Rabbis on the Road: Exposition En Route in Classical Rabbinic Texts by Ruth Ellen Haber A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the Graduate Theological Union in Jewish Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Daniel Boyarin, chair Professor Dina Stein Professor Michael Nylan Fall 2014 Abstract Rabbis on the Road: Exposition En Route in Classical Rabbinic Texts by Ruth Ellen Haber Joint Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish Studies with the Graduate Theological Union University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair Throughout classical rabbinic texts, we find accounts of sages expounding Scripture or law, while “walking on the road.” We may well wonder why we find these sages in transit, rather than in the usual sites of Torah study, such as the bet midrash (study house) or ʿaliyah (upper story of a home). Indeed, in this corpus of texts, sages normally sit to study; the two acts are so closely associated, that the very word “sitting” is synonymous with a study session or academy. Moreover, throughout the corpus, “the road” is marked as the site of danger, disruption and death. Why then do these texts tell stories of sages expounding en route? In seeking out the rabbinic road, I find that, against these texts’ pervasive notion of travel danger runs another, competing motif: the road as the proper – even necessary – site of Torah study. Tracing the genealogy of the road exposition (or “road derasha”), I find it rooted in traditional Wisdom texts, which have been adapted to form a new, “literal” metaphor. The motif of sages expounding en route actualizes the Proverbial “Way of Wisdom” making it a real road upon which sages tread. That way is paved by a (literalized) reading of the Shema’s command, “speak [these words] as you walk on the road…” In the first part of my study, I consider the motif’s setting, asking what rabbinic texts tell us about this site. I find that danger is the keynote of discourse about the road; indeed the multitude of dangers and risks indicate that this is a far from suitable place for Torah study. Rabbinic discourse about the road seems to preclude discourse while on the road. The second part of my work focuses on teachings that (in spite of this pervasive sense of road danger) actually adjure travelers to study en route, declaring that Torah study protects travelers on the way. Not only do these teachings seem to justify the accounts of road exposition, but they also point the way to the roots of the motif; by closely reading each teaching and its links to the larger corpus, I mark the way to the Wisdom tradition in which the motif is grounded, and which it transforms. Finally, in the last part of my study, I consider a text containing many road derashot – and of which the main theme is the journey. This text, which concerns esoteric wisdom, complicates our motif, for here (instead of guiding and protecting us on the way), Wisdom is considered a dangerous path, from which we are warned away. And yet, 1 even against warning and prohibition, it seems that the imperative to “speak [these words] on the way” is still in force. For here too, we find sages expounding on the way – accounts that are emblematic of the text’s larger discursive journey towards this dangerous wisdom. 2 For my mother i Transliteration and reference sources Transliteration: For the Hebrew and Aramaic words transliterated in this work, I have primarily used the Library of Congress Cataloging transliteration system: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/hebrew.pdf However, for proper names and the titles of tractates, I have used fewer diacritical marks (for ,and have sometimes opted for a more familiar ,(ׂש, ק, ט ,ו example, eschewing marks for commonly used spelling (such as Shabbat rather than the LCC’s Shabat). I have adopted this method in the hopes of a smoother read, and apologize for the remaining infelicities or inconsistencies. Reference sources: In the notes to this work, I refer to the following dictionaries of Aramaic: Jastrow, Marcus. Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature. New York: The Judaica Press, 1996. Sokoloff, Michael. A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period, Second Edition. Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2002. Sokoloff, Michael. A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods. Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2002. For brevity’s sake, I refer to these throughout as “Jastrow”; “Sokoloff (Babylonian)”; and “Sokoloff (Palestinian).” ii Contents Introduction: Embarking on the rabbinic road 1 Chapter One: Danger on the Road 10 Chapter Two: Wisdom on the Road 48 Chapter Three: Dangerous Wisdom 82 Conclusion: Departing be-shalom 128 iii Introduction: Embarking on the rabbinic road The second chapter of Bavli tractate Ḥagigah begins with a series of teachings that weave stunning, mythic images of the Creation of the world. Here we learn that God created the heavens by “taking fire and water and hurling them together”; we see “the depths shattered by His reason” and “the mountains set by His might.” We learn that “by the light created on the first day, one could have seen from one end of the world to the other.” Could have, but did not – for this is a landscape that as yet has no human footprints. Even the sages who describe it seem to do so from offstage, in teachings marked “our sages taught” and “Rav said,” but reported without any narrative setting; we hear their words, as it were, but do not see the sages speaking. Yet, quite suddenly – just after God’s elemental creation of the heavens – the scene abruptly changes: “R. Ishmael asked R. ʿAkiva, as they were walking on the road: For twenty-two years you served Naḥum ish Gamzo … Tell me, how would he expound [And God created] the heavens and the earth?” Suddenly our sages are visible; they seem to have walked right onto the primordial stage – or rather, to have changed the setting entirely. We might well wonder why, in the midst of the momentous event of Creation, these two sages are doing something as mundane as “walking on the road.” Although, in this context, the sages’ sudden appearance on the road is particularly striking, their location is not unusual. Throughout rabbinic literature, others may be found expounding “on the road” – that is, while on a journey.1 As in the case above, these accounts often begin with a question: “As they were walking on the road, Rabbi Ishmael asked Rabbi Yehoshuʿa : Why are we forbidden the cheese of heathens?”2 Some contain their own “telling”: “Rabbi said, I once asked R. Yose and R. Shimʿon when they were walking on the road: What is the law when a menstruant examined herself on the seventh day…?”3 Rabbi marks the exchange as something to be retold, and indeed, it seems that road exposition is not only “heard of” but also expected; when erudite sages visit R. Shimʿon b. Yoḥai, he sends his students after the departing guests “to see what they expound on the way.”4 These and other accounts indicate that the rabbinic road is a place where exegetical, legal, and even metaphysical questions are asked and discussed. My work is a study of the rabbinic motif of teaching on the way – and the texts in which it is grounded. I begin by asking why we find these sages expounding on the road, instead of the expected sites of Torah study: the bet midrash (study house) or ʿaliyah (upper story of a home). Indeed, in classical rabbinic texts, sages normally sit to study; the two acts are so closely associated, that the very word “sitting” is synonymous with a study session or academy. So why are these sages teaching in transit? Finding our sages on the road is not in itself surprising, for these are texts in which people go places. We hear of jaunts to neighboring towns, as well as travel between Babylonia and Palestine, and journeys to Alexandria, Cappadocia, and Rome. Sea voyages 1 The expressions holkim ba-derekh and azli ba-orḥa most often indicate the act of traveling, rather than simply the act of walking. In fact, in some cases holkim ba-derekh refers to sages who are riding rather than walking (see for example, b.Ḥagigah 14b and b.Shabbat 52a), and in b.Bava Batra 73a, azlinan ba-orḥa refers to a sea voyage. 2 m.ʿAvodah Zarah 2:5, b.ʿAvodah Zarah 24a. 3 b.Niddah 68b. This is actually only the beginning of Rabbi’s question, abbreviated here. 4 Genesis Rabbah 35:3. 1 and treks to the “wilderness” are reported; sailors, desert nomads and traveling tradesmen cross our path. In this world of people on the move, our sages are no exception. Indeed, classical rabbinic texts specifically describe scholars as travelers. In addition to accounts of rabbis on the road (such as those above), we also hear of sages “going from city to city and from province to province” to settle a halakhic question, and “scholars who go from town to town to study Torah.” Moreover, one text, which concerns professions that require extensive travel, lists among them “students who go away to study Torah.”5 And yet, if scholars must “go away” to study, there is ample reason not to study on the way. For in these texts, the road is most often the site of danger, loss and death, as is attested by two of its typical denizens: the robber and the met mitsṿah (abandoned corpse).