Rashbam on Gemara vs. Torah
Today (Wednesday), we saw Bnot Tzelafchad in Daf Yomi, with a digression to Yocheved. Thus, someone said that the youngest of these daughters was not younger than forty. Then, Bava Batra 119b-120a, an interjection:
אִינִי?! וְהָא אָמַר רַב חִסְדָּא: נִיסַּת פְּחוּתָה מִבַּת עֶשְׂרִים – יוֹלֶדֶת עַד שִׁשִּׁים, בַּת עֶשְׂרִים – יוֹלֶדֶת עַד אַרְבָּעִים, בַּת אַרְבָּעִים – שׁוּב אֵינָהּ יוֹלֶדֶת! אֶלָּא מִתּוֹךְ שֶׁצִּדְקָנִיּוֹת הֵן, נַעֲשָׂה לָהֶן נֵס – כְּיוֹכֶבֶד, דִּכְתִיב: ״וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי, וַיִּקַּח אֶת בַּת לֵוִי״ –
The Gemara asks: Is that so? But doesn’t Rav Ḥisda say: If a woman marries when she is less than twenty years old, she is able to give birth until she reaches the age of sixty; if she marries when she is twenty years old or older, she is able to give birth until she reaches the age of forty; if she marries when she is forty years old or older, she is no longer able to give birth at all. If so, how could Zelophehad’s daughters have waited until the age of forty to marry? Rather, since they are righteous women, a miracle was performed for them, like the one done for Jochebed. As it is written: “And a man of the house of Levi went, and took as a wife a daughter of Levi” (Exodus 2:1).
אֶפְשָׁר בַּת מֵאָה וּשְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה, וְקֹרֵא לָהּ: ״בַּת״?! דְּאָמַר רַבִּי חָמָא בַּר חֲנִינָא: זוֹ יוֹכֶבֶד; שֶׁהוֹרָתָהּ בַּדֶּרֶךְ, וְנוֹלְדָה בֵּין הַחוֹמוֹת – דִּכְתִיב: ״אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה אֹתָהּ לְלֵוִי בְּמִצְרָיִם״ –
The Gemara asks: Is it possible that this is Jochebed? Jochebed was then 130 years old and the verse called her a daughter, indicating one who is very young. Jochebed’s age is established based on a tradition concerning the number of Jacob’s descendants who came to Egypt, as follows: While the verse states that Leah had thirty-three descendants (Genesis 46:15), only thirty-two were enumerated. This was explained as Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina says: This “daughter of Levi” is Jochebed, whose conception occurred on the journey as the family of Jacob descended to Egypt, and she was born within the walls, i.e., having entered Egypt, as it is written: “And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt” (Numbers 26:59).
לֵידָתָהּ בְּמִצְרַיִם, וְהוֹרָתָהּ שֶׁלֹּא בְּמִצְרַיִם. וְאַמַּאי קָרוּ לַהּ ״בַּת״? אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה בַּר זְבִידָא: מְלַמֵּד שֶׁנּוֹלְדוּ בָּהּ סִימָנֵי נַעֲרוּת, נִתְעַדֵּן הַבָּשָׂר, נִתְפַּשְּׁטוּ הַקְּמָטִין, וְחָזַר הַיּוֹפִי לִמְקוֹמוֹ.
One can infer from the verse: Her birth was in Egypt, but her conception was not in Egypt. Since the Jewish people were in Egypt for 210 years and Moses was eighty years old at the time of the Exodus, Jochebed must have been 130 years old when Moses was born. The Gemara therefore asks: And why does the verse call her “a daughter”? Rav Yehuda bar Zevida says: This teaches that her signs of youth miraculously came into being again. The flesh became smooth, the wrinkles were straightened out, and the youthful beauty returned to its place.
The idea being that just as Yocheved’s youth miraculously returned to her, so was the same for Tzelaphchad’s daughters. The part about Yocheved being born between the walls, thus being 130 years old when she give birth to Moshe, is borrowed from the primary sugya which we’ll read on Shabbat, namely Bava Batra 123.
Back in my parshablog days, I wrote a bunch of posts about Yocheved’s age. Rashi says Yocheved was 130. There were 210 years in Egypt, and you have Moshe appear before Pharaoh at the age of 80. 210 - 80 == 130. Famously, Ibn Ezra rejects the midrashic idea that she was so old, for if there were a greater miracle than Sarah’s giving birth in old age, on a peshat level, the Torah should have made it explicit. Ramban responds that it is a tug of war. So whatever years you need to deduct from Yocheved, you need to add to Levi in fathering her.
I’ve discussed this before on parshablog, together with the Septuagint and Saadia Gaon that she was a granddaughter. I’ve also discussed the tension from the other verse, that Amram married Dodata, which seems to fix her as his aunt. However, that verse could be translated as first female cousin, or as “beloved” if he had previously married her and then divorced her. I wonder whether that genealogical verse (in Shemot 6 that he married dodato, and in Bemidbar 26, that Amram married Yocheved bat Levi ) was a reflecting / interpretation of the textually earlier marrying bat Levi verse (in Shemot 2).
The derasha of Rav Yehuda bar Zevida on Bat Levi is based on the idea that bat means both “daughter” and “young girl”. Similarly, on a peshat and derash level, we have isha meaning both “woman”, that is, “human adult female”, as well as “wife”. Perhaps this is because natural human language reflects society and is a bit sexist. We don’t regularly say that the (presumably unrelated, with a yud) word איש means both “man”, that is, “adult human male”, and “husband”. Well, there is אישה with a mapik heh where it means “her man”, that is, “her husband”, but we don’t regularly say that about isha on a peshat level.
But, here we have a ready answer to the problem, one I’ve proposed in the past. Just as איש מבית לוי means “a man from the house of Levi”, את בת לוי means “a girl of marriageable age from the [house] of Levi.” If we didn’t have to deal with Amram marrying דודתו, then Rav Yehuda bar Zevida is telling us that bat need not mean a literal daughter. Of course, in context, he takes it as both, a daughter who is also “young enough” to bear children.
While reading through the sugya with Rashbam, the commentary on the page for much of Bava Batra, I thought about the principle that Rashi on the Gemara is explaining the Gemara, while Rashi on Torah is expressing his own opinion. The same holds true for Rashbam.
So, Rashbam on Talmud does not deal with what he himself thinks about the verses. He writes about Yocheved in our sugya:
אפשר בת מאה ול' שנה - כדלקמן וקרי לה בת אשה הוה ליה למיכתב ומנלן דבת מאה ושלשים היתה:
דאמר ר' חמא בר חנינא - לקמן בפירקין דמבעיא לן דבכללן אתה מוצא שבעים ובפרטן אי אתה מוצא אלא שבעים חסר אחת ועל זו א"ר חמא בר חנינא זו יוכבד כו' ובת לוי דקאמר קרא היינו בת לוי ממש בתו של לוי והא דלא קחשיב לה בהדיא לפי שלא באה למצרים אלא בבטן אמה ולידתה בין החומות כלומר בתוך מצרים ומשום דקאמר בדרך גבי הורתה קאמר נמי בין החומות גבי לידתה:
אשר ילדה - קרא יתירא הוא דהא כבר כתיב בת לוי וישראל עמדו במצרים מאתים ועשר שנה שכן רמז יעקב לבניו רד"ו שמה ובסדר עולם יליף מקרא נאמר לאברהם בברית בין הבתרים כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם איזה זרע זה יצחק שנאמר כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע ביצחק הוא אומר ויצחק בן ששים שנה בלדת אותם ויעקב אבינו אמר לפרעה ימי שני מגורי שלשים ומאת שנה הרי ס' דיצחק וק"ל דיעקב הרי מאה ותשעים ומאתים וי' עמדו במצרים הרי ד' מאות שנה שנאמרו לאברהם וכל ד' מאות שנה היו במצרים אי אפשר לומר שהרי קהת מיורדי מצרים היה כדכתיב ובני לוי גרשון קהת ומררי ושני חיי קהת שלש ושלשים ומאת שנה ושני חיי עמרם שבע ושלשים ומאת שנה ופ' שנה של משה הרי ש"נ א"כ מה ת"ל ועבדום וענו אותם ארבע מאות שנה כ"ז שזרעך בארץ לא להם ת' שנה נמצאת יוכבד בת ק"ל שנה שהרי בתחלת ביאת מצרים נולדה ומשה בן פ' שנה היה בצאתם נשתיירו ק"ל ממאתים ועשר:
This explains and supports the interpretation provided in the gemara.
Meanwhile, Rashbam on Torah is often radical peshat and rejecting of midrashic interpretations. I might expect him to say something like Ibn Ezra in reducing Yocheved’s age. One the other hand, needs to grapple with the local peshat in each of those three pesukim, which also motivated the midrash.
Rashbam on Torah (Shemot 2) doesn’t explicitly give an age of 130. He writes in context of Rashi’s commentary on the same verse, where Rashi did give an age and provides the 130 calculation. Rashbam writes:
וילך איש מבית לוי - הוא עמרם.
ויקח את יוכבד בת לוי - אשר ילדה אותה ללוי במצרים. והרבה שנים לקחה מלפני לידת משה, שהרי אהרן בן שלש ושמונים ומשה בן שמונים בדברם אל פרעה.
Writing that “she was born to Levi in Egypt” is channeling / citing the words from Bemidbar 26, אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָלְדָ֥ה אֹתָ֛הּ לְלֵוִ֖י בְּמִצְרָ֑יִם. But I don’t think he is trying to agree with the midrash that she was born immediately upon entering the walls. Rather, it is more along Ibn Ezra lines, that she was Levi’s daughter but was born some time later.
The rest of Rashbam, saying that he took her years previous to this, doesn’t bear on the age calculation. Rather, this is a way of disagreeing with Rashi and the midrash (also in our sugya in Bava Batra 120) that Amram had divorced her and now re-took her as his wife. Instead, Rashbam says that the perfect is really the pluperfect, not “and he took Yocheved” but “and he had taken Yocheved” as his wife, many years in the past. His evidence is that Aharon was older by three years, but his birth isn’t mentioned here. Rashbam on our gemara just explains the meaning of the midrash, and justifies it.
Thus, Rashbam on the Gemara explains the Gemara, while Rashbam on Torah explains Rashbam’s ideas.