#Yosei bar Hanina

[apenitentialprayer]

Kind of interesting how an episode in which David chooses not to kill Saul while the latter is pooping (1 Samuel 24) can be the source of so many ethical and theological interpretations. Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina links David’s cutting of Saul’s robe as a disregard of modesty, of treating “clothing with contempt.” This act, although meant to spare Saul’s life, is still in some way an affront to Saul’s person. And David is punished for this, because according to bar Ḥanina, this incident in which David compromised the integrity of Saul’s clothes is the reason that clothing could not keep David warm in his old age (1 Kings 1:1). [Tractate Berakhot, 62b:10]. Saint Augustine of Hippo also is interested in the apparent sin of damaging Saul’s clothing, but with two differences; first, he is very much interested in David’s seemingly immediate regret and repentance for this action. Secondly, Augustine is careful to note David’s acknowledgment of Saul as God's Anointed;  “David quaked with fear that perhaps merely by so touching Saul’s garments he was guilty of sacrilege,” so intense was David’s reverence for the office of Messiah. Augustine’s point isn't so much about the dignity of Saul, who he viewed as “reprobate and rejected,” but the dignity inherent in God’s calling to such an office, a position that must be respected regardless of the personal qualities of the individual who currently holds it. [City of God, Book 17, Chapter 6]. Saint John Chrysostom, meanwhile, focuses purely on the positive quality of David’s act in this story: “David obtained more glory by sparing Saul than by killing Goliath,” is how Jacobus Tirinus describes the general message of Chrysostom’s Second Homily on David and Saul. In Chrysostom's own words, “It was, in fact, a more conspicuous victory than the former one [... because]  the victory was achieved without weapons, and the trophy was erected without blood being spilt.” In this way, John took a position quite similar to Gregory of Nyssa, who lauded David because “when he held the bare sword in his palm, and the body of his enemy lay under his hand, he had the power to kill him, but he conquered his anger with reason, and his power to strike the blow with the fear of God. [...] he bec[a]me superior to his own anger[.]” [On the Inscriptions of the Psalms] Saint Jerome also focuses on David's positive qualities, but does so through an allegorical lens; David is now the Christ figure, suffering persecution in the world, represented by the cave. Saul is likened to the devil, who “does not discharge any good into this world, but only dung and corruption.” David, usually the warrior, acts more like the meek and humble Christ in his overcoming of his enemy in this story. [Fifty-Second Homily on the Psalms]. So, we have an interpretation about respecting the basic needs of even our enemies, an exhortation to respect sacred positions even when they are held by condemnable figures, an exaltation of nonviolence and self-discipline over wrath, and a prefiguring of the Gospel. All from a pericope about David refusing to kill Saul while Saul was pooping.

[dadyomi]

Monday 10/24, Ketubot 110: City Mouse

Much as I love living in a city, I feel like Rabbi Yosei bar Hanina was very apt in quoting Nehemiah to prove that a city can be a very trying place to live. General hubbub indeed.

[dadyomi]

Couldn't find anything I particularly wanted to share or talk about this week so instead of the Friday Week In Review I thought I'd post my year in review!

I posted 228 times in 2022

215 posts created (94%)

13 posts reblogged (6%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@majoras-skull-kid

@writer-at-the-table

@shalomyall

@dadyomi

@jdsquared

I tagged 224 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#daf yomi - 183 posts

#great murders of the talmud - 30 posts

#daf yomi week in review - 21 posts

#i might need a marriage tag at some point - 20 posts

#not daf yomi - 19 posts

#sex? in my talmud?! - 16 posts

#shmuel - 14 posts

#rava - 13 posts

#the digestion of the righteous - 12 posts

#rav - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 119 characters

#johnny carson once said that for three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Tuesday 3/8, Chagigah 27: at the sound of the atone

This kind of passage is why I keep coming back to Daf Yomi even when I'm frustrated. I hesitate to call it beautiful, but it is a powerful sentiment, the idea that once the temple has fallen, we are each in charge of our own atonement. The idea that the dinner table can be the altar.

Also wow, we really are going right out of Chagigah and into Yevamot, huh? Farewell Seder Moed! We barely knew ye.

23 notes - Posted March 8, 2022

#4

Monday 11/21, Nedarim 27: Death Is A Circumstance

Not to get all serious on the dad joke sideblog, but there is something immensely touching about this whole situation. The idea of knowing you’re going to die and taking steps to release someone you love from additional nonsense surrounding your death, when those steps are divorce, juxtaposes this usually very negative experience with a profound act of care that you don’t generally see even in a modern era of conscious uncoupling. I acknowledge divorce can be an extremely positive act and I think it’s a necessary element of any culture that has a conception of marriage, but it’s frequently a very ugly thing and to see it framed as a gesture of love in this way struck me. 

24 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

#3

Thursday 7/28, Ketubot 22: Let’s Go To The Gay Bar

I’m glad the Talmud affirms the right of women to claim they’re betrothed when they aren’t because I know too many women who have to do this every Friday night.

25 notes - Posted July 28, 2022

#2

Monday 10/24, Ketubot 110: City Mouse

Much as I love living in a city, I feel like Rabbi Yosei bar Hanina was very apt in quoting Nehemiah to prove that a city can be a very trying place to live. General hubbub indeed.

30 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I rarely comment on current events, and this is a horrible thing I wish had never happened and an example along several different axes of institutional antisemitism. But I will say that the dry, calm, INTENSE SALT coming from the congregants and Rabbi trapped inside is giving me life. From “We weren’t freed” to “not a shot fired” right down to the Rabbi letting the shooter in because he seemed in need of shelter. It’s genuine class all the way around.  

May we all have the compassion to welcome the dispossessed and the courage to throw a chair in defense of the innocent. 

36 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

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