Dama ben Netina's Profit
This is my Jewish Link article for the week.
To what extent must one honor one’s parents? On Avoda Zara 23b-24a, Rav Yehuda cites Shmuel who said: The Sages asked this question to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, who pointed to Dama ben Netina, a gentile who lived in Ashkelon, as an example. Once, the Temple needed to purchase replacement gems for the ephod worn by the Kohen Gadol. The profit would have been 600,000 gold dinars. (As an interjection, Rav Kahana would teach this as 800,000 gold dinars.) However, his father was resting and the keys to the chest were under his father’s head, and he didn’t want to disturb him, so he did not follow through with the sale. The next year, a red heifer was born to his herd. The Sages of Israel approached to buy it. He said, “I know that you are willing to pay all the money in the world. However, all I ask of you is the money I lost by not waking my father.”
The focus in Avoda Zara is in establishing that one may purchase gems or cattle from gentiles. However, the story is repeated in other tractates, where the focus is on honoring one’s parents. We can example these parallel sugyot and look for differences and their implications. These differences may just be divergent traditions, or a story changing as it is retold. Alternatively, the differences may express divergent religious philosophical approaches.
In Kiddushin 31a, at first, the Sages posed the question of extent to Rav Ulla (based on context and manuscripts, Ulla Rabba, who is the regular Ulla). He pointed to Dama ben Netina and only gave the first half of the story, about the gems, without the red heifer follow-up. Then, Rav Yehuda cited Shmuel, where Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus told both halves of the story. The important difference is that Dama actually receives his earthly reward from Heaven. Also, Dama is conscious of how much he has lost by his first action, and sees the red heifer as God working to get him this money.
Rav Kahana’s Variant
There were several Amoraim named Rav Kahana, but we can identify him in context, here being that he teaches a variant. Rav Aharon Hyman writes in Toledot Tannaim vaAmoraim: “This Rav Kahana was the head in the city of Pum Nahara, and he founded a great yeshiva there. For, when Rava (his teacher) died, great yeshivot proliferated. Rav Pappa presided over Naresh, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak over Pumbedita, and Rav Zevid in Nehardea. And this is what we find in Kiddushin 72a: Ameimar permitted Rav Huna bar Natan1 to marry a Mechozan woman2. Rav Ashi asked him, ‘What is your reasoning? It is because Rav Yehuda quoted Shmuel that X? But Rav Kahana’s academy didn’t teach it like this, Rav Pappa’s academy didn’t teach it like this, and Rav Zevid’s academy didn’t teach it like this.’”
I’d observe that these fifth-generation students of Rava, who founded academies in different locales, often chime in with variants to our standard Talmudic text with the word מתני. Though sixth-generation Rav Ashi (Sura in Mata Mechasia) was Rav Pappa’s and Rav Kahana’s student, and also redacted the Talmud, our standard Talmudic text is as it is, with occasional notes of where the established text of these Sages or their academies differed.
Here, the standard number appears as 600,000, in both Ulla’s and Rabbi Eliezer’s story. In the latter, we have Rav Kahana’s variant of 800,000. Is this simply a matter of precision? Perhaps, but consider that shishim ribo, 600,000, is a magic number. It corresponds to the census of certain adult Israelite males who left Egypt. If the stones on the choshen are to represent the tribes, perhaps there’s a metaphorical intent in this price. Meanwhile, 800,000 seems arbitrary, so might reflect the reality and actual price quoted. Alternatively, both of these seem like impossible, astronomic figures, which could suggest poetic exaggeration, except that there’s limited supply and an almost non-negotiable demand.
We’ll discuss Yerushalmi Peah 1:1 and Yerushalmi Kiddushin 1:7 momentarily, but one aspect of the Yerurshalmi parallel is the agreed-upon price of 100 dinar. Heinrich Guggenheimer comments, “In early Roman imperial money, when the coins were still honest, this amounted to 22 oz. of gold, an enormous sum since the buying power of gold was much larger than it is today. The amount mentioned in the Babli by authors living during the early military anarchy is 60’000 or 80’000 denar. According to the monetary reform of Diocletian, one Roman pound (12 ounces), 500 fine, would be 48’000 denar. At the end of the inflationary period, 100 early denar would therefore be the equivalent of 880’000 denar. Hence, the sums mentioned in the Babli are rather on the low side.” While 100 dinar is a nice round sum, that the conversion works out to approximately 800,000 suggests that Rav Kahana meant to give a literal and precise sum.
Yerushalmi Parallels
The tale in Yerushalmi is roughly the same, though in Aramaic instead of Bavli’s Hebrew. Some changes include: Dama never sat on his father’s stone, and worshiped the stone after his father’s death. It was one particular stone, the yashpeh stone (perhaps jasper) of Binyamin’s tribe, and they sought a stone of similar quality.
It wasn’t the sleeping father’s head on the key. Instead, the key was clutched in his fingers or his feet rested on the gem chest. He descended and didn’t elaborate. They then upped the price to two hundred dinar, and then to a thousand. His father woke up and he brought them the jasper. He insisted on only taking the original amount, saying, “Do I sell my father’s honor for money?” Rabbi Yossi bar Avun, a third-generation Amora operating in Teveriah said that, as reward, the following night his cow birthed a red heifer. The Jews bought it for its weight in gold. (A mature cow weighs between 1000 and 1800 pounds, which is more than 22 oz of gold.)
In both versions, Dama is principled, but perhaps in Yerushalmi he’s more so. Here, he sold the original gem, though at an honest price. When he sells the para aduma, he doesn’t claim it as directly in line with what he lost in honoring his father. He wouldn’t sell that for anything. Instead, it is Hashem’s independent reward.
Presumably this refers to the Exilarch, Huna bar Natan.
Despite it formally being outside of Bavel regarding lineage.