Q&A: Interesting Topics, and Less So
Interesting Topics, and Less So
Question
A subjective perspective can offer angles that provoke thought. Which Talmudic topics or subjects are, in your view, the most interesting in the Talmud? And which topics are boring?
Answer
I cannot say, “This teaching is pleasing and that one is not pleasing.” They are all pleasing; the question is what one does with them. And Rabbi Chaim of Brisk’s remark about tractate Beitzah is already well known: they asked him whether it really is an easy tractate, and he answered: even an egg is not always easy. It depends how you prepare it.
Discussion on Answer
Chaim, that’s mockery.
Chaim,
First, I join the supervisor above me. Shame on you; this is mockery.
Second, you omitted another point: in many kollels they study tractate Menachot.
To “One bit of mockery repels a hundred rebukes” — greetings,
With a slight correction, Chaim K.’s words can be turned from a joke into a recommendation: someone whose evil inclination strongly pulls him toward idolatry should study tractate Avodah Zarah, so that he will be stirred to distance himself from any trace of idolatry, even its accessories;
and someone whose inclination tends toward violence should study tractate Makkot, which teaches how careful one must be in this area — that it requires a duly ordained religious court (and some say: twenty-three, as in capital cases), and even once a sentence of lashes has been ruled there is the prohibition, “He shall not continue; lest he continue, and your brother be degraded before your eyes.”
Likewise, someone whose inclination strongly pulls him in matters of sexual immorality should study tractate Sotah, and see how severe it is even for a woman who did not actually stray, but merely brought herself into a situation of suspicion.
Rabbi Israel Salanter already explained that beyond the general “spice” in all Torah study against the evil inclination, there is a special power in studying the laws in the very area where a person is weak, in order to awaken and strengthen him in that direction.
With blessings,
Meir Ze’evi-Wurkeimer (M.Z.)
And I, were I not afraid, would have said that in my humble opinion it seems that the word “recommendation” is a typo, and it should read “fabrication,” and then everything would make perfect sense, with Heaven’s help. For apparently these recommendations are not worth much, and studying tractate Avodah Zarah or Makkot or Sotah has no connection at all to those inclinations. Rabbi Israel Salanter’s point, the correct and precise one, is different and very focused: when the laws are known and clear, then a person who is generally faithful to Jewish law does not transgress them. The Chazon Ish rightly wrote that the force that protects against corruption is blurred when the judgment is blurred, because it inclines the mind to rely on the remote possibility that it is not really forbidden, etc. And in addition, when one sees something built in a splendid and orderly way, a feeling of appreciation is created.
That’s also a matter of community.
For example: in Chabad Hasidism they like studying tractate Avodah Zarah; in Gur Hasidism they like tractate Makkot; and in Shuvu Banim, tractate Sotah.