Содержание → Chapter 14 → Часть 6
Глава 14
Часть 6
'So, ' Rav Gershenson said. 'You cannot explain it. You are sure you cannot explain it? '
F6r a moment I was almost tempted to tell him the text was wrong and to give him the text I had reconstructed. But I didn't. I was afraid. I remembered Danny telling me that Rav Gershenson knew all about the critical method of studying Talmud, and hated it. So I kept silent.
Rav Gershenson turned to the class. 'Can anyone explain the inyan? ' he asked quietly.
He was answered by silence.
He sighed loudly. 'Nu, ' he said, 'no one can explain it… The truth is, I cannot explain it myself. It is a difficult inyan. A very difficult inyan. ' He was silent for a moment, then he shook his head and smiled. 'A teacher can also sometimes not know, ' he said softly.
That was the first time in my life I had ever heard of a rabbi admit that he didn't understand a passage of Talmud.
We sat there in an uncomfortable silence. Rav Gershenson stared down at the open Talmud on his desk. Then he closed it slowly and dismissed www.oz-mobile.ru the class.
As I was gathering up my books, I heard him call my name.
Danny heard him, too, and looked at him. 'I want to talk with you a minute, ' Rav Gershensen said. I went up to his desk.
Standing near him, I could see how wrinkled his face and brow were. The skin on his hands looked dry, parchment-like, and his lips formed a thin line beneath the heavy tangle of gray beard. His eyes were brown and gentle. and deep wrinkles spread from their outside comers like tiny furrows.
He waited until all the students were out of the classroom.
Then he asked me quietly, 'You studied the inyan by yourself, Reuven? '
'Yes, ' I said.
'Your father did not help you? '
'My father is in the hospital. '
He looked shocked.
'He's better now. He had a heart attack. '
'I did not know, ' he said softly. 'I am sorry to hear that. ' He paused for a moment, looking at me intently. 'So, ' he said. 'You studied the inyan alone. '
'Tell me. Reuven, ' he said gently, 'do you study Talmud with your father? '
'Yes, ' I said.
'Your father is a great scholar, ' he said quietly, almost wistfully. 'A very great scholar. ' His brown eyes seemed misty. 'Reuven, tell me, how would your father have answered my question? '
I stared at him and didn't know what to say.
He smiled faintly, apologetically. 'You do not know how your father would have explained the inyan? '
The class was gone, we were alone, and somehow I felt an intimacy between us that made it not too difficult for me to say what I then said. I didn't say it without feeling a little frightened, though. 'I think I know what he would have said. '
'Nu, ' Rav Gershenson prodded me gently. 'What? '
'I think he would have said the text is wrong. '
I saw him blink his eyes a few times, his face expressionless. 'Explain what you mean, ' he said quietly.
I explained how I had reconstructed the text, then quoted the reconstructed text from memory. showing him how it fitted perfectly to the explanation offered by the simplest of all the commentaries. I ended by saying I felt certain that was the text of the Talmud manuscript the commentator had had before him when he had written his commentary.
Rav Gershenson was silent for a long moment, his face impassive. Then he said slowly, 'You did this by yourself, Reuven? '
'Your father is a good teacher, ' he told me quietly. 'You are blessed to have such a father. ' His voice was 'soft, reverent. 'Reuven? '
'I must ask you never to use such a method of explanation in my class. ' He was speaking gently, almost apologetically. 'I am myself not opposed to such a method. But I must ask you never to use it in my class. Do you understand me? '
'I will call on you often now, ' he said, smiling warmly. 'Now that you understand, I will call on you very often. I have been waiting all year to see how good a teacher your father is. He is a great teacher and a great scholar. It is a joy to listen to you. But you must not use this method in my class. You understand? '
'Yes, ' I said again.
And he dismissed me with a quiet smile and a gentle nod of his head.
That evening after my last class, I went to the school library and looked for Rav Gershenson's name in the Hebrew and English catalogues. His name wasn't listed anywhere. It was then that I understood why my father was not teaching in this school.