Chagiga 3: Disability and Ascention; Teachers and Students; Multiple Truths

In order to justify their interpretations, the rabbis use a literary tool known as gezera shava.  This is an analogy based on words used in two different places.  Those words might be similar in spelling, or sound, or meaning.  In some way, those words will be proven to have influence over the meaning of two texts.

To explain why those who are deaf might not be obligated to ascend or to appear to the Temple on the three Festivals, the rabbis use a number of these analogies.  They consider whether or not having hearing in one ear makes any difference.  The rabbis also consider those with at least one artificial leg.  They use the specific words in the Mishna and connect them with words from the Torah, demonstrating that there is a larger scheme that perhaps we can comprehend if we just use our creativity and tenacity.

Two fascinating stories about teachers and students are presented to us.  The first involves Rabbi Yehoshua, who is greeted by his students.  He asks them what they studied that week in the study hall with Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria.  They answer that nothing novel was learned; they already learned everything they could from Rabbi Yehoshua.  But there is always something novel in the study hall, Rabbi Yehoshua insists.  The two students share stories from their learning to the delight of Rabbi Yehoshua.   The second story tells us why the two students hesitated.  Perhaps they had the tale of Rabbi Eliezer (Elazar), who was greeted by his students.  When a student answered Rabbi Elazar's question with the correct halacha but an incorrect reason for that ruling, Rabbi Elazar tells him to hold out his hands - which catch his eyeballs as they fall from his eyes.  Then Rabbi Elazar cries - not for the student, but for the misinformation learned in a class that he was forced to leave.  When Rabbi Elazar feels better, the student's eyes are healed.

We end the daf with a debate about the characteristics of an 'imbecile'.

One of our notes remind us of the oft quoted Talmudic phrase: both these and these are true; the word of the living G-d.  There is more than one truth contained within the words given to Moses.  There are many truths.  This appeals to me tremendously.  It suggests that we keep the words of those who 'lost' the battle of logic in the Gemara.  It tells us to continue searching, for there might be further truths not yet known.  And it suggests that we cannot rely on others to teach us "the way".  We must search for meaning that speaks to us; it is waiting for our search.