Q&A: A Question About the Talmud
A Question About the Talmud
Question
Hello Rabbi, look at the following Talmudic passage:
“The Rabbis taught: There are four signs: A sign of transgression—dropsy; a sign of baseless hatred—jaundice; a sign of haughtiness—poverty; a sign of evil speech—askara.”
Do you believe this? Where do we see this empirically in reality? That someone who engages in baseless hatred gets jaundice? Or someone who speaks evil speech gets askara? I’d be glad to know, as a religious person, how I’m supposed to relate to this.
Thank you in advance.
Answer
You can relate to this in two ways: 1. It is a metaphor, not a practical factual statement. There is something about askara that is connected to evil speech, etc. Maybe the meaning is that you deserve askara, but not necessarily that you will get it. 2. This is a claim of the Sages, but it doesn’t seem to me to have any basis whatsoever. In the past, people believed all kinds of things.
As a rational person, you should relate to this rationally. There is no religious obligation beyond the obligation to be rational. Even regarding commandments that are not rational (in my view), reason says to observe them because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded them, and therefore apparently it is correct. But here there is neither obligation nor reason.
So of course you can look for meanings in these metaphors in order to defend the rationality of the Sages. In my view, that is a needless exercise in interpreting a Rorschach blot. The interpretation you find will always be something you already thought beforehand.