Q&A: Mysticism in the Talmudic Period
Mysticism in the Talmudic Period
Question
Hello Rabbi!
Recently I started learning more breadth-oriented study rather than in-depth analysis, and I noticed that the stories in the Talmud are crawling with mystical, supernatural cases. Whether it’s the story about the ground that coins came out of, or the story that Rabbi Sheshet fixed his eyes on someone and he died, Rabbi Pappa was also like that (he fixed his eyes on people and they died), and if I keep listing stories it will never end.
There are certainly cases where I can interpret things allegorically or give a rational explanation, but it’s hard to ignore that there are cases where allegory and rationality simply do not fit (either not at all, or only in a way that feels far too forced).
My question is: what do we do with that? What does it actually mean? To say that the sages of the Talmud were schizophrenic is obviously out of line, but to say that there really were such irrational cases in that period (that is, that things were mystical) feels a bit far-fetched to me, and it would even require me to believe in something entirely new (besides believing in God, I’d also have to believe that there once was a supernatural world that cannot be documented)..
What does the Rabbi think? Thank you very much
Answer
I assume that such a story is meant to convey a message and does not describe facts. Personally, I am not interested in and do not deal with aggadic literature.
Discussion on Answer
Why?
Because the case there says that Abaye was upset because Rabbi Pappa’s parents were alive and supporting him, unlike Abaye, whose parents died at his birth.
And after he got upset, “he fixed his eyes on them,” and they died.
That’s not really something I can infer anything from, and there isn’t any context in the Talmud before that which you can connect it to.
Leaving aside that it’s not fair, it still doesn’t seem to me like a story that should not be taken literally, right?
How else can we explain it? I thought about it; you really can’t.
Of course you can. Even if the background is real, the killing can be allegorical, and it is very likely that it is.
But as I said, I don’t deal with aggadic literature.
That’s all well and good, but what are we supposed to do with a story like the one in the Talmud in Yevamot (106a), where it says: “He said to him: Where is your father? He said to him: In the city. Where is your mother? He said to him: In the city. He fixed his eyes on them, and they died.”
It just makes no sense to say that this is not describing an actual event, no?