, we can understand why RBBH at first decided to stay away from Rav Yehudah's public lectures. Nonetheless, Rav Yehudah insisted that RBBH attend the lectures and sent a messenger to bring him there by force, if necessary.
66 RBBH was in all likelihood, quite annoyed, and took the opportunity to confront and contradict Rav Yehudah. Rav Yehudah graciously replied by acknowledging that RBBH was correct. He then added that such benefit had been gained by RBBH's presence at the lecture that bringing him there was fully justified. RBBH and Rav Yehudah seem to have befriended one another after that. We see this hinted at in the Bavli, Moed Katan, 17a, where we find that Rav Yehudah consulted with RBBH concerning the problem of a prominent rabbinical figure who had been accused of sexual improprieties.18 RBBH counseled taking an uncompromising stand and excommunicating the offender. While at first glance it might seem that RBBH's motivation is based on the conviction that teachers of Torah should be blameless, I think it is also plausible that having witnessed the abuse of his father many years before, RBBH may have seen the affair not just as a lapse of sexual self control but as a serious abuse of rabbinic authority and power. While living in Babylon, RBBH was annoyed and offended by Zoroastrian priests who insisted that Jews keep their lights off during certain religious festivities. As a result of this, RBBH exclaims that he actually misses living under Roman rule in the Land of Israel (Gittin, 61b-17a). It is unusual to find a rabbi with a benevolent attitude towards the Roman Empire, but this fits well with the portrait of RBBH that we have sketched so far. He was an independent spirit hovering to some extent between cultures, and he may have come to value the intellectual freedom that came with that. He may have felt nostalgic for the highly diverse and cosmopolitan patchwork that made up the Greco- Roman world of late antiquity which contrasted with the Zoroastrian domination of public life in Babylon. Rabbah never gave up his hope of one day returning to the Land of Israel. RBBH may have experienced some tragedy later in life. The Bavli relates that RBBH's son Rav Yitzhak, marries a great granddaughter of Rav Yehudah, but then dies. RBBH had another son who was not a rabbi and whose name was not recorded. This son marries a daughter of Rav Shmuel Katina. The Bavli, Berakhot 47a, records a touching scene where RBBH coaches his son on the proper halachic etiquette for breaking the bread at the wedding banquet as this was one of the functions the groom was expected to perform. Elsewhere, in Pesahim 51a, we find him giving his sons halachic instructions pertaining to Kashrut.
67 Ironically, RBBH, seeker of visions, seems to have experienced some loss of eyesight. The Bavli, Nidda 20b, relates that Yalta, the wife of the prominent Judge Rav Nahman, used to bring her menstrual stains to RBBH to decide whether or not she should consider herself ritually impure. Once she noticed that he was having difficulty seeing the stain and she took it to Rav Yehudah's son for a second opinion. Rav Yehudah, if you will recall, was RBBH's contemporary. If Rav Yehudah's son was already a practicing rabbi, then it may well be that RBBH's loss of eyesight was due to advanced age. In my imagination, this shades the last days of RBBH's life with a somber tone. I think of him as saddened by the general atmosphere of Zoroastrian Babylon, which he finds oppressive. I see him trying to keep his spirits up against the encroaching loss of his eyesight and remembering fondly the wider vistas of the Land of Israel and the openness and variety of Greco-Roman culture. I see him clinging to his cherished hope to one day return to the Land of Israel. However, as Peter Schafer states,19 by the late 3 rd century the heyday of Judaism in the Land of Israel
was essentially over. Furthermore, another major force was now about to make itself felt, one that would supersede foreign rule by the…Romans and replace it with one that was even more oppressive and would last even longer, namely, Christianity. (175)
It very well may have been that by RBBH's final days, there was little in the Land of Israel for a Jew to return to.
4-8. Summary Looking back over this chapter, I can summarize it as follows. I have provided an understanding of the lives of RBH and RBBH. This will assist me in my interpretation of the RBBH water tales in the coming chapter. I have discussed how RBH, the cousin of Rav and favored disciple of Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi, was subjected to suppression by Rav and the Babylonian Jewish community. I suggested that RBH may have denied the notion that Babylon was destined to become a center of Jewish authority independent of and eclipsing, the Land of Israel. My conclusions indicate the possibility that RBH's presence may have cast doubt on the entire project which was undertaken by Rav and the
68 Babylonian Jewish community of which the Bavli is the ultimate triumphant result. The memory of RBH seems to have been suppressed in the Bavli's tradition, and this appears to have continued until the final redaction of the Bavli and beyond. RBH's marginalization by Rav and the Babylonian Jewish community may have pushed him toward a visionary attitude in which he sought to explore what lies beyond society and its world views. RBBH, who had witnessed his father's suppression, traveled to the Land of Israel to study under Rabbi Yohanan. Being perceived there as a Babylonian Jew, he found himself between cultures. Thus, he took up his father's visionary quest and further explored the relationship between Torah, human societies in general, and the realm of Nature. Ironically, upon returning to Babylon after Rav's death, RBBH found that his visionary work, as well as the Torah he had learned from Rabbi Yohanan, was appreciated and valued. On the other hand, RBBH found the attitudes of Babylonian society in general rather stifling, and constantly hoped to return to the Land of Israel, although there is no evidence that he actually did.
Chapter Five The Tales and their Interpretations
5-1. Overview and Preliminary Comments. Before undertaking the task of the tales' interpretations, I attempt to address the issue of the water tales' contextualization and to understand what factors, conscious or otherwise, may have led the redactor of the Talmud to place the tales in their significant though rather jarring location. After this I turn my attention to the task of interpreting each of the ten water tales. I do not intend to make a comprehensive interpretation of each and every tale as that task would unduly and unnecessarily expand my thesis. Instead, I focus intensely on tales W-1 thru W-4, since these tales develop the ideas which can serve as a key to the remaining tales. My interpretations are guided in part by the comparative readings of the VE and the HC versions of the tales. At first I had thought that I would base my texts upon the VE version while consulting the HC for variant readings. However, I found that this approach limits the benefit received from
69 comparing the two versions. In the course of my research I discovered that both versions have important things to say and allude to. The first four tales in particular present significant differences between the VE and the HC versions. I have arrived at several conclusions which I will now share, with the understanding that I will substantiate these conclusions as my interpretations of the tales progress. I have not come across any sources dealing with the dating of the HC and the VE versions of the Bavli. Nevertheless, in my assessment of the two versions of the tales, the HC text seems to have more obscurity and strangeness to it, which would indicate that it is an earlier version. In contrast, the VE text seems to have been smoothed out. This leads me to believe that the tales may have been redacted at least twice and that the VE contains the more coherent version. However, I do not mean to imply that the VE's redactor reworks the tales just to make them more acceptable or palatable. This redactor most probably had access to real traditions about the tales, which explains why his version also provides important hints about their meanings. Generally, he seems concerned with differentiating between the purely visionary aspects of the tales and those aspects grounded in ordinary experience. However, in regards to one issue, I believe the second redactor has an extraneous agenda to obscure the criticism that RBH may have had towards the Babylonian Jewish community under Rav's leadership. This is in addition to the rather conflicted feelings that the Bavli has towards RBH in general. It became clear to me that both versions of tales W-1 thru W-4 are indispensable, and the greatest insight is to be gleaned by reading them side by side. In my interpretations of the tales, I cite and translate each tale as it appears both in the VE and in the HC. I make note of some of the textual differences between the two versions and attempt to address these differences.
5-2. The Tales' Context As I noted in chapter one, the tales intrude at a very specific but seemingly random point, a moment where the Talmudic text discusses whether or not a small boat usually used to assist the large ship, is automatically included in the sale of that ship. As mentioned earlier, this small boat is called by two different names. It is called a butsit in Babylonian Aramaic, a rowboat which relates to the notion of "shallows" 1 or
70 "marshland" 2 as Babylon had a great deal of low lying wetlands and this small boat was used to traverse them. In the Land of Israel, it is called by its Hebrew name, dugit , a lighter which relates to the notion of "fishing boats" 3 taken from the Hebrew word for fish, dag . Neusner informs us that both words mean "pretty much the same thing" (48), a small boat. The etymology of the word dugit is explained by reference to Amos (4:2), "'And your residue [i.e. children] shall be taken away in lighters'."4 In that verse the prophet Amos describes the wrathful exile of Israelite children from the Land of Israel in fishing boats. I will present my interpretation of the tales' placement in light of my reconstruction of RBH's life in chapter four. Let us imagine a redactor working sometime in the 5 th thru the 7 th centuries, implementing the collective decisions about how this Talmudic discourse will take shape. He has the various discourses clear in his mind and knows how they generally proceed. He may have already decided that a large collection of aggadic material beginning with the water tales will appear in Baba Batra, appended to the discussion on the purchase of a ship. Neusner researches the entire structure of Tractate Baba Batra,5 and reaches a simple yet elegant conclusion about what the redactor of the Talmud must have had in mind when he placed the various compilations of seemingly unrelated aggadic material into the discussions of the Mishna's teachings. Neusner says Baba Batra deals almost exclusively with "everyday conflicts over inheritances and estates, property and land, and the conduct of the civil order." He believes the redactor wishes to shift the emphasis from the everyday to "historical-Messianic and transcendent themes" (122) and wishes to show that in the messianic future, "God will resolve the mundane issues taken up" (123) by this tractate. The redactor means to stress that while working in the realm of the everyday and mundane, the rabbis must remain cognizant that the work of rectifying Jewish society in this world is a prelude to the higher perfections of the messianic age and the World to come. I fully concur with Neusner concerning the redactor's intention. I would also add that this agenda is consistent with the Torah-centered viewpoint to which I have often referred. Taking a broad view of the aggadic composite beginning with the water tales, I believe it reflects the overall intention of the redactor as explained by Neusner. Within
71 this composite the reader is taken from the interest in Nature exhibited by RBBH, through the mythic teachings on the Leviathan to the ultimate redemption and the New Jerusalem. Thus the movement within the whole compilation reflects the general intention of the redactor, which is to bring the natural world into the World to come and to demonstrate that everyday life should be lived as a pathway to the transcendent.6 This does not mean that RBH or RBBH were adherents of the Torah-centered viewpoint. Rather it means that the redactor of the Bavli had appropriated their material for his own wider agenda. In any event, I think the movement of the aggadic section suggests that the redactor had its contents organized, prior to its placement in the flow of the Bavli's discussion. Let us imaginatively join the redactor at his work. When the redactor, as he writes or dictates his version of the Bavli, arrives at the scriptural verse; "'And your residue [i.e. children] shall be taken away in lighters'," he comes to a sudden pause. Connections and associations suddenly coalesce and the difference between the butsit and the dugit brings to mind the conflicts between the Jewry of Babylon and Jewry in the Land of Israel. The notion of the small boat being automatically included in the sale of the big ship becomes suggestive. A ship can be thought of as a whole society consisting of captain, officers, crew, passengers and material goods while a small boat can be seen as a small social unit within the larger one. Thus the position of the Jewish community as a small society existing within and dependant upon a larger society is analogous to the small boat's relationship to the big ship. Indeed the destiny of each Jewish community was determined by the destiny of the surrounding culture. The Roman Empire converted to Christianity and the Jewish community faded out. The Babylonian Jewish community under the Persian Empire fared far better and was able to produce the monumental effort of the Bavli, which would guide the lives of Jews all over the world. The redactor can hardly avoid noticing how prophetic the verse from Amos sounds. The remnant of Israel in the Land of Israel is carried away by fishing boats. I find it noteworthy that the founders of Christianity "were often referred to as 'fishers of men.' Followers of Christianity were called Pisciculi ; the root of this Latin word is 'fish'." Is not Jesus himself known by "the Greek word for 'fish' (ichthus, spelled: Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma)…an acrostic [for]… I esous (Jesus)
72 "7 CH ristos (Christ) TH eou (God) Uiou (Son) Soter (Savior). Has not the rise of Christianity undone Jewry in the Land of Israel? The Babylonian community had decided at the very beginning of the Amoraic age to break free of the authority of the Land of Israel, believing that Jewry in the Land of Israel might not endure. However, there was one sage among them who challenged this policy and was unwilling to abandon the Land of Israel, but advocated greater investment in it, greater self sacrifice and greater resolve. This sage was RBH, who paid dearly for his loyalty to the Land of Israel as we explained in chapter four. What if he is right? Then the independence of the Babylonian Jewish community is none other than a rejection of God's will and the legitimacy of the entire Bavli it produced is thrown into doubt. The opening water tales originate with RBH, and the associations provided by the discussion of the butsit and the dugit connect directly to the issues he raises. So the redactor does not wait to bring in the aggadic collection at the end of the legal discussion about the sale of a ship where he might have originally planned. Instead, he chooses to bring in the aggadic material now. By connecting RBH and the dugit , the redactor is vindicating Rav's opinion against RBH's, showing that Jewry in the Land of Israel was indeed not viable. Had Babylonian Jewry not become independent, Torah might not have survived. Nevertheless, the mention of RBH is still unsettling. Therefore, here--as in most every other place in the Bavli where RBH is mentioned--his identity is obscured. To summarize my interpretation of the tales' placement, I believe the particular location where the stories occur, hints at the split between Babylonian Jewry and Jewry in the Land of Israel and its eventual breakdown due to the persecutions of the Christianized Roman Empire. The personality of RBH intrudes here because he was opposed to this split and because the eventual course of history seems to have proved him wrong. Nevertheless, his very name awakens questions about the validity of the Bavli's enterprise. Therefore, his name is obscured at the same place where he is mentioned. I will now turn my attention to the translations and interpretations of the tales. My translations are in some ways influenced by my interpretive conclusions. For the sake of simplicity, I present my translations first, and then proceed to explain my choices within
73 the framework of my interpretations. Technical points are discussed in the endnotes, explaining some of the reasons behind my translations.
5-3. Tale W-1 In the VE this tale appears as follows: אמר רבה אשתעו לי נחותי ימא האי גלא דמטבע לספינה מיתחזי כי צוציתא דנורא חוורתא ברישא ומחינן ליה באלוות א דחקיק עליה א- היה אשר א- היה י- 'ה ה צ- באות אמן אמן סלה ונייח
Rabbah said, Seafarers told me, the wave which sinks the ship, there is seen [something] like a spark of white fire ahead of it and we strike it with the stick upon which is engraved 'I will be that which I will be, Y-ah L-rd of Hosts Amen Amen Selah' and it subsides.
In the HC the same tale appears with a slightly expanded form, (remember that in the HC it appears as the second tale, not the first). ואמר רבא אשתעו לי נחותי ימה האי גלא דאתיא ל טבועי ספינתה אית ליה ברישיה כי ציצתא דנורא חיוורא ואית להו אילואתא דחקיק עלייהו א- היה אשר א- היה י ' י ' -צ באות ומחינן ליה בגויה ונייח
And Rabba said, Seafarers told me, the wave that comes to sink the ship has at its head [something] like a fringe of white fire and they have sticks upon which are engraved, 'I will be that which I will be L-rd of Hosts.' And we strike it and it subsides.
5-3a. Textual Issues In both the VE and the HC versions, RBH begins this tale by mentioning "seafarers". This phrase seems to refer back to the seafarers in Psalms that, "do business in great waters---These saw the works of the LORD" (107:23-4), and to inform us that religious faith is a significant issue in this tale. It also implies that in this tale, "seafarers" are people whose profession is to work in the great waters. The obvious difference between the two versions is that in the VE there appears something like a white tsotsita, a "ray of light" understood by the Rashbam ad loc. to mean spark. This phenomenon is said to appear ahead of the wave. In the HC that same phenomenon is described as being like a white tsits-ta , which is translated fringe. This fringe is said to appear at the wave's head.
74 In addition, my attention is drawn to two other, more subtle differences. The first subtle difference is that in both versions, RBH recounts what he heard from sailors. In the VE, he directly quotes the sailors using the personal pronoun "we". In the HC, he begins by referring to the sailors as "they," then abruptly shifts to "we" at the end. This adds some obscurity to the narrative. The second subtle difference is that the VE version contains the root HaZaH , which is used in reference to the spark's appearance while in the HC version this root does not appear. The root HaZaH is related to visions, which is why a prophet in Hebrew is sometimes called a HoZeH. Thus its use in these tales adds something of a visionary quality to them. The presence of the root HaZaH in a tale is not by itself sufficient ground for labeling it a vision since allegorists also used that same word in their tales. Nevertheless, when it fails to appear in one of the water tales, I think that is noteworthy, as I will discuss presently.
5-3b. W-1: Fact or Vision? It seems to me that the VE version and the HC version both imply that while the other tales in this collection have visionary elements or are entirely records of visions, this particular tale has no visionary content whatsoever. The HC accomplishes this by refraining from using the root HaZaH . The VE accomplishes this by conveying that RBH, the visionary, is not a protagonist of this tale but rather its narrator. Let me explain. The HC uses that curious shift between the third person plural, " they have sticks" and the first person plural, "And we strike it." This effectively breaks the narrative down into two parts. In the first part, RBH is recounting what sailors told him. In the second part he is sharing his own experiences of striking the fringe. The division of the tale into two narrative units is further emphasized by the placement of the second part of the narrative at the very end of the tale. The resulting impression is that RBH and his fellow passengers take part in the action. In contrast, the VE smoothes out the grammatical inconsistency and effectively turns the entire tale into a direct quote of the sailors' words, using only the first person plural, "we." The VE also places the phrase "we strike it" in the middle of the tale. This removes the possibility that RBH actually took part in the action. If as I propose, RBH was known to be a visionary, then editing him out of the action and making the entire tale a direct quote, implies there are no visions here. For this
75 reason the VE version can allow itself to use the root HaZaH, howbeit in a passive construct "is seen." I think the HC version concurs with the VE in this tale's non-visionary quality. They agree that this tale recounts an actual event. This may explain why the HC version refrains from using the key root HaZaH while the VE version, making use of the root HaZaH , takes RBH out of the action. Why does the VE version include the root HaZaH at all? I believe it is to convey that the spark/fringe is insubstantial and ghostlike, even if it is objectively real.
5-3c. A Factual Apparition Undeniably, there is nothing unrealistic about sighting ghostly lights at sea. There is a well known phenomenon called St. Elmo's Fire which appears during severe storms, when enough energy is available to excite air molecules into luminosity. St. Elmo's Fire was considered "a good sign" by ancient mariners who referred to it as Helena or Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux are "the two brightest stars in Gemini: [it is] not surprising that the phenomenon would be named after stars of high marine navigational significance." Indeed, sailors considered these appearances to be manifestations of heavenly " stars ," which sometimes settled "not only upon the masts and other parts of the ships, but also upon men's heads." Later, Christians called it St. Elmo's Fire after St. Erasmus, who was the patron Saint of sailors. The sailors "took it to be a sign of St. Elmo appearing to them." It can appear in many forms; "fireworks, jets, stars, corona, streams, or sparking."8 This might explain the difference between the VE and the HC about the form of the phenomenon mentioned by the sailors. St Elmo's Fire comes in many shapes, and might have appeared to some like a spark, and to others like a fringe.
5-3d. The Evil Omen It is obvious that in our tale, St Elmo's Fire is seen as something evil, which the Rashbam, ad loc. refers to as a destructive angel or a malevolent spirit of the wave that seeks to sink the ship. It is certainly not a good omen. This can be explained when we recall that we are dealing with Jewish seafarers. As Jan Assmann has shown in his book, Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism , that Judaism of
76 ancient times was "a counter-religion"(7).9 Many of Judaism's basic practices can be viewed as forms of "normative inversion" which consists of inverting the values of the surrounding culture, "inverting the abominations of the other culture into obligations and vice versa" (31), turning good into evil and evil into good, in an effort to distance itself from the surrounding society. The origin of Judaism as a counter religion goes back to the negation of Egyptian polytheism at the time of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt. Judaism emerged through the exodus from Egypt by defining itself in diametric opposition to paganism. It may be that the luminescence which symbolizes to the pagan sailor that the heavenly guiding stars have descended to bring him to safety becomes to the Jewish sailor a sinister manifestation of evil. The Jewish sailor sees the luminous presence as the malevolent harbinger of a great submerging wave, of which he is afraid. Some of this fear of submerging and drowning may be an expression of the Jews' fear of assimilation in the wider pagan world, a fear of loosing their special status and relationship to God, who never becomes visible. The notion that the oncoming wave is symbolic of non-Jewish society which poses a threat to Jewish identity is proposed by the Maharsha, ad loc . and reiterated by Glick (136 n 1) and by Eisenstein (19). I propose the Jewish sea voyager employs a kind of Jewish magic against the oncoming wave. He re-enacts the story of the exodus in which Egypt is subdued by the staff of Moses, and in which the forever invisible God of Israel becomes known by the phrase E-heyeh asher E-heyeh , "I will be that which I will be." The ritual requires someone to strike St. Elmo's Fire with a stick, upon which are engraved the names of the one invisible G-d. This act re-establishes the Jew as separate and diametrically opposed to the allures of paganism and its comforting, visible and tangible images. If, as I have asserted, the phenomenon in question is Elmo's Fire, then it seems that in one aspect the VE is correcting a possible misconception. The HC text gives the impression that the luminescence is at the head of the wave, which may be understood as being at the top of the wave.10 However, St Elmo's Fire does not appear on the wave but on board the ship. Therefore, the VE clarifies that the luminescence appears ahead of the wave (in advance of it) and not at the top of it, as the Rashbam notes. We need not conclude that the HC disagrees about the location of the luminescence, for in fact the
77 phrase at its head may mean that the luminescence behaves like a commander striding at the head of his army, in advance of it, but not above it.
5-3e. Summary Let me summarize my interpretation of tale W-1. Despite the visionary quality of the tales, this initial tale is not a vision. Rather it is a description of the phenomenon of St Elmo's Fire. This was considered a malevolent force, a harbinger of an oncoming wave that would sink the ship. Jewish sailors or passengers would make use of a magic ritual to subdue St Elmo's fire and the oncoming wave. The ritual itself is a re-enactment of the exodus from Egypt, which established monotheistic Judaism as a counter religion to polytheistic paganism. Likewise, the ritual re-establishes the idea of Jewish uniqueness in the face of non-Jewish culture, and thus the ritual is perceived defeating the wave. Even though this tale is not a record of a vision, it is a necessary forerunner to the other tales, especially to tale W-2, as it provides the notion that a society can be seen as a wave. In addition it sets the stage for W-2 by introducing the notion that waves and stars are connected, since St Elmo's fire was thought of as a guiding star made manifest. The Maharsha similarly notes the centrality of the notions that society can be symbolized as a wave and that waves are connected to guiding stars.11 He also connects the wave in W-1 with Egypt and the waves in W-2 with Greece and Rome. However, unlike the Maharsha, I don’t think this tale is an allegory. Nor is it a vision like the other water tales. It is a matter of fact and a description of real events. Nevertheless, since there is a sense of magic and mystery about it, it fits in well with the other water tales.
5-4. Tale W-2 In the VE this tale appears as follows: אמר רבה אשתעו לי נחותי ימא בין גלא לגלא תלת מאה פרסי ורומא דגלא תלת מאה פרסי זמנא חדא הוה אזלינן באורחא ודלינן גלא עד דחזינן בי מרבעתיה דכוכבא זוטא והויה לי כמבזר ארבעין גריוי בזרא דחרדלא ואי דלינן טפי הוה מקלינן מהבליה ורמי גלא קלא לחברתה חבירתי שבקת מיד י בעלמא דלא שטפתיה דניתי אנא ונאבדיה אמר לה פוק חזי גבורתא דמריך מלא חוטא חלא ולא עברי שנאמר האותי לא תיראו נאום ה ' אם מפני לא תחילו אשר שמתי חול גבול לים חוק עולם ולא יעברנו
78 Said Rabbah: Seafarers told me between (one) wave to (another) wave, are three hundred parsangs and the height of a wave is three hundred parsangs. One time we were going on the way and a wave lifted us up until we saw the underside of a small star, and it seemed to me (huge) like a scattering place of forty measures of mustard seeds, and if it had lifted us higher we would have been burnt up by its heat. And one wave cast a voice to her friend, "My friend did you leave anything in the world which you didn't flood, that I will come and obliterate it?" She said to her, "Go out and see the might of your master, a thread width of sand and I cannot pass" As it says "Do you not fear me, says Hashem, do you not tremble before me, who has set the sand a boundary for the sea, an eternal statute and it (the sea) will not cross it."
In the HC this tale appears as follows: אמר רבה אשתעו לי נחותי ימא בין גלא לגלא תלת מאה פרסי רומיה דגלא תלת מאה פרסי זמנה חדא דלינן גלא וחזיתיה בי מרבעתיה דכוכבא והוה כי מבזר ארבעי גריוי דחרדלא ואי דלי לן טפי הוה קלי לן מהבלא רמא ליה גלא קלא לחבריה מישבקת מידי בעלמא דלא חריבתיה אמר ליה תא חזי גב ורתיה דמריך דאפילו כמלא חוטא דחרדלא לא עברי שנאמר האותי לא תיראו נאום י - י -
Said Rabbah: Seafarers told me between (one) wave to (another) wave are three hundred parsangs. Its height of the wave is three hundred parsangs. One time a wave lifted us up and I saw it in the underside of a star and it was (huge) like a scattering place of forty measures of mustard and if it had lifted us higher it would have burned us with heat. One wave cast a voice to his friend "did you leave anything in the world that you didn't destroy?" He said to him "come see the might of your master that even the width of a string of mustard (seeds) I did not pass, as it says "'Do you not fear me says Hashem?'"
5-4a. Textual Issues Before proceeding with the differences between the VE and the HC versions, I make note of a phrase which has caused problems for the tale's translators. In this tale RBH is lifted up until he can see the underside of a small star . Literally translated, the Aramaic both in the VE and the HC reads, the crouching place of a star. This is an obscure phrase, as what exactly is a star's crouching place? Both Neusner (48) and Slotki (289) translate the phrase as the "resting place" of a star which could easily refer to the place where the star crouches when it rests. This is problematic because it is not the
79 resting place of the star that gives off heat, but the star itself. The Rashbam thinks of the crouching place of a small star to mean the neighborhood of a small star . Eisenstein, following the Rashbam, translates the phrase as "the locus" of a group of stars (22). He thinks of the crouching place as a small area of sky where a cluster of stars are located. This at least explains why that place should be hot, as it actually contains stars. However, in Rabbi Glick's translation of Ibn-Chabib's En Jacob , he renders the phrase as "the basis" of a star (136). I think he means the star's bottom or underside, and if I understand him correctly, I concur for the following reason. The Aramaic, as translated by Marcus Jastrow, literally means crouching place , or "the resting place" and is a phrase most suited in reference to animals (II, 66). However, I would also like to suggest that it may refer to the part of the body upon which the animal crouches, its underside. A support for this may be found in tale W-4 where RBH/RBBH gives the measurements of the length of the new born fawn's neck and the size of its head's resting place . In that context it seems to me more reasonable that RBH/RBBH wants to measure the underside of the fawn's head, rather than some spot of ground where the fawn habitually rests its head. Now, if we transfer this word from the animal sphere to the heavenly sphere, the resting place of a star may simply be a way of saying its underside. Thus, in my translation, I render "the resting place" of the star as the underside . At first I found the notion of a star having an underside puzzling, since I assume it to be self evident that stars are spherical. If so a star may have a bottom point but no underside. When considering this more carefully, I realize this is my problem and not RBH's, who may have considered stars as multifaceted, like gems set into the sky.12 The underside of a star would then be the star's flat surface that shines directly down on the earth. The HC seems to suggest this when it says, One time a wave lifted us up and I saw it in the underside of a star .13 This obscure phrase becomes clear when we consider that the underside of a star might be a polished and reflective surface like the facet of a gem. In this surface, RBH looks up to the star and sees "it"--the wave--reflected back towards him. Turning our attention to the phrase a scattering place of forty measures of mustard seeds, it should be noted that in Talmudic times, land surface was measured by the amount of grain one could plant in it. A standard unit of measurement was the bet
80 seah , an area in which one could plant a seah of grain (Mishna, Sheviit, 1:2). The Rashbam likewise understands that the scattering place of forty measures of mustard seed is meant as a measure of surface space. Since mustard seeds are very small, forty measures of them comprise a vast number, requiring a huge amount of surface space in which to plant them. 14 Now, turning to the differences between the VE and the HC versions of this tale, I note the following. Firstly, the VE includes the phrase, One time we were going on the way . This phrase sounds like the beginning of a new narration and creates the impression that RBH first heard sailors telling tales of the giant waves before subsequently having a vision of being lifted up towards the star. This divides the narrative into two sections. In the first, RBH recounts what sailors told him and in the second, he tells of his own experiences. In contrast, in the HC one might well understand that the entire tale is RBH directly quoting the sailor's words if not for the sudden shift from the first person plural pronoun us to the first person singular pronoun I. This shift takes place when RBH states, One time a wave lifted us up and I saw it in the underside of a star . Only at that moment do we know for certain that Rabbah is telling his own experiences and not just recounting what he heard from sailors. Secondly, the VE emphasizes that this star was a mere small one, which by implication expands the proportions of regular size stars to even more extreme dimensions. In the HC, RBH sees the wave reflected in the star overhead. It is the surface area of the wave that is so huge that one could plant there forty measures of mustard seed. The size of the star is not being measured. This explains why the HC does not bother mentioning the relative size of the star as it is beside the point. Thirdly, in the VE the waves are female while in the HC they are male. This is not noticeable in the English translation but is obvious in the Aramaic. And lastly, in the VE the scriptural reference is fully quoted and completely integrated into the tale. The wave says that she cannot cross the boundary of sand that separates the sea and the dry land. The verse from scripture supports the notion that the sand, however weak and unstable, serves as a barrier ordained by G-d to hold back the sea. However, in the HC the scriptural reference is only partly quoted and less integrated into the tale. The wave does not mention sand at all. The wave simply states that he could not cross the boundary of
81 the width of a string or line of mustard (seeds). The HC is making a point of continuing the motif of the mustard seeds through to the end. Otherwise, it seems less thought out, and this may indicate that the VE is the more redacted version.
5-4b. Dividing Between Vision and Reality I previously discussed how the VE shows a greater concern with differentiating between realistic events and visionary experience. The additional phrase, One time we were going on the way , as it appears in W-2 in the VE, is a signal that differentiates between RBH's report of what the sailors told him and the recounting of his own visionary experience. It indicates that what RBH is about to recount concerning the wave and the star is actually the record of a vision, as I now show. Going on the way implies traveling on land which has roads and trails. In contrast, when referring to sea voyages the water tales use the phrase, One time we were going in a ship , as in tales W-6 to W-9. This means RBH was walking on land when the wave lifted him up. The question is obvious. If he is on dry land then how could the wave get there? Neusner avoids this difficulty by translating this phrase as, "Once, when we were on a voyage" (48) which leaves open the possibility that it was a sea voyage after all. Glick is even more extreme, translating it as "It once happened that I was on a boat" (136). Eisenstein translates the phrase as, "At one time we walked by the surf" (22) which I imagine, is supposed to explain how RBH could have been walking on land and was lifted by a wave at the same time. However, I believe the obvious and satisfying explanation is that RBH was walking on dry land when his vision of being lifted by the wave, overtook him. Thus it seems that the VE, by adding the introductory statement, One time we were going on the way , provides a dividing line between objective ordinary experience which includes RBH's listening to sailors' tales and the intrusion of the visionary experience of the wave and the star. The HC does not use any introductory statement to RBH's visionary experience, nor does it emphasize the distinction between it and the sailors' tales.
82 5-4c. Babylonian Jewry, Waves and Ziggurats After having compared and discussed some of the difficulties found in the two versions of this tale, I now attempt to interpret it. Based upon my reading of W-1 in HC, I understand that RBH had occasion to travel on sea voyages and that he was on familiar terms with sailors. Undoubtedly, some of these sailors must have delighted in telling tall tales and RBH may have been an appreciative listener. Sailors told him a tale of amazing waves, how between one wave and the next are three hundred parsangs and each wave reaches to a height of three hundred parsangs. My understanding of the phrase, Between (one) wave to (another) wave are three hundred parsangs, is that between the crest of one wave to the crest of the next wave are three hundred parsangs. This means that each wave can be thought of as a triangular pyramid shape whose base is equal in width to its height. At this point the tale of the waves is nothing more than an entertaining tall tale and there is no reason to assume that RBH took them seriously, as waves, cannot be measured in this manner, obviously. Nevertheless, the image of the waves continues to resonate in RBH's heart and mind as he contemplates issues which are of importance to him. What is RBH contemplating? Let us imagine that he is contemplating the phenomena of Babylonian Jewry growing in new directions and forging new institutions, independently of and in defiance of Jewry in the Land of Israel. RBH is critical of this process. His opponents argue that there is nothing wrong with having their own independent society in Babylon. RBH may be strolling around a busy city of Babylon and cannot help but notice the remains of massive, pyramidal shaped temples called ziggurats. 15 Suddenly a vision breaks through, and RBH finds himself riding an immense triangular pyramid shaped wave into the sky, in the direction of a star. RBH, using his previous experience with St. Elmo's Fire as the key to understanding the vision, now comprehends how a wave rising out of the ocean may serve as a symbol for a society, and how the geographic location provides the portal through which that society receives its vitality and its concepts. Recognizing that a society is always intimately enmeshed in its location, RBH now understands the importance of the Land of Israel for Jewish society and that a society does not exist in a vacuum but by absorbing energy from Nature. Thus
83 a Jewish society must draw its sustenance and energy from the Land of Israel since an independent Jewish society in Babylon must then be necessarily inauthentic. The dimensions of the waves are especially significant. In my assessment the core number is just three. Its multiplication by one hundred is a result of the mathematical expansion of the quantities which is an integral aspect of how the tales function, and whose significance I have already explained at the end of chapter three. Taking a clue from the days of the week, it appears that three is half of the workday week which consists of six days. The seventh day is Shabbat. If we think of the week as a time line from past to future, each week has six days for working and moving forward. However, if we think of the week as a cycle then it appears that the first three days move away from Shabbat, while the last three days reverse the process and return to Shabbat. The implication for this tale is that the wave, which arises out of the sea, must by necessity return to it. The number three thus represents the wave's farthest reaching point. Similarly, society which arises out of Nature must of necessity return to Nature. The statement that the base of the wave is equal to its height indicates that the yearning to reach upward is equal to the yearning to return to the sea. This takes us back to Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle where we find that the instinct for self preservation is counterbalanced by an opposing death instinct such that the tension between the two endeavors to "cancel itself out" (32). The wave completes a cycle of rising and falling. Since Nature is original womb, it may be appropriate to say that the wave never actually escapes the womb, it just rises only to fall back down. This may account for the feminine gender of the waves in the VE text. The male gender of the waves in the HC text will be interpreted later on.
5-4d. The Problems with Visions is that… The initial import of the vision of society as a wave provides support for RBH's loyalty to the Land of Israel. As I noted previously, the mathematization of the images in the tales implies a basic congruence and similarity between things great and small. Thus, the wave which lifts RBH up may symbolize Babylonian society while referring to the much smaller wave of Babylonian Jewish society as well.
84 However, since the vision is spontaneous, it goes off in a direction that RBH may not have anticipated. The vision shows RBH two waves. Now if the first wave symbolizes both the larger Babylonian society as well as its smaller Jewish counterpart, then it stands to reason that the second wave stands for the Roman Empire, which had dominion over the Land of Israel. As I now hope to explain, the vision of society as a wave rising towards a star critiques a certain type of society. This critique may be applicable both to Babylon and Rome as well as to any Jewish society. Regardless of what RBH's personal agenda, his vision may be universally applicable.
5-4e. The Wave, the Star, the Double and the Ideal The wave is focused on a heavenly star, an ideal point which it strives to but does not succeed in reaching. I take this to mean that society not only draws its energy and defining concept from Nature, but also strives to keep that energy and concept from returning back to its source. Society projects its defining concept upward, turning it into a supposedly timeless ideal. Society will be involved in struggling towards its ideal, but never reaching it. This is reminiscent of Freud's discussion of the double in his article, "The Uncanny" 16 where he discusses the "phenomenon of the 'double'" as being an aspect of the individual psyche. He claims that the self has the capacity for "doubling, dividing and interchanging" (234). In dreams and myths the double is associated with "reflections in mirrors, with shadows, with the belief in a soul and with the fear of death" (235). The double acts "as a preservation against extinction" (141) emerging out of the desire to overcome the self's annihilation in death. Similarly, the wave and the star are composed of the same energy. However, some amount of that energy is projected upward into an ideal reflection. Referring back to the HC, I find it significant that the wave is actually reflected in the underside of the star. The star is merely the idealized reflection of the society's own self concept. The splitting and doubling of psychic energy may stabilize a society over time. Nevertheless, remembering that Nature is not bound by concepts of time, we may understand that from Nature's point of view the wave rises and falls almost instantaneously. Society, in RBH's vision, maintains itself by striving towards the ideal, but not reaching it. The society may do this by sacrificing its individual persons, their happiness
85 and lives, in the forever unfulfilled quest to unite with its ideal and individual persons may participate in this act of sacrifice because they believe in its reality. However, according to the vision, they are unaware that the ideal is just a reflection. The individual member of a society is caught up in the wave, so he/she is quite unawares of what is really going on. I believe the sacrifice of individual selves upon the altar of an unattainable ideal is what is meant by the scattering of forty measures of mustard seeds. The Hebrew word for seeds , zera' , also means semen, and mustard , being a hot seed, would seem to connect to the notion of sexual arousal. The tiny mustard seeds are antithetical to the huge proportions of the wave. From the point of view of the wave or a society, individual selves are just a vast quantity of insignificant little seeds to be scattered at will. The sacrifice of individual persons to further the goal of society's self preservation appears as a kind of masturbation, as a vast spilling of seed. The number forty may be related to the years the Israelites' sojourned in the desert, and during which the entire generation of Israelites died out and their scattered dead were left buried all across the desert. This would explain why in the HC the waves are males, as they are the ones who masturbate and spill seed. The number forty may be connected in a different way as well. The sages had the understanding that it takes forty days for an embryo to come into being in the womb (Mishna, Niddah, 3:7). The number forty may thus relate to the entire phenomenon of intrauterine life. However, in this tale the reference to new life in the womb seems misplaced. The seeds are being scattered not in the nurturing earth, but upon the hard burning surface of the star, where they could never take root. This seems to me to be indicative of how human life is wasted in the vain pursuit of unreachable goals.
5-4f. Fire, Urination and the Origins of Society A deeper understanding of the relationship between the wave, the mustard seeds and the heat of the star can be formulated based upon Freud's hypothesis concerning the symbolic relationship between the development of society, the acquisition of fire and urination. Freud, in his Civilization and Its Discontents believes that if:
86 we go back far enough, we find that the first acts of civilization were the use of tools, the gaining of power over fire and the construction of dwellings. Among these, the acquisition of power over fire stands out as a quite exceptional achievement, without a prototype. (778)
In his lecture "The Acquisition and Control of Fire," Freud theorizes about the origin of this human feat. He proposes that
in order to gain control over fire, men had to renounce the homosexually-tinged desire to put it out with a stream of urine. (187) He believes that primitive man was bound to regard fire as something analogous to the passion of love…[and that] warmth that is radiated by fire calls up the same sensation that accompanies a state of sexual excitation, and the shape and movements of a flame suggest a phallus in activity…[He further asserts] that to primal man the attempt to quench fire with his own water had the meaning of a pleasurable struggle with another phallus. (190)
Returning to Civilization and Its Discontents , there Freud opines that it is as if primitive man had had the impulse, when he came in contact with fire, to gratify an infantile pleasure in respect of it and put it out with a stream of urine. (778n)
There is Talmudic evidence that in the minds of the sages, urination, sex and fire are linked concepts. The Bavli, Niddah, 13a, relates that according to Rabbi Eliezer "whoever holds his penis while he urinates is considered as if he has brought a deluge to the world" [translation mine], because it might lead to masturbation. The text goes on to explain the importance of urinating in such a way that drops of urine not splatter on one's feet. Such drops of urine are called nitsotsot or sparks . The prohibition against holding or fondling one's penis while urinating serves to disconnect the act of urination from the feelings of sexual arousal, which would otherwise tend to co-mingle. The dire consequence of such a co-mingling of urinary and sexual feelings is nothing less than a great destructive flood. That sex and urination are connected somehow to fire is indicated by the fact that splattering urine is referred to as sparks . Let me explain.
87 The acquisition of fire is the moment of human society's emergence from the undifferentiated flow of nature. Prior to this moment, instinctual or natural desires which Freud called libido, are routed right back into nature. This is carried out by urinating on fire as a form of sexual gratification. As I see it, fire, apart from its unparalleled usefulness in civilization, may also symbolize the yearning to reach upward, as in the biblical story in Judges 13:20 of an angel who rises to heaven in a sacrificial flame. The extinguishing of fire with the flow of urine would them imply the avoidance of social evolution and the routing of energy back into Nature. When humans stopped urinating onto fire, this signified that they were ready to begin channeling energy into the creating of civilization. Libido is then felt as a creative and procreative force, while urination largely looses its erotic quality and becomes a necessary bodily function. From that point on, sex and urination are perceived as different urges. Thus Rabbi Eliezer admonishes the individual male not to hold his penis while urinating. It is forbidden to re-establish the original connection between sexual desire and urination since this implies a regression to the original archaic natural state. Since Nature in rabbinic thought is symbolized by the ocean, such a regression is thought of as drowning, or bringing a deluge to the world. In RBH's vision of the wave and the star we have an echo of the original yearning to urinate on fire. Thus the wave (society), strives to reach the hot star (the ideal). But since society is based upon the renouncing of that desire, the star must always remain beyond the wave's reach.
5-4g. Rabbah Bar Hannah's Criticism of the Split The vision has gone far beyond RBH's original motivation. Not only is the vision critical of Babylonian Jewry's program for achieving independence from the Land of Israel, it is also critical of society's belief in abstract ideals. Such ideals are inauthentic because they are actually projections or doubles of the society's own self-concepts and because individuals are sacrificed on behalf of such ideals. I think it likely that this criticism may have reflected RBH's own view of how his cousin Rav, was being transformed into a larger than life authority figure, perhaps so far beyond the realm of ordinary humans that he no longer needed a personal name. However, having reached
88 this point, it seems possible that Jewry of the Land of Israel was itself not immune to this criticism. After all, a society based upon abstract ideals and dominated by a larger than life authority figure may exist in the Land of Israel too. An authentic Jewish society, be it in the Land of Israel or anywhere else, would realize that self concepts, be they societal or individual, draw from a common source in Nature and the underlying unity of Nature reflects the unity of G-d. For this reason an authentic Jewish society would foster dialogue between concepts that appear contradictory and not permit a serious split between communities to develop. As I show in my interpretation of W-3, RBH's vision seems to express, among other things, the hope of restoring the sense of unity between the Jewish communities of the Land of Israel and in Babylon, and in showing the unity of the Torah of the Land of Israel and the Torah of Babylon. Such thoughts may have been present in RBH's mind and influenced his visions, just as dreams are influenced by the dreamer's waking experiences as Freud notes "the multifarious waking thought-activities…[and] the importance of the part played by them in the process of constructing dreams" (1998, 603).
5-4h. The Dry Land and Mustard Seed The last motif of the tale is the theme of the dry land and how the waves are unable to cross the boundary between the sea and the land. Let us return to our basic interpretive insight. A society is a wave. To some extent, the individuals of whom a society is comprised are unaware and unconscious of how their society rises out of Nature, and how it perpetuates itself over time. Being a part of the wave means being unaware of it. Nevertheless, there is always some amount of awareness on the individual level. As I noted previously in chapter three, dry land symbolizes the space where differentiated human awareness can exist. Within that space, concepts arising from Nature can evolve and develop in new directions. In RBH's vision we are shown that this space, the Dry Land, is an independently existing dimension directly ordained by G-d. Even if there were no independent selves inhabiting this Dry Land, this dimension exists on its own and waits for that self to awaken. If there were no such reality as the Dry Land, then an individual would never be able to stand outside that societal wave and know it for what it is. RBH's vision shows him precisely this: that an individual human
89 self can know the nature of his/her society and to some extent can also stand outside it independently. The VE and the HC explore different aspects of the relationship between Nature and the dimension of Dry Land. The VE is concerned with the objective boundary that divides the two dimensions. In the vision's imagery, the boundary is made of sand, just a thread's width of sand . I believe this implies the boundary has no specific shape. Like sand, it is always shifting and drifting. To explain, let me draw a parallel from a common fact of life, the difference between waking and sleeping. The boundary between these states is always shifting. Sometimes I sleep during the day, or stay awake all night. Sometimes I can fall asleep while standing up. I can certainly lie in bed wide awake. The boundary between sleep and wakefulness is always shifting. But the states of sleep and wakefulness remain different because they are different modes of awareness. No one state can wipe out the other. If I choose to stay awake for a long time, this doesn’t mean that I have eliminated the sleeping state from my life. It only means that I am now awake. If sleep overtakes me unexpectedly, that does not mean that wakefulness has been wiped out. It simply means that now I am not awake. In this way the VE envisions Nature and Dry Land, as eternally separate dimensions with a shifting and somewhat fluid boundary between them. What separates the two is the inherent difference between them. The HC version is not concerned with the objective contours of the boundary, but rather with how that boundary is experienced by people. The wave says that it could not pass over the boundary by even the width of a string of mustard (seeds). Remember that mustard seeds symbolize individual people, especially as they are still embedded in their society. Such individuals are partially aware yet also unaware, of many things about the society in which they live. One might say that these individuals themselves exist on the dividing line between Nature and Dry Land. So this line that divides the sea from the dry land has the width of a mustard seed. One might say that the greater the independent insight achieved by the individual, the more that individual stands inland. However, since the individual self can never achieve total self knowledge, one will always find oneself back on the boundary, existing side by side with the dictates of society.
90 5-4i. W-1 and W-2, or is it W2 and W-1? The final part of my interpretation of this tale consists of explaining the change in its order as it appears in both the VE and the HC. As a reminder, in the VE tale W-1 comes first and tale W-2 follows. In the HC the order is reversed, with tale W-2 preceding tale W-1. In light of my interpretation, it seems proper for tale W-2 to come first as it does in the HC. Tale W-2 is the first of RBH's visions while tale W-1 should be considered a commentary to tale W-2. Furthermore, tale W-2 encapsulates RBH's criticism of Babylonian Jewry's break with the Land of Israel. The unity which should have existed between the two communities and rooted in the basic unity of Nature is lost. The critique of the two Jewish societies is echoed in the juxtaposition of tale W-2 with the Talmudic discussion of the butsit and dugit. Since I have already expressed my opinion that the HC was redacted before the VE, I believe the redactor of the VE makes the choice to switch the order of tales W-1 and W-2, moving W-1 into the lead position. At first glance this is not an unreasonable move. Quite possibly RBH's voyage in W-1 precedes and helps germinate his vision in W-2. Furthermore, the destructive wave in W-1 symbolically connects in the sailors' minds to Egyptian society at the time of the exodus, while the waves in W-2 connect in the vision to contemporary empires, thus the ordering of W-1 and then W-2 makes sense chronologically. However, there is a darker side to this choice as well. In W-1 the wave symbolizes a non-Jewish society, while the ship symbolizes Jewish society. If this thematic connection is carried over by the reader into W-2, then RBH's criticism of Jewish society both in Babylon and the Land of Israel goes unnoticed, since the waves are automatically assumed to refer only to non-Jewish societies.17 So here we find the redactor acting to further repress and obscure RBH's anger and criticism toward the Jewish societies of his day.
5-4j. Summary To summarize my reading of this tale: A society can be viewed as a wave rising out of Nature. To maintain itself over time, society projects a part of its energy into the form of an ideal, which it can always strive for but never attain. Such a society sacrifices the lives of its individuals in the pursuit of that supposed ideal. All societies, both non-
91 Jewish and Jewish, are prone to this inauthentic form. However, there exists a dimension called Dry Land where an individual self may become separated to some extent, from the societal wave, thus becoming more aware of society's true character and its dependence upon Nature. While individual selves may or may not emerge into the dimension of Dry Land, that dimension is always present and waiting. The Dry Land exists on its own, by Divine will. It is essentially different from Nature, and therefore its boundary can never be crossed by any wave, no matter how high or mighty.
5-5. Tale W-3 In the VE this tale appears as follows: אמר רבה לדידי חזי לי הורמין בר לילית כי קא רהיט אקופיא דשורא דמחוזא ורהיט פרשא כי רכיב חיותא מתתאיה ולא יכיל ליה זמנא חדא הוה מסרגאן ליה תרתי כודנייתי וקיימן אתרי גישרי דרוגנג ושואר מהאי להאי ומהי להאי ונקיט תרי מיזגי דחמרא בידיה ומוריק מהי להאי ומהי להאי ולא נטפא ניטופתא לארעא ואותו היום יעלו שמים ירדו תהומות הוה עד דשמעו בי מלכותא וקטלוהו
Said Rabbah: I personally saw Hurmin the Demon as he was running on the spikes of the wall of Mehoza. A horseman was running as he was riding on his animal below him and he could not overtake him. One time they were saddling for him two mules and they stood on two bridges of the Rognag and he jumped from this one to that one and from that one to this one. He held two goblets of wine in his hands and he poured from this one to that one and from that one to this one and no drop dropped to the ground. That day was 'they go up to heaven they go down to the depths' until they heard about it in the house of government and they killed him.
In the HC this tale appears as follows.
ואמר רבא לדידי חזי לי הורמיז בר לילואתא דהוה קא משואר אקובנאה דמחוזא ורהיט פרשא בי רכבי סוסיא מתתאי ולא יכיל ליה זימנה חדא סרגי ליה תרתי כודניאתא אתרי גשרי דאגנג ושוור מהאי ל האי ומהאי להאי ונקיט תרי מזגי מיא בידיה ושפיך מהאי להאי ומהאי להאי ולא נטף נטופתא מיניהו וההוא יומא יעלו שמים ירדו תהומות שמע מלכותא עילוה וקטעתיה
And said Rabba: I personally saw Hurmiz the Acrobat who was hopping on the fortifications of Mehoza and a horseman was running in a horse chariot below him and he could not overtake him. One time they saddled for him two mules on two bridges of the Ognag, and he jumped from this one to that one and from that
92 one to this one. He held two goblets of water in his hand and he poured from this one to that one and from that one to this one and no drop dropped from them. That day [was] 'they go up to heaven they go down to the depths'. The government heard about him and they amputated him.
5-5a. Textual Issues I will focus on three differences between the VE and the HC versions of this tale. The first difference is the name of the protagonist whom RBH sees. In the VE he is called Hurmin the Demon and in the HC he is called Hurmiz the Acrobat. The second difference relates to the scriptural reference, "'they go up to heaven they go down to the depths'," which is taken from Psalms 107:26.18 This verse intrudes suddenly and seems disconnected from the narrative action. The various translators have addressed this problem in numerous ways, as I will discuss later. In the VE, the narrative leads into the verse with the Hebrew words ve'oto hayom meaning, That day . Now in the previous tale, W-2, the entire narration was uniformly Aramaic, switching to Hebrew only when the scriptural verse was quoted. Here, the switch to Hebrew seems to take place prematurely, since the phrase, That day is part of the action, not part of the verse. In contrast, the HC leads into the verse but with the Aramaic words vehahu yoma . The third difference refers to the government's treatment of our protagonist. In the VE the government kills him, while in the HC the government does not put him to death, but amputates his limbs. At this point I want to explain my translation of Hurmin the Demon. The VE text literally reads Hurmin the son of Lilith. The parallel phrase in the HC also uses the word "son of" in reference to the main protagonist, calling him literally, "Hurmiz son of the Acrobat." I doubt the HC actually means to say that Hurmiz was the son of an acrobat. It is more likely saying that he, himself, was an acrobat. Indeed in both Hebrew and Aramaic the words "son of" do not necessarily refer to one's parentage but are also used to indicate one's personal status. Therefore, a son of Adam is actually a human being . Likewise, Hurmiz is not a son of an acrobat but an acrobat himself. If we follow this train of reasoning to the VE, then we can say that a son of Lilith may be someone similar in meaning to a son of Adam . This seems plausible because in some demonologies, Lilith is known as "Adam's first wife" who eventually becomes the mother of "demon children."19
93 Thus I conclude that the use of the phrase, Hurmin son of Lilith could be translated as Hurmin the Demon .
5-5b. Rabbah Bar Hannah and the Acrobat In my opinion, the VE's identification of the protagonist as a demon follows the pattern we have noted so far. It is concerned with establishing this tale as the record of a vision and should not be confused with events in ordinary reality. A demon is an immaterial being and as such, would have to appear in a vision. As for the HC, it agrees that RBH's tale is a record of a vision. How else could the acrobat have done such superhuman feats? But it is entirely possible that RBH's vision overtook him while he was watching a real acrobat performing on the fortifications of the city of Mehoza. Even in the vision the acrobat retains a human aspect. I consider it credible that Hurmiz the Acrobat symbolizes RBH himself. Freud supports this possibility by pointing out that
Dreams are completely egoistical. Whenever my own ego does not appear in the content of the dream, but only some extraneous person, I may safely assume that my own ego lies concealed, by identification, behind this other person. (1998, 358)
The opening description of Hurmiz leaping along the fortifications while a horseman pursues him unsuccessfully may be reflective of RBH's personal experiences and struggles. The chariot driver in control of his horses may be a symbol for the intellect or for a highly intellectual individual, perhaps his cousin Rav, who thinks of his body as a vehicle for the use of his mind. However, RBH, who understands how concepts arise from Nature, may see his body as a connecting point with nature and a source of wisdom in its own right. The horseman is the direct opposite of the Acrobat. The horseman focuses on controlling creatures external to him, while the acrobat has to know himself and his body intimately and have confidence in its natural wisdom. Thus the horseman may symbolize Rav in contrast to RBH who may be symbolized by the acrobat. RBH, who feels connected to Nature, sees himself rather self gratifyingly as Rav's superior in wisdom, leaping from one thought to another, while Rav unsuccessfully tries to keep up.
94 As I noted in my comments to W-2, RBH clings to the belief that there should be a single Jewish society that reflects the underlying unity of Nature as it is revealed in diverse concepts. This, too, finds expression in the acrobat's amazing feats of skill. While the Jewish societies of the Land of Israel go their separate ways, RBH remains involved in an intellectual leaping between the two Jewish societies, that of the Land of Israel and that of Babylon, whom he perceives as acting as stubbornly as mules. Rabbah is searching for the underlying unity of concepts, pouring his thoughts from one goblet to the next, demonstrating that behind the differing or contradictory concepts being developed in the two communities, there is a fundamental unity of essence. However, all this turns out badly for the Acrobat. The government amputates his limbs and thus ends his career. Translated into RBH's personal life this seems to reflect his marginalization and repression within the Babylonian Jewish community, which deprives him of his ability to make a meaningful impact. We thus find that the HC version retains the sense that the vision relates to RBH's personal life.
5-5c. The Demon of Light and Darkness While I believe this tale, especially as recorded in the HC, relates to the vicissitudes of RBH's life, I do not think it stops there. The desire to find a basic unity that underlies diverse and even contradictory concepts is a universal spiritual concern, which is reflected in this vision and particularly in the names Hurmin and Hurmiz . Feldman identifies these names as colloquial forms of the names of the dual deities of Persian Zoroastrianism: Ahriman, "god of earth, darkness, and evil" and Ahura-Mazda, "god of heaven, light, and good" (7). It is certainly odd to find Persian deities appearing in RBH's vision. The Gra, as presented by Feldman, believes the text should be read Hurmin , who being the bad deity, is fittingly labeled a demon. According to the Gra, Hurmin here symbolizes a human character type, the "complete hedonist, to whom the satisfaction of his senses and lusts is the ultimate and only goal of life" (10). In contrast, Eisenstein proposes that RBH is addressing "the question of dualism in the God-idea" and championing "the Jewish belief in one God" (28), which hold that God is the creator both of good and evil.
95 My own interpretation is as follows. Both the VE and the HC are essentially correct. Hurmin the Demon and Hurmiz the Acrobat are one and the same. Whichever single character appeared in RBH's vision be it Hurmin or Hurmiz, that character is an example of a symbol containing antithetical meanings. Hurmin includes Hurmiz and vice versa, so that what Rabbah actually saw in his vision was a being of dual aspects. This returns us to the previous tale of the waves. There we noted the tendency for psychic energy to split and double, and how the supposedly absolute ideals that govern a society emerge from that splitting of Nature's energy. Hurmin and Hurmiz taken together as a single unit represent the capacity for psychic energy to split and form a dichotomy between the instincts and passions of Nature on the one hand, and a seemingly abstract and absolute ideal on the other hand. When we put the characters of Hurmin the Demon and Hurmiz the Acrobat together, what emerges is a kind of a great, supernatural trickster. He is a demon in the sense that he is invisible to those within society. He is an acrobat in the sense that his actions appear to be supernatural, but are really quite natural. As Joseph L. Henderson points out,20 the "Trickster" is a central archetype in the mythologies of many cultures, possessing "semi-divine or semi-magical powers" (109). RBH's vision implies that at society's core one may find the trickster at work.
5-5d. The Trickster's Skill When Hurmin/Hurmiz is on the wall, he appears in the form of an abstract ideal, not because he is truly transcendent, but rather because Nature exists outside the constructs of Human awareness and is timeless. The intellect, striving to reach the supposed ideal, never attains it. The intellect, when experienced as something opposed to the body, is itself symptomatic of the artificial split within the natural energy the trickster creates. For this reason the intellect can never reach the ideal, which seems to get further away the harder the intellect seeks to grasp it. In addition to the primary dichotomy between natural instincts and passions on the one hand, and the supposedly abstract ideal on the other, society makes use of other dichotomies to maintain its structure. It divides between authority figures and the people who are governed. It categorizes some things as good, others as bad, some as desirable, and others as ugly. Some people are categorized as us while some are categorized as
96 other . Society also looks back in time and creates stories about its origins, and looks ahead in time to create expectations of its destiny. Society actually absorbs its vitality from its connection to nature in the present. This vision of tale W-3 shows the Trickster leaping back and forth between two bridges which span a river. Since a river flows forward, I believe this river may symbolize time which flows from past to future.21 The Trickster leaps back and forth between society's past and society's future, creating myths of that society's origins and prophecies of its destiny. At the same time he puts water or wine from one goblet to another. I believe this may symbolize the process through which a society is able to generate dichotomous notions needed to maintain social order.
5-5e. That Fateful Day The tale relates how that day was, "they went up to heaven they went down to the depths." This verse describes the travails of sailors caught in a storm, whose ship rises and falls with the waves. The meaning of this verse when placed in the context of the tale is interpreted by Eisenstein who claims the Trickster performed his feats faultlessly, "although the day was stormy, even as the Psalmist describes" (26). As for Slotki, his translation reads,
[Furthermore], it was [a stormy] day [such as that on which] they [that go down to the sea in ships] mounted up to the heaven; they went down to the deeps. (290)
The problem with this understanding of the text becomes evident when we note the number of words that need to be inserted to make the text intelligible. While often in Talmudic texts there are things implied but unsaid, I think the text of the tale is being loaded rather heavily with insertions. Following the others, Neusner translates: It was a stormy day : 'they that go down to the sea in ships mounted up to heaven, they went down to the deeps'. (48)
Neusner not only adds the words "that go down to the sea in ships" to the text without the courtesy of brackets, he extracts these words from verse 23, adding them to the directly quoted fragment of verse 26 which is quoted in the tale.
97 In my own approach to this part of the tale I will begin by focusing on the introductory words to the verse from Psalms, "That day." These words appearing in the HC are the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew phrase, hayom hahu. This phrase is rich with allusion, connecting to the prophetic theme of the "day of the L ORD " in Zechariah 14:1. The prophet relates in verses 7-9:
And there shall be one day Which shall be known as the L ORD'S , Not day, and not night; … In that day shall the L ORD be One, and His name one .
That day will be a day of deliverance and judgment. Similarly, the Gra makes the connection between "That day" of RBH's vision and "the day when man is judged" (Feldman, 19). It is noteworthy that despite the associations with some future time at the end of days, RBH sees this day in the present. The Day of the Lord, which is neither night nor day, is a reality that resides outside of the dichotomous categories of society. To RBH, this day is Nature itself which is always present, like the Shabbat from which the week emerges and towards which it returns, as I explained in my comments to W-2. Now, in RBH's vision, this ever present day is not a transcendent reality. It is imminent and present on the most basic level of being. As I argued previously, Nature is timeless. From its perspective, the wave which rises falls immediately. The fact that society through splitting the psychic energy can freeze the wave that rises from Nature and create an extended historical time is irrelevant to Nature. "That day" when the wave collapses back into Nature is always present. The fact that this one day is not of a natural quality, is indicated by RBH's referring to the verse in an oblique way, and does not include any of the theological underpinnings of the original biblical verse. I also believe that the "government" mentioned in the tale, literally the kingdom, may be a reference to the unity of Nature, which does not allow society to maintain itself forever without returning to its source. On "That day" when the wave collapses back into the sea, the government kills the Trickster as in the VE version, which in this respect makes more sense than the HC version where his limbs are amputated. The collapse of the wave brings about the death of the Trickster, not just the end of his acrobatic activities. As a result, I think it fitting to say that as regards this tale, the HC
98 preserves the more personal element of RBH's vision, the sense that the Trickster is actually RBH himself, while the VE version preserves the more universal and prophetically visionary meaning that at the heart of society the Trickster may be at work. In the VE version the phrase "That day" is switched from Aramaic to Hebrew, and is given a subtle twist. Instead of switching vehahu yoma to hayom hahu with all the biblical allusions this phrase contains, it is switched to ve'oto hayom. This phrase does not carry the same kind of connotations as the Aramaic original and would seem to refer to just any day within the flow of history, an ordinary day which just happens to be the present. This certainly obscures the prophetic aspect of the vision and I must conclude that the redactor of the VE may have found this prophetic aspect too problematic to let it be, since he could not comfortably contemplate the collapse of Babylonian Jewry. By switching the words vehahu yoma to ve'oto hayom he mitigates and obscures the prophetic element of this tale. Once again we find the redactor of the VE editing the tales in such a way that removes the sting of RBH's criticism.
5-5f. Summary To summarize my interpretation of this tale, it can be read on two interconnected levels. On the first level, reflected more strongly by the HC version, Hurmiz the Acrobat symbolizes RBH, who believes that both Jewish societies of The Land of Israel and of Babylon, are rooted in the unity of Nature. As such, they should be working to compare and integrate their respective concepts in a way that reflects this unity of Nature, but instead, the two societies reject each other. Only RBH remains committed to finding the unity behind the diverse and seemingly contradictory concepts. RBH also sees himself as Rav's superior, because Rav seeks to lift his intellect away from his physical body and from Nature in order to grasp at ideals, while RBH sees his own intellect as intimately connected to his body and to the wisdom of Nature that flows through it. On the second level, the fact that RBH is grounded in the unity of nature permits him to see the artificiality of the dichotomous categories which result from the way society splits its energy. Dichotomies, such as the split between the natural or instinctual and the ideal, between the authority figure and the governed, between the desirable and the undesirable, between "us" and "them" all now appear as the work of a "Trickster,"
99 Hurmiz / Hurmin, who may now be thought of as RBH's antithetical double, since RBH is committed to restoring dichotomy to unity, while the Trickster fashions dichotomy out of unity. In any event, that day of society's collapse back into Nature is always present. Thus RBH's vision has a prophetic tone to it. That which rises from Nature, must necessarily return to it. On that day , the Trickster meets his end.
5-6. Tale W-4 In the VE this tale appears as follows: אמר רבה לדידי חזי לי אורזילא בר יומיה דהוה כהר תבור והר תבור כמה הוי ארבע פרסי ומשאכא דצואריה תלתא פרסי ובי מרבעתא דרישיה פרסא ופלגא רמא כופתא וסכר ליה לירדנא
Said Rabbah: I personally saw a newborn fawn that was like Mt. Tabor. And how big is Mt. Tabor? Four Parsangs. The length of his neck was three parsangs, and the underside of his head was a parsang and a half. It threw a dung-ball and dammed the Jordan.
In the HC this tale appears as follows:
אמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי לי אוזילא בר יומיה דהוה בהר תבור והר תבור כמה הוי ארבעין פרסי משכא דצואריה תלתא פרסי בי מרבעיה * דראימא * דרישיה פרסא ופלגא ורמא כפותא וסכריה לירדנא
Said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: I personally saw a newborn fawn that was in Mt. Tabor. And how big is Mt. Tabor? Forty parsangs. The length of his neck was three parsangs. The underside *of a pygarg* of his head was a parsang and a half, and it threw a dung- ball and dammed the Jordan.
An alternate version of this tale appears in the Bavli, Zevahim 113b. It begins like this:
והאמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזי לי אורזילא ד רימא בת יומא והוי כהר תבור ...
But did not Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah say? I personally saw the newborn fawn of the pygarg and it was like Mt. Tabor…. (from this point on it reads like the HC version quoted above. I will refer to this as the TZ version)
100 5-6a. Textual Issues The matter of the pygarg causes some confusion, so I will first clarify this matter. A pygarg is a kind of gazelle with two high horns thrusting out of its head. It appears in Deuteronomy 14:4 and is called a dishon in Hebrew. The Aramaic equivalent for this word can be found in Onkelos' Targum of that verse, where it is called rema .22 This name seems to be related to the notion of height and probably relates to the animal's tall horns. By the Talmudic period, the rema was considered an antediluvian beast of amazing proportions, so much so that the question of how the rema fit into Noah's ark arose in Rabbi Yohanan's study hall. W-4 is quoted in Rabbi Yohanan's discussion as proof that the rema was too gigantic for the ark, since even its newborn fawn was of immense proportions (Zevahim, 113a). This seems to indicate that RBBH was a student of Rabbi Yohanan's at the time. The dimensions of the rema are no problem for Rabbi Yohanan, who believes the deluge did not cover the Land of Israel. The rema and its entire family could have found refuge there. But to a biblical literalist who believes that every spot of dry land on the planet was covered with water, the gigantic rema is a problem. The ensuing conversation is really quite hilarious and I believe it can be taken as an example of Rabbi Yohanan making fun of both the biblical literalist as well as RBBH's vision. Rabbi Yohanan would thus be comparing the biblical literalist and the young visionary, as if to say that if one is going to approach scripture so un-realistically, one may just as well accept RBBH's tale as fact. Now try to get the rema into the Ark! In addition to the humor within the text, I believe there is a deeper level of significance to be found. We may have here an additional intimation of the Torah- centered point of view. As I explained previously, this viewpoint holds that everything in Nature is actually sustained by the Torah and that as a result, however powerful or grand Nature appears, it must eventually be absorbed and assimilated into the Torah. According to this view, the entry of the animals into the ark may be a symbol of Nature's acceptance of its dependency and indebtedness to the Torah.23 The rema appears in this discussion as a rebellious and prideful creature that will not be subservient to the Torah, and whose horns symbolize its arrogance. How then does it survive at all? It survives not in the merit of Torah study but rather in the merit of the Land of Israel. It appears that in Rabbi Yohanan's retelling of RBBH's tale, the rema appears as a proud and defiant animal, and
101 its horns symbolize its pride and defiance. While I have noted Rabbi Yohanan's antagonistic attitude towards visions in general, he may have tolerated this vision because it connects in his mind to the Torah-centered worldview. Now the copyist of the HC must have had the TZ version in mind when he was copying because he mistakenly wrote the words "of a pygarg" in his text instead of the words "of his head." Realizing his mistake immediately, he placed an obulus at the beginning of the word "pygarg" and again at the end, after which he corrected his mistake by simply continuing the text. Obviously, the copyist of the HC was experiencing a certain amount of tension, which I believe reveals something about the tension embedded in the text. Being that the fawn is viewed as the child of the rema , one might conclude that the HC text seeks to remove the rema from the tale, showing the fawn to be something other than its child. It is as if the fawn is pulled in two directions possibly because it is a condensed image, a point of contact for distinct and even contradictory spheres of experience. I hope to return to this point shortly. I will now turn to the comparison of the tale in the VE and the HC. The VE tells that the newborn fawn was like Mt. Tabor. The HC says that the fawn was in Mt. Tabor. Unfortunately, the difference in Hebrew and Aramaic between "like" and "in" is the difference between the letter Kaf (like) and the letter Bet (in), which are similarly shaped. The text of the HC is simply very hard to determine. I think the critical letter in my copy of the manuscript looks like a Bet , and so my translation reflects this. However, I would not want to attribute too much significance to my conclusion. This leaves two other differences which are noteworthy. The first, to which I have already referred, has to do with the originator of this tale. According to the VE version RBH is the teller of this tale. According to the HC it is RBBH. The second difference has to do with the dimensions of Mt. Tabor. According to the VE it is four parsangs and according to the HC and the TZ version, Mt. Tabor is forty parsangs.
5-6b. Arrogant or Misunderstood? I have already noted in chapter four what I believe is the personal angle of this vision. As a reminder, I believe this vision is a re-enactment of RBBH's rejection by Resh Lakish which took place at the shores of the Jordan River. This vision also tries to make
102 sense of this rejection, and sees it as a rite of passage through which RBBH becomes worthy of living in the Land of Israel. Hence the damming of the Jordan might directly relate to the Israelites' crossing of the Jordan River under Joshua's leadership. According to scripture, (Joshuah 3:16), the Jordan River was dammed up miraculously in order to allow the Israelites to cross on dry land (Maharsha, ad loc.) . RBBH was taken for an arrogant young student. The Gra makes the connection between the newborn fawn and the sin of arrogance. In his reading, the newborn fawn is "a student who has barely begun his studies ('one day old') yet who nevertheless fancies himself a mature Torah scholar" (Feldman, 50). This line of interpretation may be viewed as flowing from the TZ version of the tale, where the proud and arrogant fawn is the child of the rema . But in actuality, this perception of RBBH's supposed arrogance may have simply been a misunderstanding. So it is not surprising that in the HC an effort is expended to disconnect the fawn from the rema . But then, who is the fawn's parent?
5-6c. Fawn: Son of the Gazelle An answer to this question becomes apparent when we make note of how the image of the fawn is used in scripture. The Aramaic word for fawn, orzila , is the equivalent of the Hebrew word ofer . This word ofer takes us to The Song of Songs , where it appears in 7:4, and reads, "Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a gazelle." This description of the beloved's breasts is preceded by a description of her navel and belly in 7:3, which reads, "Thy navel is like a round goblet, Where in no mingled wine is wanting; Thy belly is like a heap of wheat Set about with lilies." This verse uses the obscure word shorer for "navel." However, in Hebrew the navel is more commonly called tabur , written with the letter tet , the sound of which is similar to the name of the mountain, Tabor, written with the letter tav . The image of the navel set in the center of the body, connects to the notions of intrauterine life and the Temple, which stood upon a sacred mountain and was thought of as the center of the world, or as Hasan- Rokem refers to it, the " axis mundi " (208). Let me explain and expand on these associations. The fawns mentioned in The Song of Songs are not children of the rema but of the gazelle which is tsevi in Hebrew. Tsevi also means desire , which is why the Land of Israel is called Erets Hatsevi in Daniel
103 11:16, or the desirable land.24 Thus in The Song of Songs , the beloved's breasts are like fawns, the twin children of desire, and exist to give love and sustenance. If the breasts are the twin children of desire, then they may well have an older sibling. Before the child is sustained by the breasts, the mother has sustained the child in her womb, through the umbilical cord that connects mother and child. The umbilical cord which is symbolized by the navel is the oldest child of the tsevi , the oldest expression of a mother's desire and love. Moving symbolically from the level of physiological anatomy to the anatomy of society as a whole, it may be said that the Temple, standing on the sacred mountain at the center of the world, is the umbilical cord through which energy and vitality flows.
5-6d. Waste and the Temple The fawn in RBBH's vision does only one thing in the course of the tale. It defecates. This has more to do with the Temple than one would ordinarily imagine. The sacrificial cult creates a great deal of waste which needs to be dealt with. The altar generates large amounts of greasy ash which has to be disposed of (Mishna, Tamid, 2:2). The blood from the sacrifices flows out to the Kidron Valley where it is collected and dried. It is then sold to gardeners as fertilizer (Mishna, Yoma, 5:6). But a great deal of the waste material generated by the sacrificial cult was actually fecal. Large amounts of sacrificial meat are eaten by priests. No wonder one of the first aspects of the Temple mentioned by the Mishna in Tractate Tamid 1:1, is the special Latrine of Honor that served the priests. So we may conclude that the fawn and its immense ball of dung are indeed related to the Temple. I understand that in this vision RBBH views the Temple as a kind of living animal, an umbilical cord arising from a great surge of desire within Nature. At this place of the axis mundi, the energy of Nature becomes manifest in the form of concepts which serve as entire world views. The numbers four and forty are given as the size of Mt. Tabor. The number four may be related to the four directions, and to the Temple's position as the center of the world. The number forty, as we saw from my comments to W-2, relates to the womb, since the sages hold that the fetus takes forty days to come into being.
104 But this process of energy emerging from Nature is much different than the rising and falling of the waves we noted earlier in RBH's vision. The waves rise and fall in an impersonal way. They do not relate to individual people in society nor do the waves care about them. They do not communicate. However, the vitality that flows from Nature through the temple is colored with maternal desire and longing. It is as if Nature turns towards the individual self with the desire to share something. Each individual may receive a concept that is unique to him or herself. Ultimately, there arises from the Temple a plurality of concepts and world views, which must be discussed and integrated with each other. Obviously not all concepts can be embraced at once. Some will be rejected not because they are wrong, but because at that moment in time they cannot be integrated into the dialogue. This is comparable to a process of digestion where much is taken in at first, but not everything can be assimilated. What cannot be assimilated into the body becomes feces, and re-enters Nature. Here the Jordan River seems to symbolize the flow of Nature's energy in the direction of human awareness. The fact that human beings cannot assimilate everything at once creates a kind of rhythm to the flow. Concepts that are returned to Nature block the flow temporarily, and create a rhythm and sense of time which permits discussion, synthesis and evolution of the concepts learned so far. This kind of time is quite distinct from the time generated by the societal wave. Time in that society is an attempt to freeze the wave. Time as generated by the rhythm of assimilation and defecation is a kind of time that fosters growth and change.
5-6e. The Temple and Individuation Aside from serving as a connecting point to Nature, the Temple also seems to be a location that stimulates the emergence of individuality. In this respect it fulfills a unique religious function. In the Temple is the Holy of Holies, a place where only one person may enter on one specific day of the year. Admittedly, that person is the High Priest and none but he may enter the Holy of Holies. Nevertheless, I believe the High Priest in his unique role sets an example of how human beings are capable of being alone with G-d. The temple is a location, where every individual self can discover his or her own Image of God . To quote Abraham J. Heschel:25 "The symbol of God is man, every man " (124).
105 I believe the emergence of the individuated self is linked to the numbers three, and one and a half used in reference to the fawn's neck and the underside of its head. The use of the number one and a half is odd because ordinarily we find the visions making use of whole numbers. However, if we consider the half parsang as a unit of measurement, we will find that between the neck and the head there are nine times a half parsang in all. The number nine connects to the Temple because as the sages understood, there are ten degrees of sanctity, beginning with the sanctity of the Land of Israel being the first and culminating with the sanctity of the Holy of Holies being the tenth (Mishna, Kelim, 1:6-9). Since RBBH is already in the Land of Israel, this leaves him nine more degrees of sanctity to attain. The innermost three degrees of sanctity being the eighth, ninth and tenth, are found in the following three areas: between the altar and the sanctuary; in the sanctuary; and in the Holy of Holies. These areas are unique in that they are forbidden to all but priests. They are not involved in the public cult of animal sacrifice that takes place on or around the altar that stands in the Temple courtyard. They comprise an intimate space for being alone with G-d. These three degrees of sanctity correspond to the head of the fawn. Referring back to RBBH, since he has already entered the Land of Israel which is the first degree of sanctity, to reach the Holy of Holies, the state of being alone with G-d, he is compelled to experience an additional nine degrees of sanctity. I believe the reason why each degree of sanctity is represented by a half parsang and not a whole one is that the Aramaic word for half is palga , which is related to the Hebrew word for division or separation, peleg . In the vision, RBBH notes the length of the fawn's neck, and then the size of the underside of its head. This implies that RBBH now finds that he is looking directly up at the underside of the fawn's head. If we take the fawn's head to be the inner core of the Temple's sanctity, it might be that RBBH now sees himself in the Holy of Holies itself, if not literally in its building then at least in its location, where it resides. RBBH has discovered the challenge and privilege of being an individual self. Some might consider this presumptuous and arrogant, but this is not so. Realizing one's character as an individual self does not make one better than or different from anyone else. It makes one cherish the uniqueness of each individual self. It may be said that by experiencing the
106 space of the Holy of Holies, RBBH now stands on Dry Land. He is no longer merely a member of a society or embedded in a wave. Having found his place on this Dry Land, he might envision a society different from the one he knows until now, a society formed out of like-minded individuals. This society is now symbolized by the ship, for it will ride the flow of Nature and foster the evolution of new self-concepts, societal concepts and world views. This society will take no world view as absolute, but is committed to the open ended process of growth and change.
5-6f. A Happy Ending? Now we can explain why this vision should be attributed both to RBBH, as in the HC, as well as to his father RBH, as in the VE. Recall that the HC version presents the notion that RBH is himself the Acrobat. In the end his limbs are amputated. This implies that while RBH tries to find his identity as an individuated self, he eventually is overpowered by the society of which he is a part. He leaves the task of becoming an individuated self to his son RBBH. The HC version makes note of the fact that RBBH attains what his father did not. The VE version attributes this tale to RBH. In effect this means that whatever RBBH had achieved was accomplished on his father's behalf and through his father's encouragement and guidance. This accomplishment may then be rightfully attributed to RBH. In doing so, the VE provides a kind of happy ending to RBH's life story, which may help assuage the residual bad feelings that may have resulted from RBH's suppression.
5-6g. Summary To summarize, this tale of the newborn fawn can be read both on a personal level and on a wider universal level. On the personal level, it re-enacts the scene of RBBH's rejection on the shores of the Jordan River, which he saw as a painful rite of passage. On the wider universal level, RBBH stands accused of arrogance and presumptuousness. This aspect of the tale connects to the notion that the fawn is the child of the mythical rema , a symbol of pride and rebellion. This is how the tale is remembered in the study hall of Rabbi Yohanan. However, RBBH is not arrogant or presumptuous. In his own
107 telling of the tale, as it appears in Bava Batra, he removes the motif of the rema . The actual parent of the fawn is mentioned in The Song of Songs . It is the gazelle, the tsevi , a symbol of maternal yearning. Its twin children are the breasts. Its older single child is the umbilical cord which sustains life in the womb. When these symbols are translated into a wider social / religious framework, the fawn becomes a symbol for the Temple, which is the center of the world. It serves as a connecting point through which the sustaining energies of Nature are channeled towards human awareness in the form of concepts. Since not all concepts can be embraced at any given time, some are returned to Nature. This backward movement temporarily blocks the flow of Nature's energy, but this too is necessary, for it generates a rhythm and sense of time that is necessary for change and growth to take place. Thus the essential functions of the fawn and of the Temple are to consume, assimilate and defecate. The Temple also points towards the Divine reality and is a place where the presence of G-d is manifest. There, each person finds the Image of G-d, and becomes somewhat of an individuated self. Only such selves can know Nature's concepts and help bring about their continued evolution. In the community of individuated selves, dialogue fosters the synthesis of concepts and their evolution to new forms. My treatment of the tales so far has been very detailed and methodical. Hopefully, I have worked out the basic ideas needed for interpreting the remaining six water tales. I intend to be much briefer about them. Since the differences between the tales in the VE and the HC are minimal, I shall work with the VE only, and mention the HC when it diverges significantly.
5-7. Tale W-5 In the VE the tale reads as follows: ואמר רבה בר בר חנה לדידי חזיא לי ההיא אקרוקתא דהויה כי אקרא דהגרוניא ואקרא דהגרוניא כמה הויא שתין בתי אתא תנינא בלעה אתא פושקנצא ובלעה לתנינא וסליק ית יב באילנא תא חזי כמה נפיש חיליה דאילנא אמר רב פפא בר שמואל אי לא הואי התם לא הימנ י
And said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: I personally saw that frog that was like the city of Hagronia. And the city of Hagronia how big is it? Sixty houses. A snake came and swallowed it. A raven came and swallowed the snake and it went up to sit in a tree. Come and
108 see how great is the strength of that tree! Said Rav Pappa Bar Shemuel, "If I had not been there I would not have believed."
Before interpreting this tale, I make an observation related to its chronology. The size of the frog in this tale is compared to the size of Hagronia , a city in Babylon. The previous tale of the newborn fawn refers to Mt. Tabor which is located in the Land of Israel. It is possible that RBBH returned to Babylon after the vision of the newborn fawn and before this vision of the giant frog. In light of my explanation of the animal images at the end of chapter three, I view this frog to be a totem animal communicating the gift of its incessant croaking to human beings. This gift is the capacity for making sounds and the frog conveys to human beings the inspiration to make all sorts of noises. In this respect, the frog can be seen as a teacher in keeping with the Hebrew word ts efarde'a which can be broken down into the words tsafar and de'ah which mean to call out and to know. Together, these words imply the calling out of knowledge , i.e. teaching. The vision may tell us that the human desire to make sounds actually precedes the discovery of meaning . Meaning takes place when human experience becomes flexible, thin and snake like, in order to slip into words. At this point, instead of human experience being simply part of Nature's flow, it slithers its way into the sounds that people make and connects them into words. This is followed by the emergence of concepts out of these words. Concepts may be symbolized by the raven, as Cirlot asserts that, "birds, like angels, are symbols of thought, of imagination and of the swiftness of spiritual processes and relationships" (27). As for the huge proportions of the raven, they symbolize the wide applicability of concepts . Meaning completely changes the character of Sound which would otherwise be merely a signal. Concept completely transforms the Meaning of words, making them more generalized and universal. Thus it is appropriate to speak of the snake ( meaning ) as eating the frog (sound ), and the raven ( concept ) as eating the snake (meaning) . There is a great tree that underlies and supports the structure of this space where human individuality resides and through which concepts rise as they evolve into new forms. The choice of the raven as the bird to symbolize concepts may be a clue to the particular concept which RBBH sees here. The raven is known as a bird which is cruel to its children, abandoning them without food. Looking at the commentaries to Bavli,
109 Eruvin, 22a, the Gra notes that a Torah scholar must often abandon his children like the raven, "which ignores its young and does nothing for them… [It] abandon[s] its young" to advance in his studies. The dedicated Torah scholar "trusts God totally to sustain him" and his family, whom he will not care for (Feldman, 68). This presents the Torah as something which demands the complete suppression of having compassion for one's children, which is only natural human behaviour. In addition, Rabbi Nachman in his Likutey Moharan points out that the raven may symbolize Torah "study at night" (103). Naturally, humans sleep at night so Torah study at night is rather unnatural and is one example of how natural desires are repressed in order to make spiritual progress. To quote the translators of Likutey Moharan ,
Torah resides with someone who rises early to study and studies late into the night. He shows himself no mercy, 'blackening' himself like the raven through self-abnegation. (102 n 40)
It seems that the raven symbolizes an understanding of the Torah as being something that is higher than Nature and requires that one behave in a non-natural way to attain it. This is fully consistent with the Torah-centered viewpoint, which sees Torah as an independent reality apart from Nature and ultimately assimilates Nature into itself. This is the exact opposite of what RBBH believes.26 RBBH stands face to face with the negation of his own beliefs. And yet his own understanding of where concepts come from and how they evolve implies that he must embrace the concept that is antithetical to his own in the faith that a future generation will resolve the conflict. The "tree" seems to refer to the capacity of the Dry Land to sustain this conflict without collapsing. It may also refer to the breadth and openness of RBBH's own personality and his ability to embrace his own antithesis, "How great is the strength of that tree."
5-8. Tale W-6 In the VE the tale reads as follows: ואמר רבה בר בר בחנה זימנא חדה הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא וחזינן ההוא כוורא דיתבא ליה אכלא טינא באוסייה ואדרוהו מיא ושדיוהו לגודא וחרוב מיניה ש יתין מחוזי ואכול מיניה שיתין מחוזי ומלחו מיניה שיתין מחוזי ומלאו מחד גלגלא
110 דעיניה תלת מאה גרבי משחא וכי הדר לבתר תריסר ירחי שתא חזינן דהוה קא מנסרי מגרמי מטללתא ויתבי למבנינהו הנך מחוזי
And said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: One time we were going in a ship and we saw a fish that a mud eater lived in its nostril. The waters dragged it and threw it to the shore and it destroyed sixty towns. Sixty (other) towns ate of it and sixty towns salted from its (flesh). From one sphere of its eye they filled three hundred kegs of oil. When we returned after twelve months of the year, we saw they were sawing out shelters from its bones. And they resided (there) to build those towns.
The HC version has some noteworthy differences. I will relate to the following two:
that a mud eater" , דיתבא ליה אכלא טינא באוסייה Instead of reading that a" דעילא ליה אכלא טינא באוסיה ומית ,lived in its nostril," it reads mud eater went into its nostril and it died."
, דהוה קא מנסרי מגרמי מטללתא ויתבי למבנינהו הנך מחוזי Instead of reading "they were sawing out shelters from its bones. And they resided (there) to build those towns," it reads more simply and sensibly They were sawing beams" , והוה מנסרין מגרמיה קורי למבני להנך מחוזי from its bones to re-construct those counties."
Of these two major differences between the versions, I find the first quite helpful since it places the emphasis on the mud eater, obviously a kind of deadly parasite, as entering the fish's nostril. I believe the image of the parasite symbolizes children, as they are small and will eat mud, as any parent will attest, and can definitely be a drain on the parents' strength and resources. Freud follows the same train of thought when he similarly says that worms and insects often stand for children. In his "Symbolism in Dreams" he discusses how we "speak of small children jokingly as ' Wuermer ' ['worms'] and speak sympathetically of a child as 'der arme Wurm ' ['the poor worm']" (159). In the biblical sources we find instances where the children of Israel are said "to grow into a multitude" (Genesis, 48:16) literally become like fish or where they "increased abundantly" (Exodus, 1:7) literally were like swarming things . In The Interpretation of Dreams we find him discussing how water symbolizes the womb and fish symbolizes the penis. He associates water and the womb when claiming that a:
111
large number of dreams ... having as their content such subjects as ... being in water, are based upon phantasies of intrauterine life, of existence in the womb and of the act of birth. (435)
Freud compares the fish symbol in mythology and folklore to that in dreams as being identical claiming that "fishes" symbolize the male genitals. He maintains that:
Many of the beasts which are used as genital symbols in mythology and folklore play the same part in dreams: e.g. fishes. (392)
The fish would then be an image of the father's penis. The VE describes the penis right before ejaculation, thus one might say that the future child, "the mud eater," has taken up residence at the opening of the penis which may be referred to as a nostril, since this indicates an underlying connection between the sex drive and the sense of smell. Returning to Freud, in "Civilization and Its Discontents" we find how the most primitive manifestations of the sex drive are based upon "olfactory stimuli" and related to hormonal changes in the female, which "produced sexual excitement in the mind of the male." It is only at a later phase in human development that the sense of sight became the primary stimulus towards sex, and the olfactory organ is displaced from its original centrality, "when visual stimuli became paramount ... [and] sexual excitation became constant" (782n). In the HC, the mud eater is seen entering the fish. However, this does not affect the overall meaning of the images. Coming back to Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, we note how a dream is often inverted and needs to be reversed in order to be properly understood, as "reversal ... is one of the means of representation most favored by the dream- work" (362). The mud eater entering the fish through its nostril may very well be a symbolic representation of children emerging from the penis. Inevitably, the penis will undergo a kind of death and become flaccid. We can say that during the act of copulation, (the fish in the water), the father's penis ejaculates potential children (the mud eater lived in the fish's nostril). This leads to the penis's loss of its erect function (the water dragged it
112 and it died). The female then expels the penis's withered and flaccid form, (the waters threw it to the shore and it destroyed sixty counties). Seen in this light, this vision appears to be an expression of RBBH's awareness that he has superseded his father. RBBH undergoes the process of becoming an individuated self more successfully than his father. RBBH is able to return from the Land of Israel to Babylon, holding his own against the authority figures there and eventually winning their respect, unlike RBH who had never succeeded in escaping Rav's shadow. Furthermore, RBH was committed to unifying the Torah of the Land of Israel with the Torah of Babylon. This eventually happens but with his son, RBBH, who succeeds in transferring the Torah of the Land of Israel to Babylon, thus uniting the two societies more than had been previously. It is also possible that RBH dies at this time, so that the vision reflects this sad event. It is certainly significant that beginning with this tale, RBBH speaks as one of a group of travelers. We have already described at length that the image of the ship may symbolize a society composed of individuated selves who share and dialogue about their concepts. It is tantalizing to imagine that perhaps with RBH's death and RBBH's return to Babylon, a group of like minded visionaries coalesced around him, consisting, perhaps of some admirers of the late RBH. The community RBBH envisions in the image of the ship may have existed in a miniature form in the real world. Since we know that RBBH was appreciated in Babylon, we may surmise that his circle may have had some influential members. Let us remember that no less a personality than Rav Ashi, who is considered by some to be a major redactor of the Bavli, adds his comments to the RBBH tales. But as I have explained previously, I believe the personal experiences of RBBH are intertwined with wider and more universal concerns. In this vision, Nature is not only a mother's womb, from which every differentiated concept is born, but also a great fish, a father's penis. The father is usually thought of as the source of law and as such, is considered to be a power that intrudes into the natural flow of life. It thwarts the instincts and desires that arise naturally. However, in this vision we see that Nature is both Mother and Father. Nature as Mother may be viewed as a rushing undifferentiated flow. Nature as Father may be viewed as the characteristic of unity. Society draws Nature's unity into
113 itself, where it induces people to yearn for relationships one with the other. Social cohesiveness may be viewed as the basis of all Law, and as arising from Nature. Thus it seems that Law is not necessarily in conflict with natural instincts and desires. Nature may contain the yearning to transcend its own limitations. This may appear symbolically as the father's self sacrifice so that the child may be born. Thus the fish in this tale dies because of the mud eater. The fish appears to be an archetypical kind of Totem Animal, as I explained at the end of chapter three. There may also be a Christian influence of the imagery of this vision, since as we previously pointed out, Jesus was referred to as "fish" by early Christians, although here we find the substantial difference that in RBBH's vision it is the Father who sacrifices himself so that the son, i.e. the individuated self, may be born. I believe that these two aspects, the unity of Nature and Nature's yearning for transcendence, may be expressed in the image of the great fish. As for the aspect of unity, it should be remembered that the death of the fish initially brings about the devastation of society. The great fish (the Father) is the source of society's coherence and unity. When he dies, society initially breaks down. Thus the fish destroys sixty counties. But this destruction is more than compensated for by the benefits society receives. In its death, the great fish gives society a gift greater than it did in life. The unity of Nature, once it is translated into the categories of human awareness, becomes the basic aspects of thought and language; Being, Time, and Form.27 These may correspond to the flesh, eyes and bones of the fish. The flesh of the fish may represent the notion of Being, the oil from the eyes may represent Time (since the eyes see ahead and oil is energy stored for future use), and the bones may represent Form. As for the aspect of Nature's desire to transcend its limitations, this finds expression in the emergence of the individuated self, which may be viewed symbolically as the child of the great fish. This individuation of the self from society may have a disrupting effect on society for the short term, but ultimately, society is enriched for now it can feast upon the great fish, while the self goes on its own individualistic path.
114 5-9. Tale W-7 In the VE it reads like this: 28 ואמר רבה בר בר חנה זימנא חדא הוה קא אזלינן בספינתא וחזינן ההוא כוורא דיתבא ליה חלתא אגביה וקדח אגמא עילוי הסברינן יבשתא היא וסלקינן ואפינן ובשלינן אגביה וכד חם גביה אתהפיך ואי לאו דהוה מקרבא ספינתא הוה טבעינן
And said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: One time we were going in a ship and we saw this fish that sand accumulated on its back and a meadow sprouted on it. We thought it was dry land, so we went up and we baked and we cooked on its back. When its back got hot, it turned over and if not that the ship was near we would have drowned.
חיזרתא meadow) the text reads) אגמא In the HC instead of reading and we baked and we) ואפינן ובשלינן thorns. Instead of reading we kneaded and baked. Instead of לשינן ואפינן cooked) it reads it) , הוה מטבע לן we would have drowned) it reads) הוה טבעינן reading would have drowned us).
In light of my previous interpretations, I read this tale as follows. RBBH's new society (the ship) follows the continued evolution of concepts. In this tale I believe that we are dealing with concepts that shape one's view of the world. At some point in the journey, a concept arises that seems so convincing that the travelers think they have finally arrived at a complete and final picture of the world. This is the island which appears as dry land but is really not. Having arrived at what they mistake for a solid and objective concept, the travelers enunciate and put into language the concept which they now believe in. The image of cooking and baking relates to insights noted by Levi-Strauss concerning the social and mythic functions of cooking. He explains their significance and argues that "the contrast between the cooked (the oven) and the raw (salad)" is analogous to the distinction between "nature and culture" (335). The "cooking fire" functions to mediate "the conjunction of the raw product and the human consumer." When human beings eat, it is a moment of great dependency and connectedness to Nature, since Nature is the source of food and of life itself. This is a moment when the threat of re-absorption into Nature is powerfully felt. The act of cooking or baking places a distance between the
115 socialized individual and the natural, unconscious world in the same way that "insulators" are "inserted to prevent the possibility of short circuit" (336). To understand how this relates to the tale, we need only remember Freud's aforementioned principle of inversion where things often stand for their opposites. Here we have the sailors cooking and baking. They are preparing food for the act of eating. Using this principle, we may claim this tale is concerned not necessarily with the act of eating sustenance, taking into the mouth, but with the act of speaking, expressing from the mouth spoken words and concepts. These two processes of eating and speaking are parallel to each other although they move in opposite directions. This parallelism is noted in the Christian scriptures, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man" (Matthew 15:11). 29 While preparing and eating food, some nutritious element of the visible external world is differentiated and ingested by the person through the mouth becoming part of that person's inner reality. In the process of the emergence of concepts into words, the elements arising from within the person are differentiated and expelled through the mouth, taking on the form of language. In the context of this tale, cooking and baking serve as a way of insulating concepts from Nature which is its source. This does not happen every time RBBH and his fellow travelers speak and share their thoughts. Quite the opposite is the case. Until now they have always considered their concepts as rooted in Nature and thus open to continued evolution. And now, RBBH and the travelers are attempting to enunciate concepts as solid, objective and unchanging, as opposed to something fluid and evolving. In this regard I find the HC helpful since it speaks of kneading and baking, which is the process of making a soft body solid. We also find in Proverbs, 9:1-6, the image of eating bread as a symbol for the act of learning concepts. The verses read:
Wisdom hath builded her house…she calleth…Come, eat of my bread, And drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake all thoughtlessness, and live; And walk in the way of understanding.
Nevertheless, the VE with its baking and cooking is just as understandable. In contrast to baking which hardens food, cooking serves to soften it. This may symbolically refer to
116 rendering a concept useful and adapting it to society's needs. The concept is softened and made malleable so it can serve to hold society together. A supposedly objective and unchanging concept is socially useful since it can be used to make people behave a certain way. It is only necessary to convince people they must adhere to a certain concept in order to be considered good, and then a great deal of social adhesiveness can be generated. So it is cooking and baking through which a concept is forcibly separated from Nature and made into something solid and unchanging. This awakens Nature which now restores the concept to its original state in Nature's undifferentiated flow. At such times it is good to have a ship waiting nearby, "if not that the ship was near we would have drowned."
5-10. Tale W-8 In the VE it reads as follows ואמר רבה בר בר חנה זימנא חדא הוה אזלינן בספינתא וסגאי ספינתא בין שיצא לשיצא דכוארא תלתא יומי ותלתא לילוותא איהו בזקיפה ואנן בשיפולא וכי תימא לא מסגיא ספינתא טובא כי אתא רב דימי אמר כמיחם קומקומא דמיא מסגיא שתין פרסי ושאדי פרשא גירא וקדמה ליה ואמר רב אשי הה וא גילדנא דימא הוי דאית ליה תרי שיצי
And said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: One time we were going in a ship and the ship moved between (one) fin and the (next) fin of a fish for three days and three nights. It was going up and we were going down. And if you say that the boat was not moving well, when Rav Dimi came he said "(in the time it takes to) heat a kettle of water it moved sixty parsangs and if a horseman fired an arrow (the ship) would precede it." And said Rav Ashi "that was a sardine of the sea which has two fins"
(and there are some who say) ואיכא דאמרי The HC adds the words between the two clauses of Rav Dimi's statement. This results in there being two versions of Rav Dimi's description of the ship's speed. Some recall Rav Dimi saying that the ship traveled sixty parsangs in the time it takes to boil a kettle of water. Others recall him saying that the ship moved faster than an arrow.
We have already noted the connection between the image of the great fish and Time as experienced by humans. I believe the two fins present a timeline for the evolution
117 of society. The image of three days and three nights seems to refer to the conquest of death. This connection is made by the Maharsha ad loc. in a rather curious way. He refers to the Biblical tale of Mordechai and Esther, when the Jews were faced with the threat of extermination. Esther accepts the task of saving her people and demands that all the Jews fast three days and three nights in preparation. It might be said that these three days and three nights were the difference between life and death for the Jews. When the decree against the Jews was lifted, their enemy Haman was also destroyed. Thus the two fins may symbolize death since the Aramaic word for fin, shitsa, is similar to the Aramaic word for annihilation. The first fin is the death of the Jews. The second fin is the death of Haman. The image of the fish fits in because the constellation for the month of the Purim holiday is Pisces, the fish. One can argue the value of the Maharsha's allegorical interpretation, but I find his understanding of the fish's fins as relating to death and the three day interval relating to the conquest of death, quite convincing. I would interpret the first fin as meaning death in the literal sense and the second fin as the elimination or death of, mortality, as Scripture states in Isaiah, "He will swallow up death for ever" (25:8). A noteworthy ambiguity in this tale is that the fish is described as going up and the ship as going down. This is difficult to comprehend, for if the ship was traveling in a straight line with good weather and the two fins of the fish were visible above water, then the fish and the boat would have to be moving horizontally, in parallel but opposite directions, the boat above the water level and the fish beneath it.30 There is a way to understand this passage reasonably, but before I explain it I would like to note that the supposed upward movement of the fish and the supposed downward motion of the ship may relate to the theme of conquering death. The conquest of death is a primary religious concern usually addressed by believing in an afterlife in heaven. To get to this afterlife, one has to pass through death.31 Death is both a movement upwards towards heaven, and a movement downwards towards the grave. Therefore, there is the impression of both an upward and downward movement related to the conquest of death. Nevertheless, the factual sense of the tale has no upward or downward movement in it, just horizontal and parallel movements of the ship and the fish. I understand this to mean that in this vision the religious answer to the problem of death is rejected in favor of
118 a more pragmatic approach. Here, death is conquered not by religion, movement along a vertical axis, but by progress in the practice of medicine, symbolized by movement along a horizontal axis. 32 Now let me turn to the naturalistic explanation of why the fish is moving upwards and the ship downwards. It may be that the fish is swimming against the wind while the boat is sailing with the wind. Indeed, this is how Neusner reads the text, "…the fish was swimming upwards and we were floating downwards [with the wind]" (49). The ship is being driven ahead by the wind much as a wagon rolling downhill is accelerated by gravity. The fish is moving up in the sense that it swims against the wind, and it must overcome its resistance in much the same way a wagon pulled uphill must overcome gravity. 33 As I interpret this tale, it reflects the hope that the evolution of concepts may give way to advances in medicine which might eliminate much human suffering and mortality. The hope is that such advances may occur rapidly. Nevertheless, such advances would not be the sole result of human thought, but the result of Nature moving through humanity like the wind in a ship's sails . I wonder what made RBBH become concerned with the conquest of death. One obvious answer is that the desire to overcome death is a universal human concern, and that RBBH is no less concerned with death than any one else. However, I would like to ask your forbearance as I take an imaginative, rather than a purely scholastic, approach. We know that RBBH's son Rav Yitzhak died sometime after his wedding. We do not know when or how this happened or even that it happened in RBBH's lifetime. But I would like to conjecture that the sad event unfolded like this: RBBH joyously leads his son under the bridal canopy. Shortly after the wedding, Rav Yitzhak falls ill. RBBH seeks out the best doctors and medicines available in his day, but all to no avail and Rav Yitzhak continues to wither away. RBBH decides in an act of desperation, to study medicine on his own but to his dismay, finds that medicine practiced among the Jews of Babylon is, in the words of Yaron Yadan, "a random anthology of what they had heard from their nannies or passers-by, from experts in the writing of amulets and sorcerers expert in incantations, from physicians skilled in healing herbs, and from legends of the Sages' acts."34 Perhaps RBBH attempts to struggle with some Greek medical texts, like
119 Galen or Hippocrates. Perhaps he finds himself not equal to the task of learning unfamiliar disciplines at a mature age. In the midst of RBBH's struggle to save his son's life, this vision comes upon him. The vision may point to the possibility of learning new ways of thinking about the natural world and the human body, made possible by the evolution of new concepts about how the body works and where diseases come from. In light of this possible explanation, this vision now appears as very close to wish fulfillment as it fulfills RBBH's earnest wish to save his son's life. If this is the case, we can now understand why the root HaZaH does not appear in any of its forms in this tale. Of course, I do not mean to argue that this tale literally happened. But if RBBH had an inkling of its meaning then he may have thought it less of an authentic vision, because of the wish fulfilling aspect of it. He may have been uncertain of this vision's ability to tell us something about Nature and the process of the evolution of concepts, because it may have been too strongly influenced by his personal desires. Thus he provides a clue by leaving out the root HaZaH . Ironically, RBBH's doubts seem to have been unjustified. This vision is actually prophetic, for indeed we now live in an age where technological and scientific advancements come with breathtaking rapidity.
5-11. Tale W-9 In the VE it reads as follows: ואמר רבה בר בר חנה זימנא חדה הוה אזלינו בספינתא וחזינן ההוא ציפרא דקאים עד קרצוליה במיא ורישיה ברקיע ואמרינן ליכא מיא ובעינן לחות לאקורי נפשין ונפק בת קלא ואמר לן לא תיחותו הכא דנפלת ליה חציצא לבר נגרא הא שב שני ולא קא מטיא אארעא ולאו משום דנפישי מיא אלא משום דרדפי מיא אמר רב אשי ההוא זיז שדי הוא שכתיב וזיז שדי עמדי
And Said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: One time we were going in a ship and we saw a bird that stood up to its ankles in the water and its head was in the sky. And we said "There is no (deep) water" and we wanted to go down to cool ourselves. And a (heavenly) echo came out and told us "do not go down here, for a carpenter's axe fell (here). Now seven years (have passed) and it still hasn't reached the ground. Not because the water is deep, but because the water flows." Said Rav Ashi "That is the Ziz of the fields as it says 'The Ziz of the fields is with me' "
120 do not go) לא תיחותו הכא The HC, instead of having the words down here), it has the heavenly echo asking a sarcastic question, "?Here you wanted to cool yourselves" הכא בעיתו לצנוני נפשיכו
In the image of the great bird, RBBH sees the final goal of the evolution of concepts, that of achieving wholeness, connecting the sea and the heavens, and connecting Nature to the transcendent. Interestingly, the bird is called a Ziz . This word is related to the notion of incessant movement, so that it actually refers to a group of small and incessantly moving creatures. In this tale the word Ziz contains two antithetical meanings, referring to an immense bird, which in all likelihood is so gigantic that it cannot move at all. Where could it go if its head is in the sky and its feet are thrust into the ocean? But as in dreams, the images in RBBH's visions are often one with their antitheses, so it is not surprising that the qualities of smallness and incessant movement are unified with their opposites, the notions of hugeness and immobility. I believe the explanation of this antithetical pairing is as follows. The great bird embodies the whole of the evolution of concepts carried out to its ultimate fulfillment. This evolution is an incessant movement, but viewed from a timeless point of view, all that movement becomes a single stationary form. We have already encountered the timelessness of Nature. Time is a function of human conscious awareness. Nature in its own terms as an unconscious reality does not experience time as human beings do. RBBH's vision now informs him that the Dry Land is also timeless in its own way. Human beings experience the evolution of concepts in time, but for the Dry Land dimension, this time is a single moment. It might be said that in a way the evolution of concepts has already been fulfilled. The main result of this is that now the travelers feel it safe to go into the water. The sea is suddenly not so deep. It should be recalled that RBBH's way of approaching and knowing Nature is through symbolic visions . In this way he rejects the notion of immersing and losing oneself in Nature in order to understand it, and becoming a purely natural being. No evolution of concepts will result from the complete immersion of the individual in Nature. Nevertheless, the possibility of losing oneself in Nature remains tempting. Since the basic civilizing activities, such as cooking and baking involve heat and the use of fire, the immersion in Nature would then appear as a cooling experience.
121 The tale informs us that at first glance, those who have had a vision of the Ziz bird no longer need to fear immersion in Nature. This is because every concept that ever arose exists timelessly in the Ziz . Similarly, each human being who has ever taken part of the evolution of concepts is also eternally part of the Ziz . Thus one can immerse oneself in Nature because even at the moment of total immersion, one continues to exist in the Ziz . One can always come back to oneself. One can immerse and cool oneself in the sea without fear of drowning. Then why are the travelers warned not to go down into the water? Not because the water is deep. Nevertheless, there remains the problem of the currents which are so strong that after seven years, the carpenter's axe has yet to reach the sea floor. I believe the implication is as follows. Since within Nature things are essentially one, then human selves, as located in nature, are totally interconnected with each other. Let us say that each spot on the sea bottom, upon which a person can stand, signifies his/her identity within the unity of Nature. The currents that move strongly from one location to the next signify the interconnectedness of persons within Nature. If one attempts to submerge oneself in Nature, then one might come up in a vastly different place. There is no way of insuring that the personal identity will remain intact. One might emerge as a completely different person. If what I have envisioned about the death of RBBH's son is correct, then it is plausible that this vision may also provide a measure of comfort to the grieving RBBH after his son's death. The vision seems to imply that every self who participates in the evolution of concepts exists timelessly in the Ziz bird, that giant creature of stationary movement. Thus we may think of this vision as a triumphant one. RBBH is comforted, and he is granted a vision of the evolution of concepts not as work which needs to be done, but as a process whose ultimate success can be taken for granted.
5-12. Tale W-10 In the VE it reads as follows: ואמר רבה בר בר חנה זימנא חדא הוה קא אזלינן במדברא וחזינו הנהוא אווזי דשמטא גדפייהו משמנייהו וקא נגדי נחלי דמשחא מתותייהו אמינא להוא אין לן בגוייכו חלקא לעלמא דאתי חדא דלי גדפא וחדא דלי אטמא כי אתאי לקמיה דרבי אלעזר אמר לי עתידין ישראל ליתן עליהן את הדין
122
And said Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: One time we were going in the desert and we saw these geese whose feathers had fallen out because off their fatness and rivers of oil flowed from underneath them. I said to them "do we have a share in you for the World to come?" One lifted a wing and another lifted a leg. When I came before Rabbi El'azar he said to me "Israel is destined to give a reckoning about them"
and rivers) וקא נגדי נחלי דמשחא מתותייהו The HC, instead of reading ונגיד ואתי חוטא דמשחא of oil flowed from underneath them), reads .a thread of oil flowed and came from them , מיניהו
At first glance this would not seem to be a water tale at all, but rather a desert tale. However it is clear from the mnemonic device provided for tales W-3 thru W-10 in the Vatican Codex Ebr. 115, to which I referred in chapter one, that the redactor of the Talmud categorized it as a water based tale presumably upon the fact that geese are waterfowl. The VE attempts to strengthen the water aspect of this tale by saying that rivers of oil flow from the geese, instead of a thread of oil as in the HC since rivers are usually associated with water. Chronologically, the tale seems out of place. Rabbi El'azar who is mentioned in the tale, is an Amora of the Land of Israel, whom RBBH would have met in his younger years. The vision of the Ziz , as I have interpreted it, takes place when RBBH is much older, after his son's death. Thematically, this tale appears out of place for a different reason. RBBH's visions build up to the triumphant vision of the Ziz . The tale of the geese follows as an unpleasant anticlimax. The geese in this tale appear almost as satirical counter images of the Ziz . They are far away from any water, featherless, languishing in the desert sun, unable to fly and unable to die. A heavy burden of suffering is borne these geese, which contrasts with the joy of seeing the Ziz uniting heaven and the sea. I think the guilt in this tale stems from the triumphal attitude of the previous vision. In W-9, RBBH sees the entire process of change and growth brought to fulfillment. The vision conveys a super-concept that holds all the other concepts together. It appears that at this very moment of triumph, RBBH falls into a trap. He insists on clinging to the super-concept when in fact, all concepts, even the highest and greatest concept of all, must be surrendered or sacrificed so that the evolutionary process can
123 continue. There is no concept that is too great to sacrifice. RBBH's attitude towards his triumphant vision has turned the Ziz into a gaggle of helpless geese. The fatness of the geese signifies the energy from Nature that flows into them, but they cannot move with it. They do not evolve any longer and are stuck in the desert. And this is Israel's fault. Israel, should know how to sacrifice their most precious concepts in the presence of God, who alone knows everything. Rabbah asks the geese, "Do we have a share in you in the World to come?" I understand this question as asking if there is really going to be a fulfillment to the evolutionary process, or will it just continue forever? The geese reply in a way that leaves an unresolved paradox. There is a goal to the process. RBBH and his fellow travelers do have a share in the World to come. But to reach the World to come, one must take an endless journey, where any concept that arises, must at some time be surrendered. The theme of sacrifice before God, as it emerges in the vision of the geese, provides some clue for understanding its chronology. I believe that W-10 may take place at about the same time as W-4, in the Land of Israel, and like W-4, it is connected to the theme of the temple. In W-4 the temple is seen as both a point of contact with Nature as well as a vehicle for the individuation of the self in its uniqueness as an image of God. But there is a second aspect to the Temple which the vision of the newborn fawn does not really touch upon. The Temple is a place for sacrifice and surrender. Thus the vision of the geese deals with the sacrificial aspect of the temple which was left unexpressed in the vision of the newborn fawn. I do not think RBBH understood the vision of the geese when he first had the vision. It requires the vision of the Ziz as its interpretive key . The emergence of this vision at a relatively early stage in his life is an interesting example of Nature acting timelessly, bequeathing a vision which will not be understood until many years later, after RBBH experiences the vision of the Ziz . For this reason, the vision of the geese is presented as the final tale, even though it appears to have taken place many years earlier. W-10, while chronologically connected to W-4 and RBBH's years in the Land of Israel, is placed last because it encapsulates the final paradox of the evolution of concepts. There is a goal to be reached, yet the journey, in this world, is endless.
124 5-13. Conclusions: Chronological Order Having presented my interpretation of these ten water tales, I believe the following conclusions can be drawn about the chronological order. It is important to note that there are ten tales. This is hardly accidental. The number ten links together the process of creation and the process of revelation. According to the sages, the process of creation which is the source of Nature, involved ten acts of Divine speech (Mishna, Avot, 5:1). The revelation from which the Torah comes also involves ten acts of Divine speech, the Ten Commandments. The number ten is an appropriate number for the water tales because these tales tell us about the interaction between Nature and Torah, and thus shows the events of creation and revelation in a new light. Nature exists independently of Torah. But nevertheless, by bringing about the individuation of selves, the Torah assists Nature in fulfilling itself through the evolution of concepts. It was therefore important for the redactors of the VE and the HC to insure that exactly ten tales appear in this group of water tales, despite the fact that both the first tale and the last are problematic. The first tale is problematic because it is not a vision. The last tale because it takes place in the desert, and cannot be fully considered a water tale. Turning our attention to the tales in the VE, we find that the tales seem, with the exception of W-10, to follow a chronological order. They begin with W-1, RBH's factual sea journey which provides the interpretive key to understanding W-2, which is RBH's first vision. W-2 deals with the critique of societies that make use of supposedly unchanging ideals to maintain themselves. This is followed by W-3 which criticizes the dichotomous notions that occur in societies, as well as the split between the Jewish societies of the Land of Israel and Babylon. W-3 also strives to show the oneness of Nature which underlies all dichotomies. W-4 shows RBBH successfully becoming an individuated self, something that his father could not completely accomplish. It takes place while RBBH is a student in the Land of Israel. W-5 speaks of RBBH confronting the Torah-centered viewpoint, which is diametrically opposed to his own attitude, and the acceptance that it, too, is part of the evolution of concepts. This vision takes place after RBBH's return to Babylon. RBBH finds that indeed he has achieved a measure of individuation, since he is willing to stand apart from the rest of Jewish Society in
125 Babylon. He makes a point of not attending Rav Yehuda's lectures and nevertheless finds himself respected for his individuality. At this point a group of like minded visionaries may have grown up around RBBH. This change may be reflected in W-6 and onward, where RBBH speaks as part of a group. Tale W-6 shows that RBBH has indeed superseded his father. It may also reflect the event of RBH's death. The ship in which they travel is a symbol for a new kind of community composed of individuated selves who dialogue about the concepts which arise among them. In W-7 the ship's journey is now well underway. The vision of W-7 is a warning not to believe absolutely in any concept, no matter how powerfully it explains the world. W-8 may be connected to the illness of RBBH's son Rav Yitzhak. Tale W-9 may be in part a consolation following Rav Yitzhak's death. W-10, while chronologically connected to W-4 and RBBH's years in the Land of Israel, is placed last because it encapsulates the final paradox of the evolution of concepts. There is a goal to be reached, yet the journey is endless.
5-14. Conclusions: Thematic Order I will now present my conclusions about the tales' thematic order. Tales W-1 through W-3, relate to the critique of the wave-like society, which rises and falls, but is not capable of evolving. In these tales, Nature is the sea and the undifferentiated flow from which energy in the form of instincts, desires and concepts arise. Once they arise, they can only return. In these tales, Nature is the Mother, but she is an impersonal mother who gives birth only to reabsorb her offspring. In tale W-4 we have the beginning of a different conception of Nature. Nature gives birth to concepts so they can continue to grow and evolve. Thus Nature's character is that of a nurturing mother who loves the child in her womb and wants it to be born, to live and to grow. The newborn fawn or the Temple is symbolic of the umbilical cord through which the Mother sustains her child. Tales W-5 and W-6 continue this re-evaluation of Nature. In tale W-5, Nature as conveyed by the image of the great frog, appears as a teacher, sounding out knowledge and giving the gift of language. In tale W-6 Nature, as conveyed by the image of the great fish, appears as the Father who sacrifices himself to bring about the individuation of
126 human selves and to bestow the basic categories of rational thought; Being, Time and Form. The tales in their current order, W-5 through W-7, give us the sequence of Mother-Teacher-Father. It may have been possible to put the tale of the great fish before the tale of the great frog, which would have yielded the sequence Mother-Father-Teacher. I suspect the order of the tales is more determined by the chronological events of RBBH's life. In tale W-7, the journey continues. The vision conveys a warning never to believe absolutely in any concept. W-8 is a vision of the goal of the evolution of concepts on the material axis, namely, discovering the medicinal skills required to enhance life and conquer death. W-9 is a vision of the goal of the evolution of concepts on the spiritual axis, namely, to bring about wholeness, the connection between the sea and heaven or between Nature and the Transcendent. W-10 shows that even the super-concept of the connection of sea and heaven must be sacrificed. The evolution of concepts is essentially a paradox. There is a goal, but the journey is endless.
5-15. Brief Summary of the Tales' Thematic Progression W-1 through W-3: RBH Tales. Critique of society. Nature as impersonal Mother. W-4 through W-6: RBBH Tales. Nature as nurturing Mother, Teacher and Father. Emergence of community of individuated selves and the evolution of concepts. W-7: RBBH Tale. Continuing the evolutionary process and avoiding its pitfalls. W-8 through W-10: RBBH Tales. Looking forward to the goal of the evolution of concepts.
5-16. The Influence of the Tales on Subsequent Jewish History I have come to the end of my interpretation of the tales of RBBH. In the course of my work, I have seen Talmudic personalities, which seemed at one time to be quite two dimensional, acquire depth and seem to come alive. These tales that have either been relegated to the status of curios relics, or subjected to arcane allegorical readings, now seem to flow for me in harmony with the lives of these remarkable people, RBH and RBBH. Often my imagination has been as engaged as my mind, a nd I believe that this has brought about positive results.
127 I wish now to state the possibility that RBH, RBBH and the tales they told may have been of very far reaching, but heretofore unacknowledged influence on the history of the Jewish people. Although I imagine RBBH's community of individuated selves to be a small and intimate group, that is no reason to assume that they did not later occupy positions of leadership, and exert a strong influence on the development of Judaism. Indeed I find that RBBH's visions of concepts as connected to Nature and always evolving, may have contributed to the Bavli's indeterminacy and open-endedness. These visions may also have contributed to the often noted vitality of Jewry throughout history, which has known how to evolve with history, yet remain loyal to its traditions. In an oft quoted passage, Mark Twain expresses wonder at the phenomenon of Jewish survival:
The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then…passed away; The Greek and the Roman followed…The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts…All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? 35
The secret Mark Twain had wondered about may be, in part, the visions of the beleaguered RBH and of the more successful RBBH, and the subtle if not always consciously felt influence of their visions and tales. My research suggests that Jewry in the Land of Israel and in Babylon was on its way to becoming authoritarian societies, miniature reflections of the great empires of that age. RBH and RBBH through their visions may have actually shifted Jewry in the direction of continued evolution and openness for change and growth. They are certainly not solely responsible for this shift, but nevertheless, the vitality of the Jewish people as a distinct society is a fitting monument to the significance and importance of individuated selves, however few their number.
Tam Venishlam. Hodu laKel Bore Olam! 25 Elul 5766, Beyoma de-itmar be Yehi Or!
128 NOTES
______
Introduction:
1. Throughout this paper, unless otherwise noted, I have used the following sources: a. References to Aramaic sources from the standard Vilna edition of the Babylonian Talmud. b. References to the Hamburg Codex from The Hamburg Codex, Tractate Baba Batra Talmud Bavli Seder Nezikin Ketav Yad Hamburg 165 (19) Zilum Faqsimali shel Ketav Hayad Beziruf Zilum Mahadurat L. Goldschmidt (Berlin 1914) Hakolelet Shihzur Mezuyar, Mevo Vehe'arot Me-et Hamahadir. c. Numerous codices at
129 of Likutey Moharan is in the form somewhat of a Perush on the Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah stories, which for those who have never learned them are these fantastic stories in the Gemara. And you should know that that itself was an eighteenth century activity because the Vilna Gaon also wrote his commentary on Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah. You took these wild Midrashim and you thought they had the key to Judaism." See Brill, Dr. Rabbi Alan. “Chassidut 22.” YU Torah Online. May 3, 2005.
130 13. I use four volumes from this series: The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation. Tr. Jacob Neusner and Tvzee Zahavy. (Atlanta, Scholars P, 1991-1994). 14. The Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation. Maaser Sheni. Tr. Roger Brooks. Ed. Jacob Neusner. (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993), V 8. 15. The Holy Scriptures: According to the Masoretic Text. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, (1917). 16. Jastrow, Marcus. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature . (New York: Pardes P House, 1950).
Chapter One: The Tales and Their Context
1. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. "Introduction." Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, composition, and Culture. (Baltimore: John Hopkins U P, 1999), 19 2. Ibid. 3. See Epstein's translation in The Babylonian Talmud: Baba Bathra 73 - b . Ed. Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein. Tr. Israel W. Slotki. (London: Soncino P, 1935), 292 4. Crawford, Howell Toy and Lauterbach, Jacob Zallel. "Mnemonics." The Jewish Encyclopedia . The Kopelman Foundation. 2002
131 with a Persian deity/demon. W-2 indeed personifies the waves by having them converse, but then in W-10, geese are also given human capacity to understand speech. In W-1 I see no explicit personification at all. Ben-Amos, Dan. "Tall Tale: The Rhetoric of Exaggeration." Narrative Forms in the Haggadah: Structural Analysis. (Ann Arbor: U Microfilms, 1967). 8. Tosafot to BT Sanhedrin 5a. There, the Talmud recounts the story of RBH's ordination at the hands of Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi. The Tosafot comments: רבה בר חנה גרסינן דאי רבה בר בר חנה א" כ היה בן בנו של חנה והכא משמע דבן אחיו של ר ' חייא וחנה אחיו של ר ' חייא היה כדלקמן אבל רבה ב" ב חנה דבכולי ש" ס היה בימי ר ' יוחנן ובן בנו של חנה להכי קאמר בר בר וי" מ דשם אביו בר חנה ולא יתכן כדאמר בהמוכר א ת הספינה כל בר חנה סיכסא . . Paraphrasing the Tosafot: The person who received ordination from Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi must have been RBH, who was Rabbi Hiyya's nephew. RBH should not be confused with his son, RBBH, since the son studied under Rabbi Yohanan. The Tosafot rejects the possibility that RBBH was the son of someone with the name 'Bar Hannah' and maintains that he was the grandson of Hannah and thus the son of RBH. The complex family network of RBBH and his various relatives as well as their connections to Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi and Rabbi Yohanan will be explored at greater length in Ch.4. 9. Encyclopedia Judaica . "Rabbah Bar Bar Hana." A. Ar. Jerusalem: (Keter P House, 1972) V 13. 10. Fishbane, Michael. "Rabbinic Mythmaking and Tradition: The Great Dragon Drama in b. Baba Batra 74b-75a." Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg . Ed. Mordechai Cogan, Barry L. Eichler and Jeffrey H. Tigay. (Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1997). 11. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L. "Conclusion." Talmudic Stories: Narrative Art, Composition and Culture. (Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1999). 12. "Allegory." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 24 Jan. 2007.
132 Chapter Two: The Tales: Testimony, Allegory or Folk Tales?
1. Feust, Rabbi Yehuda. " Parshanut Sippurei Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah – Ben Realia Lealegoria. " Shema'atin. Tevet – Nissan, 2002, 132. 2. See: A. Brill - Notes to Introduction, entry 3. 3. Quoted in "Hidushei Hageonim" to the Ein Yakov , ad loc. Sutro, Rabbi Avraham. In Hiddushei Geonim on the Ein Yakov. Tractate Bava Batra. 69b-70a. The Ein Yakov contains the aggadic sections of the Bavli and Yerushalmi with additional commentaries not found in the VE. 4. Ginzberg, Louis. On Jewish Law and Lore. (New York: Atheneum, 1977). 5. See Hiddushe HaRitba , ad loc. Alsevili, Rabbeinu Yom Tov Ben Avraham. Hiddushe HaRitba. Tractate Bava Batra. Ed. Rabbi Jacob David Ilan. (Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook, 2005). 6. See Maharsha , ad loc. 7. En Jacob: Agada of the Babylonian Talmud. Ed. Ibn-Chabib, Rabbi Jacob. Tr. Rabbi S. H. Glick. (USA, 1921), V 4. 8. See Maharsha, ad loc. 9. See chapter one, note 7. 10. Noy, Dov. "The Jewish Versions of the 'Animal Languages' Folktale (at 670): A Typological Study." Studies in Aggadah and Folk-Literature. Ed. Joseph Heinemann and Dov Noy. (Jerusalem: Magnes P Hebrew U, 1971), V22 11. Kraemer, David. "On Writing an Intellectual History of the Bavli." The Mind Of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the Bavli. (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1990), 8. 12. The search for parallels in the Greco-Roman world of late antiquity is both reasonable and necessary because the Jewish communities in the Land of Israel of that time, both lay and rabbinic, participated quite openly in the life of that world. This is not immediately self evident in Talmudic texts and may come as a surprise to some. However, archeological evidence supports the notion that the Jewish community was quite integrated in the wider cultural scene. To quote Peter Schafer: "…the necropolis of Beth Shearim thus shows, together with other archaeological and literary evidence, the immense influence of Greek culture on ancient Judaism in general and… Jewry [in the Land of Israel,] in particular. That this cannot have been merely a marginal phenomenon
133 or something only reluctantly tolerated by the rabbis is demonstrated by the fact that the rabbis also allowed themselves to be buried in Beth Shearim." (167-8) Schafer, Peter. "From the Bar Kochba Revolt to the Arab Conquest of Palestine." The History of the Jews in Antiquity: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. (Geschichte der Juden in der Antike ). Tr. David Chowcat. (Luxembourg: Harwood Academic P, 1995). 13. Ni-Mheallaigh, Karen Dr. "Research to Investigate Links Between Ancient Greeks and Modern Science Fiction." Archaeology News. Samantha Martin. University of Liverpool. 6 June 2005. February 3, 2006
134 the stars. He also gave the first known report about gorillas. Hanno describes his team's first sighting of: "savages. Most of them were women with hairy bodies, whom our interpreters called 'gorillas'. Although we chased them, we could not catch any males: they all escaped, being good climbers who defended themselves with stones. However, we caught three women, who refused to follow those who carried them off, biting and clawing them. So we killed and flayed them and brought their skins back to Carthage." Such a tale may have been considered utterly unrealistic in Hanno's day although we can now appreciate that it was quite factual. Hanno's sighting of gorillas which he seems to have mistaken for a human species, may be the prototype for the numerous humanoid species that populate Lucian's narrative. See: Lendering, Jona. "Hanno." Livius: Articles on Ancient History. Jona Lendering. 1996-2006. 9 July 2006. March 7, 2006.
135 people…The rock here [which Moses struck] is being dealt with as if it's an animated reality, it’s a living organism. The rock here is sensitive and responding to the needs of the Jewish people…If you think I mean this only in an allegorical way, I'll show you from the Halacha, Jewish practice that this is the way all Jews have understood." Zweig, Rabbi Yochanan. "Land of Israel, The Maid Servant of Israel." Talmudic University. Lecture, July 16, 2003. 2003. 11 July 2006.
Chapter Three: The Tales as Visions
1. Hiddushe HaRitba. ad loc . 591 2. In fact, the Paris Codex (Suppl. Heb. 1337) does not include W-1 in the body of the Talmud, but records it as a note on the margin. 3. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature . (Riqmat hayim: ha-yetsira ha–ammamit be-sifrut hazal. ) Tr. Batya Stein. (California: Stanford U P, 2000). 4. Yerushalmi, Brooks translation pages 142-146 at the end of chapter four. 5. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Tr. James Strachey. (New York: Avon Books, 1998). 6. Black, Margaret J. and Mitchell, Stephen A., Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought . (New York: Basic Books, 1995). 7. Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Tr. James Strachey. (New York: Liveright, 1961). 8. Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology: 1. Tr. John and Doreen Weightman. (New York: Harper and Row, C 1969). 9. Foucault, Michel. "Parrhesiasts – Diogenes: The Cynic Philosophers and Their Techniques." Michel Foucault, Info. Excerpt from Seminar 1983. 1998. 2 June 2006.
136 11. Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. Tr. Jack Sage. (New York: Philosophical Library. 1962), xv; 230. 12. Freud, Sigmund. "Civilization and Its Discontents." The Major Works of Sigmund Freud. (Chicago: William Benton, U of Chicago, 1952). 13. Foucault, Michel. "The Ship of Fools." Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Tr. Richard Howard. (New York: Vintage Books, 1965). 14. The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation . Tractate Hullin. Tr. Tzvee Zahavy. (Atlanta, Scholars P, 1994), V 30 C. 15. Shternhertz, Rabbi Nathan. Likkutei Halahot. Yoreh De'ah 1. (Jerusalem: Keren Rav Yisrael Dov Odesser.) The original Hebrew of Rabbi Nathan's text reads as follows: וזה בחינת איסור חלדה בשחיטה שלא יכסה שום דבר על הסכין של שחיטה . ונקראת לשון חולדה כמו שפירש כמו שפירש רש " (י חולין ט עמוד א ) כחולדה זו התחובה בחורין . My translation of the text: This is the aspect of the prohibition of "concealment" in slaughtering which prohibits anything from covering the knife blade during the slaughtering. This is called HaLaDah, which is a language of concealment as Rashi explains in the Bavli, Hullin 9a 'like this weasel HuLDah that hides in holes'. Rabbi : דף יב ' עמ ב' Nathan continues his exposition of the root HLD on ועל כן כשרצה דוד לגלות גודל ההעלמה של העולם ולהודיע האמת שהכל הבל וריק רק להתקרב להשם יתברך קרא את העולם יושבי חלד על שם החולדה שהוא בחינת ההעלמה כחולדה זאת שדרה בחורין במארב ובהעלמה שזהוא בחינת הקליפה החזקה שמעלמת ומסתרת הא מת מן העולם. My translation of the text: Therefore, when David wished to reveal how extensive is the concealment that exists in the world and to reveal the truth that everything is insubstantial and empty, aside from drawing close to Hashem may he be blessed, he called [the people of] the world "Dwellers in HaLeD." The meaning of the rat HuLDah , symbolizes concealment like the rat which lives in holes and in diversion and concealment. It symbolizes the powerful shell that conceals and hides the truth from the world. 16. This translation is from The Holy Scriptures: According to the Masoretic Text. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1917). 17. Totem and Taboo . (England: Penguin Books, 1940 C 1919), 142, 184
137 Chapter Four: The Lives of Rabbah Bar Hannah and Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah: An Imaginative Reconstruction
1. Frieman, Shulamis. "Rabbah Bar Chana." Who's Who in the Talmud. (New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1995), 242-243. 2. Ibid. See: R' Yehudah Hanassi, 360-361. 3. Ibid. See: R' Chiya, 110-112. 4. Naftal, Avraham Moshe. "Rav." HaTalmud VeYozrav: Dorot Ha'amoraim 1. (Tel Aviv: Yavne P, 1976), 42. The text reads as follows: רבי ( רבי יהודה הנשיא ) בהכירו יפה את תכונות שני תלמידיו , אופיים , אישיותם וכשרונותיהם , ידע שרבה בר חנה – על אף גדולתו בתורה – הוא פחות מוכשר ומזהיר מרב חברו , ודוקא משום כך החליט להעדיפו בעניין הסמיכה , כדי שבני בבל ינהגו בו כבוד . מאידך , לא היה רב זקוק להמלצה מעין זו – כי בלאו הכי ינהגו בו כב וד . וד My translation: Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi was very familiar with the qualities of his two students, their characters, personalities, and skills. He knew that RBH, despite his greatness in Torah, was less talented and charismatic than Rav, his fellow student. For this very reason, he [Rabbi Yehudah Hanassi] decided to favor him [RBH] in regards to the ordination so that the Babylonian Jews would respect him. In contrast, Rav did not need recommendations of this sort since in any event he was treated with respect. 5. Frieman, See: Rav (R' Abba Bar Aivu), 252-255. 6. Interestingly, in one of the desert tales, D-2, RBBH attempts to retrieve one of the tsitsith worn by the original generation that had died in the desert. 7. See the end of chapter 3 in: Schnall, David J., Dr. "For They Are My Servants: Parameters of Employee Relations in Classic Jewish Thought." Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem. June 28, 2006.
138 מרכזי תורה וחכמה היו קיימים בבבל מימי קדם ... אולם , לפי צורתם , סמכותם , וסדריהם הפנימיים , לא היו אלה " ישיבות " ( מתיבתות –) במתכונת הישיבה הקיימת בארץ ישראל – אלא בתי מדרש לתורה , ללא סדרי ישיבה וללא סמכויות ראשי ישיבה ... ברם ", הישיבות " בארץ ישראל ... שימשו גם " בתי ועד " לגדולי התורה , ומקומות כינוס וריכוז לחכמי הדור , ראשיו ומנהיגיו ב אותם מועדי- כינוס היו מידיינים בצוותא בשאלות הזמן ובבעיות השעה , היו מבררים עניני תורה וענייני ציבור , פוסקים פסקי- דין ומכריעים ספקות בהלכה ונוהג , מתקנים תקנות לצרכי הכלל , ופותרים בעיות שהזמ ן גרמן ... וכך היו גם ישיבות בבל , משעת היווסדן – בדור רב ... ועד סוף ימי קיומן , בתום תקופת הגאונים ( אמצע המאה האחת עשרה למניינם , בקירוב ). My translation of this text: Centers of Torah and wisdom existed in Babylon in ancient times. However, by their structure and authority they were not considered yeshivas like those in the Land of Israel. They were merely centers of Torah education without rabbinic authority. In contrast, the yeshivas in the Land of Israel were governing bodies and meeting places for the rabbinic leaders. Pertinent questions and problems were discussed, both of religious and public interest. [The leaders] made judicial decisions regarding laws and customs, and legislated new enactments addressing timely issues. This also became true of the Babylonian yeshivas which were founded in the days of Rav, and whose authority lasted up until the 1100's. 10. Shalev, Mordecai. " Pigisha Al HaYarden. " BeHevlei Masoret UTemura . Ed. Menachem Kahana. Rehovot: Kivunim P. 1990: 197-198. 11. Neusner, See Yoma V.A.: 34. 12. See: Mishna Tractate Avot, 6:5. 13. Freud, Sigmund. "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: Infantile Sexuality." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. (London: Hogarth P, 1953), V 7. 14. See Maharsha, ad loc. 15. It is interesting to note that even in today's Jewish meditative practices we find the presence of jewels and bright colors. Gutman Locks, who is a contemporary teacher and practitioner of Jewish meditation, describes a visionary experience which he calls the City of Jewels. In this experience, the meditator has been experiencing many hours of normal, colorless meditation when suddenly, completely unexpected, the breathtaking vision of a city entirely made of flaming jewels flashes into his mind's eye! In this city, each block of every building is alternately a blaring red ruby or a brilliant, deep blue
139 sapphire, each exquisite jewel more vivid and more glittering than the next. See: Locks, Gutman. "Shifts in Consciousness." Taming the Raging Mind: 105 Jewish Meditation Techniques and the Mystical Experiences They Can Produce. (Jerusalem: Gutman Locks, 2005), 209. 16. Rabbi Yohanan pondered verse 54:12 in Isaiah. See Maharsha , ad loc. 17. Intuitively I sense that Rabbi Yohanan held that a proper vision is a purely intellectual kind of seeing, an apprehension of Torah ideas. When such ideas are expressed symbolically, the result is an allegory. Consequently, my impression of the travel tales is that they should be read allegorically, except for T-1 and T-5 which can be read as quite factual, in particular, T-1 which is Rabbi Yohanan's description of a whale sighting. It sets the stage by presenting an instance of factual observation. The message is given that if you want to see amazing things, then there's plenty out there to see. If however, you want to see something non-factual, you had better use your intellect to apprehend Torah ideas. What I cannot fathom is the placement of T-5, which is the oldest of the tales and placed towards the end. 18. We are not told who this rabbinic figure was, but only that he was a person with considerable influence. 19. Schafer, Peter. "From the Bar Kochba Revolt to the Arab Conquest of Palestine." The History of the Jews in Antiquity: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Tr. David Chowcat. (Luxembourg: Harwood Academic P, 1995),175.
Chapter Five: The Tales and Their Interpretations
1. Neusner's translation, 48. 2. Slotki's translation, 289 n 5. 3. Ibid. n 6. 4. According to Neusner's translation of the verse. However, children are obviously intended, as we see in Targum Jonathan, ad loc . 5. "The Structure of Babylonian Talmud Baba Batra." Rationality and Structure: The Bavli's Anomalous Juxtapositions. (Atlanta: Scholars P, 1997), 122-123.
140 6. This intention is itself a reflection of the Torah-centered world view, which is the dominant ideology among the sages. Of course, the RBBH tales have an opposite orientation as we have explained at length. However, this does not stop the redactor from including the RBBH tales, and as it were, using them against their author's original intentions. 7. Robinson, B. A. "Principal Christian Symbols: The Fish (Ichthus), Cross and Crucifix." Religious Tolerance. Org. (1997-2005 Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance). 21 October 2005. May 13, 2006.
141 translated word for word reads, and I saw , וחזיתיה בי מרבעתיה דכוכבא The phrase .13 it the underside of a star . One might assume that it is precisely the underside of the star that is seen and that the word it is an "anticipatory pronoun." For a longer discussion of this grammatical form, see: Frank, Yitzhak. Grammar For Gemara: An Introduction to Babylonian Aramaic. (Jerusalem: Ariel, 1975), 132-3. However, I find this explanation . וחזיתיה לבי מרבעתיה דכוכבא ,unsatisfactory, for if it were so, the phrase would then read "to" ל The anticipatory pronoun is usually used in addition to the direct-object indicator gives the ל which serves to mark an object receiving the action. The absence of this impression that something else is being seen in the underside of the star, since the An example . בי or in is automatically implied at the beginning of the word ב preposition , עבד רבה עובדא בי כיתנא ,of this kind of phrase can be found in the Bavli, Bava Metsia, 18b Rabbah did an action in the flax-house , referring to a halachic ruling. 14. In their translations of this tale, both Neusner and Slotki follow a version of the tale which differs significantly from both the VE and the HC. Instead of reading, as does the HC, "it was (huge) like a scattering place of 40 bushels of mustard," Neusner following Slotki, reads, "There was a flash as if one shot forty arrows of iron." This " והוה כי מבזר ארבעי גריוי " ,reading can be constructed by taking the HC text which reads ". והוה כי מבזק ארבעי גירי דפרזלא " ,and changing merely four letters, so that it reads דחרדלא However, I examined four additional manuscript versions of this tale: 1- Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, II.1.8-9; 2- Munich, Bayerische StaaBTibliothek-95; 3- Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale , Suppl. Heb. 1337; and 4- Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica, Ebr. 115, and have found no textual support for either Nuesner's or Slotki's version of the text. All the above texts explicitly mention mustard. See: Ozar Kitve Yad Talmudiyyim,
142 consisting of "the underworld, the earth, sky, and heaven." Soleyman, Emil. "Observations of Mesopotamian and Elamite Ziggurats." Nishra.com.
143 in Zevahim, 113b asserts that the rema in W-4 is none other than the pygarg of Deuteronomy 14:4. He also notes that the wild ox which was referred to as bufles in Old French, is bovine and should in no way be confused with our rema . On the other hand, the Maharsha in Bava Batra, ad loc . indeed identifies the rema of W-4 with the wild ox. Neusner follows this lead in Zevahim and translates rema as buffalo. The rema in the TZ version of W-4 he calls a "sea-buffalo." He seems to be following a text that does not daughter of the sea . This version of the text בת ימא one day old , but rather בת יומא read is noted by the Tosafot both in Zevahim and Bava Batra and rejected, since it is clear from the discussion in Zevahim that a land animal is intended. I follow the Tosafot in my translation, and translate rema as pygarg for the following reason: The pygarg in scripture is related to the gazelle, whose young is called 'ofer in Hebrew and orzila in Aramaic. (See Song of Songs 7:3 and the Targum Yonatan there). The English word Gazelle derives from the Arabic ghazal . Since the soft G in Arabic is quite close to the R sound, it seems possible that the word Gazelle actually derives from the Aramaic orzila , which then would most likely refer to the young of the gazelle or deer. An orzila of a rema would then most likely mean the fawn of a pygarg. The young of a wild ox would more likely be called a calf or egla . 23. The sameness of the word "ark" when used in reference to Noah's ark and in reference to the Holy Ark of the synagogue is not incidental. It is carried over from the Hebrew. Noah's ark is called the tevah . The Holy Ark that contains the Torah scrolls is similarly called a tevah in Mishna Ta'anit, 2:1. 24. The JPS translation reads this phrase as "the beauteous land." However, Rabbenu Sa'adya Gaon, in his commentary ad loc . notes that the Land of Israel is called Erets Hatsevi because it is the land which G-d desires. 25. Heschel, Abraham Joshua. "Continuity is the Way: Spatial Symbols." Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism. (New York: Charles Scribner's Son's, 1954). 26. RBBH's vision of the frog, snake and raven also contains an implied critique of the Torah-centered viewpoint. According to this viewpoint the Torah is something far greater than Nature and indeed controls it. Yet, even the most ardent adherent of this viewpoint must acknowledge that it stems from Nature since the raven, whose example
144 inspires the Torah scholars to live non-naturally, is part of Nature. Can the Torah really be greater than Nature, when the Torah scholars need to take examples from Nature to know how to progress in their studies? If so, the entire Torah-centered viewpoint contradicts itself! 27. I make no claims to any knowledge of philosophy, but am merely following the images of this tale to where they lead. My understanding of the categories of Being, Time, and Form is the result of my knowledge of grammar and language from my experience and as an English teacher. I know that whatever can be talked about, must have Being and Time, and can only be expressed by a structured combination of words, Form. 28. It has been noted that this tale is similar to one of the legendary tales of Sinbad the Sailor which are located in The One Thousand and One Nights.
145 not what we would call scientific, it is possible that the sages studied and practiced medicine according to the science of their day. Yaron Yadan cites Dr. David Margalit who claims, "The words of Chazal in the Mishnah and the Gemara, surprisingly, give time and again instructions on using complex instruments, on performing complicated operations with anesthetic, for using abortificants, etc. The conclusion to be drawn is that there was a well-developed, steady school of learning and research into the development of humans and animals, experiments, and the development of surgical skills" (A). Yadan disagrees vociferously with this position claiming of the sages of Babylon that "No aspiration towards philosophy in its ancient sense -- the study of nature based in reason -- can be discerned amongst them. Chazal did not write systematically or scientifically, and it seems that is not how they thought, either. The sages of Babylon dealt with their religion and their faith only, and all topics upon which they touched or which they discussed were in this context. The field of medicine, which we discussed in this chapter, shows it unequivocally. The sages of Babylon lived in an era in which many medical treatises had already been written in Greece and Rome; if Chazal were interested in knowing the advanced medicine of their times they could have…but they did not try to find out about contemporary medicine because they did not want to. The sages of Babylon were interested only in the survival of the religious community in terms of faith and economics" (B). I am willing to accept Yadan's negative assessment of the Talmudic sages' interest in science and medicine. Nevertheless, my assessment of RBBH and my reading of his tales suggest to me that RBBH was precisely the sort of Rabbi to go against the stream in this regard. If philosophical and rational medicinal information was out there, I sense that RBBH would have been just the Rabbi to try and seek it out, especially if he had a strong personal motivation. I think that might just have been the case. 33. Neusner follows Slotki's translation of this tale. There is one point related to this explanation which I find unconvincing. The fish is said to be moving up, this means to say it is swimming against the wind. Now, I understand the relevance of the boat going with the wind. The boat is moving much faster than usual, and even so it takes three days and three nights to traverse the space between the fins. This serves to magnify the size of the fish. But what is the relevance of the fish swimming against the wind? The direction
146 of the wind is not likely to affect the fish's swimming. If anything it would slow the fish down somewhat. The whole passage makes more sense if we say the fish is swimming with the current and the boat is traveling with the wind. Now the speed of the fish and the speed of the ship are both accelerated, and even so it takes three days and three nights to travel from one fin to the next. Indeed, in our common speech, we speak of wind as moving down, even though in objective terms the wind may be moving in a horizontal direction. Thus in English we say "down-wind" to indicate to where the wind is blowing. Similarly, flowing water is considered to be moving down even if it is not changing altitude. Thus we say "down-river". Still, I can't think of any logical reason why one could not describe a river as flowing "up" to the sea. It is simply a linguistic convention. I would like to suggest the possibility that in Aramaic one would speak of water flowing up and wind blowing down. So when the tale tells us the fish is moving up, this means it is swimming with the current. When the tale tells us that the boat is moving down this means it is traveling with the wind. Now both the upward direction of the fish and the downward direction of the boat make sense. Both movements together magnify the dimensions of the fish. 34. See Yadan's text, end of Unit 7, "Charmed-Based Medicine." 35. Twain, Mark. "Concerning The Jews." Harper's Magazine, March, 1898 . In "Mark Twain: Concerning The Jews , Harper's Magazine, March, 1898." Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Paul Halsall. Fordham University (2007). January 1999 in point No. 6, 7 August 2007
147 Works Cited Primary Sources Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Batra, Standard Vilna Edition. Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah."Bavli Baba Batra Chapter Five." The Talmud of Babylonia: Tractate Baba Batra. Tr. Jacob Neusner. Atlanta: Scholars P, 1992 V 22C. The Hamburg Codex, Tractate Baba Batra Talmud Bavli Seder Nezikin Ketav Yad Hamburg 165 (19) Zilum Faqsimali shel Ketav Hayad Beziruf Zilum Mahadurat L. Goldschmidt (Berlin 1914) Hakolelet Shihzur Mezuyar, Mevo Vehe'arot Me-et Hamahadir .
Secondary Sources Alsevili, Rabbeinu Yom Tov Ben Avraham. Hiddushe HaRitba. Tractate Baba Batra. Ed. Rabbi Jacob David Ilan. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 2005. Assmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1997. Ben-Amos, Dan. "Tall Tale: The Rhetoric of Exaggeration." Narrative Forms in the Haggadah: Structural Analysis. Ann Arbor: U Microfilms, 1967. Bible, King James Version. "Matthew." The Electronic Text Center, U of Virginia Library: 02 Nov. 2006: [email protected]. 13 Feb. 2007
148 Detienne, M. "Between Beasts and Gods." Myth, Religion and Society. Ed. R. L. Gordon. Cambridge: Cambridge U P , 1981. Donne, John. "Death's Duel." John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P. 1969. Edels, Rabbi Shelomo. Known as Maharsha, Hiddushei Aggadot. Tractate Baba Batra, 73 a-b. Eisenstein, Judah David. Tr. The Tales of Rabbah bar-bar Hannah: The Aramaic Text with Hebrew Translation. New York: Behrman's Jewish Book House, 1937 Encyclopedia Hebraica . Israel: Encyclopedia P. 1979. Encyclopedia Judaica . "Rabbah Bar Bar Hana." A. Ar. Jerusalem: Keter P House, 1972 V 13. Feldman, Aharon. The Juggler and the King: The Jew and the Conquest of Evil. Jerusalem: Lahav Publications, 1990. Feust, Rabbi Yehuda. " Parshanut Sippurei Rabbah Bar Bar Hannah – Ben Realia Lealegoria. " Shema'atin. Tevet – Nissan, 2002. Fishbane, Michael. "Rabbinic Mythmaking and Tradition: The Great Dragon Drama in b. Baba Batra 74b-75a." Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg . Ed. Mordechai Cogan, Barry L. Eichler and Jeffrey H. Tigay. Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1997. Foucault, Michel. "Parrhesiasts – Diogenes: The Cynic Philosophers and Their Techniques." Foucault.Info. Seminar, 1983 (1998-2006). in par. 3, 2 May 2006.
149 Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P. V 15. 1963. ---. "The Acquisition and Control of Fire." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P, 1975 C 1964 V 22. ---. "The Antithetical Meaning of Primal Words." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P. V 11, 1975 C 1957. ---. "The Dissection of the Psychical Personality." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P, 1975 C 1964 V 22. ---. The Interpretation of Dreams. Tr. James Strachey. New York: Avon Books, 1998 ---. "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P, 1975 V 6. ---. "The Uncanny." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P, 1955 V 17. ---. "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: Infantile Sexuality." The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Tr. James Strachey. London: Hogarth P, 1953 V 7. ---. Totem and Taboo . England: Penguin Books, 1940 C 1919. Frieman, Shulamis. Who's Who in the Talmud . New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1995. Ginzberg, Louis. On Jewish Law and Lore. New York: Atheneum, 1977. Glick, Rabbi S. H., Notes to En Jacob: Agada of the Babylonian Talmud. Ed. Rabbi Jacob Ibn-Chabib. Tr. Rabbi S. H. Glick. USA, 1921 V 4. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature . ( Riqmat hayim: ha-yetsira ha–ammamit be-sifrut hazal. ) Tr. Batya Stein. California: Stanford U P, 2000. Hefner, Alan G. "Lilith." The Mystica. (1997-2006). 26 Jan. 2006. 28 May 2006.
150 and Dov Noy. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1971. Henderson, Joseph L. "Ancient Myths and Modern Man." Man and His Symbols. Ed. Carl Jung. London: Pan Books. 1978. Heschel, Abraham Joshua. "Continuity is the Way: Spatial Symbols." Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism. New York: Charles Scribner's Son's, 1954. Ibn-Chabib, Rabbi Jacob. En Jacob: Agada of the Babylonian Talmud. Tr. Rabbi S. H. Glick: USA, 1921 V 4. Jastrow, Marcus. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature . New York: Pardes P House, 1950. Kraemer, David. "On Writing an Intellectual History of the Bavli." The Mind of the Talmud: An Intellectual History of the Bavli. Oxford: Oxford U P, 1990. Lendering, Jona. "Hanno." Livius: Articles on Ancient History. (1996-2006). Jona Lendering. in unit 18, 7 March 2006.
151 Ni-Mheallaigh, Karen Dr. "Research to Investigate Links Between Ancient Greeks and Modern Science Fiction." Archaeology News. Samantha Martin. 6 June 2005. U of Liverpool. 3 Feb. 2006
152 Yisrael Dov Odesser. Soleyman, Emil. "Observations of Mesopotamian and Elamite Ziggurats." Nishra.com. 11 Feb. 2007
153 Yadan, Yaron. "Medicine in the Babylonian Talmud." Talk Reason. 13 Feb. 2007 http://www.talkreason.org/articles /medicine.cfm> . Zweig, Rabbi Yochanan, "Land of Israel, The Maid Servant of Israel." Talmudic University. Lecture, 16 July 2003. 11 July 2006.
Translation and Research Assistance Rabbi Nathan Glick of the Or Hahechal Center for Jewish Spirituality
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הוקרה ותודה
התיזה הזאת היא תוצאה של שנים רבות של התפתחות והבשלה שכלית . הלימודים שלי השתרעו על פני שבע עשרה שנה . במשך התקופה הזאת , בעליות ובירידות , בשמחה ובעצב , פרופ ' גרדה אילתה- אלסטר , מורתי ומדריכתי , ליוותה אותי עם המאגר האדיר שלה של ידע ומו שגים יחד עם שלוות הנפש וחיוך התמידי שלה . לה אני אסירת תודה בכל ליבי . . למשך תקופה זו , פרופ ' אפרים זיכר עמד לצידי להדריך , לידע ולהרחיב את דעתי . הוא תמיד עידד אותי כשאיבדתי תקווה. לו אני מוסרת את תודותי בהערכה רבה . . אני נהניתי מאוד משנותי באונ יברסיטה בן - גור יון בנגב במחלקה לספרויות זרות ובלשנות שהרחיבו את אופקי מעל לכל ציפיותי . כל מורותי השאירו בי רושם בל ימחק , ובכללם , פרופ ' מרק גלבר "ד, ר חניטה גוטבלאט , ופרופ ' ישי טובין . להם תודותי העמוקות . במיוחד אני חייבת להודות למזכירת המחלקה , סוזן גנות , שתמיד עמדה לצידי בסבלנות בלתי נלאית וחיוך בלתי מנוצח . ידיעותיה בנהלי המחלקה והמוכנות שלה ללכת לפנים משורת הדין , היו לי למשען בהשגת מטרותי . בנוסף , אני רוצה להביע הוקרה לפרופ ' מאיר גרובר מ המחלקה למקרא, ארכיאולוגיה והמזרח הקדום על ההכוונה וההדרכה שקיבלתי ממנו , ועל זה ש הפגיש א ותי אם העולם המרתק של ניתוח כתבי יד תלמודיים . . אני מודה להורי , להורי בעלי ול ילדי , על אהבתם , תמיכתם , הבנתם וסבלנותם איתי , במיוחד ברגעים הקשים . . ולבסוף , אני מודה לבעלי הרב ד" ר נתן גליק , על נוכחותו הקורנת בחיי . העזרה החיונית שלו בחקר ובתרגום הטקסטים התלמודי ים הרבים היו לי מנוף לתובנות חדשות . היכולת שלו המדהימה לגשת למדף ספרים עמוס , לפתוח ספר ולהראות לי בדיוק את הציטוט הנחוץ לי , הייתה ותמיד תהיה פלאי בעיני . נתן , אתה אחת הברכות הגדולות שנתן לי א- לקים . אהבתי ותודותי הם מעל לכל ביטוי מילולי . ומעל לכל , מודה א ני לך -א, ל בורא עולם , על שהחייני וקיימני והיגיעני לזמן הזה . יהי רצון שאזכה לקדש את שמך ברבים .
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טבע , חברה ועצמיות האדם : זווית- ראייה חדשה על אגדותיו של רבה בר בר חנה
בתלמוד בבלי ( בבא בתרא עג ע ב-א' ) מופיעים אגדותיו של רבה בר בר חנה ( אשר הינו אמו רא שחי בבבל ובארץ ישראל במאה השלישית לספירה ). הסיפורים המוזרים האלו מדברים על מסעי פלא בים וביבשה ומפגשים עם חיות ענק . הסיפורים ידועים בהגזמות המוקצנות שלהם ובדרך כלל נחשבים לסיפורי עם דמיוניים או למשלים בעלי משמעויות נסתרות . בהתבססות על מסורת הגאונים , אני מציעה שעשרת הסיפורים הראשונים הם רישומי חזיונות שחווה רבה , אשר בהם הוא מנסה להכיר את המיסתורין שבטבע כהוויה יחודית ועצמאית . יתכן שמגמה זו נוגדת את הדעה המקובלת בימי חז ל" שראתה את התורה כמציאות עליון אשר הטבע הוא רק צלה . לדעתי יתכן שסיפורי רבה מציגים תפיסה מיתית של הטבע אשר בה כל ההויה כלולה בחיות אחת שמורגשים בה זרמים בדומה לזרמים שבים . מה זרמים שבטבע מתהוים סמלים ורעיונות בעלות השפעה בין על עצמיות האדם הפרטי , בין על החברה ואף כאלו הנותנים ביסוס להשקפות ע ולם שלמות . בנוסף אני מציעה שסיפורי רבה מציגים חזון של חברה זורמת ומתפתחת המורכבת מבני אדם בעלי אופי עצמאי , המכירים בהשפעת הטבע בנפשם ואינם נעולים בהשקפת עולם סגורה ומוחלטת . גם ניתן לומר שסיפורי רבה מתייחסים לפיצול בין קהילות יהודי ארץ ישראל ויהודי בבל ושני כרת בהם התקווה לאחדות בין הקהילות . אני שואבת השראה מדרכיו של פרויד בפתרון חלומות , ואני נעזרת בגישתו בניתוח סיפורי רבה.
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אדר תשס" ז February 2007
אוניברסיטת בן - גוריון בנגב הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה המחלקה לספרויות זרות ובלשנות
טבע , חברה ועצמיות האדם : : זווית- ראייה חדשה על אגדותיו של רבה בר בר חנה
חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר " מוסמך למדעי הרוח והחברה " (.M.A)
מאת : רבקה גליק בהנחיית : פרופ ' גרדה אילתה - אלסטר בהנחיית : פרופ' מרק גלבר
חתימת המחבר : ______תאריך : ______אישור המנחה : ______תאריך : ______אישור יו" ר הועדה המחלקתית : ______תאריך : ______
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אוניברסיטת בן - גוריון בנגב הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה המחלקה לספרויות זרות ובלשנות
טבע , חברה ועצמיות האדם : : זווית- ראייה חדשה על אגדותיו של רבה בר בר חנה
חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר " מוסמך למדעי הרוח והחברה " (.M.A)
מאת : רבקה גליק בהנחיית : פרופ ' גרדה אילתה - אלסטר בהנחיית : פרופ' מרק גלבר
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