Garlic #3 and Humiliation #1 — BT Sanhedrin 11a — #67

Rabbi [Yehudah ha-Nasi] was sitting and teaching when he smelled the odor of garlic. He said, “Whoever is eating garlic, leave!” R. Chiyya got up and left. All [the others in the room] got up and left. the following morning, R. Shimon, the son of Rabbi [Yehudah ha-Nasi] sought out R. Chiyya. He said to [R. Chiyya], “Are you the one who[se behavior] irritated my father?” [R. Chiyya] said to him, “There should be none like that in Israel!”

INTRODUCTION

The academies in Babylonia were bastions of intellectual competition that was often fierce and not infrequently cruel. As a result, public humiliation was an unfortunate facet of life. Nonetheless, the Sages railed against public humiliation, going so far as to compare the experience of being humiliated to death, and the sin of humiliating someone to the sins of adultery and murder. The story above is one in a string of six stories in which someone’s potential public humiliation is prevented by the astute and righteous intervention—or proactive behavior—of a human or God, averting the catastrophe of public humiliation.

The context for these stories is the Gemara’s discussion of the first mishnah in tractate Sanhedrin which discusses the size of the court a variety of violations of halakhah. (Most civil cases permitting monetary reparation require three judges; criminal cases often require twenty-three; a full court of seventy-one is required to judge an entire tribe, a false prophet, and a high priest accused of a capital offense, and also to declare a discretionary war.) The mishnah stipulates that intercalating the calendar—a month by one day, or adding an extra month (Adar 2) to insure that Passover falls after the spring equinox—“begins with [a court of] three [judges], is debated with five, and finalized with seven.” (M Sanhedrin 1:2)

In its discussion of calendrical intercalation, Gemara  wanders down a fascinating and seemingly unrelated path. Stating that intercalating a month into the year requires judges who are specially designated for that task, Gemara tells the story of a time when Rabban Gamliel ordered seven sages to appear in his attic study early the next morning. Arising to find eight sages in attendance, he declared, “Whoever came up without permission, go back down!” Shmuel ha-Katan immediately offered that he was the eighth and had come only to learn the laws of intercalation. At this, Rabban Gamliel’s tone changed abruptly and, addressing Shmuel ha-Katan as “My son,” he bid him sit. The Gemara comments that Shmuel ha-Katan was not the uninvited sage; rather, he outed himself to prevent a colleague from being embarrassed. This account inspires the story in this edition of TMT about Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi, and four more that follow it.

COMMENTARY

R. Yehudah ha-Nasi was the patriarch in his generation, the highest ranking rabbinic sage in the Jewish community. He is so exalted that the Talmud refers to him as merely “Rabbi” without  further appellation—he is “The Rabbi” (with a capital “T”). One day, he smells the pungent odor of garlic in his classroom; someone is chewing on a raw clove. Rabbi finds the unpleasant smell not only irritating, but also insulting. Who would dare to sit in his class wreaking of garlic? Rabbi summarily commands that  the offender leave immediately.

This is a critical moment. Whoever stands will be subjected to ridicule and humiliation.

R. Chiyya bar Abba assesses the situation and perceives the danger. He stands up and leaves. When the other sages and students present follow his example; they arise and leave. The following morning, R. Yehudah’s son, Shimon, thinking it peculiar and highly unlikely that R. Chiyya was chewing on garlic in class, seeks him out and asks. “Heaven forbid!” R. Chiyya bar Abba responds. Of course not! This is, of course, precisely what R. Shimon expected to hear. R. Chiyya bar Abba acted as he did to prevent anyone else from suffering humiliation.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS

1. Can you recall a time in your life when you were publicly humiliated? How did you feel? When you recall the incident today, what feelings does it conjure in you? Does the pain remain?
2. Had you been sitting in the classroom that day, what would you have done? Have you ever witnessed a scene comparable to the one in this Talmudic story, in which one person prevented another from humiliation by taking it upon him or herself?
3. Modernity has spawned a new source of humiliation. Many people have reported that social media makes them anxious and lowers their self-esteem because it encourages them to compare their live with the glossing, glimmering, glorious impressions of the way others live. The Polish Jewish sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925, University of Leeds, England)  survived WWII as a refugee in Soviet Russia and was expelled from Poland in the anti-Semitic purge of 1968. He has written numerous books exploring the interplay of modernity, bureaucracy, consumerism, and social exclusion. Bauman says that social media causing a type of self-inflicted degradation in some peoples. He has noted, “We live in a world of communication—everyone gets information about everyone else. There is universal comparison and you don't just compare yourself with the people next door, you compare yourself to people all over the world and with what is being presented as the decent, proper and dignified life. It's the crime of humiliation.” Have you ever felt degraded or humiliated by/in social media? Before you post or comment, do you ask yourself if this may embarrass someone?