Cheap Trinkets, Expensive Stones and the Aggada
Understanding Aggada
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Shiur #30: Cheap Trinkets, Expensive Stones and the Aggada
By Rav Yitzchak Blau
**************************************************************
This short shiur is my
last aggada shiur for now as I am taking a break after two years of writing for
the VBM. I wanted to thank the VBM
staff for giving me this opportunity and for being consistently helpful. I would also like to thank the readers,
both the silent variety and those who sent me many interesting and insightful
comments. Hopefully, shiurim such
as these will encourage students of Torah to turn their attention to the aggada
in a serious way.
Kol tuv,
Yitzchak Blau
**************************************************************
Rabbi Abbahu and Rabbi
Chiya bar Abba arrived in a certain town. (There they offered public
lectures.) Rabbi Abbahu taught
aggada and Rabbi Chiya bar Abba taught halakha. Everyone left Rabbi Chiya bar Abba and
went to Rabbi Abbahu. [Rabbi Chiya]
became depressed.
[Rabbi Abbahu] said to
him: "I will give you a parable to compare to this matter. There were two merchants, one who sold
precious stones and the other who sold notions (inexpensive implements such as
needles). Whom did people jump on
[to buy from]? Was it not on the
one who sold notions?"
Every day, Rabbi Chiya
bar Abba would accompany Rabbi Abbahu back to his lodgings to honor the house of
the emperor. (Rabbi Abbahu was a
favorite of the royal family.) On
that day, Rabbi Abbahu was the once to accompany Rabbi Chiya back to his
lodgings, but even so, [the latter] was not appeased.
(Sota 40a)
Rabbi Abbahu tries
valiantly, but unsuccessfully, to appease Rabbi Chiya after the latter finds an
empty shul waiting for his shiur, in sharp contrast to the packed hall awaiting
Rabbi Abbahu. He walks Rabbi Chiya
home and employs a parable to encourage his colleague to feel better. The Ein Ya'akov cites a different
version of the text in which the phrase "amar la-hem" (he said to them)
precedes the parable. In our
previous version, Rabbi Abbahu offers this parable specifically for his friends
consumption. According to the
version of the Ein Yaakov, Rabbi Abbahu says this to the
townspeople during his discourse as a form of subtle
chiding.
What does Rabbi Abbahu attempt to convey with his parable? As Rabbi Chanokh Zundel from Salant
points out in his Etz Yosef, Rabbi Abbahu presumably does not intend to
denigrate the study of aggada; after all, he himself is teaching this very
subject. Rather, he is pointing out
that aggada resembles the cheap implements only in that they are more easily
acquired, not because they are light in value. In other words, people choose the aggada
shiur because they prefer a light story to the intricacies of Jewish law. However, popular choice may not reflect
authentic worth.
Two important principles emerge from this parable. Firstly, in all educational fields, we
should be careful not to identify the best teacher with one who is the most
popular. All things being equal, it
is certainly a good thing for a teacher to be liked. However, popularity can be achieved in
all kinds of educationally dubious ways.
A teacher can achieve popularity by being too easy of the students,
telling them inappropriate jokes, always siding with them against the
administration and encouraging them to adopt an arrogant attitude that only in
their classroom is the truth being taught.
Yet, all of these methods ultimately hurt the educational process. Apparently, popularity and quality
teaching remain distinct categories.
Furthermore, in the narrower realm of aggada, we should also be wary of
popularity. If we treat aggada as
light stories for easy entertainment, then we do not do them justice. On the contrary, if we truly sweat to
plumb the depths of the aggada, we may lose some students, but we will gain in
understanding. Our interest in
aggada must rest upon the realization that appreciating stories also demands
hard work. In this particular
anecdote, a deeper appreciation of the meaning should motivate us to find the
subtleties of each and every Talmudic narrative.
This website is constantly being improved. We would appreciate hearing from you. Questions and comments on the classes are welcome, as is help in tagging, categorizing, and creating brief summaries of the classes. Thank you for being part of the Torat Har Etzion community!