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Masechet Pesachim Daf 3
Nov. 24th, 2020 03:26 pmDaf 3
The Gemara establishes conclusively that sometimes אוֹר means Evening. But it obviously understands that this is hard to understand. The day is brightly lit by the sun, the night is lit much more dimly by the moon and the stars, so why would אוֹר mean Evening? Its answer is that the Tanna who used this language was speaking euphemistically, because darkness is associated with negative feelings and there is a Rabbinic virtue in avoiding negative language. The rest of the daf is consumed with a discussion of the principle of avoiding negative language.
The paradigmatic example are several places in the Torah in the discussion of ritual purity where the Torah wanted to say that something was tamei, impure, but instead it said it was not tahor, even though that took extra words. The reason is because framing something in terms of taharah rather tumah is framing it in terms of positive language.
That said, there are plenty of places in the Torah where the word tamei or tumah appears. So this is not an ironclad principle of language- the Rabbis say that this is being balanced against other virtues, like speaking clearly and succinctly in a manner to be understood. There's a fine line between euphemism and deception that the Torah doesn't want you to cross, and a fine line between euphemism and circumlocution. So with the clear understanding that the Rabbis are not advising you to censor your language to hide threatening truths, I think this is a great mechanism for being aware of the significance and power that language holds over our world, and how we should be thoughtful when we wield it.
I think there's something to be learned here about listening, too. In analyzing situations where you might expect to see a euphemism but don't, the Talmud explains why given contextual clues the euphemism would be inappropriate. For example, ordinarily the Torah euphemizes the language of a woman riding on an animal because, says the Talmud, when riding there's a chance that she may expose herself immodestly. But when it refers to Rebecca riding a camel the Torah uses the word for riding, because in this particular kind of riding there is no risk of immodesty. And I think there's a lesson there as well about paying attention to other peoples' word choices and trying to understand what they're really saying and why.
There's also an amazing, tangentially relevant story on this page. A non-Jewish Aramean was bragging that he regularly snuck into Jerusalem on Pesach, pretended to be Jewish, and ate Korban Pesach. And he was mocking the Jews' toothless inability to stop him from doing it. R' Yehuda ben Baseyra heard him bragging and went up to him and reverse psychologized him into asking for a non-kosher part of the sacrifice the next time he went up there by naively pretending it was considered the choicest part of the animal. When he showed up and told them that R' Yehuda ben Baseyra said he should ask for this part of the animal, they realized something was funny, investigated him, found out he was a non-Jew trying to sneak in to eat the sacrifice, and had him executed. I love this story so much, it's such a clever way to catch the faker while giving him multiple ways to repair his behavior before facing consequences. He could choose not to do it again. He could choose to do it again but not feed his ego by seeking out the choicest part of the animal. He could choose to do it again but first study the laws of the Jews more deeply. But by serving his basest desires exclusively, he was caught out by R' Yehuda ben Baseyra's ruse.
The Gemara establishes conclusively that sometimes אוֹר means Evening. But it obviously understands that this is hard to understand. The day is brightly lit by the sun, the night is lit much more dimly by the moon and the stars, so why would אוֹר mean Evening? Its answer is that the Tanna who used this language was speaking euphemistically, because darkness is associated with negative feelings and there is a Rabbinic virtue in avoiding negative language. The rest of the daf is consumed with a discussion of the principle of avoiding negative language.
The paradigmatic example are several places in the Torah in the discussion of ritual purity where the Torah wanted to say that something was tamei, impure, but instead it said it was not tahor, even though that took extra words. The reason is because framing something in terms of taharah rather tumah is framing it in terms of positive language.
That said, there are plenty of places in the Torah where the word tamei or tumah appears. So this is not an ironclad principle of language- the Rabbis say that this is being balanced against other virtues, like speaking clearly and succinctly in a manner to be understood. There's a fine line between euphemism and deception that the Torah doesn't want you to cross, and a fine line between euphemism and circumlocution. So with the clear understanding that the Rabbis are not advising you to censor your language to hide threatening truths, I think this is a great mechanism for being aware of the significance and power that language holds over our world, and how we should be thoughtful when we wield it.
I think there's something to be learned here about listening, too. In analyzing situations where you might expect to see a euphemism but don't, the Talmud explains why given contextual clues the euphemism would be inappropriate. For example, ordinarily the Torah euphemizes the language of a woman riding on an animal because, says the Talmud, when riding there's a chance that she may expose herself immodestly. But when it refers to Rebecca riding a camel the Torah uses the word for riding, because in this particular kind of riding there is no risk of immodesty. And I think there's a lesson there as well about paying attention to other peoples' word choices and trying to understand what they're really saying and why.
There's also an amazing, tangentially relevant story on this page. A non-Jewish Aramean was bragging that he regularly snuck into Jerusalem on Pesach, pretended to be Jewish, and ate Korban Pesach. And he was mocking the Jews' toothless inability to stop him from doing it. R' Yehuda ben Baseyra heard him bragging and went up to him and reverse psychologized him into asking for a non-kosher part of the sacrifice the next time he went up there by naively pretending it was considered the choicest part of the animal. When he showed up and told them that R' Yehuda ben Baseyra said he should ask for this part of the animal, they realized something was funny, investigated him, found out he was a non-Jew trying to sneak in to eat the sacrifice, and had him executed. I love this story so much, it's such a clever way to catch the faker while giving him multiple ways to repair his behavior before facing consequences. He could choose not to do it again. He could choose to do it again but not feed his ego by seeking out the choicest part of the animal. He could choose to do it again but first study the laws of the Jews more deeply. But by serving his basest desires exclusively, he was caught out by R' Yehuda ben Baseyra's ruse.