The Laughing Sage and the Stung Scholar: The Story of the Osctracism of the Rabbi With the Bad Reputation (Moed Katan 17a)
For a previous part of this sugya, see my three-part series here: From Admonishment to Excommunication: The Talmudic Laws of Ostracism (Moed Katan 16a-b)
The Passage
Pt1 - Rav Yehuda ostracizes the scandalous scholar
The Talmud recounts a lengthy story set in the 2nd/3rd generation of amoraim (~300 CE) about the ostracism of a rabbinic student. An unnamed Torah scholar (צורבא מרבנן) gained “a bad reputation” (סנו שומעניה). The end of the story indicates that this was related to sexual sins, but more than that is unclear.
Rav Yehuda faced a dilemma as to whether to excommunicate him. Rav Yehuda sought advice from Rabba bar bar Ḥana, who reported a relevant teaching from R' Yoḥanan.
Based on this teaching, Rav Yehuda decided to ostracize the scholar. Later, as Rav Yehuda lay on his deathbed, the Sages, including the ostracized scholar, visited him. Seeing the scholar, Rav Yehuda laughed. The scholar, feeling mocked, questioned him.
Rav Yehuda clarified that he wasn't laughing at the scholar but was content that he was soon going to the Afterlife (ההוא עלמא - literally: “That World”) knowing he made the right decision without showing undue favoritism.
ההוא צורבא מרבנן דהוו סנו שומעניה,
אמר רב יהודה: היכי ליעביד?
לשמתיה — צריכי ליה רבנן,
לא לשמתיה — קא מיתחיל שמא דשמיא.
אמר ליה לרבה בר בר חנה: מידי שמיע לך בהא?
אמר ליה, הכי אמר רבי יוחנן:
[...]
שמתיה רב יהודה.
לסוף איחלש רב יהודה.
אתו רבנן לשיולי ביה, ואתא איהו נמי בהדייהו,
כד חזייה רב יהודה, חייך.
אמר ליה: לא מסתייה דשמתיה לההוא גברא, אלא אחוכי נמי חייך בי?!
אמר ליה: לאו בדידך מחייכנא, אלא דכי אזילנא לההוא עלמא בדיחא דעתאי, דאפילו לגברא כוותך לא חניפי ליה.
There was a certain Torah scholar who gained a bad reputation due to rumors about his conduct.
Rav Yehuda said: What should be done?
To excommunicate him is not an option. The Sages need him, as he is a great Torah authority.
Not to excommunicate him is also not an option, as then the name of Heaven would be desecrated.
Rav Yehuda said to Rabba bar bar Ḥana: Have you heard anything with regard to this issue? He said to him: R' Yoḥanan said as follows:
[...]
Based on this statement, Rav Yehuda ostracized that Torah scholar.
In the end, after some time had passed, Rav Yehuda took ill and was on the verge of death.
The Sages came to inquire about his well-being, and the ostracized scholar came along with them as well.
When Rav Yehuda saw him, that scholar, he laughed.
The ostracized scholar said to him: Was it not enough that you excommunicated that man, i.e., me, but now you even laugh at me?!
Rav Yehuda said to him: I was not laughing at you; rather, I am happy as I go to that other world that I did not flatter even a great man like you, but instead I treated you fairly in accordance with the halakha.
Pt2 - The ostracized scholar again asks for removal of ostracism
After the death of Rav Yehuda, the ostracized scholar approached the Sages, seeking release from his ostracism. The Sages directed him to R' Yehuda Nesia in Eretz Yisrael, as he alone had the authority to release him. R' Yehuda Nesia assigned R' Ami to examine the case.
Initially, R' Ami considered lifting the ostracism. However, R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani intervened, referencing the seriousness with which the Sages treated an ostracism imposed by a maidservant in R' Yehuda HaNasi’s household,1 suggesting even greater gravity for Rav Yehuda’s decree.
R' Zeira noted the unusual presence of R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani as a sign from Heaven, concluding the scholar should remain ostracized.
נח נפשיה דרב יהודה.
אתא לבי מדרשא, אמר להו: שרו לי!
אמרו ליה רבנן: גברא דחשיב כרב יהודה ליכא הכא דלישרי לך,
אלא זיל לגביה דרבי יהודה נשיאה, דלישרי לך.
אזל לקמיה,
אמר ליה לרבי אמי: פוק עיין בדיניה, אי מיבעי למישרא ליה — שרי ליה.
עיין רבי אמי בדיניה, סבר למישרא ליה.
עמד רבי שמואל בר נחמני על רגליו ואמר: ומה שפחה של בית רבי, לא נהגו חכמים קלות ראש בנידויה שלש שנים, יהודה חבירינו על אחת כמה וכמה!
אמר רבי זירא: מאי דקמן דאתא האידנא האי סבא בבי מדרשא, דהא כמה שני לא אתא?!
שמע מינה לא מיבעי למישרא ליה.
לא שרא ליה,
Rav Yehuda died.
The ostracized scholar came to the study hall and said to the Sages: Release me from the decree of ostracism.
The Sages said to him: There is no man here as eminent as Rav Yehuda who can release you from the ostracism.
Rather, go to R' Yehuda Nesia in Eretz Yisrael, as only he can release you.
That scholar came before R' Yehuda Nesia.
R' Yehuda Nesia said to R' Ami: Go and examine his case. If it is necessary to release him from his decree of ostracism, release him on my behalf.
R' Ami examined his case and thought at first to release him from his ostracism.
But R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani rose up on his feet and said: If the maidservant in the house of R' Yehuda HaNasi once ostracized another person, and the Sages did not relate frivolously to her decree of ostracism and did not revoke it until three years had passed, all the more so, with regard to a decree of ostracism placed by Yehuda our colleague, we must take it seriously and not release this scholar!
R' Zeira said: What caused this Elder, R' Shmuel bar Naḥmani, to come before us in the study hall today though for many years he did not come, and now he comes precisely during this discussion?!
Learn from this that it is not necessary to release him from his decree of ostracism, as this combination of events is certainly not a coincidence. Rather, it should be viewed as an instructive sign from Heaven.
Consequently, R' Ami did not release him from the ostracism,
Pt3 - Death by being stung by a wasp on his penis, and burial in a cave
The scholar left in tears and was subsequently stung by a wasp on his penis, resulting in his death. (The fact that he dies by stung on his penis is another indication that his sins were of a sexual nature.)
When they went to bury him, his corpse was supernatually rejected by “the burial cave of the pious” (מערתא דחסידי), but accepted by “the cave of the judges” (מערתא דדייני).
The Talmud explains this acceptance by noting that, despite his sins, he acted in private without publicly desecrating God's name, adhering to R' Ilai’s guidance (in a baraita) on managing one's sex drive (“evil inclination”) discreetly.
נפק כי קא בכי ואזיל,
אתא זיבורא וטרקיה אאמתיה, ושכיב.
עיילוה למערתא דחסידי, ולא קיבלוה,
עיילוה למערתא דדייני, וקיבלוה.
מאי טעמא?
דעבד כרבי אילעאי.
דתניא, רבי אילעאי אומר:
אם רואה אדם שיצרו מתגבר עליו —
ילך למקום שאין מכירין אותו,
וילבש שחורים, ויתעטף שחורים, ויעשה מה שלבו חפץ, ואל יחלל שם שמים בפרהסיא.
the ostracized scholar left in tears.
A wasp came and stung the ostracized scholar on his penis and he died.
Because he was a great Torah scholar, they took him into the caves in which the pious are interred in order to bury him there, but the caves did not accept him. A snake stood at the entrance of the caves and did not let them pass.
They then took him into the caves of the judges, and they accepted him.
The Gemara asks: What is the reason that he was accepted there?
The Gemara answers: Even though he sinned, he still acted in accordance with the opinion of R' Ilai,
as it is taught in a baraita: R' Ilai says:
If a person sees that his evil inclination is gaining control over him and he cannot overcome it,
then he should go to a place where he is not known.
He should wear black, and he should wrap his head in black, as if he were a mourner. Perhaps these changes will influence him, so that he not sin. Even if these actions do not help, he should at least do as his heart desires in private and not desecrate the name of Heaven in public. Although this person had sinned, he did so in private and in a manner that did not publicly desecrate God’s name, and therefore it was fitting that he be given an honorable burial.
The story this is referring to is retold after the end of this story; I don’t quote that part in this piece.
Notably, this sentence with R’ Shmuel bar Nahmani, from עמד until the end of the quotation, is in Hebrew, unlike the rest of the story which is in Aramaic, suggesting a reliance on an earlier source.