Sotah 032

נושא: Sotah

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If she has virtue it would postpone it for her. There is virtue that postpones for one year, there is virtue that postpones for two years, there is virtue that postpones for three years. For this reason ben-Azzai says that a person has a duty to teach his daughter Torah, so that should she need to drink she will know that the virtue will postpone it for her. Rabbi Eli'ezer says that anyone who teaches his daughter Torah is teaching her licentiousness, as it were. Rabbi Eli'ezer says that a woman prefers one kav of licentiousness to nine kavs of asceticism. He would say: A foolish saint, a crafty sinner, an ascetic woman and the lashes of the Pharisees – all these destroy the world

4:
We now turn our attention to the 'maĥloket' [difference of opinion] between the two sages mentioned by name in our mishnah: ben-Azzai and Rabbi Eli'ezer. More often than not the roots of a 'maĥloket' are to be found in dry scholasticism. Sometimes, however, a 'maĥloket' may have its roots in the individual personalities or histories of the protagonists. Of course, the views of both sages here may be completely altruistic, but somehow I suspect that this is not the case.

5:
Rabbi Shim'on ben-Azzai is almost invariably referred to as 'ben-Azzai'. This is usually a sign that the (fully qualified) sage was unmarried. In the case of ben-Azzai we know this to be the case. The Gemara [Yevamot 63b] relates:

Rabbi Eli'ezer would say that anyone who does not fulfill 'be fruitful and multiply' is like someone who sheds blood… Rabbi Ya'akov says that [such a person] is like someone who reduces the divine presence [in our world]… ben-Azzai says that [such a person] is like someone who both sheds blood and also reduces the divine presence. They said to him [the sages retorted to ben-Azzai]: There are those who expound [Torah] nicely and keep it nicely; there are those who keep it nicely but cannot so expound it; but you expound it nicely but do not keep it nicely. Ben-Azzai responded: What can I do? I have fallen in love with Torah. The world must be populated by others.

Rashi, in his commentary there, explains – rather gratuitously – that ben-Azzai was unmarried.

6:
Rabbi Eli'ezer was married to Imma Shalom. The title 'Imma' – just like its masculine counterpart, 'Abba' – is an indication that while this person is not a sage they are held in great respect by the sages for their wisdom and knowledge. (Shalom in tannaïtic times was a woman's name, like its derivatives Shelomit and Shelom-Zion [Salomé].) Imma Shalom was not only the wife of Rabbi Eli'ezer but also the sister of Rabban Gamli'el. In one account [Shabbat 116a] she is described as the major protagonist in an attempt together with her brother to unmask a corrupt 'rabbi' who was in fact one of the new Nazarenes (Christians). In another more famous account [Bava Metzi'a 59b] she is described as preventing her husband from saying certain private prayers for fear of his praying for divine justice to 'deal' with her brother. But, surely, the most relevant passage is to be found in Nedarim 20a-b:

They [the sages] asked Imma Shalom why she had such handsome sons. She replied: 'He does not 'converse' with me either at the beginning of the night or at the end of the night, but only in the middle of the night; and when he does 'converse' he uncovers one cubit while covering up two; and he appears to be forcing himself to act [literally: forced by a devil]. I asked him why this is the case and he told me that it was so that 'I shall not start looking at other women', thus making his children 'mamzerim' [illegitimate].

I shall leave it to qualified psychologists to explain this behaviour of Rabbi Eli'ezer, and I shall just express my own view that it seems to indicate a psychosis of some kind. His own wife clearly states that Rabbi Eli'ezer did not derive much pleasure from his intimate relationship with her.

7:
Regardless of their possible motives, in our present mishnah these two sages are each proposing a halakhic ruling, each mutually contradictory. While ben-Azzai would require young girls to be given a religious education Rabbi Eli'ezer would deny them a religious education altogether. Even the earliest of the authorities realize that the position taken by Rabbi Eli'ezer is extreme: if a young girl is denied all religious education how will she ever be able to lead the life of an observant Jew? The answer seems to imply that she would learn almost by osmosis! At best she would learn by imitating her elders and betters.

To be continued.

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