Land of Sages

A Manifestation of a Territorial Conflict in a Story from the Babylonian TalmudBabylonian Talmud

Abstract

The question of the relationship between nomos and narrative—and, in its Talmudic context, between Halakhah and Aggadah—is one of the most complex questions in the study of the story in the Babylonian Talmud. This is because, in this unique text, legend, or rather, more broadly, the narrative form of expression, occupies a dominant place in the discourse of the sages. The language of law in the Babylonian Talmud, therefore, is hardly ever a ‘dry’, minimal language. In this article, I discuss a short Talmudic story from tractate Kidushin in which Halacha and Aggadah are inextricably tied together. This is precisely in line with H.N. Bialik’s crucial insights regarding their relationship: each of them challenges the other, while remaining fundamentally connected. The story discussed here is devoted to a dispute over land: Surprisingly, instead of a final decision that apportions the land to one of the sages who are competing for it, we are left with a situation where the land belongs to everyone and no one at the same time. The article proposes that this thought-provoking result—offering an original and inspiring conception of ownership—is a product of the unique poetics of the Babylonian Talmud. It demonstrates how the halakhic framework of the story harnesses legend narrativity to come up with an exceptional practical solution for a real problem; and how the legend, for its part, makes unique artistic use of the Halacha.