Ids and Egos, Husbands and Wives
רבי חייא בר אשי
הוה רגיל כל עידן דהוה נפל לאפיה
הוה אמר: הרחמן יצילנו מיצר הרע.
יומא חד שמעתינהו דביתהו אמרה:
מכדי הא כמה שני דפריש ליה מינאי
מאי טעמא קאמר הכי?
יומא חדא הוה קא גריס בגינתיה
קשטה נפשה חלפה ותנייה קמיה
אמר לה מאן את
אמרה אנא חרותא דהדרי מיומא
תבעה
אמרה ליה אייתי ניהליה להך רומנא דריש צוציתא. שוור אזל אתייה ניהלה.
כי אתא לביתיה
הוה קא שגרא דביתהו תנורא
סליק וקא יתיב בגויה
אמרה ליה: מאי האי
אמר לה הכי והכי הוה מעשה
אמרה ליה אנא הואי
אמר לה אנא מיהא לאיסורא איכווני
R. Hiyya bar Ashi,
each time he fell on his face [in personal prayer],
would say:
May the Merciful One rescue me from the Yetzer HaRa [the inclination toward evil].
One day his wife overheard him.
She said to herself: “But for so many years he has abstained from me! How come he says that?”
One day he was studying in his garden.
She decorated herself,
and walked by him.
He said to her: “Who are you?”
She said: “I am Heruta,
I just got back from my workday.”
He claimed her.
She said to him: “Go bring me that pomegranate from the treetop.”
He jumped up and brought it to her.
When he came home,
his wife was adding kindling to the oven.
He climbed inside the oven and sat there.
She said to him: “What is this?”
He said to her: “Such and such is what happened.”
She said to him: “That was me!”
He said to her: “But I, anyhow, intended to do something forbidden.”
Questions for Havruta Study:
Read the story and divide it into scenes. Use the Rashi Highlights below to decipher unclear phrases.
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Ask as many questions as possible about the story. For example: Why does their encounter take place in a garden?
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Flesh out the two characters in our story. How do you imagine each one of them? What is their background? How do they feel at various moments of the story – proud, ashamed, happy, distressed...
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Go through the story again, imagining its scenes more fully – as a movie, short story or poem. What aspects would you add? What shots would your camera take, what metaphors would you use in a poem?
Rashi Highlights (and other commentaries):
Fell on his face – perhaps refers to the prayer of Nefilat Apayim in Tachanun, a prayer said after the silent prayer (Amidah). This prayer was considered by the Rabbis to be the most intense personal prayer of the day.
Abstained from me – The Talmud mentions some Rabbis as having abstained from their wives altogether, trying to achieve a higher holiness. This is contrary to the Halakhic obligation mentioned in the Torah and the Talmud to have regular sexual relations with ones wife (Onah), but in line with the midrahsic explanation of Moses as a prophet who was celibate from his wife.
Heruta –the Name of a famous prostitute of the time (Rashi). Literally: Heruta means Freedom חירות.
Decorated herself – with jewelry, perfumes and seductive clothing (Rashi).
He claimed her – the term tva'a תבעה, meaning claimed/demanded/propositioned, is used in the Talmud as a reference for a coarse act of (/demand for) intercourse, as opposed to the more intimate term לספר, "to tell"/storytelling, used for example in Bavli Berakhot 3a: "In the third part of the night a women mesaperet with her husband."
Climbed inside the oven – the Talmud recounts a few stories in which the hero tries to sit inside an oven as a way of punishing himself/committing suicide for his sins.
לא אשגח בה עד דיהבה ליה סימני אמר לה אנא מיהא לאיסורא איכווני כל ימיו של אותו צדיק היה מתענה עד שמת באותה מיתה
She said to him: It was I. He paid no attention to her, thinking she was merely trying to comfort him, until she gave him signs that it was indeed she. He said to her: I, in any event, intended to transgress. The Gemara relates: All the days of that righteous man he would fast for the transgression he intended to commit, until he died by that death in his misery.
How do these additions alter the reading of the story?
The Gemara recounts the event described in the verses: The verse states: And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God (Nehemiah 9:4). What was said? Rav said, and some say it was Rabbi Yoḥanan who said: Woe, woe. It is this, i.e., the evil inclination for idol worship, that destroyed the Temple, and burned its Sanctuary, and murdered all the righteous ones, and caused the Jewish people to be exiled from their land. And it still dances among us, i.e., it still affects us. Didn’t You gave it to us for solely for the purpose of our receiving reward for overcoming it. We do not want it, and we do not want its reward. We are prepared to forgo the potential rewards for overcoming the evil inclination as long as it departs from us. In response to their prayer a note fell to them from the heavens upon which was written: Truth, indicating that God accepted their request. The Gemara makes a parenthetical observation. Rav Ḥanina said: Learn from this that the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is truth. In response to the indication of divine acceptance, they observed a fast for three days and three nights, and He delivered the evil inclination to them. A form of a fiery lion cub came forth from the chamber of the Holy of Holies. Zechariah the prophet said to the Jewish people: This is the evil inclination for idol worship, as it is stated in the verse that refers to this event: “And he said: This is the evil one” (Zechariah 5:8). The use of the word “this” indicates that the evil inclination was perceived in a physical form. When they caught hold of it one of its hairs fell, and it let out a shriek of pain that was heard for four hundred parasangs. They said: What should we do to kill it? Perhaps, Heaven forfend, they will have mercy upon him from Heaven, since it cries out so much. The prophet said to them: Throw it into a container made of lead and seal the opening with lead, since lead absorbs sound. As it is stated: “And he said: This is the evil one. And he cast it down into the midst of the measure, and he cast a stone of lead upon its opening” (Zechariah 5:8). They followed this advice and were freed of the evil inclination for idol worship. When they saw that the evil inclination for idol worship was delivered into their hands as they requested, the Sages said: Since it is an auspicious time, let us pray also concerning the evil inclination for sin in the area of sexual relationships. They prayed, and it was also delivered into their hands. Zechariah the prophet said to them: See and understand that if you kill this evil inclination the world will be destroyed because as a result there will also no longer be any desire to procreate. They followed his warning, and instead of killing the evil inclination they imprisoned it for three days. At that time, people searched for a fresh egg throughout all of Eretz Yisrael and could not find one. Since the inclination to reproduce was quashed, the chickens stopped laying eggs. They said: What should we do? If we kill it, the world will be destroyed. If we pray for half, i.e., that only half its power be annulled, nothing will be achieved because Heaven does not grant half gifts, only whole gifts. What did they do? They gouged out its eyes, effectively limiting its power, and set it free. And this was effective to the extent that a person is no longer aroused to commit incest with his close relatives.