Meaning in the Details: Talmudic Numbers
TALMUDIC AGGADA
By Rav Yitzchak Blau
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Shiur #17: Meaning in the Details: Talmudic
Numbers
Last weeks class began exploring the meaning
of details in aggadic stories. I suggested criteria for determining when details
have deep symbolic significance and when they simply flesh out a story. Are the
details necessary to the basic story line or extraneous?
Do the details resonate with associations
to other Jewish texts? This class
will apply the same questions to numbers in aggadic stories.
Commentaries locate profound significance in
numbers. In one story, a man who is zealous regarding the commandment of
tzitzit[1]
resists sinning with a prostitute. She then turns her life around, converts to
Judaism, and eventually marries him. Towards the beginning of the story, we hear
that she charged him four hundred coins for the appointment (Menachot
44a). R. Yitzchak from Karlin (Keren Ora) connects these coins with the
four hundred coins Avraham pays for Saras burial plot.
Keren Ora does not explain the significance of this
connection, but it works beautifully with R. Eliezer Berkovits interpretation
of the story. R. Berkovits contrasts the male/female interaction in the two
parts of the story. Initially, the man and woman do not speak to each other, and
she does not even know his name. Her attendant refers to him simply as the man
who sent you four hundred gold coins.
After he declines her services, a conversation begins, and she wants to
know about his identity. This conversation conveys the main point of Torahs
sexual ethics to promote authentic human relationships in place of utilizing
other people as objects for pleasure or profit. According
to Berkovits approach, we can understand Keren Oras connection between
this story and Avrahams devotion to Saras burial. The gemara alludes to
the marriage of Avraham and Sara as a paradigm of a more noble and refined
union. Avrahams dedication to Sara after death indicates that the relationship
was about much more than physical satisfaction.
A different Talmudic tale also inspires
Keren Ora to find meaning in numbers. R. Gamliel and R. Yehoshua embark on a
sea voyage, but only the latter brings sufficient food, because he realizes that
a star that emerges every seventy years will confuse the sailors and prolong the
journey (Horayot 10a). R. Yitzchak contends that seventy years represent
a human life, as in the verse: The days of our lives are seventy years (Tehillim
90:10). In his reading, the Gemara alludes to those who know how to use time
well during the journey of life. Such people resist the distractions of stars,
which symbolize material enticements.
One final example will suffice before
beginning our analysis. After Reish Lakish passes away, R. Yochanan is
disconsolate. Not only does he miss his brother-in-law and study partner, he
also feels responsible for Reish Lakishs death, since he refused to pray on
Reish Lakishs behalf. The rabbis attempt to console him by sending R. Elazar
ben Pedat, who cites supporting texts for everything R. Yochanan says. R.
Yochanan informs R. Elazar that he has no need for someone to cheer him on and
affirm all of his ideas. In fact, he misses Reish Lakish, who raised twenty-four
objections to his words, forcing him to respond with twenty- four answers (Bava
Metzia 84a).
Maharsha locates the number forty-nine in this
story by adding together R. Yochanans one original idea, the twenty-four
objections, and the twenty-four answers. Based
on the assumption that each Torah principle has forty-nine angles, Maharsha
explains that this kind of Talmudic interaction enables one to appreciate all
facets of a given intellectual inquiry. Scholars
who just agree with one another fail to achieve this result; those who engage in
fruitful debate come to understand ideas with all their nuances and complexity.
Where do we stand regarding these
interpretations? On the one hand,
each of the above interpretations claims to find resonance with existing Jewish
texts. Four hundred coins remind us of a biblical land purchase, seventy alludes
to a verse in Tehillim, and two twenty-fours are intended to get us to
the known quantity of forty-nine. On the other hand, there may be far simpler
explanations for the chosen numbers.
The Bible already uses some numbers, such as
seven and ten, to mean many. When Yaakov accuses Lavan of changing his salary
ten times (Bereishit 31:7) and when God says that the Jewish people tried
him in the desert on ten occasions (Bemidbar 14:22), ten means many,
rather than a precise number. Both
Rashbam and Ibn Ezra interpret the number ten in this fashion, although Rashi
does enumerate ten trials. The same applies to the number seven, such as when
God promises to punish sinners sevenfold (Vayikra 26:18) or when a
righteous person gets up after falling seven times (Mishlei 24:16).
Apparently, the Sages use a parallel approach
with numbers such as six hundred thousand, four hundred, three hundred, and
twenty-four. Regarding three hundred, one Talmudic example explicitly makes this
point:
It was taught there: There was a pile in the middle
of the altar. Sometimes, there were three hundred Khor of ashes. Rava said: This is an
exaggeration (Chullin
90b).
This gemara cites a mishna in
Tamid emphasizing the large volume of sacrifices and the significant amount
of ashes those offerings generated. Rava does not deny that the pile was large,
but he asserts that three hundred Khor is an exaggeration. The number three
hundred repeatedly comes up in situations where the Gemara wants to convey a
large quantity, which suggests that the Gemara usually employs this number in an
exaggerated fashion.
The same recurring pattern occurs in reference
to large quantities of food. Chanania ben Chizkiya brings three hundred bottles
of oil up to the attic, where he resolves contradictions between Yechezekel
and the Chumash (Pentateuch) (Shabbat 13b). Yochanan ben
Narbais desert consists of three hundred calves and three hundred bottles of
wine (Pesachim 57a). R. Chiyya bar Ada, a teacher of children, was three
days late for his lessons, because he was cutting three hundred clusters of
grapes from his vineyard each day (Ketubot 111b).
Talmudic sources use this number when
describing extended lists of halakhot (Jewish laws). Yehoshua forgets
three hundred halakhot when Moshe dies (Temura 16a). R. Eliezer
declares that he knows three hundred halakhot regarding a type of leprosy
and another three hundred regarding magic incantations for planting cucumbers (Sanhedrin
68a). Doeg Haedomi taught three hundred halakhot about a tower
suspended in midair (Sanhedrin 106b).
It seems highly unlikely that the same number
actually happened in each of the above scenarios. The Gemara uses three hundred
to indicate a large amount, not to communicate a precise number. Indeed, Rashbam
(Pesachim 119a) notes that the Gemara uses this number in an inexact
fashion. R. Tzvi Hirsch Chajes (1805-1855), a Galiacian scholar who staunchly
defended Orthodoxy, while appreciating aspects of the Haskala (Jewish
Enlightenment), penned a work entitled Mavo Ha-talmud containing a
number of significant chapters on the nature of Aggada (see chapters 17-32).
Chapter thirty analyzes the Sages use of such numbers and echoes Rashbams
approach.
Chajes and Rashbams understanding of the Gemaras use of numbers seems
to undermine the interpretations with which we began. If four hundred is a
standard number employed to mean a large quantity, we have less reason to
associate it with the purchase of mearat hamachpela (Saras burial
place). Four hundred coins come up in
other contexts as well. Two fellows wager four hundred coins on getting Hillel
angry (Shabbat 31a), the Boethusians hire false witnesses for the same
amount (Rosh Hashana 22b), and a suitor offered that amount of money for
R. Bibis comely daughter (Shabbat 80b). The more standardized the
amount, the less justification for seeing a particular resonance or association.
The same argument applies to the number twenty-four.
For example, the Gemara conveys R. Shimon
bar Yochais intellectual development using that number. At first, R. Pinchas
ben Yair would give twelve answers for questions raised by R. Shimon. Later, R.
Shimon offered twenty-four answers to the queries of R. Pinchas (Shabbat
33b). Ketubot 77b and Eikha Rabba 1 use this number in analogous
fashion. These examples provide grounds for doubting Maharshas interpretation
in which the two twenty-fours help create an allusion to the number forty-nine.
On the other hand, a standard number can take on added meaning in a
particular context. Moreover, these interpretations have great worth even if we
categorize them as derash (an interpretation that aims to get at some
meaning extrinsic to the text itself) rather than peshat (the simple
meaning of the text).
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