A Cycle of Five Elegeic Poems in the Talmud (Moed Katan 25b)
A mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation.
These elegies in Moed Katan 25b are notable for their self-conscious literariness, which is unusual in the Talmud.1 Each elegy indicates some of the characteristics and contributions of the individuals being mourned. They use a lot of symbolism and metaphor.2
Technical: Throughout, I bold the poems, in both the original Hebrew, and in the English translation and explanation (taken from ed. Steinzaltz in Sefaria).
All the line numberings are mine.
Outline of the Five Elegeic Poems
A young man’s Eulogy for Rabba bar Rav Huna
Eulogy for Ravina
Bar Kippok’s Eulogy for Ravina
Eulogy for Rabbi Ḥanin, a son-in-law in the house of the Nasi
Eulogy for Rabbi Zeira
A young man’s Eulogy for Rabba bar Rav Huna
The Talmud immediately previously tells a dramatic story about Rabba bar Rav Huna’s body being brought from Babylonia to Eretz Yisrael.3
פתח עליה ההוא ינוקא:
גזע ישישים עלה מבבל,
ועמו ספר מלחמות,
קאת וקפוד הוכפלו,
לראות בשוד ושבר הבא משנער.
קצף על עולמו וחמס ממנו נפשות,
ושמח בהם ככלה חדשה.
רוכב ערבות שש ושמח,
בבא אליו נפש נקי וצדיק.
When they reached Tiberias a certain child opened his eulogy saying as follows:
The shoot of an ancient line, i.e., Rabba bar Rav Huna, who was the descendant of great people, has ascended from Babylonia,4
and with him is the book of wars, i.e., Rav Hamnuna, who was great in Torah, which is referred to as the book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14).
The curses of the pelican and the bittern, which are symbols of the destruction of the Temple (Isaiah 34:11), have been doubled,
to see the ruin and brokenness that has come from Shinar, i.e., Babylonia.
The Lord became angry with His world and seized souls from it,
and He rejoices over them when they come to Him like a new bride.
God who rides upon the clouds5 is joyous and happy
when an innocent and righteous soul comes to Him.
Eulogy for Ravina
Ravina is likened to a date-palm, a symbol of righteousness. The mourning is expressed through the image of date-palms hanging their heads and the call to transform nights into days of weeping, reflecting Ravina's dedication to studying Torah day and night.
כי נח נפשיה דרבינא, פתח עליה ההוא ספדנא:
תמרים הניעו ראש, על צדיק כתמר,
נשים לילות כימים, על משים לילות כימים.
When Ravina passed away, a certain eulogizer opened his eulogy for him with the following words:
Bar Kippok’s Eulogy for Ravina
Bar Kippok, a renowned eulogizer, uses metaphors of natural grandeur and calamity to express the irreplaceable loss of Ravina. The imagery of cedars, leviathan, and a flowing river signifies Ravina's greatness and the impact of his loss on the community. Each of these great things contrasts with the weak things that we’re left with.
אמר ליה רב אשי לבר קיפוק: ההוא יומא מאי אמרת?
אמר ליה, אמינא:
אם בארזים נפלה שלהבת, מה יעשו איזובי קיר.
לויתן בחכה הועלה, מה יעשו דגי רקק.
בנחל שוטף נפלה חכה, מה יעשו מי גבים.
The Gemara relates that prior to Ravina’s death, Rav Ashi said to bar Kippok, who was a famous eulogizer: On that day when Ravina will die, what will you say?
He said to him: I shall begin my eulogy and say as follows:
Eulogy for Rabbi Ḥanin, a son-in-law in the house of the Nasi
This eulogy touches on the poignant circumstances of Rabbi Ḥanin's life and death. He is remembered at a moment of both joy and tragedy - gaining a son and losing his own life simultaneously. The eulogy poetically juxtaposes happiness and sorrow.
רבי חנין, חתניה דבי נשיאה הוה.
לא (קא) הוו ליה בני, בעא רחמי והוו ליה.
ההוא יומא דהוה ליה, נח נפשיה,
פתח עליה ההוא ספדנא:
שמחה לתוגה נהפכה,
ששון ויגון נדבקו,
בעת שמחתו נאנח,
בעת חנינתו אבד חנינו.
אסיקו ליה חנן על שמיה.
It was related that Rabbi Ḥanin was a son-in-law in the house of the Nasi.
At first he did not have any children, but he prayed that God have mercy on him, and then had a child.
On the same day that a son was born to him, he himself passed away.
A certain eulogizer opened his eulogy for him with the following words:
Happiness has been turned into sorrow;10
joy and suffering have become joined together.
At the moment of his happiness he sighed his dying breath.
At the moment he was graced with a son, his own grace was lost.
And they named the child Ḥanan after his father.
Eulogy for Rabbi Zeira
Rabbi Zeira's eulogy speaks to his origins in Babylonia and his later life in Eretz Yisrael. (On the literary and poetic usage of Rakkath for Tiberias, see my previous piece on Sanhedrin.12a.6.)
כי נח נפשיה דרבי זירא, פתח עליה ההוא ספדנא:
ארץ שנער הרה וילדה,
ארץ צבי גידלה שעשועיה.
אוי נא לה אמרה רקת,
כי אבדה כלי חמדתה.
When Rabbi Zeira died, a certain eulogizer opened his eulogy for him saying:
The land of Shinar11 conceived and gave birth to him, as he was originally Babylonian,
but the land of beauty, i.e., Eretz Yisrael, raised the darling of Babylonia, as he later moved to Eretz Yisrael and grew up there.
Woe to her, said12 Rakkath, a poetic name for Tiberias,
for her dearest vessel has been lost.
Appendix - Miracles that happened after sages died - A list of Twelve Occurrences
כי נח נפשיה דרבי אבהו, אחיתו עמודי דקסרי מיא.
דרבי יוסי, שפעו מרזבי דציפורי דמא.
דרבי יעקב, אתחמיאו כוכבי ביממא.
דרבי אסי, איעקרו כל אילניא.
דרבי חייא, נחיתו כיפי דנורא מרקיעא.
דרבי מנחם ברבי יוסי, אישתעו צלמנייא והוו (למחלצייא).
דרבי תנחום בר חייא, איתקצצו כל אנדרטיא.
דרבי אלישיב, איחתרו שבעין מחתרתא בנהרדעא.
דרב המנונא, נחיתו כיפי דברדא מרקיעא.
דרבה ורב יוסף, נשוק כיפי דפרת אהדדי.
דאביי ורבא, נשוק כיפי דדגלת אהדדי.
כי נח נפשיה דרבי משרשיא, טעון דיקלי שיצי.
When Rabbi Abbahu passed away, the pillars of Caesarea, his city, ran with water as if they were shedding tears over him.
When Rabbi Yosei passed away, the gutters of Tzippori, his city, flowed with blood.
When Rabbi Ya’akov passed away, the stars were visible during the day.
When Rabbi Asi passed away, all the trees were uprooted in a storm.
When Rabbi Ḥiyya passed away, fiery stones fell from the sky.
When Rabbi Menaḥem, son of Rabbi Yosei, passed away, the faces of the statues became smooth as if they had been smoothed with a plasterer’s trowel [meḥlatzaya].
When Rabbi Tanḥum bar Ḥiyya passed away, every statue [andartaya]13 of the king was mutilated.
When Rabbi Elyashiv passed away, seventy tunnels of thieves were dug in Neharde’a, because as long as he was alive there were no thieves in the town due to his merit.
When Rav Hamnuna passed away, hailstones fell from the sky.
When Rabba and Rav Yosef passed away, the tops of the bridges of the Euphrates collapsed and touched each other.
When Abaye and Rava passed away, the tops of the bridges of the Tigris collapsed and touched each other.
When Rabbi Mesharshiyya passed away, the palm trees became laden with thorns [shitzei].
For a general intro to som literary and aesthetic features in the Talmud, see Shamir Yona, “Rhetorical Features in Talmudic Literature”, Hebrew Union College Annual Vol. 77 (2006), pp. 67-101. The abstract states:
The stylistic and structural patterns in rabbinic literature have not yet received the proper treatment that has been applied to the literatures of the ancient Near East in general and biblical literature in particular. Granted, one may ind here and there discussions of stylistic features and literary genres in monographs and articles dealing with other aspects of rabbinic literature. Frequently, the observation that a particular dictum constitutes an aphorism or a poem appears in the course of a detailed discussion of some other aspect or aspects of a rabbinic text. Nevertheless, there has been no comprehensive discussion of the stylistic features of the rabbinic saying comparable to the discussions of the stylistic features of biblical poetry produced by Avishur, Berlin, Kugel, O’Connor, Watson, and others.
The purpose of this article is to delineate the major patterns of repetition and aural and graphic devices that the authors of rabbinic dicta employed to give greater impact to their messages. he approach to literature known as poetics, pioneered by Hruschovski and now taken for granted in all serious studies of biblical verse and narrative, stresses the interaction of form and content to achieve especially powerful messages. he present study delineates and explicates twenty-six among the scores of stylistic and structural devices that rabbinic literature shares with the other literatures of the ancient Semitic world.
Yona doesn’t discuss poetic passages (that I discuss in this piece), or other more literary passages that I’ve discussed in previous pieces. He’s focused on analyzing specific rhetorical patterns with many examples throughout the Talmud, such as parallelism (p. 69ff); anadiplosis (p. 80ff); epiphora (=epistrophe, p. 82ff); paronomasia (=pun, p. 84ff); chiastic structure (p. 92ff); gapping (p. 94ff).
On Talmudic puns on sages’ names, see my previous piece. And my other piece for Talmudic homiletics on Biblical names.
See my previous pieces on various aspects of metaphor in the Talmud, and in the Biblical Wisdom literature.
כי נח נפשיה דרבה בר הונא ורב המנונא, אסקונהו להתם.
כי מטו אגישרא, קמו גמלי.
אמר להו ההוא טייעא: מאי האי?
אמרו ליה: רבנן דקא עבדי יקרא אהדדי. מר אמר: מר ניעול ברישא, ומר אמר: מר ניעול ברישא.
אמר: דינא הוא דרבה בר הונא ליעול ברישא.
חליף גמליה דרבה בר הונא, נתור ככיה ושניה דההוא טייעא.
The Gemara relates that when Rabba bar Huna and Rav Hamnuna died, they took them both up there, to Eretz Yisrael.
When they reached a bridge that could be crossed only in single file, the camels carrying the two Sages stood in their places and would not cross the bridge.
A certain Arab [Tayya’a] who witnessed what was happening said to them: What is this phenomenon that the camels have stopped moving?
They said to him: The deceased Sages are showing honor to each other. It is as if one Sage is saying: The Master should go and cross the bridge first, while at the same time the other Sage is saying: The Master should go and cross first.
The Arab said: By law Rabba bar Huna should go first, since he is the son of a great man, and the camel carrying Rabba bar Huna then passed first.
Shortly thereafter, the molars and other teeth of that Arab fell out due to the disrespect he showed Rav Hamnuna.
עלה מבבל - possibly alluding to the verse in Ezra.7.6:
הוא עזרא עלה מבבל
that Ezra came up from Babylon
רוכב ערבות - based on the verse in Psalms.68.5:
סלו לרכב בערבות
ביה שמו
extol Him who rides the clouds (רכב בערבות)
YH is His name
הניעו ראש - based on Psalms.22.8:
יניעו ראש
they shake their heads
צדיק כתמר - from the verse in Psalms.92.13:
צדיק כתמר יפרח
The righteous bloom like a date-palm
לויתן בחכה הועלה - a combination of two verses:
תמשך לויתן בחכה
Can you draw out Leviathan by a fishhook?
And Habakkuk.1.15:
כלה בחכה העלה
He has fished them all up with a line
נחל שוטף - a phrase that appears a number of times in the Bible, for example in Isaiah.66.12:
וכנחל שוטף
Like a wadi in flood
שמחה לתוגה - based on the verse in Proverbs.14.13:
ואחריתה שמחה תוגה
And joy may end in grief.
ארץ שנער - this toponym appears in Daniel.1.2:
ויביאם ארץ־שנער
and he brought them to the land of Shinar
אוי נא לה אמרה - based on the verse in Jeremiah.45.3:
אמרת אוי־נא לי
You say, “Woe is me!
In #7, andrataya (אנדרטיא) is a plural of a Greek loan word (אנדרטא), related to the root ‘andro-’, meaning ‘man’. See ἀνδριάς - Wiktionary: “andriā́s: image of a man, statue […]”