Today's Daf is one of the best I've studied in a long time. I want to share one of its many stories that I think speaks for itself. However, i'll provide commentary in italics.
Judah and Hezekiah, the sons of R. Hiyya, once sat at table with Rabbi and uttered not a word.
I imagine they were shy in the presence of such a great scholar
Whereupon he said: Give the young men plenty of strong wine, so that they may say something. When the wine took effect, they began by saying: The son of David (the Messiah) cannot appear until the two ruling houses in Israel shall have come to an end, viz., the Exilarchate, in Babylon and the Patriarchate in Palestine, for it is written, And he shall be for a Sanctuary, for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both houses of Israel.
The boys essentially told them that the Messiah would come only when major leaders of Israel and Babylonia were destroyed. They prove this from a quote from Isaiah 8:14. He (the Messiah) will serve as a sanctuary for the Jewish people but only when he gets in the way and pushes out "both houses of Israel" will he have the space to come.
Thereupon he [Rabbi] exclaimed: You throw thorns in my eyes, my children!
Rabbi was the Nasi, the head of the Israel community. This prophesy meant that he and his family would lose power. In essence, the two brothers got so drunk they forgot who they were talking to and insulted the host of their party.
At this, R. Hiyya [his disciple] remarked: Master, be not angered, for the numerical value of the letters of wine (yayin) is seventy, and likewise the letters of sod: When yayin [wine] goes in, sod [secrets] comes out.
R. Hiyyah defends his idiot sons by telling Rabbi that it wasn't their fault but was rather the wine. He proves this by using gematria.
He explains that the Hebrew word for wine is Yayin which has a total value of 70:
י = 10
י = 10
ן = 50
Sod (secret) has the same total:
ס = 60
ו = 6
ד = 4
Total = 70
Thus because wine and secrets have the same numerical value they must be connected. This allows the Rabbis to say the most important lesson in this story: when you drink wine, secrets come out.
And what was the secret in this story? Perhaps it was that the brothers didn't respect the power of Rabbi and would rather have seen the Messiah come. However, it took getting drunk to get the chutzpah to say this. This story is an important lesson to all of us (like me) who struggle with saying inappropriate things at the wrong time. Alcohol and tact do not mix.
Monday, March 22, 2010
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A brilliant story! Also, excellent post.
ReplyDeleteJust in case you think Gematria is dead...
http://real-world-news.org/numerics/english-gematria.html
It's so useful!
This is a really interesting story and post. There is one thing I don't understand though. Why are R Hiyya's comments comforting to the Rabbi? Hiyya blames the wine for the sons' indiscretion, but also tells the Rabbi that wine causes secrets to come out. Wouldn't this imply that the sons' drunken ramblings contain truth? Hiyya doesn't say, 'don't worry, they're drunk and don't know what they're saying.' He says, 'don't worry, wine unlocks secrets.' If I were the Rabbi, this would concern rather than comfort me. Maybe the sons wouldn't have said what they said without wine, but they are merely speaking truths that the wine empowered them to share.
ReplyDeleteI like your interpretation of the secret. It might explain why they were being so quiet to begin with, and why they "opened the discussion" with their "secret" after only being "a little intoxicated."
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to say embarrassing stuff when you're drunk, but it's quite another for those embarrassing words to be the first ones out of your mouth! That makes it seem like there were some pent up feelings waiting to come out. Or maybe it's something they had heard their dad say...that would be a big secret.
Anyway, I would have liked to hear Rabbi's response too.