Q&A: Seemingly Bizarre Topics in the Talmud
Seemingly Bizarre Topics in the Talmud
Question
Hello and blessings to the Rabbi!
In a response about studying the Talmud, you wrote: “Cleaving to God’s will and Jewish law is an expression of His will” with regard to why study is important. But there are many topics that seem to have nothing to do with God’s will—for example, Pharaoh’s height and the size of his sexual organ, testing virginity with a barrel of wine, a wall of a sukkah made from a cow, and so on. Why are such things written in the Talmud at all? And how are they relevant to us?
Answer
I don’t understand why examining a virgin would be different from examining the identifying signs of birds or fish, or from the prohibition of eating pork. This is Jewish law, and it expresses God’s will. As for aggadic passages, I have written more than once that in my view this is not really Torah, and certainly not as an object in itself. Search here on the site for “Torah as object and Torah as person,” and “aggadic passages.” I discussed this at length in the second book of the trilogy, in the chapter on Torah study.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand the question, or what it has to do with this thread.
Let me sharpen the question: from what is written in the Talmud, how do we know how to distinguish between what is God’s word and what is not?
Nothing there is God’s word. The Talmud is a creation of human beings. The halakhic part was accepted by the public as an authoritative and binding interpretation of the halakhic part of the Torah, and the aggadic part is the ideas of those same people. From it, take what you want and leave what you don’t.
Thank you.
How do we know how to distinguish between fiction and what is true from God?