Reply To: Sasson and Simcha

I am fine with most of your examples, but I am repulsed at taking a statement of an Amora as a joke. R”L. What’s so funny? Any Drasha that’s above you is a joke? I’ve seen this attitude in the seforim blog and was likewise repulsed by it. If you want a good explanation of Reb Yosef can find one in the Semichas Chachomim. (We can start a new thread here to collect good and/or silly Pshatim.) Do you really think it is a Stira for Moshe Rabbeinu to have written about himself that he was an Anav? Did he really not realize that he was the greatest Navi? In order to be an Anav, do you have to fool yourself? Was Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai violating the requirement for Anivus when he stated his achievements? (Please don’t tell me that was also a joke.) Was the other statement about Yiras Shamayim also a joke?

While I do think there is a point and something to learn from everything you mentioned, either hidden or subtle, that is not so much my point. It was with these examples in mind that I purposely referred to our story of Sason and Simcha as Narishkeit. If there is no point to it then it is just a weird story of two silly people. On the other hand, if you take the story of the mother in law, it is an incident that you can do without but does relate something that happened. It is an illustration of what the gemara just said, that the Plaiton oil is dangerous. Chanan Bisha is likewise an incident about the Din, although there seems to be nothing to take from it. The story in Pesachim about Mayim Shelanu does show you how he used Lashon Rabbo even though it wasn’t what people were accustomed to. It also shows you their Temimus. But none of these are off topic silly stories of silly people, as in three-guys-walk-into-a-bar. This one is.

I understand your point of the style of a Drasha, but that’s what I was referring to by asking if you think the Gemara is a live recording. They might have sprinkled their speeches with humor but the jokes didn’t have to be written down for eternity. The Gemara is not a speech; it is an edited and streamlined edition of the Torah that was taught.