Ravavahu Stands Firm (article preview)

Two stories in Sahnedrin deal with changing later generations judging earlier generations. The Mishnah (90a) listed three kings who had lost their share in the World-to-Come: Yeravam, Achav, and Menashe; with Rabbi Yehuda disputing Menashe’s inclusion. Sanhedrin 102 relates that R’ Abahu would regularly expound (דָרֵישׁ, perhaps publicly), about the three kings. He fell ill, and accepted that he would no longer do so. He recovered and once again lectured on this topic. They, meaning his colleagues or students, asked him: Didn’t you accept not to do this? He answered: Did they repent (הדר), that I should retract (הדר)?

Rav Ashi ended his lecture one day saying that “tomorrow, we’ll begin with our colleagues”, meaning the three kings. King Menashe appeared to him in a dream and upbraided him: Do you think we are your colleagues or your father’s colleagues? Menashe asked: from where do you cut the loaf when reciting hamotzi. Rav Ashi admitted ignorance, and asked for the answer, so that he could cite it in his name. The answer was: from where it crusts as a result of baking. Asked why he engaged in idolatry, Menashe said, “if you lived then, you would have lifted the hem of your cloak and run after me.” The next day, Rav Ashi opened his shiur with “we begin with our teachers.”

Chazal are not monolithic in their attitudes, and here we have two Sages differing. R’ Abahu will judge previous generations for their failures, and will even shrug off seeming Divine disapproval of his speech. Rav Ashi seems less willing to “cancel” prior generations for their moral failings, and to judge them by modern standards – even where those actions were obviously bad even at the time.

Reish Chupchik

Reish Chupchik is not Reish Lakish’s lesser known cousin. Rather, I mean the letter ר with an apostrophe or diacritic above it. That’s the text in the Vilna printing, ר’ אבהו. I was careful above not to give R’ Abahu’s title as “Rav” or “Rabbi”, because the title is mostly ambiguous. In Rav Steinsaltz’s work, this Amora is written as רבי אבהו and Rabbi Abahu. Artscroll might be a bit more cautious. On the translation side, they spell out רבי אבהו in their Hebrew text but write R’ Abahu in their English rendition. I thought that was to match the ambiguity of the Vilna text, but I’ve seen many instances of Vilna’s spelled-out רבי nonetheless rendered as R’.