Article Summary: Learning During Leining

Here is a summary of my Jewish Link article from last Shabbos (links to HTML, flipbook, and paywalled Substack).

I consider Sotah 39a and how two third-generation Amoraim associated with Sura academy, Rabba bar Rav Huna and Rav Chisda (as cited by Rabbi Zeira) interpret pesukim in sefer Nechemia about Ezra HaSofer’s public reading of the Torah. In different ways, they deduce that one the Torah is “opened”, no one may speak, even in matters of halacha.

This is famously contrasted with Berachot 8b, where third-generation Rav Sheshet (running Shilhe academy) would turn away and learn while the congregation was engaged in leining. רַב שֵׁשֶׁת מַהְדַּר אַפֵּיהּ וְגָרֵיס. אָמַר: אֲנַן בְּדִידַן וְאִינְהוּ בְּדִידְהוּ. Many harmonizations exist, such as that he was blind and thus exempt from study of Written Law, that he did so quietly to himself, or that torato umanuto, his Torah was his profession — which is a very high level effectively excluding most people from availing themselves of this practice.

I suggest that this may be a dispute among third-generation Amoraim, Sura vs. Shilhe. And harmonization I think unfairly undoes Rav Sheshet’s deeply held position. Further, there is a rough parallel to the language of אֲנַן בְּדִידַן וְאִינְהוּ בְּדִידְהוּ in Yerushalmi Chagiga 2:1. Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer attended the circumcision feast of Elisha ben Avuya. While others were engaged in dancing and singing, Rabbi Eliezer said to Rabbi Yehoshua, while they are occupied with theirs, let us occupy ourselves with ours. עַד דְּאִינּוּן עֲסִיקִין בְּדִידוֹן נַעֲסוֹק אֲנָן בְּדִידָן. They went from Torah to Neviim to Ketuvim, until fire descended and surrounded them. Avuya asked them if they had come to burn down his house, and the story continued from there.

The implication (for me) is that each participates at his own level. So too, Rav Sheshet was not ignoring leining. He could do better than Chumash, so both put his time to better use and did his version of Torah study along with the community.

I also briefly touch on the question of whether the Rabbi Zeira who quoted Rav Chisda was Rabbi Zeira I (as Rav Hyman suggested) or Rabbi Zeira II (who somehow feels more correct to me, as we are shifting the timeline to quoting third-generation Amoraim). I note how in Yerushalmi Megillah, a Rabbi Zeira interprets the pasuk used by Rabba bar Rav Huna in other fashion, perhaps then requiring use of the other pasuk in Nechemiah to get at the derivation of silence. We might calculate which Rabbi Zeira based on the chain there. : רִבִּי זְעוּרָה אַבָּא בַּר יִרְמְיָה רַב מַתָּנָה בְשֵׁם שְׁמוּאֵל: הֲלָכָה כְמִי שֶׁהוּא אוֹמֵר פּוֹתֵחַ וְרוֹאֶה וּמְבָרֵךְ. וּמַה טַעַם? וּכְפִתְח֖וֹ עָֽמְד֥וּ כָל־הָעָֽם. וּמַה כְתִיב בַּתְרֵיהּ. וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ עֶזְרָ֔א אֶת־ה ֨ הָאֱלֹקִ֖ים הַגָּד֑וֹל.