- Build Your Mitsvah
Portfolio
- Current Study Passage
- Join the Discussion
- Maqom Supporters
- Individualized Intensive
Learning
- Annotated Bibliography
- About Rabbinic Literature
- Previous Study Passages
-
- A Talmud Tale
- Jewish Texts: The Owner's
Manual
- The Tefillin Gift
Shop
- Guided Meditations
- The Maqom
Journal
- Art
- Links
- Home
-
- About Rabbi Abrams
HELP MAQOM!
|
CURRENT TALMUD PASSAGE
Learn with Rabbi Abrams!
If you like the website, you’ll love learning with Rabbi
Abrams in person even more! She can come to your synagogue or
group as a scholar-in-residence or you can learn with her long
distance via phone or skype. You can also have her teach single
lectures to your group. Click here for a list of just a few of the
talks available.
Posted January 27, 2010, by Rabbi Judy Abrams. Please refer
to Maqom's home page for information about previous passages.
BH
THE SOUND OF ONE HAND CLAPPING IN THE
THE YERUSHALMI © Judith Z. Abrams, 2010
Well, you study enough Yerushalmi, I
guess you see it all. I thought only eastern religions had the
"sound of one hand clapping" but we have it here in
the Yerushalmi. Of course, it's not exactly the tranquil phenomenon
of Buddhism that we find in the Yerushalmi.
Under question is the case of High Priest
who's been caught sinning. The sages agree that the High Priest
can be punished; the question is if he can be removed from office.
Reish Lakish starts us off:
Reish Lakish said: A ruler who sinned,
they administer lashes to him by the decision of a court of three
judges.
Can the High Priest then be restored
to office?
Said Rabbi Haggai: By Moses! If we put
him back into office, he will kill us! Rabbi Yudan Hanasi heard
Reish Lakish's teaching and was outraged. He sent guards to arrest
Reish Lakish. Reish Lakish fled to the watchman's lodge, and
some say, to Kfar Hittayya (a town near Tiberius).
The next day, Rabbi Yochanan went up
to the meetinghouse and Rabbi Yudan HaNasi went there, too. He
asked Rabbi Yochanan: Why does my master not state a teaching
of Torah?
Rabbi Yochanan began to clap with one
hand.
Rabbi said to him: Do people clap with
only one hand?
He said to him: No. For Ben Lakish is
not here. Just as one hand cannot clap, I cannot teach Torah
without my colleague Reish Lakish. (Y. Sanhedrin 2:1)
This passage shows the relationship
between Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan at its best. This is
what the pair of them lose when they "break up," which
is the most accurate description of their falling out. It's not
only the two sages who lose out, but the entire house of meeting
loses out from the interchange between the two.
Discussion Questions:
- I know it's dangerous to read any rabbinic
passage as if it were historically accurate, but it certainly
seems that Reish Lakish's words carry a lot of weight if he's
threatened with incarceration because of them. In this sense,
Rabbi Yohanan's refusal to teach with his study partner signals
another power play. So I invite you to speculate and "fill
in the blanks," i.e., write some midrash. What did Rabbi
Haggai and Rabbi Yudan do to make them so fearful of getting
punished and/or bounced out of office? Can you imagine who took
Reish Lakish in when he was on the run?
- This story underscores the importance
of having a study partner. Do you have one? If not, try and get
one and make yourself a friend in the process. If you have a
study partner, please write in and tell people how it changes
your study for the better.
- Clearly, Rabbi Yohanan is not just
Reish Lakish's friend, he's his advocate, as well. Could the
"study partner" paradigm work in other settings, e.g.,
professional colleagues, in college?
P.S. I¹ll admit it; the corresponding
passage in chapter 3 of Horayot in the Bavli is even more fun
than this one. Rabbi Joshua knows about Haley's comet!
|
The Secret
World of Kabbalah
is available at Amazon.com! To order, click here. Additionally, you can also download
a study
guide for use with
the text. |
Build
Your Mitsvah Portfolio | Current Study
Passage | Join the Discussion |
Maqom Supporters | Individualized
Intensive Learning | Annotated Bibliography
| Previous Study Passages | A
Talmud Tale | Jewish Texts: The Owner's
Manual | The Tefillin Gift Shop
| Guided Meditations
| The
Maqom Journal | Art | Links
| Home | About
Rabbi Abrams
Maqom: A Place for the Spiritually Searching admits students
of any race, color and national or ethnic origin. © 2002
Judith Z. Abrams |
