Masechet Chullin Daf 106

[seekingferret]

Daf 106

The Gemara brings a series of stories from Abaye about all the times he thought that Jews did things for rational reasons until Rava told him that actually the real reason is Shedim- Demons.

[This seems like a good moment to mention that speckled_llama recently pointed me to Throwing Sheyd, a podcast about Jewish demonology. I've listened to a few episodes and found them mostly pretty entertaining and illuminating.]

Anyway, Abaye says "I used to think people would carefully clean the crumbs off the table because of cleanliness, until the Master (Rava) told me that it was actually to ward away the demons that cause poverty."

And... "I used to think people don't drink the foam off the top of a drink because it's disgusting, until the Master (Rava) told me that it was actually because drinking the foam made one susceptible to disease."

And... "I used to think people would pour a little of the top off their drinks before drinking because dirt and twigs would get in and float on top, until the Master (Rava) told me that it was actually because there was evil water on the top."

This last one is followed by a story about Rav Papa employing a demon as a servant. The demon was delayed fetching water from the river because he waited to let the evil water pass (apparently he was a good demon servant), and he was later informed that Rav Papa always poured a little of the top off his drinks so the demon need not have waited. Possibly the demon concealed this fact because it would've pissed off the other demons.

A lot of these stories seem consistent with a Demons=Bacteria theory, but obviously a supernatural explanation is more consistent. It's also a surprising and funny construction in general "Originally I was a rationalist, until I learned the supernatural explanation!"

I'm not sure I've talked much about the Rava/Abaye relationship. There's a long tradition in Rabbinic writings of these fundamental dialectic pairings- Shmaya and Avtalyon, Hillel and Shammai, Rav and Shmuel, etc... Rava and Abaye is one of the most important Amoraic pairings, they were study partners and to a certain degree rivals who each led their own Yeshiva in Babylonia. Rava is regarded as surpassing Abaye, but they clearly were besties all the same, and I really enjoy stories about Rava and Abaye hanging out together and telling each other ghost stories.

Comments

[kass]

Rava is regarded as surpassing Abaye, but they clearly were besties all the same, and I really enjoy stories about Rava and Abaye hanging out together and telling each other ghost stories.

Somebody really ought to write that fic. :-D

[seekingferret]

I kind of think that's one of the Talmud's goals. I mean, there's literally no other legal text I'm aware of that spends remotely this much time telling random hangout stories about the jurists who helped compose it. They want you to get invested in the characters. They want you to understand the Chachamim as people, not just as opinions.