Aggadot from Hamivtar Rabbi Yitzchak Blau If you have comments or questions please feel free to e-mail Rabbi Blau at: nyz@netvision.net.il

Popularity and the Teaching Profession 

R. Abbahu and R. Hiyya bar Abba came to a certain place. R. Abbahu taught aggadah and R. Hiyya bar Abba taught halakhah. Everyone left R. Hiyya Bar Abba and went to R. Abbahu. He [R. Hiyya] became depressed. He said to him: I will give you a parable to compare to this matter. There are two people, one who sells precious stones and the other who sells notions (inexpensive implements such as needles). On whom do people jump [to buy from]? Is it not on the one who sells notions?” Every day, R. Hiyya bar Abba would accompany R. Abbahu back to his lodgings to honor the house of the emperor (R. Abbahu was a favorite of the royal family). On that day, R. Abbahu accompanied R. Hiyya back to his lodgings but even so, he was not appeased (Sotah 40a)

R. Abbahu tries valiantly, but not successfully, to appease R. Hiyya after the later found an empty shul waiting for his shiur. He walks R. Hiyya home and employs a parable to encourage his colleague to feel better. The Ein Yaakov cites a different version of the text in which the phrase “amar lahem” (he said to them) precedes the parable. In our earlier version, R. Abbahu says this parable specifically for his friend’s consumption. According to the version in the Ein Yaakov, R. Abbahu said this to the townspeople during his discourse as a form of subtle chiding.

What does R. Abbahu attempt to convey with his parable. As R. Hanokh Zundel from Salant points out in his Etz Yosef, R. Abbah presumably did not intend to denigrate the study of aggadah. After all, he himself was teaching this very subject. Rather, he was pointing out that aggadah resembles the cheap implements only in that they are more easily acquired but not because they are light in worth. In other words, people choose the aggadah shiur because they prefer a light story to the intricacies of Jewish law. However, popular choice may not reflect authentic worth. 

Two important implications emerge from this parable. In all educational fields, we should be careful not to identify the best teacher with the most popular teacher. All things being equal, it is certainly a good thing for a teacher to be liked However, popularity can be achieved in all kinds of educationally dubious ways. A teacher can achieve popularity by going too easy of the students, telling them inappropriate jokes, always siding with them against the administration and by encouraging them to adopt an arrogant attitude that only in their classroom is the truth being taught. Yet all of these methods ultimately hurt the educational process. Apparently, popularity and quality teaching remain distinct categories. 

In the more narrow realm of aggadah, we should also be wary of easy popularity. If we treat agaddah as light stories for easy entertainment, then we do not do them justice. On the other hand, if we truly sweat to plumb the depths of the aggadah, we may lose some students but we will gain in understanding. Our interest in aggadah must rest upon the understanding that appreciating stories also demands hard work. In this particular story, a deeper appreciation of the meaning should motivate us to find the subtleties of each and every talmudic story.

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