Repentance in the Sugya of the Udder

Opening post by the rabbi

Repentance in the Sugya of the Udder

Posted on 16/9/2010

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Repentance in the Sugya of the Udder (LaMShalom)

Today I heard from Rabbi Aharon Katz, a teacher in the Bar-Ilan kollel, a wonderful interpretation of the sugya of the udder in Hullin, and it is fitting for the eve of Yom Kippur. It is presented here with slight additions, while asking forgiveness from the person who is accustomed to interpreting sugyot this way, and who took flak from me for no fault at all (and perhaps precisely for that reason J).

Hullin 110a-b: In Sura they did not eat udders; in Pumbedita they did eat udders. Rami bar Tamrei, who was also called Rami bar Dikulei, from Pumbedita, happened to come to Sura on the eve of Yom Kippur. Everyone took out their udders and threw them away. He went, picked them up, and ate them. They brought him before Rav Hisda. He said to him: Why did you do this? He said to him: I am from Rav Yehudah’s place, where they eat it. He said to him: Does the rule not apply to you that one is subject to the stringencies of the place from which he came and the stringencies of the place to which he went? He said to him: I ate them outside the town boundary. And with what did you roast them? He said to him: With grape seeds. But perhaps they were from wine used for idolatrous libation? He said to him: They were after twelve months. But perhaps they were stolen? He said to him: The owners had despaired of them, since weeds had sprouted among them. He saw that he was not wearing tefillin. He said to him: What is the reason that you are not putting on tefillin? He said to him: I suffer from an intestinal ailment, and Rav Yehudah said: One with an intestinal ailment is exempt from tefillin. He saw that he had not put fringes on his garment. He said to him: What is the reason that you do not have fringes? He said to him: It is a borrowed cloak, and Rav Yehudah said: A borrowed cloak, for the first thirty days, is exempt from fringes. Meanwhile, they brought a certain man who did not honor his father and mother and tied him up. He said to them: Leave him alone, for it was taught: Every positive commandment whose reward is stated alongside it is not one that the earthly court is charged with enforcing. He said to him: I see that you are very sharp! He said to him: If you were in Rav Yehudah’s place, I would show you my sharpness! Rough paraphrase: the Gemara presents differences in local custom with respect to eating udder (the udder of a domesticated animal). In Sura, Rav Hisda’s place, they did not eat udder, and in Pumbedita, Rav Yehudah’s place, they did eat it. Rami bar Dikulei, from Pumbedita, happened to come to Sura on the eve of Yom Kippur. The people of Sura threw away the udder because they did not eat it, and he gathered it up and ate it. They asked him why he was not acting in accordance with the local custom, and he answered that he had eaten it outside the town boundary. They asked him how he roasted the udder, and he answered that he used grape seeds that he burned. They asked him why he was not concerned about idolatrous libation wine and theft, and he answered that they were already twelve months old, so those concerns did not apply. After that they saw that he had not put on tefillin, and he answered that he had an intestinal ailment. They asked him why there were no fringes on his garment, and he answered that the garment was borrowed. After that they brought someone who did not honor his parents in order to force him to perform this commandment, and Rami bar Dikulei told them to leave him alone, because one does not coerce people regarding positive commandments whose reward is stated alongside them. Finally, they asked him how he was so sharp (how he knew how to answer everything and find loopholes), and he replied that they should come to his place and see Rav Yehudah’s sharpness. Interpretation: at first glance this seems to be a story without meaning—cleverness and amusement, and nothing more. In fact there is not even much real sharpness here, since the laws that a borrowed garment is exempt from fringes and that one with an intestinal ailment is exempt from tefillin are simple laws, and certainly do not point to any great sharpness. But notice that all of these are things said by Rav Yehudah, his master from Pumbedita. But… this is the eve of Yom Kippur. This Jew, Rami bar Dikulei, has nothing to eat, and he is scavenging leftovers from the garbage. When the people of Sura see him, they ask him how he can eat ‘without certification.’ If they had invited him in, he would not have had to eat udder in accordance with the custom of his place; he would have eaten with them from their food, ‘with certification.’ Afterward they rebuke him for not having ‘the right certification,’ but rather following the custom of his own place (on the assumption, of course, that only in Sura do people know how to study and issue rulings). It then becomes clear that this Jew is not only drifting through the street, but is also suffering from an intestinal illness. Instead of bringing a doctor, they ask him why he is not putting on tefillin. Afterward they see that he has nothing to wear (which is why he is going about in a borrowed garment), and what they ask is why he is not careful about the commandment of fringes. We are dealing with a man who is wandering the street on the eve of Yom Kippur. He has nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat, no garment to wear, and he is suffering from an intestinal illness. He burns twelve-month-old grape seeds, on which weeds have already grown, in order to roast scraps of udder that he took from the garbage so that he will have something to eat. Instead of saying to him, ‘Peace be upon you, my good Jew; do you have anything to eat and a place to sleep, and perhaps shall we bring you a doctor?’, what they investigate is: ‘What about the certification?’ These are people who do not notice the person standing before them, and see him through dry halakhic categories. No wonder that among them there are people who do not listen to their parents. What they do with such people is bind them with ropes in order to coerce them into the commandments. They are treating the symptom instead of the root. And in the end, after all that, they still understand nothing, and think that he is giving them sharp answers in order to evade them. They still do not see the full extent of his distress. Then he tells them to come to Pumbedita, and there they will see what their sharpness is worth—and really, how one ought to behave. There Rav Yehudah reigns, the one who said all these laws: that one with an intestinal ailment is exempt from tefillin, and that a borrowed cloak is exempt from fringes. What they call ‘sharpness’ is nothing more than the simple laws of relating to another as he is, while noticing his difficult condition.

One of the things that troubled me is that I, as a reader, would not have noticed these simple points. I am one of Rav Hisda’s people in Sura, and for that I weep.

Source (the forum ‘Stop Here, We Think’): http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=2827720