Megillah, Daf Kaf Het, Part 3
Introduction
This is the final section in which rabbis ask their masters how they lived such a long life.
שאל רבי את רבי יהושע בן קרחה: במה הארכת ימים? – אמר לו: קצת בחיי? – אמר לו: רבי, תורה היא וללמוד אני צריך. אמר לו: מימי לא נסתכלתי בדמות אדם רשע. דאמר רבי יוחנן: אסור לאדם להסתכל בצלם דמות אדם רשע, שנאמר +מלכים ב’ ג+ לולא פני יהושפט מלך יהודה אני נשא אם אביט אליך ואם אראך,"
רבי אלעזר אמר: עיניו כהות, שנאמר +בראשית כ"ז+ ויהי כי זקן יצחק ותכהין עיניו מראת, משום דאסתכל בעשו הרשע.
Rabbi asked R. Joshua b. Korha: How have you lived such a long life?
He said to him: Are you trying to shorten my life?
Rabbi said to him: Rabbi, this is Torah and I need to learn.
He replied: Never in my life have I looked at the countenance of a wicked man;
As R. Yohanan said: It is forbidden for a man to look at the image of the countenance of a wicked man, as it says, "Were it not that I regard the presence of Yehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you nor see you" (II Kings 3:14).
R. Elazar said: His eyes become dim, as it says, "And it came to pass that when Yitzchak grew old that his eyes became dim, so that he could not see" (Genesis 27:1). Because he used to look at the wicked Esau.
R. Joshua b. Korha says that he lived a long life because he never looked at a wicked person. I don’t think this means that he never saw a wicked person. This would be out of a person’s control. What it means is that he stayed away from wicked people, and tried not to learn from their wicked ways. He didn’t look at them with any regard. We know that people are deeply impacted by the company they choose to keep. When we choose to be around good people we raise ourselves to their standards, and we probably increase the longevity of our life (this is harder to prove, but I’m sure that we live better lives). The opposite is true as well. When we surround ourselves with shallower people, people who do less for others, people whose morality is lesser, our standards deteriorate as well.
R. Yohanan proves this point from a verse in II Kings in which Elisha the prophet speaks to Yehoram, the evil king of Israel. Elisha says that were it not for the righteous Yehoshaphat, king of Judah, he would have nothing to do with Yehoram the wicked.
R. Elazar proves the point by citing Yitzchak. As Yitzchak grew old, his eyes grew dim. As is typical, the rabbis explain physical ailments as being the result of transgression. Yitzchak should not have even looked at Esau his evil son. His favoring of Esau is what caused his eyes to grow dim. Paradoxically, it was his dim eyes that led him not to recognize Jacob’s disguise and give the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau.
והא גרמא ליה? והאמר רבי יצחק: לעולם אל תהי קללת הדיוט קלה בעיניך, שהרי אבימלך קלל את שרה ונתקיים בזרעה, שנאמר +בראשית כ’+ הנה הוא לך כסות עינים, אל תקרי כסות אלא כסיית עינים! – הא והא גרמא ליה.
But was that the cause? Did not R. Yitzchak say: Let not the curse of an ordinary person ever seem light in your eyes, for Avimelech cursed Sarah, and it was fulfilled in her seed, as it says, "Behold he is for you a covering [kesut] of the eyes" (Genesis 20:16). Read not "kesut" but "kesiyath" [blinding]?
Both caused it [the dimming of his eyes].
There is another midrash as to why Yitzchak’s eyes went dim. In chapter 20 when Avimelech returns Sarah to Abraham, he says to her that the money he is giving her will be "a covering of the eyes." While the simple reading seems to mean he is bribing her to keep her mouth closed about the incident, the rabbis expound upon the strange phrase, "covering of the eyes." They read this as a curse, as if Avimelech cursed Sarah that her son (from Avimelech?!) would be blind. Although Avimelech was just an ordinary man, not a prophet or sage, his curse ended up coming true. Yitzchak’s eyes did end up weakened.
The Talmud offers a typical weak resolution as to the difficulty both incidents cause Yitzchak to go blind the curse from Avimelech and the fact that he looked at his wicked son, Esau.
רבא אמר מהכא: +משלי י"ח+ שאת פני רשע לא טוב.
Rava said. We learn it from here: "It is not good to favor the face of the wicked" (Proverbs 18:5).
This is yet another source for the idea that one should not look at a wicked person. The simple meaning of the verse is that one should not favor a wicked person. But Rava expounds it to mean that one should not even look at such a person.
בשעת פטירתו אמר לו: [רבי], ברכני! אמר לו: יהי רצון שתגיע לחצי ימי. – ולכולהו לא? – אמר לו: הבאים אחריך בהמה ירעו?
When he was about to die, Rabbi said to him: Bless me.
He said to him: May it be God’s will that you live to half my days.
Not to their whole length?
He said back: Those who come after you, shall they graze cattle?
When Rabbi Joshua b. Korha died he offered a strange blessing to Rabbi [Judah Hanasi]: May you live half as long as I do! Rabbi is stunned by this blessing. Why shouldn’t he live out a full, long life, as did R. Joshua b. Korha.
The cryptic answer refers to Rabbi Judah Hanasi’s children. If Rabbi lives a very long life, his children will not be able to fill his role as Patriarch. They will be left grazing cattle in the field, with little time left in their own lives to make their mark on Judaism and the community as Patriarch. This seems to me a deep message about the mixed blessing of longevity. Of course, by living long we don’t really prevent the success of our children, but it is worth remembering that at a certain time we need to step aside and make room for the new generation. I hope I’ll remember this sugya when my time approaches. But I also hope that’s still quite a while away.
אבוה בר איהי ומנימן בר איהי, חד אמר: תיתי לי דלא אסתכלי בגוי, וחד אמר: תיתי לי דלא עבדי שותפות בהדי גוי.
Abuha b. Ihi and Minyamin b. Ihi: One said: May I be rewarded because I have never looked at a non-Jew, and the other said, May I be rewarded because I have never gone into partnership with a non-Jew.
These two amoraim profess strong anti-non-Jew sentiments, asking for a reward in the world to come because they have either never looked at a non-Jew or never had a partnership with a non-Jew. When reading statements such as these I contextualize them in a world in which there was strong ethnic and religious hostility between Jews and non-Jews, and I do not internalize them into my world. I wish for a world in which Jews and non-Jews look deeply at each other, respect each other’s differences, recognize the fundamental similarities and engage in partnerships to better us all. That’s the world I live in.
שאלו תלמידיו את רבי זירא: במה הארכת ימים? – אמר להם: מימי לא הקפדתי בתוך ביתי, ולא צעדתי בפני מי שגדול ממני, ולא הרהרתי במבואות המטונפות, ולא הלכתי ארבע אמות בלא תורה ובלא תפילין, ולא ישנתי בבית המדרש לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי, ולא ששתי בתקלת חבירי, ולא קראתי לחבירי בחכינתו, ואמרי לה בחניכתו.
R. Zera was asked by his disciples: How have you lived such a long life? He replied: Never in my life have I been overly demanding with my household, nor have I walked in front of one greater than myself, nor have I meditated on the Torah in filthy alleys, nor have I gone four cubits without Torah and tefillin, nor have I slept in the bet hamidrash, either a long or a short sleep, nor have I rejoiced in the downfall of my fellow, nor have I called my fellow by a disgraceful name, or, as some say, his family nickname.
Most of these are quite self-explanatory. There are two versions of the last statement. According to the first, R. Zera never called a friend by an embarrassing nickname that he had. According to the second, he never called a friend even by an acceptable nickname for his family. This seems to be like a family name. Even today calling someone by their last name is not particularly polite.