Stories of shame in the Talmud

Anyone who dips into the Talmud can be forgiven for closing the book quickly. The text jumps around from legal rulings to anecdotes, with arcane problems raised then forgotten, with rarely any resolution.  Much of it reads like a series of terse lecture notes, and it’s often hard to tell what a passage is really about. How could this difficult-to-understand collection ever have become the foundation of post-Temple Judaism?

To answer that question, says Rabbi Jeffrey Rubenstein, we have to think about what life was like in Temple times. Under Hellenistic rule Jews enjoyed a great deal of autonomy. They organized society around their family clans and the hierarchy of priests and local rulers.  But after devastating failed rebellions in 70, 117 and 135 CE, they were dispersed around the Roman empire, wondering how to serve God without the Jerusalem temple. And when Rome converted from paganism to Christianity, there was a real danger of Jewish communities falling apart, assimilating and losing their divine mission.

In that context, says Rubenstein, a professor of Judaic studies at New York University, the post-Temple rabbis decided to reshape Judaism around Torah study and interpretation. Between 200 and 700 CE, they built the great academies in Babylonia and composed and edited the Talmud. Since they lacked formal hierarchies based on power, they needed people to engage willingly in the shared enterprise. That meant respecting multiple of points of view and resisting the urge to split into disparate sects. To get a foundational document that everyone would respect and work from, it was better to have a messy but inclusive text with diverse, even conflicting opinions.

Rubenstein specializes in the stories of the Talmud, and he finds these passages an effective way to understand the rabbis’ creative achievement. From March 31 to April 2, he’ll be the scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanu-El’s educational weekend, “Talmudic Tales of Love and Darkness.” Besides giving the d’var on Shabbat morning, he’ll lead three post-meal discussions: Shabbat dinner (featuring Iraqi cuisine), Shabbat lunch (featuring Israeli food), and a Sunday brunch.

Each discussion will tackle a different side of this challenge of authority. Shabbat evening’s “Love, Babylonian Style,” looks at tensions resulting from rabbis journeying to academies to study Torah and neglecting their wives and families. Sunday morning’s “Stories of Destruction” focuses on how the rabbis used the disastrous rebellions against Rome to teach moral and religious lessons, focusing not on political or military shortcomings but on spiritual and moral failings.

Shabbat afternoon’s discussio, “Stories of Shame in the Talmuds,” tackles the problem of authority head on.  The Babylonian Talmud includes different versions of stories that appear in its earlier and shorter counterpart, known as the Jerusalem Talmud. The latter’s stories say little about shame, but in the Babylonian telling, it becomes the key moral consideration. That’s because those rabbis had seen how embarrassing a colleague led to division and discord within the academy. They faced a difficult challenge: how could they express strong opinions in vigorous debate, without dishonoring those who disagreed? They devoted enormous effort to figuring out how to prevent shame, and they told stories of those who went out of their way to show respect. Those efforts eventually led – as later rabbis turned the Talmud’s sprawling discussions into practical guides for living – to the Jewish values of dignity, respect for others and avoiding “lashon hara,” or damaging speech.

At a time of division in our country – including our own Jewish community – and after a presidential campaign too often built on ridiculing opponents, this is still a struggle for us.  Learn more about how the ancient rabbis met the challenge at Temple Emanu-El’s annual educational weekend.

The discussions are free to everyone, but people attending the meals should register, either online at teprov.org/institute/edweekend17, or by calling the temple at 401-331-1616.  Temple Emanu-El is at 99 Taft Ave., Providence.

JOHN LANDRY lives in Providence and serves on Temple Emanu-El’s adult education committee.