Q&A: Mattia ben Heresh
Mattia ben Heresh
Question
What does the Rabbi think about a story like this one about Mattia ben Heresh, who gouged out his eyes with nails so as not to look at a woman? Is that normal? Does it fit some particular level of righteousness, or in any case does it border on psychosis? What message are we supposed to take from such a strange story? I take into account that perhaps here too it is a case of “if it is empty, it is from you,” but it is Torah, and I need to learn.
Answer
I don’t know. In general, I’m not really able to learn much from aggadic stories. A few possible interpretations of this story can be suggested:
1. It didn’t really happen, but is meant to teach us how important modesty is. In practice, though, one should not behave this way.
2. Perhaps he saw that his evil inclination was overpowering him greatly, and regarding forbidden sexual relations the rule is “be killed rather than transgress.” Some say this applies even to the ancillary prohibitions of sexual immorality.
3. It really was a case of psychosis.
Discussion on Answer
The story about Rabbi Mattia ben Heresh was probably borrowed from Christianity and does not appear in the early rabbinic sources.
There is an ancient ethical work called Tzemach Tzaddik—it learns a moral lesson from every living creature, and after deriving a trait it brings a story that illustrates that trait. From the dove it learns modesty—and it brings a story about a modest, pious woman whom the city governor saw and desired, and wanted to speak with her in secret, but did not succeed, until he resolved to take her by force. He went to her house and took her and brought her to his house. Then she asked him what he had found in her. He answered: “Your eyes are like doves!” So she told him that she needed to prepare herself for his request, and she shut the door behind her; she took a knife and gouged out both her eyes. Then she opened the door and said: since it was the eyes you wanted, you can have them.
This story is an almost exact translation from Latin of Fiore di Virtù—Flowers of Faith—a book that tells stories drawn from early Christian sources.
A similar story appears in Christianity about Saint Lucy—that they took her and betrothed her to some pagan, and took her to be healed at the grave of a holy woman. Then she decided, as in the story of Pelagia, to renounce her property and donate it, and decided to become an ascetic. So he took her to a judge. In one version of the end of the story, she gouged out her eyes.
Apparently, in the place where this later story about Mattia ben Heresh took shape, it was against the background of the stories about Christian “saints” who did such a thing.
Very interesting
Thank you very much