Eruvin 53 – Puns, Word Games and the Woman who Gives the Zinger

Puns may well be the lowest form of humor, but that’s not going to stop the rabbis from indulging in them!

It actually starts from a discussion in the Mishnah about the shape of Shabbat boundaries around a town:

MISHNAH. HOW ARE THE SABBATH BOUNDARIES TO TOWNS EXTENDED? IF ONE HOUSE RECEDES AND ANOTHER PROJECTS, IF ONE TURRET [OF THE WALL] RECEDES AND ANOTHER PROJECTS, IF THERE WERE RUINS TEN HANDBREADTHS HIGH, OR BRIDGES, OR SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS THAT CONTAINED DWELLING CHAMBERS, THE BOUNDARY OF THE TOWN IS EXTENDED TO INCLUDE THEM. SABBATH LIMITS, FURTHERMORE, ARE TO BE SHAPED LIKE A SQUARE TABLET IN ORDER THAT THE USE OF THE CORNERS MIGHT BE GAINED.

The point really is to be as generous as possible, using the farthest point (a projection from a wall) and shaping not in a circle so that extra land from the corners can be included. However the word “extended” (m’avrin) – literally “to make a wing” can be read with an ayin rather than an alef and can mean “to be pregnant.” Alef and Ayin were often confused among the Babylonians, while the Palestinians were more scrupulous with their language (perhaps the ayin was pronounced rather than being a silent letter as the alef is?)

This leads to a discussion of various words whose meaning changes and a charge that the there was difference within the communities in the Land of Israel:

Rab Judah stated in the name of Rab: The Judeans who cared for [the beauty of] their language retained their learning, but the Galileans who did not care for [the beauty of] their language did not retain their learning.

A whole series of puns ensure to the hilarity of the crowd. I’ll spare you.

But the puns lead to other more sophisticated language games, topped by the entrance of the most famous woman in the Talmud: Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir. The only woman in all the Talmud whose teachings are quoted.

R. Joshua b. Hananiah remarked: No one has ever had the better of me except a woman, a little boy and a little girl. . . . What was the incident with the little girl? I was once on a journey and, observing a path across a field, I made my way through it, when a little girl called out to me, ‘Master! Is not this part of the field?’ — ‘No’, I replied: ‘this is a trodden path’ — ‘Robbers like yourself’, she retorted: ‘have trodden it down.’

Score! The little girl, of course, is Beruriah. So the gemara continues:

  R. Jose the Galilean was once on a journey when he met Beruriah. ‘By what road’, he asked her, ‘do we go to Lydda?’ — ‘Foolish Galilean’, she replied: ‘did not the Sages say this: Engage not in much talk with women? (Avot 1, 5) You should have asked: By which to Lydda?’

Zinger! Had this been a sitcom we would now cure the laugh track.