I. Openings
We are going to talk today about risk. Let’s begin with a definition. This is how the American Heritage Dictionary defines risk:
"Risk. n. The possibility of suffering harm or loss; danger. 2. A factor, thing, element, or course involving uncertain danger; a hazard."
Think for a moment of a time in the past month when you took a risk, when you felt that sense of danger. It may not have been something life-or-death; it may have been something mundane. Write a few notes to yourself about the risk you took in the space below.
Risk involves the possibility of danger, and it involves uncertainty. In Hebrew, the word for risk is סיכון, sikkun, related to the word סכנה, sakana or danger. It is also related to the word for ‘knife,’ סכין, sakin.
Think about a knife for a moment. Use the space below to write some words you associate with a knife or draw a picture of someone using a knife.
What does your drawing tell you about how you think about danger, how you think about risk?
II. A Talmudic Story About Risk
The story we are about to read comes from the Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 77b). It starts at a digression. Until this point, the Talmud has been discussing cases in which a man can be forced to divorce his wife, including situations in which the man has certain bodily conditions that make him physically repulsive to her. One of the physical conditions cited is called ra’atan. We pick up with the Talmud’s discussion of the nature of ra’atan and the ways that certain rabbis responded to those afflicted with it.
מאי סימניה דלפן עיניה ודייבי נחיריה ואיתי ליה רירא מפומיה ורמו דידבי עילויה ומאי אסותיה אמר אביי פילא ולודנא גירדא דאגוזא וגירדא דאשפא וכליל מלכא ומתחלא דדיקלא סומקא ושליק להו בהדי הדדי ומעייל ליה לביתא דשישא ואי לא איכא ביתא דשישא מעייל ליה לביתא דשב לבני ואריחא ונטיל ליה תלת מאה כסי על רישיה עד דרפיא ארעיתא דמוחיה וקרע למוחיה ומייתי ארבע טרפי דאסא ומדלי כל חד כרעא ומותיב חד ושקיל בצבתא וקלי ליה דאי לא הדר עילויה מכריז רבי יוחנן הזהרו מזבובי של בעלי ראתן רבי זירא לא הוה יתיב בזיקיה רבי אלעזר לא עייל באהליה רבי אמי ורבי אסי לא הוו אכלי מביעי דההיא מבואה ריב"ל מיכרך בהו ועסיק בתורה אמר (משלי ה, יט) אילת אהבים ויעלת חן אם חן מעלה על לומדיה אגוני לא מגנא כי הוה שכיב אמרו ליה למלאך המות זיל עביד ליה רעותיה אזל איתחזי ליה א"ל אחוי לי דוכתאי אמר ליה לחיי א"ל הב לי סכינך דלמא מבעתת לי באורחא יהבה ניהליה כי מטא להתם דלייה קא מחוי ליה שוור נפל לההוא גיסא נקטיה בקרנא דגלימיה א"ל בשבועתא דלא אתינא אמר קודשא בריך הוא אי איתשיל אשבועתא ניהדר אי לא לא ניהדר אמר ליה הב לי סכינאי לא הוה קא יהיב ליה נפקא בת קלא ואמרה ליה הב ניהליה דמיתבעא לברייתא
What are the symptoms of ra’atan? His eyes water, his nose runs, drool comes out of his mouth, and flies rest upon him. The Gemara further inquires: And what is his cure to remove the insect found in his head, which is associated with this illness? Abaye said: One takes pila and ladanum [lodana], which are types of grasses; and the ground shell of a nut; and shavings of smoothed hides; and artemisia [kelil malka]; and the calyx of a red date palm. And one cooks them together and brings the patient into a marble house, i.e., one that is completely sealed. And if there is no marble house available, the one performing the treatment brings the patient into a house whose walls have the thickness of seven bricks and one small brick. And the one performing the treatment pours three hundred cups of this mixture on the patient’s head until his skull is soft, and then he tears open the patient’s skull to expose his brain, and brings four myrtle leaves and lifts up each time one foot of the insect that is found on the patient’s brain, and places one leaf under each foot of the insect so as to prevent it from attempting to cling to his brain when it is forcibly removed, and subsequently takes it with tweezers. And he then burns the insect, because if he does not burn it, it will return to him.
Rabbi Yoḥanan would announce: Be careful of the flies found on those afflicted with ra’atan, as they are carriers of the disease. Rabbi Zeira would not sit in a spot where the wind blew from the direction of someone afflicted with ra’atan. Rabbi Elazar would not enter the tent of one afflicted with ra’atan, and Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi would not eat eggs from an alley in which someone afflicted with ra’atan lived.
Conversely, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi would attach himself to them and study Torah, saying as justification the verse: “The Torah is a loving hind and a graceful doe” (Proverbs 5:19). If it bestows grace on those who learn it, does it not protect them from illness?
When Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was on the verge of dying, they said to the Angel of Death: Go and perform his bidding, as he is a righteous man and deserves to die in the manner he sees fit. The Angel of Death went and appeared to him. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: Show me my place in paradise. He said to him: Very well. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: Give me your knife that you use to kill mortals, lest you frighten me on the way. He gave it to him. When he arrived there, in paradise, he lifted Rabbi Yehoshua so he could see his place, and he showed it to him. Rabbi Yehoshua jumped and fell into that other side, thereby escaping into paradise. The Angel of Death grabbed him by the corner of his cloak. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: I swear that I will not come with you. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If he ever in his life requested dissolution concerning an oath he had taken, he must return to this world with the Angel of Death, as he can have his oath dissolved this time also. If he did not ever request dissolution of an oath, he need not return. Since Rabbi Yehoshua had in fact never requested dissolution of an oath, he was allowed to stay in paradise. The Angel of Death said to him: At least give me my knife back. However, he did not give it to him, as he did not want any more people to die. A Divine Voice emerged and said to him: Give it to him, as it is necessary to kill the created beings; death is the way of the world.
As you read the story, consider the following questions:
About the Text
- How would you characterize the responses of the rabbis listed before Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi?
- How would you characterize their feelings about the risks presented by ra’atan?
- What does Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi risk in interacting with ra’atan victims? What is the gain, and what is the potential loss?
- What enables Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi to take a risk that his contemporaries won’t?
- What do you think the knife symbolizes in this story? How do you understand the heavenly voice that says, “It is necessary to kill the created things?”
About Yourself
- What does this reflection make you think or feel right now?
- Does this text and the discussion surrounding it influence how you approach questions of illness, public health, or risk?
III. Postscript
In his classic book The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes:
"We collaborate with the structures of separation because they promise to protect us against one of the deepest fears at the heart of being human—the fear of having a live encounter with alien ‘otherness,’ whether the other is a student, a colleague, a subject, or a self-dissenting voice within. We fear encounters in which the other is free to be itself, to speak its own truth, to tell us what we may not wish to hear. We want those encounters on our own terms, so that we can control their outcomes, so that they will not threaten our view of world and self." (p. 37)
As we take personal risks and lead our communities to confront their challenges, what are the fears that will stand in our way, and where will we find the strength to endure them? Again, Palmer:
"In a time of tension, we must endure with whatever love we can muster until that very tension draws a larger love into the scene. There is a name for the endurance we must practice until a larger love arrives: it is called suffering. We will not be able to teach in the power of paradox until we are willing to suffer the tension of opposites, until we understand that such suffering is neither to be avoided nor merely to be survived, but must be actively embraced for the way it expands our own hearts." (p. 85)