[Avodah] Medrash

[Zev Sero]

Zoo Torah wrote:
> R' Zev Sero wrote:
> 
> <<On the other side of the spectrum, I've never heard of *anyone* who takes
> the RBBC stories literally, so arguments against such a position are using a
> straw man.>>
> 
> Maharsha, in his commentary to the first of Rabbah bar bar Chanah's stories,
> and apparently referring to all of them, does say that these stories are
> true in their literal meaning as well as in their deeper meaning; he notes
> that sailors see weird and wonderful things. Rashbam writes similarly. So it
> seems that there is a long-standing dispute in these matters.

I meant that nobody nowadays takes the RBBC stories literally.  Indeed
the Maharsha's approach is exactly what I am advocating.  In his day,
it was not yet clear that the RBBC stories *can't* be literally true,
so he was happy to believe them, or at least most of them, while still
having to explain what on earth they are doing in the gemara.  So he
explains their metaphoric meaning, what the gemara means by retelling
them, while pointing out that there's no reason to disbelieve that
these phenomena actually exist.  Nowadays we know that these things
don't exist, anywhere in the world, and never did; and we can't invoke
miracles to explain them, because the stories aren't about miracles,
they're about what are supposed to be perfectly natural phenomena that
anybody can go and see if he only knows where to look.  So we must
understand them as fables that are told purely for their esoteric
meaning.  And the Maharsha would surely have agreed, had he known what
we know.

This is exactly the same approach that we see the Maharsha take with
Vashti's tail.  He doesn't get incensed that the Aruch dared to give
a non-literal explanation; he simply asks what forced the Aruch to do
so.  There doesn't seem to be any reason *not* to accept the tale of
the tail, so he does.  But if there were some reason why this was
difficult, then he'd agree that it need not be understood literally.
E.g. suppose, rather than invoking Malach Gavriel, the gemara had
said that "Vashti spontaneously sprouted a tail, as some people do
under stress".  The state of our medical science may not be perfect,
but we're pretty sure that people don't do that, so we would be forced
to understand this non-literally, and the Maharsha would've understood
what forced the Aruch to do so.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas