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Raba Got Up and Slaughtered Rav Zeira

Posted: 09 Mar 2009 09:56 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/d74zbsMNXjE/raba-rzeira.shtml


Ravas position in the gemara is famous:

רבא מיחייב איניש לבסומי בפוריא עד דלא ידע בין ארור המן לברוך מרדכי
Rava obligated people to drink on Purim until he would not know between  
cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordachai.
- Megillah 7b


This is the law as recorded in the Shulchan Arukh (OCh 695:2) , although  
his other work, the Beis Yoseif, does explore other opinions. Those who  
cant believe that it could possibly be Jewish to get that drunk offer other  
explanations. E.g. the Rambams position is that one should drink until they  
fall asleep, at which time they are unaware of the distinction between  
Haman and Mordachai. The Meiiri maintains the literal meaning, but warns  
that the obligation not to make a fool of oneself and of the Torah  
overrides this obligation; it only applies to people who can maintain  
self-control.  The Rama (OCh ad loc) writes that the obligation is simply  
to drink more than usual.

Another possibility which sets the required amount of drink quite low is to  
note that the distinction that is to get blurred isnt between Haman and  
Mordachai, but between cursing Haman and blessing Mordachai. Between  
knowing when to attack evil and when to build good. Which is pretty hard to  
know even when sober!

But what happens in all these explanations to the words of the gemara?

What is often omitted is the rest of the discussion of this obligation. The  
gemara continues:

רבה ורבי זירא עבדו סעודת פורים בהדי הדדי איבסום קם רבה שחטיה לרבי זירא למחר  
בעי רחמי ואחייה לשנה אמר ליה ניתי מר ונעביד סעודת פורים בהדי הדדי אמר ליה  
לא בכל שעתא ושעתא מתרחיש ניסא
Raba and Rabbi Zeira made a Purim meal together. They got drunk. Raba got  
up and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira. The next day, [Raba] begged for [Divine]  
Mercy, and [Rabbi Zeira] came to life.
A year later, [Rabba] said to him, Come, master, and we will make a Purim  
meal together.
He said to him, Not every time will we experience a miracle.

A cautionary tale, Ravas is not the final word on the subject.
There are some hints that more is going on here. Rabbas name means large or  
great. Zeira is Aramaic for young (c.f. Hebrew tzair) or small.
Rav Elyakim Getzel Levitan, the Maggid of Brisk, (cited in Kehilas Yitzchak  
by R Yitzchok Reitbard, in Pirchei Nisan to Parashas Mikeitz) cites a  
number of sources to show the personalities of these two amoraim. (R  
Levitan says that Chavos Yair 152 speaks about this. I didnt have a chance  
to look it up, and I wanted to post this before Purim. Kehilas Yitzchak  
directs us to Hagahos R Shaul Katzenelenbogen, Berachos 30b, which is  
printed in the Vilna Shas. its worth looking up.)
Shabbos 30b says that Rabbah would begin every shiur with a milsa  
dibedichusa, a humorous and entertaining thought. As for R Zeira, Niddah  
23a has R Yirmiyah trying to cheer him up, and Sanhedrin 59b has R Avahu  
calling him by the name of a bird with a mournful dispostion.
In addition to the sources provided by the Maggid of Brisk, there is also a  
story in which Rava makes a man (presumably a golem) and sends it as a gift  
to R  Zeira (Sanhedrin 65b). When Rabbi Zeira spoke to it and it wouldnt  
answer, R Zeira realized it was made by a sage and told it to return to  
dust. In another gemara (Berakhos 57a), we are told that Rabbi Zeira moved  
to Israel from Bavel after being told in a dream that his sins were  
forgiven. First he took efforts to forget the Babylonian mode of study.  
Then R Zeira went in such haste, to obtain a blessing denied Moshe and  
Aharon, he crossed the Jordan by foot without taking the time to change out  
of his clothes!
To generalize, then, the gemara draws Rabba as a cheerful teacher who tried  
to share his joy of life with his students, as well as with R Zeira. Rabbi  
Zeira, at least at the time Rabba knew him in Bavel, as a sad person  
(perhaps he lived in the shadow of belief that he was an undeserving  
sinner).
One was Rabba - Great the other Rabbi Zeira  the smaller rabbi.
Perhaps a reference to the ideas of Gadlus haMochin and Qatnus haMochin.  
(Hat tip to Dr Alan Morinis for introducing me to these concepts. Any  
mispresentation, though, would be due to my trying to understand the ideas  
while coming from a fundamentally differnt upbringing. As you shall see, my  
presentation draws from my YU-based upbringing, and is therefore not  
necessarily loyal to the more chassidic worldview from which is comes.)
Gadlus haMochin, literally: Greatness of Mind, is the entire mindset that  
breeds self-confidence, security. In Modern Orthodox parlance, it is Adam  
I  the last element in Bereishis ch. 1s description of creation, ready and  
confident that he can recreate the world and conquer it. Qatnus haMochin is  
more Adam II. The Adam of chapter 2 is lonely and seeks companionship,  
reaches out in need to the A-lmighty. Gadlus haMochin strives to understand  
G-d, Qatnus haMochin is the intimate experience of Him that comes so  
readily in times of trouble. Gadlus serves through ahavah and yiras  
haRomemus (love of G-d and awe of His Greatness), qatnus through yiras  
haonesh and yiras hacheit (fear of punishment or fear of the failing of the  
sin itself). Returning to Rav Soloveichiks language  advance and retreat.  
Yes I can! and Yeah, but
Rabba served G-d through gadlus hamochin, constantly looking at the joyous  
possibilities. Rabbi Zeira, at least in Bavel, served through qatnus,  
through caution, taking each step as though looking for possible  
land-mines. (Perhaps this is why Rabbi Zeira took efforts to forget his  
former mode of thought as part of his aliyah to Israel.)
Think of the worse curse we can think for someone. In the weekday Amidah we  
curse those who slander and work against the community. Who thereby  
endanger other Jews. (Actually, the earlier version was against apostates;

but many historians believe that in both cases the reference was to the  
early Christians who were willing to endanger the rest of us in order to  
endear themselves to the Romans. Not that it helped keep them from being  
fed to the lions.)

So here we are, cursing turncoats and apostates, and whats the horrible  
fate we foresee G-d meting out to them? And for the informers, let there be  
no hope.
There is a famous notion in the gemara nichnas yayin, yatza sod  wine  
enters, secrets (or: the foundations) go out (Eiruvin 65a). Rabba drank  
wine, and out came his fundamental cheerfulness. Rabbi Zeira drank wine,  
and he got enmired in hopelessness.
Rav Zeira imbibed wine, and out came his fundamental pessimism. He lost  
hope. He was slain.

Taanis 22a tells the story of how Rav Beroqa of Benei Chuzaa (perhaps: from  
among the seers) would go to the market of Lapat and meet Eliyahu haNavi.  
One time he asked the prophet if anyone in the market was deserving of the  
World To Come. The prophet said no. (Rabbi Aqiva Eiger understands this  
gemara to mean that none were deserving before going through the trials and  
atonement of death.)

In the course of other encounters, Eliyahu pointed out a jailer who kept  
the men and women separate, and would dress as a non-Jew to get information  
back to the Jewish people. (Note the contrast to the aforementioned  
turncoats.)

The story ends with Eliyahu pointing to two brothers who happened just then  
to pass by. Rav Beroqa approached the men and asked what they did for a  
living. They explained they they were jesters, their job was to cheer up  
unhappy people and to heal disagreements between people.
There is a time for Qatnus haMochin, for caution, for yeah-but, for facing  
our troubles and seeking Hashems support  but not Purim. The happiness that  
comes from hope, from focusing on opportunity, is an essential element of  
the day. The smoothing over of past grievances, the unity and happiness of  
mishloach manos. What is Purim about if not the story of redemption from  
invisible and unexpected places?
And so, a person is obligated to drink on Purim, but only if he is Rabba,  
where wine will bring out the joys of potential. Rav Zeira should follow  
the Ramas advise, and spend the day in a vacation from his worries. Barukh  
Mordachai and Arur Haman.
(For the curious: In Ben Asher, the mesoretic text considered more  
authoritative, the name is written מָרְדֳּכַ֗י, with a chataf qamatz under  
the dalet. For that reason I transliterated it Mordachai, with an a after  
the d, not the more common Mordechai. In any case, the first vowel is a  
qamatz qatan, closer to the long /ō/ sound of a cholam than the usual  
qamatz.)





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