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Did the Talmudic sages have a sense of humor? Overall, it’s hard to imagine that they placed much value in it. For example, in the Talmudic tractate Brachot, we are told “one should never pray unless one first adopts a tone of seriousness.” (Mishna Brachot 5:1) Additionally, there was always the shadow of the Temple’s destruction hanging over the first several post-Christian centuries of Jewish life. This led to the rabbinic dictum that one should leave a portion of one’s house unplastered, or leave a piece of jewelry unworn, in remembrance of the tragedy (Bava Batra 60b). Between sadness and seriousness, one finds little space for levity.
But this is not universally true. In one striking Talmudic passage, the third generation amora Rabbah (c. 300 CE) apparently used humor as a pedagogical device, as we read in Shabbat 30b:
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Before a sage begins teaching, he may express joy. After teaching, he must be filled with seriousness and trepidation. That explanation is like that which Rabba did. Before he began teaching halakha to the Sages, he would say something humorous and the Sages would be cheered. Ultimately, he sat in a serious frame of mind and began teaching the halakha.
Against this backdrop, let’s look at the sages’ appraisal of the behavior of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Hebrew, Amorah). (Genesis 13:13) The Torah tells us they were wholly wicked, but what, exactly, does that mean? Among other sins, the sages assumed that Sodom and Gomorrah were filled with violence.
But in addition to the violence itself, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah also wanted to take advantage of people financially. This corruption extended to the judges as well, and the entire system of justice had been hijacked.
How did this work? Apparently they would pelt a passerby with rocks, resulting in bleeding. But in the ancient world, bloodletting was considered to have medicinal value. According to the midrash, then, the natives of Sodom and Gomorrah would insist on payment for bloodletting after tossing a stone at someone.
Fortunately, Abraham’s senior servant, Eliezer of Damascus, was wise to this bit of what fight promoter Don King would call “trickeration.” In the following passage, let’s look at his response to the two cities' legal system:
- When Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, happened to be in Sodom, he was beaten until he bled. He appeared before a judge, who demanded that he compensate the attacker for bloodletting. At that, Eliezer took a stone and wounded the judge. Pay the fee you owe me for bleeding you to this man, and I’ll keep my own money. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 109b)
Did our sages believe this passage to be humorous? I don’t know for certain, but I’ll be our friend Rabbah used it at least once to open his lesson.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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