Whenever R. Hisda and R. Shesheth
met each other, the lips of the former trembled at the latter's extensive
knowledge of Mishnahs, while the latter trembled all over his body at the
former's keen dialectics.
What matter most, the ability to memorize broadly and quickly recall
information, or the ability to deeply analyze and challenge interpretations? Each believed it was the other's gift most treasured.
Again, as we saw on an earlier page, the relationship
of student and master is brought up – when and how does a student question his master? A
story is told:
There was once a child whose warm
water (prepared for the circumcision) was spilled (on the Sabbath)
‘Let some warm water’, said Rabbah
‘be brought for him from my house’ (in the same courtyard). ‘But’, observed
Abaye, ‘We have prepared no ‘erub’. ‘Let us then rely’, the other replied. ‘on
the shittuf’ (“association” or shared set aside meal). ‘But’, Abaye told
him, ‘we had no shittuf either’. ‘Then’, the other said: ‘let a gentile
be instructed to bring it for him’ —
‘l wished’, Abaye later remarked:
‘to point out an objection against the Master (questioning whether this
instruction to the non-Jew was permitted) but R. Joseph prevented me, because
he told me in the name of R. Kahana, "When we were at Rab Judah's he used
to tell us that in a Pentateuchal matter any objection must be raised before
the Master's ruling is acted upon. But in a Rabbinical matter we must first act
on the ruling of the Master and then point out the objection"’.
The fascinating dichotomy between 2 types of intellect is hinted at here. Not everyone can do either of these; others may have the emotional intelligence of a therapist, or the spatial intelligence of an architect or intrapersonal intelligence of a spiritual leader. Rote memory strength may not even lead to remembering where you left your cars or your keys, as shown in the book, "Moonwalking with Einstein". Speaking of Einstein, his comment on intrinsic abilities was, "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. And one the rabbis seem to be supporting. For their task of halachic discourse, the dichotomy sufficed. Both methods are ways to refute the other: Shesheth marshaling text after text to overwhelm his opponent, Hisda analytically devastating his opponent's logic. But that's a dialectic and serves a particular function. As you say, there are many other ways of "knowing."
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