Eliezer becomes irritated with his son for removing his father’s tefillin before Shabbat instead of lighting Shabbat candles. Two interpretations reveal great psychological sensitivity. Yohanan understands him to be saying that joining the world of Torah study has not proven beneficial (153). According to Etz Yosef, Resh Lakish intends to convey that he did not come to the beit midrash to be insulted but instead R.
When an insulted Resh Lakish says “ u-mai ahanat li ,” the word ahanat could derive from the root meaning to insult or the root meaning benefit. To support another dual reading, Sokol cites the Etz Yosef commentary on the disputation between R.
#Cave story snake professional
The aforementioned Ilfa found himself on the deck of a ship, having left the scholarly life behind to embark on a professional career outside of the beit midrash.Ships symbolize the world of commerce and business but can also symbolically point to Torah study as navigating the metaphorical “Sea of Talmud.” Ilfa’s ship, and his suspension from its mast, conveys the tension between these two options (131). Symbolism can simultaneously work on two levels. Eliezer demands achieving the absolute ideal (55). The Sages deem it good enough to be considered an oven, and therefore susceptible to ritual impurity, whereas R. In the same way, an oven with portions made of sand works in practice but is not an ideal appliance. His scholarly peers content themselves with an operative legal system, a functional halakha, even absent clear divine approval. Eliezer brings miracles to prove his halakhic position as he strives for ideal truth. Sokol connects this debate to their argument about how Jewish law works. Eliezer debates the Sages regarding whether or not an oven consisting of sections of sand in between hardened clay is considered a finished product for the purpose of ritual impurity. In the well-known story of tanur shel Akhnai, R. Eliezer questions about the laws of blemishes because they have excommunicated him and one living under the ban experiences the isolation of the leper (81). Moving to halakhic details, the other Sages ask R. In another case, Ilfa means ship in Aramaic and a character named Ilfa suspends himself from the mast of a ship (132). Eliezer, Imma Shalom (“mother of peace”), sister of the former and wife of the latter, ironically fails to reconcile or to make peace between them (63). In his unpacking of the narratives, the author displays sensitivity to the potential symbolic import of names and halakhic details. Yohanan and Resh Lakish, Sokol adds fresh insight and novel interpretations. Although other scholars have already analyzed the stories of Honi, the oven of Akhnai, and the dispute between R. In this volume, Sokol, dean at Lander College and rabbi of the Yavneh Minyan of Flatbush, interprets seven Talmudic tales and one story from Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer. Moshe Sokol’s The Snake at The Mouth of the Cave: Exploring Talmudic Narratives makes a significant contribution to the burgeoning literature analyzing aggada. Moshe Sokol, The Snake at The Mouth of the Cave: Exploring Talmudic Narratives (Touro College and Maggid Books, 2021), 231 pages