The story near the bottom of the page about R. Mani is fascinating, not least because R. Yitchak be. Elieshav seems to play the role of genie. He grants wishes, but they never seem to turn out as R. Mani wants. Is this story designed as a comedy? I think it is. Which makes me wonder about the role of his ugly/docile then pretty/domineering wife. Is this, as it appears, another example of borderline (or not so borderline) misogyny on the part of the rabbis? Or does the context of the story, it's essentially comedic context, mean this broadly drawn stereotype of the wife is, in fact, a critique of that stereotype?
I may, admittedly, be reading too much into the narrative, but I certainly think the story is ultimately critical of R. Mani, especially given its ending, which seems to indicate that R. Yitchak has "wasted" all his genie powers on getting things for R. Mani and then undoing them. If that is the case--in other words, if the story is critical of its "hero"--than maybe we can argue that the story is critical of the attitudes of the hero: his unhappiness about getting what he thought he wanted, as well as his views of his wife.
Maybe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'd follow the Rolling Stones and title this one "You Can't Always Get What you Want but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need" (Ahhhh, yeah). To me, this series of stories about R Mani seem to deal with the common feeling of the grass is always greener on the other side. First the rich people are harassing him and he wishes they are poor, they become poor and still harass me. He then wishes that his wife is beautiful. He gets that and realizes that that comes with its own problems. In both cases, he wants things to go back to the way they were, which weren't so bad in the first place. Perhaps by experiencing the alternative to what frustrates him allows him to be happier with his lot.
Post a Comment