The Last With Humility and Fear of Heaven?
One final post on Sotah, before we move on to Gittin.
The final sugya reads (Sotah 49b):
מִשֶּׁמֵּת רַבִּי בָּטְלָה עֲנָוָה וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ רַב יוֹסֵף לְתַנָּא: לָא תִּיתְנֵי עֲנָוָה, דְּאִיכָּא אֲנָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ רַב נַחְמָן לְתַנָּא: לָא תִּיתְנֵי יִרְאַת חֵטְא, דְּאִיכָּא אֲנָא.
The final line of the mishna states that from the time when Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi died, humility and fear of sin ceased. Rav Yosef said to the tanna who reviewed the mishna: Do not teach that humility ceased, for there is still one who is humble, namely me. Rav Naḥman similarly said to the tanna who reviewed the mishna: Do not teach that fear of sin ceased, for there is still one who fears sin, namely me.
The way this reads, מִשֶּׁמֵּת רַבִּי בָּטְלָה עֲנָוָה וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא is a piska, that is, a Geonic-era citation of the Mishnah so that we know what portion of the Mishnah is being discussed by the gemara. (That it is Geonic may be relevant to halacha. There are times — I’ve seen— where we could argue with the piskaot, and where making the gemara accord with the a different segment, e.g. the reisha vs. the seifa leads to a different interpretation and therefore a difference halachic conclusion.)
This is what we have in printed texts (Vilna, Venice) and in Munich 95. There is a slight difference in Vatican 110, which explains where in this world this “tanna” — reciter of Tannaitic materials — came from.
It states: a Tanna recited before Rav Yosef…
It is interesting that well into the Amoraic period — Rav Yosef is third-generation, and Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak (as we’ll discuss in a moment) was a fifth-generation Amora — the text of something which should be standardized, the Mishnah, would be in such flux, that they would tell the reciter to emend this.
However, consider what the Mishnah said: מִשֶּׁמֵּת רַבִּי בָּטְלָה עֲנָוָה וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא
When Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi [compiler / redactor of the Mishnah] died, humility and fear of sin were nullified.
Just as commentators grapple with the final verses of the Torah describing Moshe’s death, for how could he have written them, we can wonder how Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi could write about his own death. We might further point out that it is not so humble for Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi to describe himself as an anav and a yerei cheit, but the counter to that is that the Torah, written down by Moshe, describes Moshe as an extreme anav, and Rav Yosef calls himself an anav, in which case we grapple anyway with the self-described humility. The problem is more the former, that it describes the consequences of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s death.
Now, certain sections of Mishnah may be post Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Consider the Mishnah in Avodah Zara 2:6, רַבִּי וּבֵית דִּינוֹ הִתִּירוּ בַשֶּׁמֶן. Rashi on that Mishnah in the gemara takes out the line, because in Avodah Zara 36, we see that this was Rebbe’s grandson, Yehuda Nesia. Assuming we don’t remove it, we have a post-Rebbe portion segment of the Mishnah.
If we are dealing with the Mishnah, then Rav Yosef and Rav Nachman (bar Yitzchak) don’t say to take it out because it is late, but because it is untrue. Despite their telling the reciter to take it out, it persists in our canonized Mishnah along with their instructions to remove it. Just as in cases of חסורי מחסרא, no one goes to the Mishna or brayta and actually inserts it in. Instead, we have the full editing history preserved, so that the issue can be known and revisitied.
If it was a brayta, then it could readily be post-Rabbi. And we have the brayta together with Rav Yosef / Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak’s instruction.
Perhaps the piska vs. the explicit Amoraic “tanna” reciting it aligns with it being a Mishnah or a brayta.
Finally, we should note that while the printed texts had plain Rav Nachman, who would be the earlier, third-generation Rav Nachman bar Yaakov, who is Rava’s teacher, the manuscripts all have Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, who is a fifth-generation student of Rava. Vatican 110 already appeared above, so scroll up.
And here is the Munich 95 manuscript again; ignore the red underline, and look on the last line of gemara to see the bar Yitzchak.
If we wanted to speak of Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak’s fear of heaven, Shabbat 156b:
וּמִדְּרַב נַחְמָן בַּר יִצְחָק נָמֵי אֵין מַזָּל לְיִשְׂרָאֵל. דְּאִימֵּיהּ דְּרַב נַחְמָן בַּר יִצְחָק אָמְרִי לַהּ כַּלְדָּאֵי: בְּרִיךְ גַּנָּבָא הָוֵה. לָא שְׁבַקְתֵּיהּ גַּלּוֹיֵי רֵישֵׁיהּ. אֲמַרָה לֵיהּ: כַּסִּי רֵישָׁיךָ, כִּי הֵיכִי דְּתִיהְוֵי עֲלָךְ אֵימְתָא דִשְׁמַיָּא, וּבְעִי רַחֲמֵי. לָא הֲוָה יָדַע אַמַּאי קָאָמְרָה לֵיהּ. יוֹמָא חַד יָתֵיב קָא גָרֵיס תּוּתֵי דִיקְלָא, נְפַל גְּלִימָא מֵעִילָּוֵי רֵישֵׁיהּ, דְּלִי עֵינֵיהּ חֲזָא לְדִיקְלָא, אַלְּמֵיהּ יִצְרֵיהּ, סְלֵיק, פַּסְקֵיהּ לְקִיבּוּרָא בְּשִׁינֵּיהּ.
And from that which transpired to Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak as well it can be derived that there is no constellation for the Jewish people, As Chaldean astrologers told Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak’s mother: Your son will be a thief. She did not allow him to uncover his head. She said to her son: Cover your head so that the fear of Heaven will be upon you, and pray for Divine mercy. He did not know why she said this to him. One day he was sitting and studying beneath a palm tree that did not belong to him, and the cloak fell off of his head. He lifted his eyes and saw the palm tree. He was overcome by impulse and he climbed up and detached a bunch of dates with his teeth. Apparently, he had an inborn inclination to steal, but was able to overcome that inclination with proper education and prayer.
He had fear of Heaven upon him, aided by his kippa.