Monotheism Defended: The Story of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi Debating a Theistic Dualist (Chullin 87a)
Illustration from Dall-e. Description: “An illustration depicting a scene from a Talmudic story set in ancient times. The scene shows Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, a distinguished Jewish scholar, sitting at a dining table with a heretic. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi is an older man with a beard, wearing traditional Jewish attire of the period. The heretic is portrayed as a Roman, wearing typical Roman clothing. They are in a modest dining room of that era, with stone walls and minimal decoration. On the table, there is a cup of wine and a small pile of gold coins, symbolizing the choice offered to the heretic. The mood is contemplative and the setting is historically accurate for the time of the Talmud.”
The passage
[...] א"ל ההוא צדוקי לרבי: מי שיצר הרים, לא ברא רוח, ומי שברא רוח, לא יצר הרים, דכתיב (עמוס ד, יג) "כי הנה יוצר הרים, ובורא רוח"
אמר ליה: שוטה, שפיל לסיפיה דקרא, "ה' צבאות שמו"
אמר ליה: נקוט לי זימנא תלתא יומי, ומהדרנא לך תיובתא
יתיב רבי תלת תעניתא
כי הוה קא בעי מיברך, אמרו ליה: צדוקי קאי אבבא
אמר: (תהלים סט, כב) "ויתנו בברותי רוש וגו'"
א"ל: רבי, מבשר טובות אני לך, לא מצא תשובה אויבך, ונפל מן הגג ומת
אמר לו: רצונך שתסעוד אצלי?
אמר לו: הן
לאחר שאכלו ושתו, א"ל: כוס של ברכה אתה שותה, או ארבעים זהובים אתה נוטל?
אמר לו: כוס של ברכה אני שותה
יצתה בת קול ואמרה: כוס של ברכה ישוה ארבעים זהובים
אמר רבי יצחק: עדיין ישנה לאותה משפחה בין גדולי רומי, וקוראין אותה משפחת בר לויאנוס:
Translation and explanation of ed. Steinzaltz:
[...] an incident in which a certain heretic said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: He who created mountains did not create wind, and he who created wind did not create mountains; rather, each was created by a separate deity, as it is written: “For behold, He Who forms the mountains and He Who creates the wind” (Amos 4:13), indicating that there are two deities: One who forms the mountains and one who creates the wind.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: Imbecile, go to the end of the verse, which states: “The Lord, the God of hosts, is His name.” The verse emphasizes that God is the One Who both forms and creates.
The heretic said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: Give me three days’ time and I will respond to you with a rebuttal of your claim.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi sat and fasted three days of fasting while awaiting the heretic, in order that he would not find a rebuttal.
When Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi wanted to have a meal at the conclusion of those three days, they said to him: That heretic is standing at the doorway.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi recited the following verse about himself: “They put gall into my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalms 69:22), i.e., my meal is embittered with the presence of this heretic.
When Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi came to the door he saw that it was in fact a different heretic, not the one who asked for three days to prepare a rebuttal. This heretic said to him: Rabbi, I am a bearer of good tidings for you: Your enemy did not find a response, and he threw himself from the roof and died.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to the heretic: Since you have brought me good tidings, would you like to dine with me?
The heretic said to him: Yes.
After they ate and drank, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to the heretic: Would you like to drink the cup of blessing, i.e., the cup of wine over which the Grace after Meals is recited, or would you like to take forty gold coins instead, and I will recite the Grace after Meals?
The heretic said to him: I will drink the cup of blessing.
A Divine Voice emerged and said: The cup of blessing is worth forty gold coins. Evidently, each one of the blessings in the Grace after Meals is worth ten gold coins.
The Gemara adds: Rabbi Yitzḥak says: That family of the heretic who dined with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi still exists among the prominent families of Rome, and that family is called: The family of bar Luyyanus.
Summary
This Talmudic passage narrates a debate and its aftermath between Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and a heretic. The heretic challenges the belief in a single deity (arguing for theistic dualism) by citing a Biblical verse from Amos, suggesting that different deities created mountains and wind. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi refutes this by pointing to the end of the same verse, which affirms that God is the sole creator.
The heretic asks for three days to rebut Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's argument. During this time, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi fasts, presumably praying for the heretic's failure in finding a counterargument. At the end of the three days, as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi prepares to break his fast, he is informed that the heretic is at his door. However, it turns out to be a different heretic, who brings news that the original challenger has died by suicide, unable to find a rebuttal.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi invites this second heretic to dine with him. Post meal, he offers the heretic a choice between drinking the cup of blessing (kos shel bracha, over which Grace after Meals is recited) or receiving forty gold coins. The heretic chooses the cup of blessing. A Divine Voice then proclaims that the cup of blessing is indeed worth forty gold coins, implying that each blessing in the Grace after Meals is worth ten gold coins. The passage concludes with Rabbi Yitzḥak noting that the family of this heretic, known as the family of bar Luyyanus, still exists among Rome's prominent families.
Analysis
A puzzling aspect of this passage is that the first half is in Aramaic, and the second half is in Hebrew. I don’t have a good theory for why this might be. (On this phenomenon in a different Talmudic passage, see my discussion of Taanit 29a, discussed later.)
For another examples of a Roman opponent to Judaism jumping off a roof to kill himself, see Taanit 29a (sections # 14-15 - סליק לאיגרא נפיל ומית), cited and discussed in a previous piece. See also the case of R’ Akiva’s Roman executioner jumping into the fire to kill himself. And Eliezer ben Dordaya putting his head between his knees, doing teshuva, and dying.
For another example of a non-rabbinic debating opponent asking for three days to find a response, see the three stories of the debates of Geviha ben Pesisa in front of Alexander the Great (Sanhedrin 91a), which I discussed in a previous piece.
The family name mentioned here is a Roman one: Bar Luyyanus. For a discussion of Jewish family names, and Roman personal names, in Talmudic literature, see my piece ‘Abba’. The mention of Roman families in Talmudic literature is rare.