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People tend to think of the Talmud as an arcane, dry legal codex. And parts of it admittedly do read that way, with complicated arguments and opaque terminology which challenges even the most experienced of students.
To say that the entire Talmud is that way, however, is inaccurate for several reasons. First, roughly twenty to twenty-five percent of the Talmud is aggadah, or folklore. Sometimes this is brought in support of a legal principle, but other times it appears simply for the reader’s edification. Second, the Talmud often focuses on matters which are of interest to the contemporary reader, so the detail is not at all daunting or off-putting. Finally – sometimes the Sages were funny. And no, that’s not a joke; they weren’t failed stand-up comics, but they did have a soft spot for a humorous punchline.
As an example, consider this passage from the Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin (109a-b) about Eliezer, Abraham’s senior servant. In this week’s portion, Vayera, G-d determines that Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked cities in whose midst Lot dwells, need to be destroyed. How wicked were they, the Talmud wonders? According to the midrash recorded there, Eliezer journeyed to Sodom and Gomorrah to find out. He discovered that they were as wicked as advertised. Eliezer saw a man being robbed and went to help the victim. The perpetrator, upset at Eliezer’s intervention, threw a rock at him. And then, as blood gushed from Eliezer’s head, the robber hauled Eliezer into court, demanding to be compensated for bloodletting, then believed to be a medicinal art. Eliezer knew this would be a difficult day – the judge’s name was Shakkara (liar). But not to be outdone, let’s listen to Eliezer’s brilliant – and hilarious – response to an outrageous decision.
- Eliezer, servant of Abraham, happened to come there (Sodom and Gomorrah), and they wounded him. He came before the judge to seek compensation. The judge said to him: Give your assailant a fee, as he let your blood. Eliezer then took a stone and he wounded the judge. The judge said: What is this? Eliezer said to him: The fee that is to be paid to me by you, give it to that person who wounded me, and my money will remain where it remains.
In other words, in a world where you’re rewarded for assaulting people, your best bet is to assault people. Eliezer was in front of that.
The literature of antiquity, rabbinical or otherwise, was not always formal or dramatic. Think of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, a comedy which is still performed to large audiences with only slight adjustments to language after nearly twenty-five centuries. For their part, I’d say the rabbis were pretty adept humorists themselves – not in Mel Brooks’ league, but not bad either.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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