Daf Ditty Shabbes 147: waters of heresy

Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, 1601

,‫ ְוִציץ ֹנֵבל‬,‫ ֲﬠֶט ֶרת ֵגּאוּת ִשֹׁכּ ֵרי ֶאְפ ַר ִים‬,‫א הוֹי‬ 1 Woe to the crown of pride of the
,‫ְשָׁמ ִנים‬-‫ר ֹאשׁ ֵגּיא‬-‫שׁר ַﬠל‬ ֶ ‫ֲא‬--‫ְצִבי ִתְפַא ְרתּוֹ‬ drunkards of Ephraim, and to the
.‫ֲהלוֵּמי ָי ִין‬ fading flower of his glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the fat valley
of them that are smitten down with
wine!

ISA 28:1

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The mishna taught: However, one may not exert himself on Shabbat. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said
that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It is prohibited to stand on the floor of the therapeutic bathhouse of
Deyomset on Shabbat, because it warms and heals even if one is not bathing or exerting himself.
Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: The entire period that bathing in Deyomset is therapeutic is twenty-
one days; and Shavuot is included.

The Gemara raises a dilemma: Is Shavuot on this side, at the beginning, of the twenty-one-day
period, or on this side, at the end, of the twenty-one days?

Come and hear a resolution to this dilemma from that which Shmuel said: All medicinal drinks are
effective from Passover to Shavuot; apparently, the waters of the Deyomset are therapeutic in the
time period leading up to Shavuot.
The Gemara rejects this proof: Perhaps there, with regard to medicinal drinks, it is so, because the
cooler the world, the better these drinks heal; however, here, with regard to bathing, the therapeutic
effect is due to the heat, and therefore the warmer the world, the better. The time period during
which bathing is effective would only begin with Shavuot.

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Apropos Deyomset, the Gemara cites that Rabbi Ḥelbo said: The wine of Phrygia [Perugaita] and
the water of the Deyomset deprived Israel of the ten lost tribes. Because the members of these
tribes were attracted to the pleasures of wine and bathing and did not occupy themselves with
Torah, they were lost to the Jewish people.

RASHI

Dimsis: name of a salty river (with healing properties)

Wine of Prhygia: name of a state where the wine is superior/lauded.

The ten tribes were (lost) overwhelmed: for they were self-indulgent people, engaged in
pleasure, and had no time for Torah, which led them to foreign culture.

The Gemara relates that once Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh happened to come there, to Phrygia and
Deyomset, and he was drawn after them, and his Torah learning was forgotten.

When he returned, he stood to read from a Torah scroll and was supposed to read the verse:
‫ ִראשׁוֹן‬:‫ ר ֹאשׁ ֳחָדִשׁים‬,‫ב ַהֹחֶדשׁ ַהֶזּה ָלֶכם‬ 2 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months;
.‫ ְלָחְדֵשׁי ַהָשָּׁנה‬,‫הוּא ָלֶכם‬ it shall be the first month of the year to you.

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 “This month shall be for you [haḥodesh hazeh lakhem]” (Exodus 12:2), but he had forgotten so
much that he could barely remember how to read the Hebrew letters, and instead he read: Have
their hearts become deaf [haḥeresh haya libbam], interchanging the similar letters reish for dalet,
yod for zayin, and beit for khaf. The Sages prayed and asked for God to have mercy on him, and
his learning was restored.

The Mishna on today’s daf discusses the laws of bathing on Shabbat, which leads to an aggadic
tradition about the dangers of pursuing a life of comfort and pleasure.1

The Gemara relates:

The wine of Phrygia [Perugaita] and the water of the Deyomset deprived Israel of the ten lost
tribes. Because the members of these tribes were attracted to the pleasures of wine and bathing
and did not occupy themselves with Torah, they were lost to the Jewish people.

The Gemara relates that once Rabbi Eleazar ben Arakh happened to come there, to Phrygia and
Deyomset, and he was drawn after them, and his Torah learning was forgotten. When he returned,
he stood to read from a Torah scroll and was supposed to read the verse: “This month shall be for
you [haĥodesh hazeh lakhem]”(Shemot12:2), but he had forgotten so much that he could barely
remember how to read the Hebrew letters, and instead he read: Have their hearts become deaf
[haĥeresh haya libbam], interchanging the similar letters reish for dalet, yod for zayin, and beit
for khaf.

The Sages prayed and asked for God to have mercy on him, and his learning was restored. And
that is what we learned in a Mishna that Rabbi Nehorai says: Exile yourself to a place of Torah
and do not say that it will follow you, as if you are in a place of Torah, your colleagues will
establish it in your hands, and do not rely on your understanding alone. It was taught: Rabbi
Nehorai was not his name, but rather Rabbi Neĥemya was his name; and some say that Rabbi
Elazar ben Arakh was his name and his statement was based on the personal experience of
forgetting his Torah due to his failure to exile himself to a place of Torah.

And why was he called Rabbi Nehorai? It was because he would illuminate [manhir] the eyes of
the Sages in halakha.

Rabbi Elazar’s error resulted from the similarity between the letters reish and dalet, yod and zayin,
and beit and khaf. The Gemara relates the details of the error to underscore that even Rabbi Elazar
ben Arakh, who was likened to an ever-flowing spring, reached so lowly a state when he left the
company of the Sages (Maharsha).

Deyomset

The origin of this word is unclear. Some authorities suggest that it refers to the bathhouses of the
ancient city Emmaus, and Deyomset is a corrupted version of the name of that city. Other

1
Steinzaltz

4
commentaries suggest that the word derives from the Greek δημόσιος, dèmosios, an adjective that
refers to a public area, especially a bathhouse.

Phrygia

This is a reference to the small kingdom of Phrygia, Φρυγία, in Asia Minor.(see below)

Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh

disciple preeminent of Rabban Yoĥanan ben Zakkai, at the time of the destruction of the Second
Temple. Rabban Yoĥanan ben Zakkai perceived Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh as his most outstanding
disciple, surpassing both Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol, and praised him greatly,
both in his presence and in his absence.

He was a great scholar of aggada and of the esoterica of the Torah.

However, as the midrash relates, he did not wish to settle with his colleagues in Yavneh. Rather,
following his wife’s advice, he settled elsewhere, abandoning his Torah study, as the Gemara here
relates. Apparently, he died young, long before his contemporaries.

As such, Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh left a limited imprint in Talmudic literature. The stamp of his
genius is apparent despite its absence from so many other realm.

JASTROW: The dikdukei soferim amended the name to Perugaita

Eccl Rabba 7:7:2: “he forgot his learning”

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Otzar Midrashim

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Avot deRabbi Natan 14

“Elazar, my son, you have comforted me as people are supposed to.

When they all left, Elazar said: I am going to Damasit, a beautiful place with good, sweet water.
They said: We will go to Yavneh, a place where there is an abundance of scholars who love the
Torah. So he went to Damasit, the beautiful place with good, sweet water, and his reputation in
Torah study diminished. And they went to Yavneh, the place where there was an abundance of
scholars who all loved the Torah, and their reputations in Torah study grew.”

I am interested in Phrygia since I am convinced (see below under heretical musings) that the
brilliant Reb Elazar ben Aroch found more than mere wine (or the bathhouses of Emmaus) there.

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That his so-called “forgetting his Torah” meant that something else caught his attention.

The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, Phruges or Phryges) were an ancient Indo-European people,
initially dwelling in the southern Balkans – according to Herodotus – under the name
of Bryges (Briges), changing it to Phryges after their final migration to Anatolia, via
the Hellespont.
However, the Balkan origins of the Phrygians are debated by modern scholars.
From tribal and village beginnings, the state of Phrygia arose in the 8th century BC with its capital
at Gordium.
The Phrygian Kingdom, based out of Gordium, arose in the eighth century BC. Around 690 BC,
it was invaded by the Cimmerians. Phrygia was briefly conquered by its neighbor Lydia, before it
passed successively into the Persian Empire of Cyrus the Great and later
the empire of Alexander and his successors.

Later, it was taken by the Attalids of Pergamon, and eventually became part of the Roman Empire.
The last mention of the Phrygian language in literature dates to the 5th century AD and it was
likely extinct by the 17th century eventually became part of the Roman Empire.

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The last mention of the Phrygian language in literature dates to the 5th century AD and it was
likely extinct by the 17th century.

It was the "Great Mother", Cybele, as the Greeks and Romans knew her, who was originally
worshipped in the mountains of Phrygia, where she was known as "Mountain Mother". In her
typical Phrygian form, she wears a long belted dress, a polos (a high cylindrical headdress), and a
veil covering the whole body. The later version of Cybele was established by a pupil of Phidias,
the sculptor Agoracritus, and became the image most widely adopted by Cybele's expanding
following, both in the Aegean world and at Rome. It shows her humanized though still enthroned,
her hand resting on an attendant lion and the other holding the tympanon, a circular frame drum,
similar to a tambourine.

The Phrygians also venerated Sabazios, the sky and father-god depicted on horseback. Although
the Greeks associated Sabazios with Zeus, representations of him, even at Roman times, show him
as a horseman god. His conflicts with the indigenous Mother Goddess, whose creature was
the Lunar Bull, may be surmised in the way that Sabazios' horse places a hoof on the head of a
bull, in a Roman relief at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Apamia

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10
 (A History of Beer in Ancient Europe Max Nelson)

Josephus claimed the Phrygians were founded by the biblical figure Togarmah, grandson
of Japheth and son of Gomer: "and Thrugramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks
resolved, were named Phrygians". 2
,‫ ֵשׁם ָחם ָוָיֶפת; ַו ִיָּוְּלדוּ ָלֶהם ָבּ ִנים‬,‫ ֹנַח‬-‫א ְוֵאֶלּה תּוְֹלֹדת ְבֵּני‬ 1 Now these are the generations of the sons of
.‫ַאַחר ַהַמּבּוּל‬ Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and unto
them were sons born after the flood.

.‫ ְוִתיָרס‬,¥‫ וָּמַדי ְוָיָון ְוֻתָבל; וֶּמֶשׁ‬,‫ֹגֶּמר וָּמגוֹג‬--‫ב ְבֵּני ֶיֶפת‬ 2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog,
and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and
Meshech, and Tiras.

2
Togarmah (Hebrew: ‫ֹתַּג ְרָמה‬Tōgarmā[h]; Armenian: Թորգոմ T’vorgom) is a figure in the "table of nations" in Genesis 10, the list
of descendants of Noah that represents the peoples known to the ancient Hebrews. Togarmah is among the descendants
of Japheth and is thought to represent some people located in Anatolia. Medieval traditions variously claimed Togarmah as the
mythical ancestor of peoples in the Caucasus and western Asia, including the Georgians, the Armenians and some Turkic
peoples (i.e. Oghuzes, Khazars).

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 .‫ ְוֹתַג ְרָמה‬,‫ַאְשְׁכַּנז ְו ִריַפת‬--‫ ֹגֶּמר‬,‫ג וְּבֵני‬ 3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and
Riphath, and Togarmah.
According to Josephus, Antiochus III (the Great) transported 2,000 Jewish families
from Mesopotamia and Babylonia to "the fortresses and most important places" of Phrygia and
Lydia. These Jews were to serve as military settlers in support of the Seleucid monarchy, as the
inhabitants of Phrygia had risen in revolt (cf. II Macc. 8:20: Babylonian Jews in the service of the
Seleucid army against the Galatians).

Favorable terms were granted the Jewish settlers. They were permitted to live in accordance with
their own laws, and each was allotted land on which to build and cultivate. Generous exemptions
from taxes were also granted, and Josephus thus considers the episode ample testimony to the
friendship of Antiochus toward the Jews.

The Jews of Phrygia undoubtedly had strong ties with Jerusalem and the Temple. On two
occasions large sums of money which had been gathered in two cities of Phrygia, Apamea, and
Laodicea, to be sent to the Temple were confiscated in 62–61 B.C.E. by the Roman governor
Flaccus on the charge of illegal export of gold (Cicero, Pro Flacco, 28:68). A number of Jews
from Phrygia resided in Jerusalem during the first century C.E. (Acts 2: 10).

Several important Jewish inscriptions in Greek have been discovered in Phrygia, mostly from
graves. One, dated 248–49 C.E. warns that if anyone should desecrate the tomb, "may the curses
written in Deuteronomy [cf. ch. 27–29] be upon him." Nearly all the personal names are Greek,
but the epithet "Joudaeos" is used several times and a menorah is carved on one stone. A tomb
from Hierapolis, of the second or third century, states that the fee for any future additional
internment is a donation to the Jewish community in Jerusalem.3

The earliest traditions of Greek music derived from Phrygia, transmitted through the Greek
colonies in Anatolia, and included the Phrygian mode, which was considered to be the warlike
mode in ancient Greek music. Phrygian Midas, the king of the "golden touch", was tutored in
music by Orpheus himself, according to the myth. Another musical invention that came from
Phrygia was the aulos, a reed instrument with two pipes. (Is it possible that the wine and music
turned Reb Elazar, or the sacred cult of the mother goddess? Elisha was also attracted to Greek
music which some said turned him into an Apikorus).

Wine making in Ancient Greece

3
Schuerer, Gesch, 3 (19094), 6, 12, 17; V. Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (1959), 287f., 501; Schalit, in: JQR,
50 (1959/60), 289–318; Frey, Corpus, 2 (1952), 24–38.

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The ancient Greeks pioneered new methods of viticulture and wine production that they shared
with early winemaking communities in what are now France, Italy, Austria and Russia, as well
as others, through trade and colonization.

Along the way, they markedly influenced the ancient European winemaking cultures of
the Celts, Etruscans, Scythians and ultimately the Romans

Ancient Greeks called the cultivated vine hemeris (Greek: ἡμερίς), after their adjective for "tame"
(Greek: ἥμερος), differentiating it from its wild form.

A massive rootstock was carved into a cult image of the Great Goddess and set up on the coast
of Phrygia by the Argonauts. The late Dionysiaca of Nonnus recounts the primitive invention of
wine-pressing, credited to Dionysus, and Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles describes
that part of its wrought decoration illustrating the grape harvest from a vineyard protectively
surrounded by a trench and a fence; the vines stand in rows supported on stakes.

He also wrote that Laertes, father of Odysseus, had over 50 grape varieties planted in different
parts of his vineyard.

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According to the Iliad, the homeland of the Phrygians was on the Sangarius River, which would
remain the centre of Phrygia throughout its history. Phrygia was famous for its wine and had "brave
and expert" horsemen.

Theatre complex of Aizanoi in Phrygia

Emmaus
Location: unknown.
• The traditional site of Nicopolis is located off of the highway which runs between
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, overlooking the Ayalon Valley. The Greek historian Eusebius
was the first to mention Nicopolis as the biblical village of Emmaus, and Jerome implied
that a church was built in Nicopolis in the house of Cleopas. Thus, from the 4th century
onward, Nicopolis has been the traditional site of Emmaus. It is here where you will see
the ruins of a 12th century church.
• Other possible locations include Abu Ghosh, where the Crusaders built a church in 1140
and called the place Castellum Emmaus; El-Qubeiheb (El-Kubeiheh) which was first
suggested as the location of Emmaus in 1280. Franciscans built a church here in 1902
above what is believed to be the foundations of Cleopas’ house; and Colonia (Kulonieh),
near modern Moza, which is within easy walking distance of Jerusalem.

• Excavations in 2001-2003 headed by Professor Carsten Peter Thiede were cut short by his
sudden death in 2004. Thiede was a strong proponent of Motza as the real Emmaus. He

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 offered that the Latin Amassa and the Greek Ammaous are derived from the biblical
Hebrew name Motza: Motza – ha-Motza ("ha" is the Hebrew equivalent of the definite
article "the") – ha-Mosa – Amosa – Amaous – Emmaus. His excavation summaries were
removed from the website of the Basel college he was teaching at, but a book and at least
one article he published on the topic are available

• Josephus (Ant. Jud., VII, vi, 6) mentions at sixty stadia from Jerusalem a village called
Ammaus, where Vespasian and Titus stationed 800 veterans. This is evidently the Emmaus
of the Gospel. But it must have been destroyed at the time of the revolt of Bar-Cocheba
(A.D. 132 35) under Hadrian, and its site was unknown as early as the third
century. Origen and his friends merely placed the Gospel Emmaus at Nicopolis, the only
Emmaus known at their time. The identifications of Koubeibeh, Abou Gosh, Koulonieh,
Beit Mizzeh, etc. with Emmaus, as proposed by some modern scholars, are inadmissible.

OUR DAF prohibits the use of the

The mishna taught: However, one may not exert himself on Shabbat. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said
that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It is prohibited to stand on the floor of the therapeutic bathhouse of
Deyomset on Shabbat, because it warms and heals even if one is not bathing or exerting himself.

One cannot stand in the mud of the Diomses River on Shabbos because it is therapeutic for the
body. The river would warm the body and the salty mud was therapeutic. The potency of the river
was for twenty-one days, and the Gemara is uncertain if the twenty-one days begins on Shavuos
or ends on Shavous.

Ismar Schorsch4 described the meaning of water as follows:

In contrast to human speech, which carries a finite range of meanings, the language of God was
deemed to be endowed with an infinity of meanings. This theology freed the Rabbis to do Midrash,
creating the anomaly of a canon without closure. The vessels kept changing their contents. New
challenges elicited new insights into a text inviolable only on the surface.

A Metaphoric Reading

In the following midrash, we have an instance of a metaphoric reading that takes us in a single
move from the physical world to the realm of the spiritual.

On the verse:

4
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/torah-like-water/

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 ‫ ְול ֹא ָיְכלוּ ִלְשֹׁתּת‬--‫כג ַוָיֹּבאוּ ָמָרָתה‬ 23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the
-‫ֵכּן ָקָרא‬-‫ ִכּי ָמ ִרים ֵהם; ַﬠל‬,‫ַמ ִים ִמָמָּרה‬ waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of
.‫ ָמָרה‬,‫ְשָׁמהּ‬ it was called Marah.
Ex 15:23

, “They traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water”, some mystically inclined Rabbis
opined: “Water actually stands for Torah, as it is said:

,‫לוֹ ָכֶּסף; ְלכוּ ִשְׁברוּ‬-‫ ַוֲאֶשׁר ֵאין‬,‫ָצֵמא ְלכוּ ַלַמּ ִים‬-‫א הוֹי ָכּל‬ 1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye for
.‫ ַי ִין ְוָחָלב‬,‫ֶכֶסף וְּבלוֹא ְמִחיר‬-‫ וְּלכוּ ִשְׁברוּ ְבּלוֹא‬,‫ֶוֱאֹכלוּ‬ water, and he that hath no money; come ye,
buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Isa 55:1
‘Ho, all who are thirsty, come for water.’ Having gone for three days without Torah, the prophets
among them stepped forth and legislated that the Torah should be read on the second and fifth days
of the week as well as on Shabbat so that they would not let three days pass without Torah” 5

The analogy drives home the point that Torah to Jews is as vital as water to humans. They are
both indispensable sources of life. In exploring other planets for life, space scientists look first for
signs of water. Without Torah, Jewish life would face extinction. That is why R. Akiva defied the
Roman prohibition to teach Torah after the defeat of the Bar Kokhba rebellion. Jews would perish
like fish out of water.

Even after his arrest, he continued to teach his students from prison. His martyrdom served as an
indelible tribute to the primacy of Torah (BT Berakhot 61b; PT, Yevamot 12:5).Thus an inspired
Midrash transformed a prosaic narrative into a poetic symbol of enduring power. Water as a
metaphor for Torah became a staple of rabbinic literature.

Yet the gemoro warned of the waters of Phrygia and Deyomset as being not only forbidden to use
on Shabbat but also the cause for the exile of the 10 tribes.

5
Bava Kama 82a

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 Benjamin of Tudela, Book of Travels

Heretical Suggestions

What led R’ Elazar to stray from the world of the Sages? How did he forget his Torah study? The
story leaves out many key details–why did he go to these cities in the first place, how quickly did
he forget his Torah learning, and why did he finally decide to leave. Use your imagination to try
to fill in these blanks. Here are my musings…

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 1. Phrygia was not only known for wine but the center of culture in Laodicea.
2. Jews moved there from Bavel according to Josephus.
3. There are Jewish inscriptions on tombstones6

4. There were close interactions between the Jewish and Christian community (op cit).
5. There was a sectarian cult known as Montanism7 that privileged individual prophetic
inspiration over church dogma, (much like the Pentecostal or charismatic movements
today) it was a heretical sect. Might it have attracted our famous disciple of that
revolutionary Reb Yochanan ben Zakkai, who himself transformed Judaism from
priestly cultic oriented religion centered around the Temple to a scholarly based
tradition?

6
PAU L R. TREBILCO Professor of New Testament Studies Knox Theological Hall University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
https://ancient-world-project.nes.lsa.umich.edu/tltc/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Trebilco-1991.pdf
7
Because much of what is known about Montanism comes from anti-Montanist sources, it is difficult to know what they actually
believed and how those beliefs differed from the Christian mainstream of the time.[28] The New Prophecy was also a diverse
movement, and what Montanists believed varied by location and time.[29] Montanism was particularly influenced by Johannine
literature, especially the Gospel of John and the Apocalypse of John (also known as the Book of Revelation). Robeck, Cecil M,
Jr (2010), "Montanism and Present Day 'Prophets'", Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies,
In John's Gospel, Jesus promised to send the Paraclete or Holy Spirit, from which Montanists believed their prophets derived
inspiration. In the Apocalypse, John was taken by an angel to the top of a mountain where he sees the New Jerusalem descend to
earth. Montanus identified this mountain as being located in Phrygia near Pepuza.[31] Followers of the New Prophecy called
themselves spiritales ("spiritual people") in contrast to their opponents whom they termed psychici ("carnal, natural
people"). Robeck, Cecil M, Jr (2010), "Montanism and Present Day 'Prophets'", Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for
Pentecostal Studies,

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 6. According to the Mishnah (Avot 2:8), Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five (main)
students: Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkenos, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, Rabbi Yosi the
Priest, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel, and Rabbi Elazar ben Arach. The first and the last take
on outsized importance.8
7.
The first thing the Mishnah tells us about the relationship between teacher and students is that
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai had a catchphrase to praise each student: “Rabbi Eliezer ben
Horkenos is a pit covered in plaster (bor sid) that does not lose a drop,” whereas “Rabbi Elazar
ben Arach is an ever-strengthening fountain (ma’ayan ha-mitgaber).” Rabbi Eliezer was a
stickler for tradition, a reputation that is borne out by many other stories in which he appears. He
collected all of the knowledge of his own teachers and preserved it without losing any details; he
innovated nothing of his own. Where Rabbi Eliezer was a still, passive receptacle, Rabbi Elazar
ben Arach was a strengthening spring that generates new knowledge, churning with creativity.

Our tradition rests on both preservation (Rabbi Eliezer) and creativity (Rabbi Elazar ben Arach),
but if Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai had had to choose one, which would it have been? Rabban
Yochanan ben Zakai lived through the immense and rapid changes wrought on the Torah
community by the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Would he have preferred Rabbi Eliezer,
who could help collect and preserve the shattered pieces of the tradition? Or Rabbi Elazar ben
Arach, who could help reform it anew? Did our tanna lose the battle and sought new fertile
territory for his reformist approach?

8. Mishnah Avot 2:8 describes Elazar as “an ever-flowing spring.” (Sotah 49b uses a
similar image to describe Rabbi Akiba.) My friend and talmud scholar Alon Goshen-
Gottstein (who I see each year in Uman!) explains that the metaphor ascribes to both “the
talent of innovation and creative ability in Torah study.”9
But while Rabbi Akiba is widely known for his creativity in interpretations and is heavily
quoted throughout rabbinic literature, Rabbi Elazar is barely mentioned at all. I love the
symbolism of an “ever flowing cistern” with his attraction to the waters of Diomses.

8
Miriam Gedwiser 2019: https://jewishlink.news/divrei-torah/31190-still-cistern-flowing-fountain
9
The Sinner and the Amnesiac: The Rabbinic Invention of Elisha ben Abuya and Eleazar ben Arach (Contraversions: Jews and
Other Differences): The book studies Rabbi Eleazar ben Arach where the image of the sage does not stem from a historical memory
of the sage but from an ideological function which the image of the sage fulfills. Eleazar has come down to us as one who forgot
his Torah. Thus, both the sage who is said to have become the greatest of rabbinic sinners and the sage who is said to have forgotten
his Torah are products of the literary creativity of rabbinic storytellers, who convey a particular ideology through the image of the
rabbinic heroes they portray.

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 Baptistery at Emmaus10

The metaphor, symbolism and mythology of water is too attractive a theory to ignore. Water for
our Tanna, represented the freedom to distill and cogitate, to flow into new unchartered
territories of biblical interpretation and to be attracted to other sources (Greek?) that the rabbis
felt strayed from the strict limits of interpretation allowed at Yavneh.

Moral of the story placed strategically after this narrative:

And that is what we learned in a mishna that Rabbi Nehorai says: Exile yourself to a place of
Torah and do not say that it will follow you (if you go to a place devoid of Torah, and be with you
like it is when you are in a place of Torah).

Your colleagues will establish (the Torah) in your hands, and do not rely on your understanding
alone. It was taught: Rabbi Nehorai was not his name, but rather Rabbi Neḥemya was his name;
and some say that Rabbi Elazar ben Arach was his name (and his statement was based on the
personal experience of forgetting his Torah due to his failure to exile himself to a place of Torah).

And why was he called Rabbi Nehorai? It was because he would illuminate [manhir] the eyes of
the Sages in halakha.

My son’s Rebbe in the gush Rav Gigi said on this pericope:11

The Gemara (Shabbat 147b) records what happened when R. Elazar ben Arakh reached the verse, “This month
shall be for you…” after having forgotten all he had learned:

“R. Elazar ben Arakh went [a luxurious location]. He was drawn to them, and his learning vanished.
When he returned, he arose to read from the Torah. He came to the verse, ‘This month is for you…’ (ha-
chodesh ha-zeh lakhem) but said instead, ‘Their heart became silent’ [ha-charesh haya libbam – one

10
Y. Hirschfeld, "A Hidraulic Installation in the Water-Supply System of Emmaus-Nicopolis", IEJ, 1978
11
https://www.etzion.org.il/en/month-shall-be-you-head-months

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 letter in each of the three words is altered in relation to the three words of the proper reading, rendering
an entirely different meaning]. The rabbis prayed for him, and his learning returned to him.”

What is the significance of R. Elazar ben Arakh’s mistake – “ha-charesh haya libbam”? Why is it these specific
words that he utters instead of “ha-chodesh ha-zeh lakhem”? Because these two phrases are the inverse of one
another.

The opposite of the commandment of sanctifying the New Moon is “silence” (or “closedness” or “sealing”) of
the heart; it is the participation in ordinary, repetitive ritual that has nothing new about it. It is the manifestation
of a sealed heart that is deaf and insensitive to the events of the time.

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