Returning again and again (157b)

One of my favorite prayers is the Hadran prayer. It's the prayer I say when I finish a book of Talmud. On Valentines Day I'll be reciting it for Bava Batra, the longest tractate of Talmud (176 pages).

The reason I love this prayer is because it acknowledges that we don't always understand the text of the Talmud fully the first time around. The word "hadran" means "we will return." In essence, we finish a book of Talmud by acknowledging that there so much more to learn from the book. In my case, the blistering pace of Daf Yomi forces me to accept that I won't remember everything or that there are arguments that I don't understand but that I need to put to rest for the meantime. But even if I have the Talmud memorized, I still am not "done" studying it. Although the text doesn't change, I am always changing and therefore my perspective on the text must always be changing as well.

This is not a new idea. In fact even the Rabbis in the Talmud knew this. If I stay on pace (one page every day), it will take me 7.5 years to finish the whole Talmud. For Rav Ashi and many other Rabbis living between 200-500 it took much longer.  Tradition teaches that it took 30 years to teach all the material that would eventually become our Talmud (Rav Hai Gaon speaks about this in one of his responsa).

Rav Ashi was privileged with a long career; he was able to teach 2 full cycles (60 years). In today's daf we learn that over the course of his career, Rav Ashi came to view the text differently. On his second cycle he saw something new in the issue of contracts and leans. Perhaps he was different. Perhaps his milieu had changed. No matter the reason, when Rav Ashi returned to the text he had a different perspective and therefore made a different ruling.

Rav Ashi is an inspiration to all of us who love text. His story teaches us that we are never done learning and that we can and should always be revisiting the lessons of our youth to place them in the context of our present and prepare for our lives in the future.

Hadran Aleich Rav Ashi.
We will return to you Rav Ashi

For a more detailed look at the Hadran prayer and some of the law associated with it click here.