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PDF FormatFurthermore, the Christian concept of conversion (from the Latin conversio, meaning “going the other way”) involves erasing the past and, at times, even death. Judaism, on the other hand, offers the possibility of continuity. As we have seen, the sinning woman of the Jewish story is not forced to leave her entire past behind. Rather, she enters the beit midrash bearing her old bedclothes and part of the money she earned in her previous life. The message is clear: The new self can coexist with the old.
This point raises an entirely new question, however: What aspects of his past life should the baal tshuva integrate into his new one? For surely not everything can be “brought into the beit midrash.” Although the prostitute does keep her bedclothes and a third of her capital, she abandons a substantial part of her property, along with her former occupation. Symbolically, her actions make clear that the past and the present cannot entirely comingle. What should remain and what should be discarded? The next story deals with precisely this problem.
The midrash we have just discussed endorses the idea of maintaining biographical continuity. In a sense, the following story picks up where the first one left off, investigating the personal and social consequences of integrating the penitent’s previous self into a new and righteous life. Two impressive figures are the focal points of the narrative: Resh Lakish, a prominent talmudic sage of the generation of the amoraim, or talmudic rabbis; and R. Yohanan, who led Resh Lakish from the life of a rogue to that of Tora and mitzvot:
The midrash we have just discussed endorses the idea of maintaining biographical continuity. In a sense, the following story picks up where the first one left off, investigating the personal and social consequences of integrating the penitent’s previous self into a new and righteous life. Two impressive figures are the focal points of the narrative: Resh Lakish, a prominent talmudic sage of the generation of the amoraim, or talmudic rabbis; and R. Yohanan, who led Resh Lakish from the life of a rogue to that of Tora and mitzvot:
One day, R. Yohanan was bathing in the Jordan. When Resh Lakish saw him, he mistook him for a woman, fixed his spear in the Jordan, and leapt to its opposite bank.When R. Yohanan saw R. Simon, Son of Lakish, he said to him: Your strength should be for the Tora.Resh Lakish replied: Your beauty should be for women.R. Yohanan said: If you will repent, I will give you my sister [in marriage], who is more beautiful than I.He undertook [to repent]; then he wished to return [to the other bank of the river], to bring his things, but [R. Yohanan] would not allow him.Subsequently, [R. Yohanan] taught him Scripture and Mishna, and made him into a great man.One day there was a dispute in the beit midrash: A sword, knife, dagger, handsaw and a scythe—at what stage [of their manufacture] can they become unclean? [When their manufacturing is finished. And when is their manufacturing finished?]R. Yohanan said: When they are tempered in a furnace.Resh Lakish said: When they have been furbished in water.Said R. Yohanan to him: A robber understands robbery.Said [Resh Lakish] to him: And wherewith have you benefited me? There [among the brigands] I was called master, and here I am called master.R. Yohanan therefore became distraught.Resh Lakish fell ill.His sister [R. Yohanan’s sister, the wife of Resh Lakish] came and wept before him: Pray for him, for me!He took no notice of her.[She said to him]: Pray for him, for the sake of my children.He said to her: “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive” (Jeremiah 49:11).[She said to him:] For the sake of my widowhood then!He said to her: “And let thy widows trust in me” (Jeremiah 49:11).Resh Lakish died.R. Yohanan was plunged into deep grief.The rabbis said: What shall we do to ease his mind? Let us bring R. Elazar ben Padat, whose legal traditions are more honed, and we will seat him before him.So they brought R. Elazar ben Padat and sat him before him; and on every dictum uttered by R. Yohanan he brought a tannaitic12 tradition which supported [R. Yohanan’s] opinion.Said [R. Yohanan]: Is this what I require? Son of Lakish, when I made a statement, he used to raise twenty-four objections against me, to which I gave twenty-four solutions, which consequently expanded the comprehension of the law; whilst you bring me a tanaitic tradition which supports me. Do I not know that my statements are accurate?He used to go around and call at the doors: Son of Lakish, where are you? until he became insane.Thereupon the rabbis prayed for mercy for him, and he died.13
The first encounter between R. Yohanan and Resh Lakish is a clash of titans: A leading sage of Israel and the chief of a posse of bandits meet on the banks of the Jordan River.14 The bandit, spying the handsome rabbi washing himself in the current from afar, believes that he has encountered an attractive woman and jumps into the river with lust in his heart. Amazingly, the naked rabbi does not seem especially alarmed by the thug bounding toward him, and he merely admonishes: “Your strength should be for the Tora.” The frustrated Resh Lakish, having discovered that the object of his desire is in fact a man, replies: “Your beauty should be for women.” It is hard to miss the cynicism in Resh Lakish’s response: Just as it is unlikely that R. Yohanan will use his good looks to seduce women, so too is it unlikely that the bandit will direct his strength toward learning Tora and following its commandments.
But R. Yohanan is not dissuaded. Instead, he tries to tempt Resh Lakish, going so far as to offer up his own sister’s hand in marriage. The proposal meets with the bandit’s approval, and he assents to R. Yohanan’s terms. On the most basic level, we may interpret this exchange as confirmation of Resh Lakish’s soft spot for beautiful women. On a deeper level, however, the proposal represents something much more meaningful: R. Yohanan’s faith in him. The rabbi, by offering his own sister as the bandit’s wife, indicates that he truly believes in the possibility that the latter will become a new person.
True to R. Yohanan’s premonition, the next scene presents a changed Resh Lakish. After many years of study with R. Yohanan, he himself has become a leading scholar. He is even, we see, debating R. Yohanan on matters of halacha, in this case the question “When is their manufacturing [of metal instruments] finished?” This is, as we will see, a matter of great halachic significance, since a metal instrument may be rendered ritually impure only after its construction is complete. R. Yohanan rules that the product is considered complete from the moment it comes out of the blast furnace. Resh Lakish counters that the instrument is finished only after it has been properly polished. The argument brings R. Yohanan to the boiling point. He mutters angrily, “A robber understands [the craft of] robbery,” which means: “You are still a robber! You have not changed one bit!” The stunned Resh Lakish is deeply wounded. He falls ill, never to recuperate.
One might dismiss R. Yohanan’s behavior as a momentary emotional outburst, were it not for his subsequent behavior. Resh Lakish’s wife comes to her brother and begs him to reconcile with her husband, in order that his life be saved. He is unmoved. She then pleads with him at least to pray for her husband—if only for her own sake and that of her children. He responds by quoting Jeremiah’s furious prophecy to Edom: “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me.”15 Implicit in R. Yohanan’s quotation is a comparison of Resh Lakish to Esau, father of the nation of Edom, of whom it was said: “And by thy sword shalt thou live.”16 Clearly, R. Yohanan believes that he has erred in marrying his sister to a bandit, and now he must bear responsibility for his mistake. Though your husband may die, he tells his sister, I will care for you and your children.
