Dialectal Shift and Nedarim 66
Cinderella story
There are two fun stories — though I’ll admit that your mileage may vary — in Nedarim 66. The first is that of Lichluchis:
הָהוּא דַּאֲמַר לִדְבֵיתְהוּ ״קוּנָּם שֶׁאִי אַתְּ נֶהֱנֵית לִי עַד שֶׁתַּרְאִי מוּם יָפֶה שֶׁבִּיךְ לְרַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל בְּרַבִּי יוֹסֵי״.
The Gemara relates: There was a certain person who said to his wife: Benefiting from me is konam for you until you show some beautiful [yafeh] part of you to Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei. Rabbi Yishmael attempted to find something beautiful about the woman.
אָמַר לָהֶם: שֶׁמָּא רֹאשָׁהּ נָאֶה? אָמְרוּ לוֹ: סְגַלְגַּל. שֶׁמָּא שְׂעָרָהּ נָאֶה? דּוֹמֶה לַאֲנִיצֵי פִּשְׁתָּן. שֶׁמָּא עֵינֶיהָ נָאוֹת? טְרוּטוֹת הֵן. שֶׁמָּא אׇזְנֶיהָ נָאוֹת? כְּפוּלוֹת הֵן. שֶׁמָּא חוֹטְמָהּ נָאֶה? בָּלוּם הוּא. שֶׁמָּא שִׂפְתוֹתֶיהָ נָאוֹת? עָבוֹת הֵן. שֶׁמָּא צַוָּארָהּ נָאֶה? שָׁקוּט הוּא. שֶׁמָּא כְּרֵיסָהּ נָאֶה? צָבֶה הוּא. שֶׁמָּא רַגְלֶיהָ נָאוֹת? רְחָבוֹת כְּשֶׁל אֲווֹזָא. שֶׁמָּא שְׁמָהּ נָאֶה? ״לִכְלוּכִית״ שְׁמָהּ. אָמַר לָהֶן: יָפֶה קוֹרִין אוֹתָהּ לִכְלוּכִית, שֶׁהִיא מְלוּכְלֶכֶת בְּמוּמִין, וְשַׁרְיַיהּ.
He said to his students: Perhaps her head is beautiful? They said to him: It is round [segalgal]. Perhaps her hair is beautiful? They replied: Her hair resembles stalks of flax. Perhaps her eyes are beautiful? They are narrow [terutot]. Perhaps her ears are beautiful? They are double in size. Perhaps her nose is beautiful? It is stubby. Perhaps her lips are beautiful? They are thick. Perhaps her neck is beautiful? It is low and short. Perhaps her stomach is beautiful? It is swollen. Perhaps her feet are beautiful? They are as wide as a goose’s. Perhaps her name is beautiful? Her name is Likhlukhit. He said to them: It is fitting [yafeh] that she is called by the name Likhlukhit, as she is dirty [melukhlekhet] with blemishes, and he permitted her to benefit from her husband, because she did have one beautiful feature, her fitting name.
Aside from the punch line, perhaps one idea is that alongside what are subjective measure of beauty, there is beauty in consonance.
Interestingly, in Modern Hebrew, Lichluchit is the translate of Cinderella (where she was covered in cinders and soot).
The other seems like an origin story for Amelia Bedelia, a children’s book character who took everything literally.
The well-known origin story was that the author, Peggy Parish, had based it on a a French colonial maid in Cameroon, Africa. This was a Wikipedia hoax, where EJ Dickson and her friend Evan, college sophomores, while “stoned out of their minds” in 2009, decided to “edit Wikipedia pages for various semi-obscure children’s book authors” and added this false fact. That was never corrected, and make it into books and articles. In self-perpetuating fashion, the author’s nephew read it somewhere (such as a print article which based itself on Wikipedia) and repeated it in an interview with a local paper, the WCF Courier:
Parish said his aunt based the lead character on a French colonial maid in Cameroon, who served in a house owned by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers (in the book, the owners' name is also Rogers.) He said he even heard stories of the real-life Rogers asking the maid to sweep around the room, only to find the areas closest to the walls swept.
And that in turn was used to bolster the false fact on Wikipedia.
Anyway, in Nedarim we have another story of a woman who takes things literally.
הָהוּא בַּר בָּבֶל דִּסְלֵיק לְאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל, נְסֵיב אִיתְּתָא. אֲמַר לַהּ: בַּשִּׁילִי לִי תְּרֵי טַלְפֵי. בַּשִּׁילָה לֵיהּ תְּרֵי טַלְפֵי. רְתַח עֲלַהּ. לִמְחַר אֲמַר לַהּ: בַּשִּׁילִי לִי גְּרִיוָא. בַּשִּׁילָה לֵיהּ גְּרִיוָא. אֲמַר לַהּ: זִילִי אַיְיתִי לִי תְּרֵי בוּצִינֵי. אֲזַלַת וְאַיְיתַי לֵיהּ תְּרֵי שְׁרָגֵי.
The Gemara cites another incident: There was a certain Babylonian who went up to Eretz Yisrael and married a woman there. He said to her: Cook two lentils, i.e., some lentils, for me. She cooked exactly two lentils for him. He grew angry with her. On the following day, so that she would not repeat what she had done, he said to her: Cook a se’a [geriva] for me, intending: A large amount. She cooked an actual se’a for him, far more than what one person could eat. He said to her: Go and bring me two butzinei, intending small gourds, as butzinei are small gourds in the Aramaic dialect spoken in Babylonia. She went and brought him two lamps [sheraggei], called butzinei in the Aramaic dialect spoken in Eretz Yisrael.
אֲמַר לַהּ: זִילִי תְּבַרִי יָתְהוֹן עַל רֵישָׁא דְבָבָא. הֲוָה יָתֵיב בָּבָא בֶּן בּוּטָא אַבָּבָא וְקָא דָאֵין דִּינָא. אֲזַלַת וּתְבַרַת יָתְהוֹן עַל רֵישֵׁיהּ. אֲמַר לַהּ: מָה הָדֵין דַּעֲבַדְתְּ? אֲמַרָה לֵיהּ: כָּךְ צִיוַּנִי בַּעְלִי. אֲמַר: אַתְּ עָשִׂית רְצוֹן בַּעְלִיךְ, הַמָּקוֹם יוֹצִיא מִמֵּךְ שְׁנֵי בָּנִים כְּבָבָא בֶּן בּוּטָא.
In anger, he said to her: Go and break them on the head of the bava, intending the gate, as bava means a gate in the Aramaic dialect spoken in Babylonia. She did not recognize this word. At that time, the Sage Bava ben Buta was sitting as a judge at the gate. She went and broke them on his head, as his name was Bava. He said to her: What is this you have done? She said to him: This is what my husband commanded me to do. He said: You fulfilled your husband’s desire, may the Omnipresent bring forth from you two sons, corresponding to the two candles, like Bava ben Buta.
Sometimes I do that, using “couple” to mean a few, or a little amount. The idea is that, in the initial two misunderstandings, she was unaware of the idiomatic speech of his locale. And for בוּצִינֵי, as gourds vs. lamps, that is a clear dialectal difference.
There are variants of the story, perhaps because it seemed strange that she did exactly what was asked of her, so what is the criticism? (This if unaware that the issue was the literalness.) Thus, instead of the same item in request and response with a number תְּרֵי, “Rashi” mentions that he asked for טַלְפֵי, defined as animal legs, and she brought טלופחי, lentils. Though the manuscripts seem consistent in טלופחי or טלפוחי throughout, with a number.
And our Vilna and Venice printing seem consistent with טלפי throughout. We’d want alternation. The closest I’ve seen from the few Nedarim manuscripts on Hachi Garsinan is Marburg: Hr. 15.32, 34, 40:
Look five lines down. The word טלופחיין is written in the margin, while in the main text the word is partly obscured, so I can’t really make it out. Please feel free to speculate. Meanwhile, maybe it shouldn’t be תרי in the request, but the יין ending in the margin was misinterpreted as the dual. Also, in her fulfillment of the request, some word is crossed out and תרי is written above. Is this מי? Was it טל and a false start on the word טלופחין?
Free-associating, I can think of two connections to other sugyot. First, to Rav, whose wife would vex him, with something to do with טלופחי and giving him the wrong thing. Thus, in Yevamot 63:
רַב הֲוָה מִיפְּטַר מֵרַבִּי חִיָּיא, אֲמַר לֵיהּ: רַחֲמָנָא לַיצְּלָךְ מִמִּידֵּי דְּקָשֵׁה מִמּוֹתָא. וּמִי אִיכָּא מִידֵּי דְּקָשֵׁה מִמּוֹתָא? נְפַק, דָּק וְאַשְׁכַּח: ״וּמוֹצֶא אֲנִי מַר מִמָּוֶת אֶת הָאִשָּׁה וְגוֹ׳״. רַב הֲוָה קָא מְצַעֲרָא לֵיהּ דְּבֵיתְהוּ, כִּי אָמַר לַהּ ״עֲבִידִי לִי טְלוֹפְחֵי״, עָבְדָא לֵיהּ חִימְצֵי. ״חִימְצֵי״, עָבְדָא לֵיהּ טְלוֹפְחֵי.
The Gemara cites more statements with regard to wives. When Rav was taking leave of his uncle and teacher, Rabbi Ḥiyya, upon his return from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: May the Merciful One save you from something that is worse than death. Rav was perplexed: Is there anything that is worse than death? He went, examined the sources, and found the following verse: “And I find more bitter than death the woman, etc.” (Ecclesiastes 7:26). Rabbi Ḥiyya was hinting at this verse, and indeed, Rav’s wife would constantly aggravate him. When he would say to her: Prepare me lentils, she would prepare him peas; if he asked her for peas, she would prepare him lentils.
Rav came from Bavel, went to Israel, and then returned to Bavel. I can’t trace it right now, but if I recall correctly, he refused to marry Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s daughter, as he wanted a wife from Bavel. This lentil confusion doesn’t seem to be dialectal.
There’s another nice connection to the other stories in Nedarim, where husbands were vowing to deprive their wives to benefit from them until they spat on a certain Sage. Here, Bava ben Beta may have understood the smashing him over the head as a similar scenario.