Torah, Shame and Oven Intro Many interpretations only look at the first scene of the Oven of Akhnai

i Many dont do literary analysis but only rabbinic or legal analysis o Literary analysis gives more depth to analyze entirety of story In addition, looking at the PT and comparing it to the BT story shows how BT redactors impacted the slightly altered meaning Literary and Halakhic Context Story is in the Talmud, surrounded by comments about wronging and comparisons of wronging via words and wronging via money o It is established that verbal wronging is worse for various reasons This means the oven story must be about verbal wronging Translation and Structure Structural parallels between first and third scenes emphasize the sin and repercussions of verbal wronging o 3 miracles and 3 disasters o Gods intervention rejected and Gods intervention restrained o Eliezer banned, his tears and Eliezers reaction Literary Analysis Story is about argument between Eliezer and the sages, concerning the purity of an oven with alternating segments of clay and sand o This oven is unusual, it looks like the coiled spine of a snake Just as the segments of the oven coil around, the sages surround Eliezer and coil around him and surrounded him with words like this snake and in surrounding him so ominously inflict the image of a snake closing in on a prey surround[ing] with words connects to wronging words, the very sin that is the surrounding context of the oven story sages must make decisions according to legal process and decide on the majority We do not listen to a heavenly voice, since you already gave it to us on Mt. Sinai and it is written there, incline after the majority is Rabbi Yirmiah and the sages defense of a decision. Their decision is contradictory to the divine for the very fact he is defending their decision, saying it is right since it was made by the majority and God gave them the right to make decisions based off majority. Now the story is no longer limited to a horizontal plane, where problems exist between men. (1) But now the story is vertical, because there is a conflict between the sages and God. Eliezer is banned. The verbal harm against him is unjust and Akibas consolation verifies the negative weight of verbal harm. (2) If verbal harm were inconsequential, Akiba would not be so sorrowed, or attempt to mitigate Eliezers suffering. This consolation shows that verbal harm is so consequential because of the human, emotional effect.

(3)verbal harm is so consequential, it results in Gamaliels death o ban, Eliezers reaction, damage to crops and dough, lack of food, poor man seeking food, Ima Shalom leaves Eliezer, prayer, deat (3) the shofar that marked Eliezers ban and the verbal harm is echoed in the shofar that marks Gamaliels death verbal harm is so emphasized, because this reveals the importance of human feeling, emotion and hurt this broadens the perspective from merely looking at the story for the legal process the legal process remains, but human pain and rejection is almost inexcusable, shown here in this story by the negative consequences of verbal harm legal process must be carried out without verbal harm The PT Story and BT Compositional technique already the PT is different because the context of the story is not verbal harm but laws of ban this difference and many others to be shown reveal that Babylonian redactors had storytelling in their redaction process, they expanded and embellished upon a parallel and very similar story BT focuses on Eliezer as a human, to show the injustice done against him because of verbal harm inflicted o Akiba, the snake surrounding, the shofar These changes, focusing on the human and personal, show that redactors desired the story to be read in this purpose and lesson The literary analysis that was done, pitting texts word for word and the singular literary analysis of the BT itself supports the hypothesis that BT redactors consciously reworked it and reworked it in their cultural context to address current incidents of verbal harm in legal academies o The fact that literary analysis supports this also shows the necessity of literary analysis, source criticism and redaction criticism to gain a comprehensive interpretation The Rabbinic Academy