This is another great story that is chalk full of Torah goodness. When have we not felt like Rabbi Elazar -- feeling proud after an accomplishment? The catch is when this pride overcomes us to a point that we forget the basics, namely remembering we are only human and to treat other humans with respect. Though I have yet to call a congregant ugly to their face, I certainly have had moments when I haven't given people the attention they deserve for one reason or another. That I find is one of the great challenges of the job -- making everyone feel worthwhile and a part of the community by paying them the attention they deserve (some more than others).
Given the "Rabbi Rabbi Master Master" peace at the end, I wonder if this ugly man is an illusion to Rabbi Joshua? If Rabbi Elazar is the son of the Rabbi Shimon who studied with Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, then Rabbi Joshua, who also studied with RYBZ, would be contemporaries with Rabbi Shimon. So it is conceivable that Rabbi Elazar did not know his father's old classmate, who you will recall was notoriously ugly, and that is who he encountered. The fact that the Talmud doesn't identify this ugly Rabbi as Joshua, when it is happy to do so in other places, probably means that is not who Rabbi Elazar insults, but I wonder...
Thursday, December 6, 2007
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This sotry I actually had read before, and even wrote a paper on for an otherwise disaster of a Talmud class in Israel. The narrative, as you say, is terrific, and the lessons are not entirely clear, which is what I like about it. Who, after all, is the reed, and who is the ceder? Who will not bend? Is it the Rabbi, who can not seen past the external ugliness, or is it the man, whose ugliness, it turns out, is also internal, in that he will not accept the apology and grant forgiveness. Or is it the people themselves, unwilling to think of their Rabbi and Teacher as anything but a man deserving of great respect, despite the fact that the story begins with him insulting them. (Is everyone in your town as ugly as you...)
Great stuff.
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