Comparing Midrashim of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

During our study of the Torah portion Vayishlach last month, I came across a story in Bereshit Rabbah, a Midrashic collection, that related to a Talmudic story that I am very close to. It has many differences from the Talmudic story. There is an agreed upon biography of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, the main character in these texts. Elements of that biography are drawn from both of the texts despite the fact that the two texts tell the story differently. That they disagree in many ways is set aside. 

Perhaps you may be familiar with the Talmudic story. Even if you are, it bears rereading. There are things that I noticed in the story that I had never recognized before, and that will probably happen for any reader. The Talmudic text is a lightly edited version of the translation and commentary by Adin Steinsalz. The Midrashic text is a lightly edited version of the translation by H. Freedman in the edition of Midrash Rabbah published by Soncino Press. I have not included any of my comments, except for a few clarifications of terms, in the Talmud text. In the Midrashic text my comments appear in brackets at the end of each paragraph and I close with some of my own comments.
 

Tractate Shabbat 33B-34A


 “Rabbi Yehuda is described as head of the speakers (the person who opens the discussion) in every place. And why did they call him head of the speakers in every place? We learn that this is due to an incident that took place when Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon were sitting, and Yehuda, son of converts, sat down beside them. Rabbi Yehuda opened and said: How pleasant are the actions of this nation, the Romans, as they established marketplaces, established bridges, and established bathhouses. Rabbi Yosei was silent. Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai responded and said: Everything that they established, they established only for their own purposes. They established marketplaces, to place prostitutes in them; bathhouses, to pamper themselves; and bridges, to collect taxes from all who pass over them. Yehuda, son of converts, went and related their statements to his household, and those statements continued to spread until they were heard by the monarchy. The rulers decreed: Yehuda, who elevated the Roman regime, shall be elevated and appointed as head of the Sages, the head of the speakers in every place. Yosei, who remained silent, shall be exiled from his home in Judea as punishment, and sent to the city of Tzippori in the Galilee. And Shimon, who denounced the government, shall be killed. .

Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, went and hid in the study hall. Every day Rabbi Shimon’s wife would bring them bread and a jug of water and they would eat. When the decree intensified, Rabbi Shimon said to his son: Women are not so strong and, the authorities might torture her and she reveal our whereabouts. They went and they hid in a cave. A miracle occurred and a carob tree was created for them as well as a spring of water. They would remove their clothes and sit covered in sand up to their necks. They would study Torah all day in that manner. At the time of prayer, they would dress, cover themselves, and pray, and they would again remove their clothes afterward so that they would not become tattered. They sat in the cave for twelve years. Elijah the Prophet came and stood at the entrance to the cave and said: Who will inform bar Yoḥai that the emperor died and his decree has been abrogated?

Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar emerged from the cave, and saw people who were plowing and sowing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai said: These people abandon eternal life of Torah study and engage in daily tasks for their own sustenance. Every place that Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar directed their eyes was immediately burned. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Did you emerge from the cave in order to destroy My world? Return to your cave. They again went and sat there for twelve months. They said: The judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasts for twelve months. Surely their sin, the damage that they had done to the world, was atoned for in that time. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Emerge from your cave. They emerged. Everywhere that Rabbi Elazar would strike, Rabbi Shimon would heal. Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar: My son, you and I suffice for the entire world, as the two of us are engaged in the proper study of Torah.

As the sun was setting on Shabbat eve, they saw an elderly man who was holding two bundles of myrtle branches and running at twilight. They said to him: Why do you have these? He said to them: In honor of Shabbat. They said to him: And let one suffice. He answered them: One is corresponding to: “Remember [Zakhor] the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), and one is corresponding to: “Observe [Shamor] the Shabbat day, to keep it holy” (Deuteronomy 5:12). Rabbi Shimon said to his son: See how beloved the mitzvot are to Israel. Their minds were put at ease and they were no longer as upset that people were not engaged in Torah study.

Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir, Rabbi Shimon’s son-in-law, heard and went out to greet him. He brought him into the bathhouse and began tending to his flesh. He saw that Rabbi Shimon had cracks in the skin on his body. He was crying, and the tears fell from his eyes and caused Rabbi Shimon pain. Rabbi Pineḥas said to Rabbi Shimon, his father-in-law: Woe is me, that I have seen you like this. Rabbi Shimon said to him: Happy are you that you have seen me like this, as had you not seen me like this, you would not have found in me so learned in Torah: At first, when Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai would raise a difficulty, Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir would respond to his question with twelve answers. Ultimately, when Rabbi Pineḥas ben Ya’ir would raise a difficulty, Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai would respond with twenty-four answers.

Rabbi Shimon said: Since a miracle transpired for me, I will go and repair something for the sake of others in gratitude for God’s kindness, as it is written: “And Jacob came whole to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and he graced the countenance of the city” (Genesis 33:18). Rav said, the meaning of: And Jacob came whole, is: Whole in his body, whole in his money, whole in his Torah. And what did he do? And he graced the countenance of the city; he performed gracious acts to benefit the city. Rav said: Jacob established a currency for them. And Shmuel said: He established marketplaces for them. And Rabbi Yoḥanan said: He established bathhouses for them. In any event, clearly one for whom a miracle transpires should perform an act of kindness for his neighbors as a sign of gratitude.

Ben Zakkai said: Is there something that needs repair? They said to him: There is a place where there is uncertainty with regard to ritual impurity and the priests [Cohanim] are troubled by being forced to circle around to avoid it, as it is prohibited for them to become ritually impure from contact with a corpse. There was suspicion, but no certainty, that a corpse was buried there. Therefore, they were unable to definitively determine its status. Rabbi Shimon said: Is there a person who knows that there was a presumption of ritual purity here? Is there anyone who remembers a time when this place was not considered ritually impure, or that at least part of it was considered to be ritually pure? An Elder said to him: Here ben Zakkai planted and cut the teruma of lupines. In this marketplace Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, who himself was a priest, once planted lupines that were given to him as teruma. On that basis, the conclusion can be drawn that it was definitely ritually pure. Rabbi Shimon, like Jacob, also did so and took steps to improve the city and examined the ground (Tosafot). Everywhere that the ground was hard, he pronounced it ritually pure as there was certainly no corpse there, and every place that the ground was soft, he marked it indicating that perhaps a corpse was buried there. In that way, he purified the marketplace so that even priests could walk through it.

A certain Elder said in ridicule and surprise: Ben Yoḥai purified the cemetery. Rabbi Shimon got angry and said to him: Had you not been with us, and even had you been with us and were not counted with us in rendering this ruling, what you say is fine. You could have said that you were unaware of my intention or that you did not agree or participate in this decision. Now that you were with us and were counted among us in rendering this ruling, you will cause people to say that Sages are unwilling to cooperate with one another. They will say: If competing prostitutes still apply makeup to each other to help one another look beautiful, all the more so that Torah scholars should cooperate with each other. He directed his eyes toward him and the Elder died. Rabbi Shimon went out to the marketplace and he saw Yehuda, son of converts, who was the cause of this entire incident. Rabbi Shimon, said: This one still has a place in the world? He directed his eyes toward him and turned him into a pile of bones.”

[When Jacob returns to the Land of Israel, he meets Esau. Esau wants Jacob to join together with him in Seir. Esau sets out after Jacob says that he will need more time and that he would follow along later. Instead he goes the other way and ends up pitching his tent outside of the city of Shechem. This story is referenced in the Talmudic story from Tractate Shabbat. The interpretation there is built on a text from Bereshit Rabbah, an early Midrashic commentary on the Book of Genesis. Midrash is built on commentaries that are based on single verses, or parts of verses, from Torah. They expand or propose explanations for aspects of the text that are confusing, or often so terse that we are left wanting a lot more details.]
 

Bereshit Rabbah 79:6


“And he encamped [vayiḥan] before [et pene] the city” – he graced [ḥanan] the leadership [panim] of the city, and he began sending them gifts. [The Midrashic author is playing with the language of the verse to give us a sense of what Jacob did in order to make himself welcome in a place where he is a stranger. This explanation implies through the word panim, faces/important people, that Jacob is using the same approach that he uses with Esau, of using gifts as a way to soften up the people he fears.]

Or another interpretation, “and he encamped [vayiḥan] before the city” – he began establishing markets and selling at low prices. That is what they say, that a person must show gratitude to a place from which he benefits. [This brings us back to the story Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai that we know from the Talmud. We don’t know for certain which story is the older text. The Bereshit Rabbah is probably earlier, or it might have been written into the Midrash from the Talmud later. The point is that they are closely associated. There may have been a master narrative or cluster of narratives about Shimon ben Yohai that existed in the oral literature but were presented together only orally. We see the story as a whole, or in refraction, by gathering all of the pieces together. More of the story appears in Pesikta Rabbati, Kohelet Rabbah and Esther Rabbah.]

Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai and Rabbi Elazar his son were hiding in a cave for thirteen years during the days of persecution. They would eat withered carobs until they broke out in sores. After thirteen years, he [Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai] emerged and sat at the cave entrance. He saw a certain hunter standing and hunting birds. When Rabbi Shimon would hear a Divine Voice from Heaven: ‘Freedom, freedom,’ it would escape. But when he would hear a Divine Voice saying: ‘Killing,’ it would be hunted and trapped. He said: ‘Were it not for Heaven, a bird would not be hunted; the soul of a person, all the more so.’ He went out and found that matters were calm, and that the edict had been abrogated. [In this version of the story there is no mention of the specifics that brought Rabbi Shimon and his son to be in the cave. Elijah is absent. The Divine Voice speaks to them in prophecy, but in an oracular tone.]
    
They came and bathed in that heated bathhouse in Tiberias. His son said to him: ‘Tiberias has afforded us so much benefit, and we are not purifying it from the dead?’ He said: ‘We must perform an act of good just as our ancestors would [Jacob], as they would establish markets and sell at low prices.’     

Rabbi Shimon said: ‘We need to purify Tiberias.’ What did he do? He took a mandrake. He would cut the mandrake, cast the cuttings, and scatter them in the street. Every place where there was a corpse, it would rise, and they would move it and take it out of the city. And every place where there was no impurity, the mandrake would remain, and it would indicate which was a place of purity and which was a place of impurity until the time that they purified it from all the corpses. A certain Samaritan ignoramus saw him and said: ‘Will I not go and mock this Jewish elder?’ Some say it was in the wicker basket market, and some said it was the sack market. He took a corpse and concealed it in one of the streets that had been purified. In the morning, he went and said to them: ‘You said that ben Yoḥai had purified Tiberias. Come and see this corpse.’ [Here Rabbi Shimon and his son are working alone. There is no sign of Rabbi Yehuda or of the healing that he worked on Rabbi Shimon. Rather than just marking off the location of buried bodies, they are able to remove them entirely. I extend myself when I say this, but there is a hint here of the story of the recovery of Joseph’s bones by Moses at the time of the Exodus which also has a magical aspect to it. Here the bad guy is neither a convert nor a Jewish elder, but someone outside of the Rabbinic camp entirely.]

Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai saw through the Divine spirit that the Samaritan had placed it there. He said: ‘I decree that the one who is above shall descend, and the one who is below shall ascend,’ and so it was. He ascended and sat in his house. He passed by the Tower of Colors and heard the voice of Nakai the scribe. He said: ‘Did you not say that ben Yoḥai purified Tiberias? But they say that they found a corpse.’ He said: ‘Let him come to me, if I do not have at my disposal halakhot [legal rulings] as numerous as the hair on my head regarding Tiberias, that it is pure, with the exception of this-and-that place. You were not with us in the quorum when it was purified. You breached the fence of the Sages, and in your regard it is written: “One who breaches a fence, a serpent will bite him”’ (Ecclesiastes 10:8). He [Nakai the scribe] immediately became a pile of bones. [Nakai the scribe is less closely associated with Rabbi Shimon. That he dies shows again that Rabbi Shimon is associated with the Divine Will to destroy in anger. However, the force that he and his son have in Tractate Shabbat is not present in this story. Up until this point they have been associated only with an effort to benefit the place that they are in. In the Talmudic understanding the death penalty cannot be applied by humans after the destruction of the Temple and the cessation of the court of the Sanhedrin. Rather, there are four ways that God applies the death penalty for those who should have been punished by a human court but could not be. Death by snake bite is one of those four as a sub-category of death by fire.]

He [Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai] passed in the Beit Nekofa Valley. He saw a person standing and gathering the sefichin of the Sabbatical year. Rabbi Shimon said to him: ‘Are these not the sefichin [vegetables that grow without being raised by any human effort during] the Sabbatical year?’ He said to him: ‘But is it not you who permitted it? Did we not learn: Rabbi Shimon says: All the sefichin are permitted except for the sefichin of cabbage, as there is nothing like it in the vegetables of the field.’ Rabbi Shimon said to him: ‘But do my colleagues not disagree with me? You breached the fence of the Sages, and “one who breaches a fence, a serpent will bite him.”’ And so it was for him.

[Here we have what seems like a version of the Talmudic story of the man carrying branches right before the beginning of Shabbat. However, this story turns out quite differently. Anger, rather than tolerance and appreciation of the common person, prevails. We realize that after suggesting the purification of Tiberias, Rabbi Shimon’s son disappears from the story, which is not the case in the Talmudic text. Rabbi Shimon is more concerned with the unanimity of the legal authority than with his family. The purification of Tiberias serves the Priesthood more than the common people. This person that Rabbi Shimon meets hardly seems like some ignorant country bumpkin. He is a Rabbinic Jew just like Rabbi Shimon and is aware of the ruling that the Rabbis have made. His error is in preferring one ruling over another and undermining the whole that he seems to respect.]

Another matter, “and he encamped before the city” – he entered on Friday near sunset, while it was still day, and established Shabbat boundaries [an Eruv that establishes how far one can travel on Shabbat without turning one’s travel into a labor forbidden on Shabbat] while it was still day. That is to say: Jacob observed Shabbat before it was given. [We are left wondering about the person that Rabbi Shimon met in the field. Is Jacob the model for Rabbi Shimon or the person that he met in the field? Who knows God’s Will best and who is a better judge of what one might do to benefit others?]
 

Conclusion


The depiction of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai in the Talmud shows a greater evolution of character than the account from Midrash Rabbah. Torah study divorced from compassion is shown to be a path that God does not desire. One can separate oneself from the community to gain Torah knowledge, but it is only really known when it is suffused with compassion. Torah knowledge is a fearsome power that exercises itself in the real world when it faces the enemies of compassion. This is a more hopeful vision, but it still illuminates Torah as a potential source of harsh and painful impacts upon humanity. This should be the case only when a person is deserving of punishment, but we are uncomfortable. 

In the Talmud story Rabbi Shimon is physically devastated by the effects of his Torah study regimen. His sores can be seen as a sign of punishment as much as of endurance. I have a deep and long-lasting appreciation for these stories. They illuminate, without simplification, the struggles that we have in determining what is and isn’t right in the world and in ourselves. I know that I will return to them again and again.

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The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones