Is the Talmud literal?

louche

Fri, Jan 22 2010, 12:55 pm

What do you folks think: is every word in the Mishna and Gemara literally true? IOW, if Rav Suchandsuch is quoted as saying that Adam had four ears and four eyes, does he necessarily mean that Adam would have had to buy two pairs of sunglasses? Or is it possible that Rav Suchandsuch was using a figure of speech to say that Adam had exceptional hearing and eyesight (I'm making this up, btw) and in no way meant it literally?

I don't want to hear the official party line of whatever side of the Continental Divide you stand on; I want to know what you ladies really think.

entropy

Sat, Jan 23 2010, 3:31 pm

From Rambam's intro to Moreh Nevuchim (my own translation):

In my commentary on the Mishnah I declared my intent to explain all the obscure passages in the Torah and in the Talmud. In the latter I intended to examine all the passages in those Midrashim for which the pshat is very contrary to truth and is at odds with intelligence. They are all allegories.

When I started this work many years ago, what I wrote was not good in my eyes. I saw that if I continue to explain things allegorically, I am like someone who replaces one item by an item of the same type, but when I interpret what requires interpretation, the result is unfit for the general public. Yet, my goal was specifically to explain the Torah and Midrashim to the public.

Further, I noticed that when an ignoramus from the multitude of rabbis reads these Midrashim, he will find no difficulty; for in the eyes of the ignorant simpleton who lacks knowledge of the world, impossibilities are not inconceivable. However,when a complete virtuous individual reads them, he is forced to act in one of two manners: either he takes them literally, thinking ill of the autor who he will judge as ignorant-- which is not opposed to the principles of our faith -- or he assumes that the passages in question have a hidden meaning, and he will continue to hold the author in high esteem, whether he understood the allegory or not.